Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

The object of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is rather simple, destroy the baddies.

You control your chosen Marvel character in a team of four where the other characters are controlled by other human players of the computer AI.

There are loads of Marvel characters to choose from, all with their own style and special moves. You have the ability to change the team line-up during the gameplay if certain characters skills aren't working for you in various scenarios.

The controls are well laid out. You'll have no problem at all working out what to do with your hands, and the game guides you through the learning process during the early levels.

You can get by with button-bashing, but if you take the time to learn the controls in-depth you'll be able to pull off tricks/combos and other powers which makes the game much more satisfying.

A new feature has been added to MUA2 - `Fusion' moves' The more enemies you kill the faster your fusion meter builds up, once full you can use a tag-team move with any of the other heroes in your team.
There are a whole range of double-team manouvres available, and they vary depending on which pairing of superheroes you use.

There are also additional missions, collectables and even a quiz to be discovered, these bonus bits help soften the blow of having to shell out the money on this title.

Overall I was rather encouraged with MUA2. It's a worthy sequal, enjoyable to play online with friends and of course it has superheroes!!

Played Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 with my son and we both loved it. We were expecting this to be better so whilst it's still good we were disappointed.

The original had more costumes to unlock (and they were much cooler), several tweaks to the combat system and the way healing tokens are used & distributed don't seem to have done much for playability.

Also the enemies seem fairly repetitive, we seem to have smashed several hundred robots that look like Frenzy from the Transformers movie (c'mon where's the doombots?).

Also the story seems grittier and more realistic but plot doesn't seem as pacy or interesting as the first game - instead of smashing helicarriers and smacking demons in the underworld from MUA1 we're given ...

... moody cinematics as Nick Fury makes it clear to a bureaucrat that's he really not happy with government policy and later Iron Man then suggests he always knew Fury wasn't too happy with government policy.

But it's okay.

'Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2' allows you, the player, to take control of a variety of Marvel's most famous characters, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine and the Fantastic Four, in an action-packed game loosely based on the 'Civil War' comics event, which sees the superhero community divided into two factions in the wake of a disaster caused by super-powered beings. On one side, Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) and S.H.I.E.L.D. believe that the way forward is for superheroes to be registered, trained and controlled by the US Government. On the other, Captain America leads a group of rebels fighting for their freedom from these draconian measures.

The format of the game is fairly straightforward - you control a team of four heroes, each with their own special powers and moves, and it's up to you whom you utilise from one level to the next. Some combinations make particularly effective teams (the Fantastic Four, or X-Men, for instance), and all have the scope to work together for especially powerful attacks on their enemies - 'fusion' moves. There's an impressive range of playable characters available, and the more you play with them, the more abilities and options you can unlock - there are new moves and alternate costumes available, for instance. You can train up and test your heroes' abilities in simulation modes, or participate in a Marvel trivia quiz to gain additional experience points.

Unfortunately, the gameplay itself can become a little repetitive at times - a selection of boss battles aside, a lot of the levels are fundamentally similar, and require similar kinds of actions. After a while you'll be left with the feeling that you've done everything before. However, it has to be said, it's a pretty compelling game nonetheless, and the variety in the kinds of characters you can play with helps to keep it fresh. There's plenty of scope for re-plays, too - not only can you revisit past missions, but the plot takes you in different directions depending on whether you ally yourself with the pro or anti-registration camps.

Ultimately, this isn't a complete success - but it's certainly the most enjoyable superhero game I've played by a long way. All too many of them are carelessly thrown together film tie-ins that frustrate more than anything else - 'Ultimate Alliance 2' does an excellent job of bringing a diverse range of Marvel characters together in a way that should satisfy both gamers and comic fans young and old.