Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (Wii) Review

Following up on a well-received Wii launch title, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 again blends the popular world of Marvel comic book heroes into a familiar story that any Marvel fan can instantly appreciate. Mashing together the Secret War and Civil War stories from Marvel Comics, this next title keeps faith to the licence while improvising enough changes and updates to freshen up common beat ’em up gameplay.

Featuring over 20 playable super heroes and almost as many villains, a lot of the game will feel familiar to anyone who played the first game or X-Men Legends. Players can pick 4 heroes to take into a story that alternates based on the team chosen. Having the story set in the Marvel Civil War means that super heroes and previous partners in heroism must now part ways in the crossed battle to instate super hero registration, forcing heroes such as Iron Man and Captain America to separate and fight over what they believe is right.

MUA 2 plays as a classic 3D beat ’em up, taking a top-down isometric perspective as players lead their team through linear levels, beating down waves of enemies. Some RPG elements are incorporated with satisfying damage meters popping up as numbers and XP gaining, but the levelling system for each hero is very basic and just as effective whether set to automatic or defined by a player.

General combat is simple with basic attacks mapped to the Wii Remote’s A-button and power attacks used with B. The motion controls used in the first game are mostly gone, now with basic combat performed entirely by button presses which is much more fluid and comfortable. Other moves such as grabs and trips are performed with combinations of buttons and including the special abilities on the D-pad, which makes for a large variation of attacks possible during a fight.

Not only are there many basic attack combinations possible, but the 4 special abilities on the D-pad are custom-suited to each hero, totalling a huge amount of moves found throughout the game. For example, Wolverine has a variety of slashing moves with his claws, while Spider-Man likes to get his web out and shoot or swing his enemies around. Each character plays and feels different with certain abilities that will be required to navigate obstacles in a level, such as using the Hulk’s strength to throw giant objects or the Human Torch’s ability to fly. Certain moves will be much more effective in particular sections, but even more efficient is when two heroes use abilities at the same time to amplify their damage. For example, if Human Torch is unleashing a constant blast of fire at an enemy and Spider-Man shoots web shots through the fire, they will add extra damage as flaming web shots. As if all these combinations weren’t enough to play around with in combat, every hero also has a special fusion ability they can perform with another hero when fully charged up.

There are so many moves that, despite obvious attempts to minimise them, the Wii Remote’s motion sensor had to be utilised for abilities such as the fusion combo. The motion controls are pretty easy to deal with and used at rare times such as the fusion, but when they’re mapped to the camera controls as well, it creates a problem especially in combat. Holding 1 and twisting the remote will move the camera, but it’s horribly insensitive and not even possible in some scenes, forcing a dependence on the automatic viewpoints. The default camera manages to capture what’s necessary in the screen, but it’s zoomed a bit too close, making it hard to see oncoming enemies, and in multiplayer it leaves little breathing room for players to move around.

The camera may be zoomed in a little too far, but it lets the game keep a decent frame rate going even in the more crowded scenes with multiple enemies and special abilities all going off at once. Graphically, MUA 2 looks okay, but certainly nothing special. The environment is detailed enough to establish some authenticity in the settings but the actual textures are a bit of a jagged blur. This would be another sacrifice for frame rate, which in the end was worthy, but overall the graphics aren’t spectacular and no great leap over the first game.

Like all great beat ’em ups, MUA 2 has a big focus on multiplayer with 4-player co-op that works well and leaves the single-player experience far behind. The way the D-pad abilities combine on the fly creates some cool combinations to make with friends and the fusion attacks are even more fun, with some requiring input from both players to mop up a screen full of enemies. There’s a lot to do together so if you’re by yourself, much of this is left in the hands of the co-operative AI partners that definitely struggle to keep up with nearly every aspect of the game. The AI is terrible in single player, with team mates repeatedly getting stuck and running into solid objects. They even struggle to attack stationary objects most of the time, so this leaves the combination of D-pad abilities down to pure luck since you can’t organise with the AI when to use them.

MUA 2 does a good job at the beat ’em up genre and has obviously learned from past titles but still has a few things to learn. The combat is fast and fluid thanks to revised controls, and the repetitive drudgery of beat ’em ups is countered by the mass array of heroes and abilities available. The RPG elements are pretty shallow but still add overall depth to the experience with some replay value due to the two alternating plot choices. The focus on multiplayer is good for this type of game, but any AI players are useless making the single player side much less satisfying. The graphics leave a little to be desired; but overall if you’re a Marvel fan, there’s enough source material wrapped in a decent game to justify a purchase. Just make sure you’ve got some friends to play this the way it should be played.