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Jenni Lada brings us information about all of the groovy new gaming imports from around the world.
The first Marvel Ultimate Alliance console game was a great combination of role-playing elements and dungeon crawling. The ability to mix and match Marvel characters help keep a potentially monotonous game interesting.
Capturing the same energy on the DS, however, is a rather tricky matter. The resolution drops the graphics down a significant amount and environments are a little more limited but, even if those aren’t an issue, glitches and poor camera or mapping (or both) can really drag down a game.
‘Nuff To Do
The game follows the same basic pattern of the console version. You get a bit of story and then a foursome of heroes are dropped into a level to cooperatively crawl through, defeating opponents, beating bosses and generally smashing crap.
Each hero has a basic attack and a serious of touchscreen-activated special attacks. Hulk, for example, has a few super smashes whereas Captain Marvel will toss his shield around the room, ricocheting off walls, opponents and destructible objects. There are some areas that require a combination of close and distant attacks.
The role-playing element is maintained pretty well, allowing you to either auto-upgrade playable character or to go in and divvy points and show a bit of favoritism to level up some heroes before others. Powerup absorption is automated in the team mode, so the hero who needs more health will get it first.
Semi Fantastic Foursomes
The game’s graphics are decent enough so that you can recognize each character. Certainly Hulk and Thing are more massive but the more subtle differences between female costumed characters, for example, are still unique enough to maintain each heroine’s identity. Powers are also unique enough to offer a nice variety with some favoring distant attacks, others like to keep things close (Wolverine) and a few offering a decent mix (Spider-man and Captain Marvel).
Despite how fun the game first seems, the annoyances quickly take over. The first is a two-pronged map and camera issue.
Being a DS game the maps are a bit more narrow and the camera will periodically reorient, making it hard to tell which direction you are facing on the in-game map. This becomes more irritating as areas increase in size and complexity as you progress through the game. You’ll spend a stupid amount of time backtracking just to get to the right intersection to spend a few minutes of trial-an-error movements to get to the next area.
AI is usually decent enough to set your team in action and get through most areas. There isn’t the reactivity setting as there is in the console version so they’ll often act on their own, not attacking until attacked first (which means you’ll have to take few pot shots from unseen, off-screen opponents).
Of course, the AI is not infallible. Computer-controlled allies can also get stuck in weird spots or simply stand in one place, not coming to your aid when you’re being attacked by multiple laser-totin’ opponents. A few times there were some context-sensitive submissions that were either prematurely activated or incorrectly coded so that they appeared on the mission list but were impossible to get to (either because they were invisible or they were not supposed to be activated).
Finally, there are numerous object detection errors. Characters walk through walls or get stuck between a garbage can or on an indicator arrow or car until you flip to another character and the AI magically gets unsticks them all.
Nice Tights?
You can probably get through the game by button mashing but where is the fun in that? You’ll want to try every hero’s various attacks just to see them doing what they do best. And double tap that jump button (hint: not all heroes simply jump). The game pretty much forces you to use a semi-balanced team and the touchscreen controls for special attacks is easy to use and well executed. It’s rare that a DS game can take advantage of the touchscreen as well as this game has.
There is a fair amount of RPG and dungeon crawling fun to be had with this hero game but the technical glitches and other long-term annoyances keep it from being great. In other words, the short-term fun is certainly there while there isn’t much -long-term enjoyment.
As such, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for DS just barely breaks average. Think twice at full price but get it as soon as it hits a discount bin.
Site [Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2]
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