About the game
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is a 2006 action role-playing game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. It is set in the Marvel Universe and features many heroes, villains and supporting characters from Marvel Comics. It shares a lot with Raven's earlier X-Men Legends games, and lets you pick a team from a big cast of heroes. The original plot has the heroes join forces against Doctor Doom and his Masters of Evil.
The PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360 versions were made by Raven and released on October 24, 2006. Ports for PSP, Windows and Game Boy Advance came out the same day, and the PlayStation 3 and Wii versions followed as launch games in November 2006.
You pick a team of four from a roster of at least 23 playable heroes, and some start locked. You can build your own team or recreate famous ones, and bonuses are given for forming groups such as the Avengers, Defenders, Fantastic Four, Marvel Knights and X-Men. Each hero has four costumes with different bonuses. Powers level up as you earn experience, although the game now upgrades stats automatically. Up to four people can play together at once, and the game has multiple endings that depend on which optional tasks you finish.
The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions have better visuals than the older consoles and include Colossus and Moon Knight, plus five extra comic book missions. On April 26, 2007, Activision released eight downloadable heroes for the Xbox 360: a Hero Pack with Cyclops, Hawkeye, the Hulk and Nightcrawler, and a Villain Pack with Doctor Doom, Magneto, Sabretooth and Venom. Both packs were sold together as a bundle that added 12 achievements.
The Xbox 360 Gold Edition came out on May 22, 2007, with the two packs included. A Special Edition in September 2007 added a bonus DVD and later joined the Platinum Hits list. In December 2009 Activision removed the packs from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, so the Gold and Special editions became the way to get them. The game was developed with Vicarious Visions' Alchemy engine, and its music was composed by Mark Griskey, Chance Thomas and Cris Velasco.
Reviews were generally favourable. Critics praised the simple but fun gameplay and the cast of Marvel characters. A sequel, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, followed in 2009. A re-release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows came out in 2016, and in 2018 it was removed from sale because of licensing issues.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 82 out of 100 (Xbox 360). Individual reviews: Game Informer 9.3/10, GameSpot 8.3/10, IGN 8.1/10, Official Xbox Magazine 9/10.
Extra content
Two character packs for the Xbox 360, sold on their own or as a bundle. Activision removed them from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace in December 2009.
- Hero Pack: Four playable heroes: Cyclops, Hawkeye, the Hulk and Nightcrawler.
- Villain Pack: Four playable villains: Doctor Doom, Magneto, Sabretooth and Venom.
- Hero Pack and Villain Pack bundle: Both packs together, which added 12 achievements. The Gold Edition and Special Edition discs include them.
Good to know
- The game was first called Marvel Legends, with the working title Marvel Comics RPG.
- Link from The Legend of Zelda and Samus Aran from Metroid were planned for the Wii version and removed before release. That also led to a cancelled GameCube port.
- Colossus and Moon Knight are on the Xbox 360 roster but not on the PS2 and Xbox versions, where they can only be played through a glitch.
- Twelve of the 58 achievements come from the Hero Pack and Villain Pack bundle: the outfit sets for Hawkeye, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Hulk, Doom, Magneto, Venom and Sabretooth, and four character conversation ones.
- The packs left the Marketplace in December 2009, so the Gold or Special edition discs are the way to get the eight extra heroes.
Made by
Director Dan Vondrak, Producer Matthew Paul, Designer Keith Fuller, Programmer Daniel Edwards, Programmer Gil Gribb, Artist Dan Hay, Writer Robert Love, Composer Mark Griskey, Composer Chance Thomas, Composer Cris Velasco.
