Nightmare Zero 18 years 9 months ago wrote:

Earlier this year, I got back into comic books after about 5 or 6 years. I gave up on them while Spider-Man was going through his shortlived "Identity Crisis" saga, which takes place after the GOD AWFUL Clone Saga. I hated the Clone Saga more than anything I've hated so far. Never before have I been angered so much by reading material. And it ended as badly as it lived with Mary Jane losing her unborn baby and Spidey's clone dying all in the same comic. It was like Marvel knew it was bad, but just kept it going because they couldn't think of new material!

Anyway, enough nerd rage for now.

Over the years, we've had plenty of comic book videogames and not all of them were terrible. Captain America & The Avengers arcade game was good campy fun. Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage was a difficult but fun game that reminds me of the early 90s which I loved/loathed. Who could forget about the fun of Marvel vs. Capcom 1 and 2? And The Punisher for the PS2 and X-Box was a ton of violent, torturous fun! We've had a few really terrible comic book games though. Such as Spider-Man and the X-Men: Arcade's Revenge, Fantastic Four, and Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. These 3 games were horrific. Like, if anyone ever wanted to torture me into giving away secrets or something, then forcing me to play these games would be enough. I'd sing like a fucking canary.

So, with a track record of good games, bad games, and ugly games, Marvel still doesn't want to give up. Does it hit the juicy "sweet spot" of gaming by deciding to jam all the heroes and villains it can into one action RPG which is available for almost every system?

I can answer with a resounding possibly!

Graphics
First off, let me explain that, with the exception of the GBA, this is almost the same game on all of the other systems. It uses the same villains, the same mechanics, the same graphics, same voice acting and sound, and the only difference is that the PSP and 360 versions have their own exclusive characters. Ok, with that in mind, the graphics vary with the PSP, Wii, and PS2's looking the worst to the PS3, PC, and 360's looking the best. The PC, considering what you have, can push the graphics to their maximum, while the 360 is the least powerful of the 3. But do these graphics matter?

Well, yes, for the areas they sort of do. But the character models don't change all that much. Sure, Spidey, Iron Man, and Captain America look shiny on the higher systems, but there is no real difference at all besides the areas. And, to be honest, upon running it on my PC at higher graphic detail, I prefer running it at lower settings; all the bloom and extras seem to suck the color out of the characters.

I wish the characters could look, move, and talk as they do in some of the animations though.

Gameplay
As I mentioned, this is a sort of action RPG. It reminds me of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance with the overhead camera view. You can choose up to four super heroes to create a team or you can just choose one if you want to. Choosing certain Marvel teams, such as the Fantastic Four, the New Avengers(Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Woman, Luke Cage, and Wolverine), or some other teams give you certain power-ups or defensive capabilities. After your 2nd mission, you will be allowed to create a team of your own, which starts off a little weak at first, but, as you continue through the game and gain experience points, your team can increase in members and you will gain very powerful abilities.

Your commands include punching and kicking and, of course, your character's super powers or weapons! YAY! Each character has their own different arsenal of powers, but a majority of them require unlocking which occurs as you continue playing and gaining experience points. Don't worry, leveling up isn't a chore; sometimes you don't even know you've leveled up. It'll tell you, but you might too caught up in the action to notice. You can choose to spread about your experience points automatically or manually. I usually do it myself, but set it to auto whenever I have the powers I wanted. You also collect money from enemies, treasure chests, weapon boxes, and the destructable objects within your environment. In my opinion, collect as many items and money you can so you can level up your costumes, which are unlockable by performing certain tasks or obtaining certain goals. I don't know about all of them though, because I usually just stuck with Spider-Man and his symbiote costume. All the characters have four costumes though, and each have their own abilities. For example, when Spidey has the symbiote costume on, he is able to recover his energy faster, and his Impact Webbing can perform more critical hits.

You can play this game online as well. The only difficulty with that lies with finding others to play. I've yet to play it online, but I played it with my friends on the 360 and the PS2, and had some fun.

Gameplay usually involves you fighting your way through an area and solving puzzles from time to time. For example, in Mephisto's Realm, you have to complete a pentagram by first deducing what to do and then to do it from ancient texts you find in the area. One of them was some really snobby way of saying "HEY, CUT DOWN THESE HELLISH TREES AND YOU'LL BE ABLE TO KILL THESE ENEMIES!". All the puzzles should be easy to figure out and not give you too much grief.

The game also has button pressing scenes like God Of War, Resident Evil 4, and Spider-Man 3, but these aren't too difficult and should be completed without much trouble. You'll also know of it before it happens, and their isn't a lot of them.

Story
The game starts off with Doom forming this group of super villains, calling themselves The Masters Of Evil, and launching an offensive against S.H.I.E.L.D.'s invisible flying carrier. Nick Fury is asked to surrender, but he's like "Nu uh! All mutants, super heroes, and fighting freaks, get yo asses up here!" and Thor, with his stupidly awesome Asgardian ears goes "Oh snapeth!" and teleports Captain America, Wolverine, Spider-Man, and himself to the carrier to help out Ole One Eye. After laying the smackdown on Scorpion, Bullseye, and Fin Fang Foom, AND stopping a nuclear missile from going off, Nicky decides "HEY! YOUSE GUYS SHOULD FORM TEH ULTIMATE ALLIANCE AND WE'LL KICK ALL KINDS OF ASS!" and they use Tony Stark's ginormously hueg tower as a temporary headquarters to save Earth(and later, the universe) from the Masters Of Evil.

There is also some subplot involving Black Widow, her laptop, Doritos, a poster, and half a bottle of Viagra, but I don't want to spoil that for you.

The story is quite interesting, and it has a pretty nice ending, AND potential for a sequel.

Sound
To be honest, the only music I remember hearing is in the background of whatever base you're currently at. There might be more, and its nice, but its forgettable.

We're given veteran voice actors from some anime and videogames. Some overact a bit, such as Namor, but we'll forgive him. They gave Spider-Man the perfect voice though. Just wish he had more material. BENDIS SHOULD'VE BEEN A WRITER FOR THIS GAME.

Replay Value
There is plenty to unlock, including secret missions, comic book covers, and extra content. There are also quite a few characters to unlock as well, and the 360 and PSP have more too, but the 360 requires that you buy them. I played this game about 3 times through, and did the last one on a hard difficulty too, but its all a matter of preference. Oh, and you should also talk with some characters with others for special dialogue. Like, Deadpool with Black Widow. Quite some lulz considering she doesn't understand some of the sexual innuedo he speaks of.

Overall A.K.A. tl;dr
This is a really fun game. Looks beautiful on whatever system you play it on. Plays great, and is even better with a friend. Decent story. Quite a few voice actors who play their parts well. Tons of nerd content and extras. My only problem is that I REALLY wanted more from this game, but, hopefully, we'll get a sequel. If you're a Marvel fan, you've already played it or own it. If you want to get into comic books, this is a nice way. If you want a good action RPG, this is also good. If you're not a fan of comics, just give it a try if you want to. You might be surprised.

This game is available for just about all systems, except for the DS. I didn't mention the GBA version because I only played it for about 3 seconds before I realized how bad it was.

I give this game an 8 out of 10. Keep up the good work Marvel!