Shifty
Chief of Surgery
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2000
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http://www.gwn.com/reviews/gamereview.php/id/1077/p/1/
The key difference on the Wii version, the difference thats probably of most interest to potential players, is the control scheme. Having spent five hours with the game, I have to say that its mostly very good. The Wiimote and Nunchuck are used in pretty much every way imaginable, from a simple shaking of the Wiimote for basic attacks, to the Tilting of the Nunchuck for camera rotation, all the way to holding the B trigger on the Wiimote and Lifting, Lowering, Shaking, Swiping or Thrusting it to perform special attacks. Those seem to be the official terms for all the movements, so get used to them. The smartest thing the designers did was provide two ways of performing most actions. For example, basic attacks can be performed with the aforementioned Wiimote Shaking, or by pressing the A button. This is the default control scheme, no need to switch them in the menu or anything.
I say its the smartest thing because that particular move, the shake attack, is the least reliable of any of them. Sometimes it works perfectly, but a good chunk of the time it thought I was Swiping or Raising/Lowering. Similarly, the Thrust recognition was pretty spotty. Even worse, sometimes the game failed to recognize my shaking or thrusting movements entirely, especially during heated battles. The final straw, however, was when the constant shaking and thrusting caused my wrist to start aching by about the three hour mark. My solution: use the A button for attack, and hold the A button instead of thrusting. This was much more reliable and less painful.
Thankfully, all the other gestures worked perfectly. Shaking the Nunchuck to block or grapple people/objects was perfectly intuitive, as was tilting it to rotate the camera. Best of all was the special attacks. Rather than having to open a menu to alter the currently selected special attacks, all of them are available at all times. This makes it easier to mix things up movewise, and avoid being killed while youre distracted picking moves. That about covers the Wii-specific aspects of the game. I found load times to be very short, and saving a game is practically instantaneous, probably because the Wii uses onboard flash memory rather than external cards.
In the past, I have only been able to stomach Action RPGs by playing through with a friend. That I can actually enjoy Ultimate Alliance solo is a testament to its quality.
Early adopters rejoice; there is at least one Wii launch title besides Zelda that is well worth the purchase.
Review by David Pettitt.
Highs
Intuitive and (mostly) solid motion-sensing controls; loads of super unlockable content; having Colossus pick up enemies and use them as a weapon.
Lows
Imprecise thrust and shake wiimote controls; poorly placed save spots.
Final Verdict
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is packed to the brim with heroic good times. It manages to be the least tedious of any Action RPG Ive ever played, and the Wii edition makes good use of the new consoles unique strengths.
88%
Nov 19, 2006
Just a portion.
Will rent this, maybe Boxing Day purchase.
