Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

• Platform: PC, Xbox 360, Xbox, Playstation 2, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii
• Published by: Activision
• Developed by: Raven Software
• Release Date: Q4 2006
• Genre: Action
• Multiplayer: Yes
• Online: Yes

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Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Interview

-- September 12, 2006 by: David Craddock

As far as widespread popularity and diversity goes, you probably won't find as many interesting and as large a variety of superheroes anywhere other then Raven Software's upcoming Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor.... There's a veritable orgy of Marvel heroes gathered in the upcoming title, and what's more, the game's due out for just about every system under the sun, so no comic book geek with anything pre-PS2 should miss out on this title when it arrives on store shelves.

Of course, out of all the systems the game is due out for, perhaps no version has gamers quiet as excited and intrigued as the Wii version. How will the Wiimote and nunchuk controller allow you to swing Spidey to justice? Or maybe you're interested in the online options the many versions of the game will provide? To answer these questions and more, I had the chance to interview Matthew Paul, producer over at Activision on Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Marvel with me, if you will, at just how big this game is shaping up to be.

Shack: What's Marvel: Ultimate Alliance all about?

Matthew Paul: Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is about being able to put together your dream team of Marvel Super Heroes and take them on an epic adventure to save the universe from Dr. Doom. It's the Marvel game everybody's been waiting for. There has never been a game like this before. Although there have been Marvel games in the past, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is the only game with access to the entire Marvel universe – so just about every character you can think of is probably in the game in one form or another. And that's what you want to see in Marvel licensed games – a blow out of a huge cast of characters, a deep story and intense combat.

Shack: Tell us about the different heroes we can play as. Also, what sort of powers does each have that makes him/her a unique play option?

Matthew Paul: There are over 20 playable Super Heroes in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and each have their own unique signature attacks that you would expect them to have. For example, Thor can throw his hammer and Spider-Man can rope enemies up in his web snare. It's not only important to pick a hero for specific attacks, but it's important how you put your team together. You'll want one flying hero to take out the flying enemies. You may want to add a big bruiser like Thing when you need a tank to defend the party from another bruiser. It's that kind of thinking that you need to put into every hero that you choose for your team.

Shack: Was it difficult creating a storyline that uses so many different superheroes?

Matthew Paul: It certainly was! With such a huge amount of material, we knew that making the story for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance cool and compelling was the easy part, as we could cherry pick the best moments from the comic books, TV and movies. Actually, the toughest part was just fitting it all into one game. Luckily, we had Marvel's own C.B. Cebulski to help us make sure the story stayed true to the whole Marvel canon, and that was a HUGE help.

Shack: What kinds of RPG elements have been incorporated into Marvel: Ultimate Alliance?

Matthew Paul: Marvel: Ultimate Alliance features the traditional RPG elements that you would expect. Heroes in your team each level up after gaining an amount of experience. When leveling, new powers are unlocked and upgraded. However, we've got a lot of new RPG elements as well, such as being able to upgrade different costumes and the new MyTeam RPG element, which allows you to upgrade your whole team as you gain team reputation. It's very cool.

Shack: Give us some examples of missions that players will undertake in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.

Matthew Paul: Well, at the beginning of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Dr. Doom has attacked the Helicarrier. As the plot unfolds, the player realizes that they have to stop a nuclear missile launch against the US that has been initiated from the Helicarrier.

That's just one mission as a part of the bigger quest on board the Helicarrier to find your way to Nick Fury, get the Masters of Evil off the Helicarrier, and find out what Doom's true intentions are. On top of the many main missions, there are also side missions, boss fights, puzzles and a ton of variety in the game.

Shack: Is the player able to change the course of the story line at all?

Matthew Paul: The main villain is Dr. Doom and that's not going to change. So as far as the main story-arch goes, there is a definitive beginning and end to the game, with a series of missions that you have to go on to progress. However, as you go through the game, there are a huge number of subplots, conversations and optional missions that you choose to take or ignore. All of these affect the story.

For example, you actually get to decide whether or not to save Prince Namor or not. So that's kind of a little spoiler, but once you reach the end of the game after the final boss battle, we have this really cool epilogue cut-scene system where you get to see how all these different decisions you made affected the Marvel universe. There are a lot of different combinations of decisions, hence, a lot of possible different end cut-scenes, all depending on how you played the game.

Shack: What multiplayer components does Ultimate Alliance feature?

Matthew Paul: Marvel: Ultimate Alliance supports four-player multiplayer both online and off. That means if you don't want to play with four strangers from around the world, you can just have three friends come over to your house and play sitting with you on the couch.

In addition, we have both a cooperative game mode and an arcade game mode. The arcade game mode is really fun because it ranks all four players on how well they do during the game, and at the end of each level, the best player gets the most XP and other cool stuff. So you definitely want to be the player who defeats the most enemies, gathers the most loot, etc, because it all adds up.

Shack: In what ways will the PC, X360, and PS3 versions differ from one another?

Matthew Paul: Marvel: Ultimate Alliance has been optimized to take advantage of each unit's hardware capabilities. Overall, each of them sports awesome next-gen graphics, including real-time lighting, shadows and high poly models.

However, if it were only about the graphics, then it wouldn't be a next-generation game. There is additional next-generation content, including extra characters, which you won't find on the current-generation versions. The PS3 version also supports the tilt controller, and the PC has a great interface that makes it play best on a keyboard and a mouse.

Shack: Are you planning to take advantage of downloadable content over services such as Xbox Live to expand the game?

Matthew Paul: At this time, we haven't planned for it. Our single goal is just making sure Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is as great as it can be when it ships. Once we've finished the current game, we'll investigate doing downloadable content. It's certainly not out of the question.

Shack: Tell us about what makes the Wii version different from the other releases of Ultimate Alliance.

Matthew Paul: The Wii version of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance features a unique gesture-based input system, designed specifically for the Wii.

Shack: Can you give us a few examples that describe how the Wii controller is used?

Matthew Paul: We have five gestures that do a large variety of things for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance on the Wii. For example, you can thrust the Wii-mote forward to make Captain America charge forward and ram his enemies with his shield, or you can swing the Wii-mote down to make Thor smash the ground with his hammer. Other fun things you can do are swipe left to make Spider-Man spin a web that grabs an enemy, then move the Wii-mote in circles to spin the enemy around Spidey and knock other enemies on their backs. Or you can move the Nunchuk in any direction to grab enemies and shake the Wii-mote to steal their weapons.

All the playable characters have four to five super powers that are performed with gestures. In other versions of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, you can only do two powers at a time and are required to remap powers to do the remaining three. With the gesture system designed for the Wii, you can do any super power at any time simply by performing the gesture for that power.

Another major difference is that we do not require button combos to perform finishing attacks like Popup, Trip and Stun. Instead you can lift the Wii-mote up to do a Popup that sends the enemy flying upwards, or you can swipe left or right to trip the enemy, or you can lower the Wii-mote down to do a stun attack that temporarily dazes your opponent. In most cases, doing a gesture in a direction will cause your hero to attack in a direction similar to the gesture.

Also, another Wii-specific feature is that you can use the Nunchuk's tilt sensors to rotate the game camera without having to take your hands off the movement or attack controls as you do with a standard game pad. This feels very natural and intuitive and works so smoothly that you easily control the camera even during intense action.

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Shack: Any online gaming options planned for the Wii version of the game? What about the use of WiiConnect24?

Matthew Paul: We really wanted to have the Wii version of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance online, but due to a variety of factors, there is no online component planned. We think the WiiConnect24 is an excellent idea, but unfortunately there is no planned support for WiiConnect24 at this time.

Shack: Is widescreen support featured for the Wii game? How about 480p?

Matthew Paul: Marvel: Ultimate Alliance supports 480p and widescreen.

Shack: What's it like developing for the Wii?

Matthew Paul: We've had an excellent experience working with Nintendo and the Wii.

Shack: Thanks for your time.

Raven Software's Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is due out later this fall for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP, Game Boy Advance, and PC.

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