Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics’ Marvel’s Avengers game has become one of the most infamous games of the last few years, with many users citing a thin story, a lack of combat variety and a poorly updated live-service model as the cause for the game’s dismal reception. Featuring only a handful of main Avengers that maybe take too much after the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not even the likes of Spider-Man and Black Panther could save the game from a dwindling player base and losing Square Enix millions of dollars. But there was a time when Marvel games were innovative, interesting and encouraged player choice in playstyle and customization, with one of the best examples being 2006’s Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.
The spiritual successor to X-Men Legends, Ultimate Alliance possesses a ton of features, from somewhat simple beat-em-up gameplay to RPG mechanics and equipment, to special powers and methods of traversal for each playable hero. What Ultimate Alliance has over Avengers, however, is an even larger roster of superheroes, including the Fantastic Four and X-Men. It also does everything in its power to make every hero truly unique with strengths and weaknesses. The player is encouraged to form their own team, often rewarding bonus stats for using alternate costumes and forming comics-accurate teams, from the Fantastic Four to specific Avengers teams like the New Avengers and West Coast.
Ultimate Alliance begins with an attack on the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier led by Doctor Doom, with Nick Fury calling upon all available superhumans to assist in saving the carrier. After the player defeats multiple invading villains with their given superhero team, Fury learns that Doctor Doom is conspiring with other villains in an attempt to rule the world. With the help of various other Marvel superpowers, Fury tasks the world’s greatest superheroes to form the ultimate super-team to defeat Doctor Doom and his Masters of Evil once and for all, going through the Marvel Universe’s most iconic locations and battling its most dangerous villains along the way. The story may be hokey and simple, but its grand scope and the sheer number of playable and non-playable characters make Ultimate Alliance one of the most robust and fully-realized adaptations of Marvel Comics’ rich universe.
Players will traverse Stark Tower, the Sanctum Sanctorum, to even Asgard and Atlantis, battling Ultron drones and Frost Giants while meeting fan favorites like Professor X and Wong, as well as more obscure characters like Corsair and Lilandra. For fans growing up in an era where X-Men and Spider-Man were the most popular Marvel properties, this game was likely their first introduction to characters like Deadpool, Loki and Doctor Strange. Curious players will learn various trivia about Marvel Comics from multiple NPCs, with one of the most beloved features being hidden dialogue between a chosen hero and a character they know, such as picking Spider-Man for the Mysterio boss fight or having Daredevil speak to the NPC Black Widow about their comics’ romance.
The variety of heroes and their unique characteristics place Ultimate Alliance above and beyond Avengers in terms of scope, playability and sheer fan service. The addictive gameplay that rewards player experimentation and exploration proves that a good game doesn’t need a live-service model or excessive level grinding to be a compelling experience. With such a strong base formula at its very core, it’s no coincidence that Ultimate Alliance is one of the best Avengers games ever made, with even its long-distant sequel The Black Order picking up in its footsteps and receiving higher acclaim than its Square Enix counterpart.
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