Marvel Ultimate Alliance

So, despite my local Gamestop employees best efforts to keep me from playing the game (“No sir, all eight copies behind the counter are preordered by people who haven’t been able to pick up their copies in the last five days”), I’m about two hours into Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and while it isn’t going to change the world, it’s been polished until it’s quite shiny and good.

Unlike the previous Raven beat ‘em up/action RPG X-men games, Ultimate Alliance gives you control over a boatload of characters from the entire Marvel universe, from Captain America and the rest of the Avengers to the Fantastic Four, on down to fan favorites like Daredevil and Deadpool (Flash-based playable character list). The basic concept is simple—take 4 superheroes of your choice, team them up, and smash your way through dungeons filled with both easy-to-defeat minions and a variety of supervillains (Mysterio, Scorpion, and Dr. Doom have showed up already).

It seems like the goofy everyone-must-be-running-the-same-resolution limitation is gone in the Xbox Live multiplayer, although everyone is still tied to the same camera, I don’t find that too objectionable. There are definitely better games coming out soon—Gears of War and Guitar Hero 2 both hit next week—but Ultimate Alliance is an entertaining diversion, and it’s something I can even see Gina playing with me and some friends on Live.

Franchise whoring ^2

Take two massive franchises and put them together, what do you get? One helluva fun franchise all it’s own. I loved the first Lego Star Wars game, and the second one is even better.
Sure, it’s really, really short. The graphics aren’t so hot. And, it’s a damn kids game, but I honestly had more fun with the goofy, too-short kids game than I have with another Star Wars game since the first Knights of the Old Republic.

Controlling a bunch of Lego-ized characters from Star Wars is a hoot. The first time Chewbacca leapt onto a Lego Stormtrooper and ripped his arms off, I almost fell out of my chair laughing. The same kind of mildly perverse, yet in-jokey and deconstructionist humor pervades the game. The game’s a budget-priced $30, and the cutscene with Han and Greedo in the cantina is worth the price of admission alone. Buy this game now!