bit-tech Shopping: Activision Marvel Ultimate Alliance (PS3)

Rating: 6

Time with product: 4

Strengths: Lots of characters, Easy to Play, Good Graphics

Weaknesses: Can get repetitive, Sore fingers

Summary: A very good solid game for the price. Can be picked up for under $30 at most places. Has all your favorite Marvel superheroes. Graphics doesn't get any better.4 players playing at once is the best! Definitely a crowd pleasure. The action however can get repetitive. But overall great game for the money...assuming you spent less than 30 bucks.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 1 Week

Strengths: Good gameplay, characters and graphics.

Weaknesses: Some of the vocals are a little cheesy and repetative but it's still fun.

Summary: Really fun gameplay, including underwater. A variety of recognizable characters and fighting styles. I like having a team of characters to control, each with their own special powers. The graphics are good and the enemies are varied.

Rating: 6

Time with product: 6 Months

Strengths: Control all the cool Marvel superheroes with their associated skills

Weaknesses: Building and controlling the team of 4 gets a little cumbersome.

Summary: Maybe it's just me, but controlling 4 guys at the same time gets a little annoying. It's too much for me to worry about the bad guys, what I'm doing, and what the other 3 guys are doing at the same time. For me, it took it from what could have been a 4-start down to a 3-star. I could just opt to let the 3 guys wander on their own, but it's just not optimal that way.I tried the two player mode and that got a little annoying too, you have to spend a lot of effort trying to keep both people close enough to each other on the screen.I did like the graphics; the controls were 'ok' -- not great, but 'ok'. Overall, give the game a 3-star.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 2

Strengths: -the fast paced action-excellent beat em' up-graphics

Weaknesses: -not many people play online

Summary: Marvel Ultimate Alliance is truly a gem. If you liked the X-Men Legends series, you will fall in love with this game. You can build your own dream team of every single Marvel character out there. Highly recommended!

Rating: 8

Time with product: 1 Weeks

Strengths: lots of playable Super Heroes, great graphics, good story

Weaknesses: camera view can be annoying

Summary: Marvel Ultimate Alliance is a fun game. You get to play as a team of four superheroes. You start out with Captain America, Spiderman, Thor and Wolverine. You control one of the heroes while the computer controls the other - but you can quickly switch among the 4 very easily. You can also choose from numerous other heroes to create your own team. The Thing, Elektra, Iron Man, the Human Torch, Colossus, the Invisible Woman, Storm, Luke Cage, Spiderwoman, Deadpool, Mr. Fantastic, Ms Marvel, Moon Knight and Ice Man are all available from the very beginning. There are also 7 locked super heroes. As you play, the super heroes level up, learn new skills and gain skill points. You can spend skill points to improve the effectiveness of you skills. You also collect coins that you can spend on upgrades like increasing the defensive ability of your super hero suit. You can also pick up items that the villains drop to improve your super heroes effectiveness. You can pick up broken pipes to increase you melee attack for a limited time.The game can be saved from SHIELD Access Points. You can also change your team and buy upgrades when at the Access Point.In the first mission the main villains include Scorpion, Bullseye, Radioactive Man and Winter Soldier. Dr. Doom is gathered these villains and many others and they call themselves the Masters of Evil and it?s up to you and your super heroes to stop them. The game is played from the third person perspective. The camera automatically adjust the view as you move around and that can sometimes be annoying as it adjusts it different than I would normally do it.Overall the game is a lot of fun. It's one of the best titles available at the PS3 launch and would be fun for anyone - not just comic book aficionados.EDIT - On two occasions I have had one member of my super hero team hovering in the air - not flying - just operating on a different plane than ground level. I think it happened when I jumped, they just didn?t come back down from the jump. It first happened with Spiderman and then with Captain America. I minor inconvenience and seems to reset itself with the next checkpoint.