Wow, it has been a long time since I've had a chance to to talk about my appreciation of marvel and love for Ultimate Alliance. Just to catch everyone up, Marvel Ultimate Alliance was my go-to game back when I owned a PSP and it's one of those titles that I can boast about beating more than 10 times in my time with it. (When you're young you have precious little to do, okay. Don't you judge me!) Of course, nowadays I unfortunatly cannot relive any of that childhood glee due to a cadre of legal troubles that means all active storefronts are forbidden from selling the game. (Which really sucks.) Lucky for me then, that the folks over at Team Ninja came together to put together a brand new Marvel game just in time to reap the benefits of the omniscient MCU.
Now, full disclosure, I haven't actually got the chance to play MUA. In stark contrast to my younger years, I have a lot less free time on my hands and all of that is typically getting split between newer games. (Okay, I just realized how that argument holds literally no water given that my two main games right now are Stellaris and 'Dragon Age: Origins', but I stand by my entirely false words.) I have, however, had the chance to take a look at some of the new things that MUA has done to appeal to modern marvel audiences and that's worth some investigating of it's own. I find it interesting to judge all of the changes in direction, policy and approach; for it paints a picture of the direction of the gaming industry as a unit.
Firstly you must understand, the last Ultimate Alliance Game (number 2) launched all the way back in 2009. Back then there were a few more Marvel games floating around, but they were more aimed at the 'comic/game nerd' culture intersection, because the MCU hadn't even really begun yet. (Yeah, Iron Man had come out but no one really believed that little 'post-credits' scene would actually lead to anything, let alone the Hollywood crushing force that it did.) It made sense then, for the MUA team at the time, who were made of three different studios, to focus the game towards events more familiar to fans at the time. Whilst the first game had done it's own independent story which bordered on the fun, fantastical and epic and did it just fine, Activision wanted more of a sure-fire success story for their next game so they focused the storyline on the most talked-about comic series of that time; Civil War. (Not to be confused with the movie, those two stories did end up at roughly the same place but they took largely different trajectories.)
The result was... slightly better than the Civil War movie. (But that is barely saying anything at all.) The basic premise had to be largely altered in order to avoid anything that would be too controversial, (The comics events were kicked off by a Supervillian going nuclear next to a kindergarten. That wouldn't have translated too well with the video games ratings board.) and the slant of "Choose your side" was implemented in order to force some 'replayability' into the game because that was the 'in thing' in the late 2000's. (Which is dumb when you think about how the entire premise of a super hero game wherein you form your own team is literally dripping with replay-value anyway, why mess that up?) It should be no surprise then, that MUA 2 didn't really live up to her name sake and the franchise would be dropped like a rock.
Now in terms of 'monetisation' the Marvel Ultimate Alliance brand was surprisingly ahead of the curve. (Although I'm torn wherever or not I mean that in a bad way or a terrible way.) Both games were built around the premise of providing players with a stable full of their favourite heroes (and villains in the sequel) in order to allow players to mix and choose at their leisure to create their dream team. (Spiderman, Deadpool and Wolverine for me, with an extra slot for whomever I felt like completely carrying that day.) However, they both took advantage of platform and store exclusives that would lock off certain heroes behind the player's ability to jump through inane, sometimes costly, hoops. MUA 2 even featured some DLC heroes, back before small-scale DLC was all over the place. (They were true trail-blazers...)
As evidenced by the VGA trailer for MUA that we saw back in December, that is one aspect of MUAs development that hasn't changed. 'Marvel Ultimate Alliance: The Black Order' has begun a series worth of 'DLC characters' that appear to be trying to tap into the same culture of the latest 'Smash Bros' DLC train. "Every character completely revolutionizes the game!" Although in Smash's case that is a little true as that game is online; MUA, on the otherhand, is trying to sell character packs for twice what they're honestly worth. (Guess once you get into bed with Nintendo that premium pricing addiction just starts to rub off on you.)
Team Ninja also shifted their approach when it came to writing MUA, which makes a lot of sense considering how, for the past 5 years, the Marvel Comic universe has been sporadic at best. Kevin Fiege and his movie franchise is the one true god of the Marvel cannon right now, and that's why it made sense for the team to pivot their story to match the movies and bring fans into contention with Thanos. And I think it was effective, to a degree. I mentioned at the time how I was more excited about fighting Thanos in MUA than signing up to Square Enix's confusing Avengers game which still hasn't been properly revealed, and a lot of pundits seemed to agree. (It's just a shame that the Black Order wasn't a better title.)
I'm not sure how I feel about the direction that Activision have pointed the Marvel Ultimate Alliance franchise, but I understand why they did it. The easiest way to make your game feel alive, without making an always-online title that requires constant supervision and updates, is to sprinkle feed the community with content bites every now and then. It is a bit more concerning that Geoff Keighley decided to dedicate one the VGA ad slots to assisting that cycle instead of giving it to one of the hundreds of titles that haven't got a look-in at any trade show yet. ('Oddworld: Soulstorm' anyone?) But I suppose the guy has to keep the lights on somehow. Here's to hoping for something more tangible out of Activision's DLC team in the near future. (Maybe then I'll actully go ahead and turn the game on.)
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