Marvel Ultimate Alliance – Monday Night Flighting

Crimson Dynamo: Most powerful super-villian on earth?
Speaking of Flight or Fight, Herd of Cats got together a Marvel Ultimate Alliance team of Four Player Co-op. Where it was mostly flight. And screaming like little girls... lots of screaming like little girls.

Here is a link for a Marvel ultimate Alliance Tactics Guide. No reason.

So the HoC Avengers were Blackwalt as Captain America whose fashion power kept him changing outfits, Stormblade as Iron Man whose Hoover power kept him sucking up coins and secret items, Coxxorz as Thor whose power was secretly wanting to be Iron Man and constantly mouthing off about Captain America's slightly out of control flying shield, and rounding out the team MoriceRevek as Ice Man whose power was not knowing that he was an X-Man not an Avenger and pissing off his teammates by icing up their hands when they weren't looking.

Entertaining yes, effective no. Our track record of teamwork continues. Non-existant.

Making villains look good
You know, of course, that Crimson Dynamo was a 'C' class super villain at best. Well, let's just say that Crimson Dynamo's publicist is looking into hiring us full time as his nemesis. We were the best thing to happen to the Crimson Dynamo since Paul McCartney (seriously, from the Crimson Dynamo's Wikipedia entry: "Paul McCartney includes the Crimson Dynamo as a major character in his song "Magneto and Titanium Man" from the Wings album Venus and Mars.").

1. In our first battle attempt, Crimson Dynamo wiped out Thor, Captain America, Iron Man and Ice Man ...well.. let's just say without working up a sweat.
2. In our second attempt, paying attention and using "strategy" we lost Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man after a long, prolonged, and brave battle. (60 seconds tops) Leaving Ice Man desperately looking for health as he ran past Crimson Dynamo screaming like a little girl (see! More screaming) looking for an activation point to revive his team.
3. Our third attempt with the newly formed HoC Avengers (with no actual Avengers) Human Torch, Dead Pool, Colossus and Ice Man (our sole surviving original member) succeeded. It wasn't pretty and our strategy was vague, but all of us survived and Crimson Dynamo was defeated.

It was a sad day for super heroes and a great day, even in defeat, for 'C' class super villains.

Flaming Elf needs food badly
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 4 player co-op was a success despite our lack of it in game.

Lag was an issue. Not a problem with two players (Stormblade and Blackwalt) but became a problem once Coxxorz and MoriceRevek joined. May be four players is an issue or it may be connection problem with one of the two additions.

Game play was fun. A free for all brawl. The character comments were appropriate to the setting and the Sarcastic Attack +2 was classic.

The Herd of Cats strategy is severely constrained by MUA's interface. It is true to the Gauntlet style. All four players have to remain on the same screen all the time so the team can come to a complete halt one one player hangs back. Players also get separated from henchmen they are fighting when they are dragged away by the other three players.

And not to say that we did it (and not more than three times) but four players going four different directions locks the screen in place and greatly confuses battles with the enemy.

I would rate Marvel ultimate Alliance highly and a steal at $9.89. Worth the money and worth the time. I did check my two most useful review sources: OXM magazine with 8.5 (9.0 for the original Xbox version - $20 cheaper) and TeamXbox with an 8.8. So I am not surprised to have enjoyed it.

Get back in there soldier!
Next up, the Project Labs where our Intrepid Team of Infamy will proceed to make Mysterio look like the second coming of Galactus. It's important to have a team concept and ours is making super villains look good.