Marvel Ultimate Alliance: The New Hotness

My working title for this article was “we are all whackjobs” but do not take that personally as that is my working title for all my articles.

Herd of Cats is in the middle of a gaming oddity. Seriously, more than usual.

Think about it. Halo 3 just came out. The second coming of Xbox 360 games. Scoring 10 out of 10 across the board. We had two LAN nights in a row to play it. We followed the promotional train – all the screenshots, all the previews. We raved about it and could not wait for the coop multi player.

And it is out. Has been out for over a month. We should be playing it until our eyes bleed. We should.

Except…

Except…

We are not.

What are we playing? We are playing a $10 game that was released over 10 months ago. A game that averaged 8 out of ten. It had no massive media blitz, no massive budget, and no massive sales.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance

And why are we playing it? Because it is fun. Really fun. We are all superhero fans, Marvel fans, and multi player gaming fans. MUA supports four player coop and we get to play as some of our favourite Marvel superheroes (except that Deadpool guy who was not on any favourites list of mine, what is up with that?)

I definitely think the feeling of stealing the game at $10 has had an effect. I also think the feeling of finding a diamond in the rough is having an effect. A quality game where we did not expect to see a quality game.

It’s a game we didn’t expect to buy and a game we didn’t expect to enjoy. We didn't expect to enjoy a lot.

When I start up my Xbox 360 now I am not thinking “let’s see who is online in Halo 3,” I am thinking “let’s see who is playing Marvel ultimate Alliance.”

I have written about it almost everyday on the site and while you are probably all sick of it, you are not complaining with the usual amount of bleating.

I have played with Stormblade, I have played with MoriceRevek, I have played with Coxxorz, and I have played with Q-Bert/Jehreg. Two, three, and four player games. I think it is cool to form a superhero team with your friends to face off supervillains. Even with the superheroes you guys choose. Even with you guys as friends.

For two weeks straight. Heck, I have even put in time at single player. Quite a bit of time.

You would think that we would have gone back to Halo 3, Rainbow Six Vegas or even GRAW2. But no. “What superhero do you want to be tonight guys?” MUA again.

And I am happy about it, and so is the rest of the Herd. At least, they are online playing MUA when I look. It would be nice to be getting some more sleep, but I keep playing well past the time I plan on quitting. No matter how many times I have said to myself, “no staying up late, quit on time.”

I am so into the game that I am looking at the strategy guide. At twice what I paid for the game! And I never buy strategy guides. I am also looking at the downloadable content: four new superheros and four supervillains. For the same $10 that I paid for the game! MoriceRevek has already bought the DLC and he seems happy about it. I have held out so far on both counts but who knows what could happen if this continues another two weeks.

I suspect that the reason we are enjoying MUA is due to the multitude of First Person Shooters on the 360. Essentially all the games we play on the 360 are First Person Shooters. Halo 3, Rainbow Six Vegas, GRAW2, among others. Even Bioshock is essentially a First Person Shooter. Other than driving games we don't by much outside the realm of FPSs as a group: We have tried Dead Rising, Overlord, and hockey games but not as an entire group.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance is different. It is an Action/RPG well outside of our usual style of game. It is the difference we are enjoying. An entertaining coop fighter/brawler with full online support in an theme that we all enjoy.

Admittedly. Marvel Ultimate Alliance is not normally a $10 game. We bought during an EBGames promotion. To be fair to MUA it is still a $39 game new and 80% is a perfectly respectable review score – so we are supposed to be enjoying it. But still…

Gamers play what they enjoy. They usually play what is new and what is hot. While MUA is new to us, it definitely is not the new hotness. Halo 3 is the new hotness and we have forsaken it for Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

To Herd of Cats, Marvel Ultimate Alliance is the new hotness. Halo 3 can wait, will wait until we finish saving the Universe, again, as Captain America, or the Human Torch (or even Deadpool – who knows).

So for the next week, forget about the Covenant and continue to join me in the fight against the Masters of Evil. Choose your superhero, choose your power, and join the Herd. Going against the trend and playing what is fun, not what is hot.