Marvel Ultimate Alliance

You’ll need to be something of a hero to contend with this relentlessly physical action/RPG. However testosterone supplies will not be limited among the audience most impressed by Marvel Ultimate Alliance; this is boys stuff and brilliantly done. In fact, it makes you dream of superhero games to come.

The Wii control set up is an ideal sidekick for over 20 Marvel characters that include Spiderman, The Hulk and elasticised Mr Fantastic. These guys spend most of their time fighting, so you spend most of your time shaking the nunchuck, slicing with the remote, and thrusting both toward the screen to keep up with the action. Grown-ups will no doubt decide that such extravagance is unnecessary, that bashing buttons is equally fine. This is losing sight of the fun to be had in our opinion, but the option is there to fall back on conventional control too.

With its brightly coloured Marvel motif, Ultimate Alliance looks admirable although not as polished as on Xbox 360. The exact same game is here though, bursting with charisma of its protagonists who constantly quip while in the fray. MUA is loosely billed as a role-playing experience, which basically requires players to choose teams of heroes based on scenario, and then enhance their powers through experience. You’ll settle on favourites, for their move sets or even preferred catch phrases, but specific characters are needed to solve puzzles. Part of the fun with MUA is playing through the adventure with other heroes to see what they’re fully capable of, and this is even more enjoyable if you’ve a friend playing co-op beside you.

The stand-out disappointment with Marvel Ultimate Alliance is a lack of online gameplay, but this is a concern for all Wii games at launch. Superhero partnerships must just take place on the same sofa.

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