'Marvel Ultimate Alliance,' its sequel get remastered releases for Xbox One, PS4, PC

By Danny Cowan July 27, 2016

The Marvel Ultimate Alliance remastered — Activision Blizzard

Activision is launching a massive superhero team-up this week, with the launch of newly remastered PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC versions of its classic action RPGs Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.

Both games are available individually and as a value-priced digital bundle across all featured platforms.

Originally released in 2006, Marvel Ultimate Alliance is an overhead-view action game similar in structure to dungeon-crawling RPGs. It expands on concepts that developer Raven Software introduced in its previous Marvel-licensed games X-Men Legends and X-Men Legends 2. Players navigate sprawling level layouts as familiar Marvel universe characters, taking out any supervillains they encounter along the way.

Though it features a single-player mode, Marvel Ultimate Alliance‘s campaign is optimized for co-op gameplay, giving players the ability to join teams of up to four friends in local and online multiplayer modes. Players can pick from more than 30 featured characters, including comic book and motion picture stars Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America, Ghost Rider, Deadpool, Daredevil, and Thor.

A sequel, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, followed up on the original game’s release in 2009 with refined gameplay and additional playable characters. The game’s storyline focuses on the Secret War and Civil War periods of the Marvel universe, linking it closely with recent franchise film releases.

Despite their age, Activision has priced both games individually at $40 apiece across all platforms. A bundle pack that includes Marvel Ultimate Alliance and its sequel is also available for $60, giving comic book fanatics a $20 savings over buying each game separately. Public reaction to the PC editions so far is largely negative, however, with early adopters reporting input lag, poor audio mixing, and broken controller support, among other major issues.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 are now available for download via the PlayStation Network and for PC platforms via Steam. Xbox One versions will premiere digitally on Thursday.

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