Dr. Victor Von Doom is threatening the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, heading up a group known as the Masters of Evil and Captain America asks Thor, Spider-man and Wolverine to take out the cyborg-controlled assault ships.

After a sterling cutscene, which nicely captures the personalities of the first team of fighters, you work through the helicarrier until you encounter Scorpion. Get past Scorpion (the first of many boss battles aboard the helicarrier) and you will eventually get to the bridge where Nick Fury awaits you. Black Widow is in trouble and needs your help. But perhaps the foursome of Spidey, Captain, Thor and Wolverine are not what is needed for this mission. No worries. Just find the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo within a level, portal down and pull up Ms. Marvel, or Ironman, or Black Panther, or …

If this is sounding like an all-star card of some of the best Marvel super-heroes of all time, you are absolutely right.

But it gets even better. There is Daredevil, Deadpool, Dr. Strange, Elecktra, Ghost Rider, The Fantastic Four, and – get this – the SILVER SURFER!

Those that have played X-Men: Legends will recognize the way the game plays out. You have a level, a team of four, and many enemies standing between your team and its objective at the other end of the level. As each of the superheroes has unique abilities, the right mix will see you through each of the challenges that wait. As you fight, you get experience, which translates into leveling and improved skills. The lazy can let the game auto-assign skill points, but the person that wants to manage the team will be able to disable the auto-assign feature and customize the characters the way he or she sees fit.

While the gameplay is similar to what has been seen before, what truly sets this game apart is the story … well, and all the cool characters you will have the opportunity to play as. With Dr. Doom’s nefarious plot as the guiding point, thrown into the mix are evolving suspicions surrounding existing characters. Sure, Nick Fury may trust her, but doubts linger as to which side Black Widow is on.

Combat is handled well. Players can mouse target and then attack, there are special attacks associated with numbered keys, and left clicking is a normal attack while right click charges up the special attack. But there is more than one way to fight. You can tap the space bar (double tap is a double jump) to jump and then hit a numbered key for a smashing melee blow. You can also block and dodge attacks.

Yep, Raven and Activision thought of just about everything with this control scheme. The puzzles are tending toward simple, with players given the ability to push and pull objects into new locations. One thing that didn’t transition from the X-Men titles was the ability for Iceman to extinguish flames with his initial ice shard skill. Targeting is also a little strange. For some strange reason, in certain areas (like during the fight with the dragon, Fin Fang Foom, moving at him was very hard to do. The character controlled would reverse and run in the other direction. And ranged attacks were very hard to control, direction-wise.

There were other stutters encountered. In the video options, the resolution was upgraded but when the Advanced Lighting key was hit, the game shut down the host computer. The camera, which needs to be rotated to see where you are going, sometimes gets hung up on environmental objects and you can’t see where you need to in order to either engage the enemy, or activate an environmental element.

Glitches aside, though, Ultimate Alliance was still a Marvel fan’s dream come true. The characters have attitude, and there are so many cool team members to choose from, with more unlocked as you progress, that the game’s variety feels wide open. This is a good thing as the game itself is rather linear in nature.

The graphics, in spite of the burps, still are very good, and the sound is spot-on for the game. Multiplayer is handled two ways. Offline another player can jump in by plugging in a second control device – just like the console versions. There is also an arcade multiplayer mode in which the game essentially follows the same path but the players are trying to outscore one another. The game also has the ability to play online.

Boasting the largest collection of Marvel heroes and villains in one title, Marvel Ultimate Alliance is a terrific game for the die-hard fan of Marvel comics. Those that enjoyed X-Men: Legends will also find this game entertaining. There are some failings, but overall, this is a game that is a delight. More than 20 playable characters, 17 locations, and the ability to control the destiny of the world and Marvel Universe – this game has the elements superhero fans crave.

Gameplay: 7.9
A crash when you hit a certain button? Not good. There are load times, but the game plays decently well and is somewhat intuitive.

Graphics: 7.9
The camera gets hung up and is a hindrance at times. Ironman may not look as good as he should and Thor looks a little bit like Hulk Hogan. Other than that, though, the environments and animations, along with the special effects, are well done.

Sound: 8.3
Very solid voice work.

Difficulty: Medium
Three settings to enable players to find their challenge level.

Concept: 8.3
Good story and a great cast.

Multiplayer: 8.1
Cooperative play is always fun.

Overall: 8.2
There are some glitches, but the pure joy of unlocking that next hero and then trying to come up with the perfect team is reason enough to work through the game a couple of times. It looks good, it plays decently and will cause the occasionally joyful noise from anyone who has treasured the Marvel comic books.