In case you didn’t know, Marvel Ultimate Alliance is currently the best all-around comic book based video game there is. So, it should come to no surprise to you that everyone is crazy excited for the sequel coming out Fall 2009. The above trailer was just released and after you gather yourself hit the jump for some insight by the industry’s leading comic book video game analyst (me) as well as confirmation on new characters in the game.

I’m going to pretend as if you know what happened in Civil War. When the trailer begins, we see several different explosions and the woman on the telecast refers to a string of “acts of superhuman negligence.” Well, right off the bat we have our first discrepancy between the comic and the game. There was only one act of “superhuman negligence” that started all this, so why is the story set up like a bunch of metahumans all got dumb at the same time? Psh, Seaman ticks. I guess they could be referring to Latveria’s retaliation after Secret War, but I wouldn’t argue that as negligence.

After that, you’ll notice lots of fighting and heroes staring at each other and then, BAM, the Superhuman Registration Act has been passed.

I’m having a hard time understanding what players will be doing as far as gameplay goes. I mean, in the first game you fought hordes of robots, goons, and various other throw-away bad guys. If this is indeed shaping up to be a game based on the storyline of Civil War, what is the other 90% of the game gonna be when the two sides aren’t clashing? Obviously, the developers of the game, Vicarious Visions, have something in mind; I just don’t see what it is if this game primarily revolves around Civil War. Maybe we’ll fight various S.H.I.E.L.D. agents up until the “clashes.” Perhaps they will take “liberties” with the storyline. Wow, God protect their souls if they do that.

You’ll also notice some new characters being introduced. Along with the usual cast of Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine, and the Fantastic Four, we also see War Machine, Black Widow, Hercules, and I’m pretty sure Cable as well. It’s hard to tell when that left eye isn’t glowing.

Now to get nitpicky. When this game was first announced it was under the name Marvel Ultimate Alliace 2: Fusion. The idea was that in this game heroes will be able to combine special attacks to create new ones. Yeah. That’s fine as a sub-feature in the game, but honestly, it’s kinda dumb. In the trailer you see Iron Man shoot Wolverine with his repulsor ray, and then miraculously Wolverine turns it into a giant explosion, AoE type attack. That’s more weird than it is cool. Also, the Hulks appearance in this game, while not all that surprising, makes me wonder where he will fit into the story. Mainly, which “side” will he be on. If I’m remembering correctly, Hulk wasn’t exactly on the planet when the whole Civil War broke out. On top of that, he’s not a big fan of the Illuminati, who are split up in the Civil War, so that’ll be fun to see what happens there.

The one thing we can all get excited about is the undoubtedly assured presence the Punisher will have in the game. He was pivotal in the storyline and they messed up by not adding him into the last game, so I expect that to be rectified this time around.

Keep tuned to Comic Impact for more of what’s REALLY going on in comic book video games.

Butner Brimberry
Butner@comicimpact.com