With an ever-growing library of video games that allow you to take control of your favorite Super Heroes, Marvel.com is proud to add a video game section to their already enormously informative and exciting website. As more and more Marvel characters come alive on all the newest game consoles from the hottest studios, Marvel.com will be able to bring their fans news announcements, a backlist catalog with game summaries, screen shots, and some gaming goodies down the road sure to excite fans.
Exclusively to our new games page, is the following interview from Dan Vondrak, Project Lead of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance expected to debut in the fall. Created in alliance with Activision and Raven Software, this hugely anticipated new foray into computer RPGs will feature one of the largest rosters of characters ever in a video game and put fans in complete control of their favorite Marvel heroes.
Vondrak of Raven, is completely ready for gamer and fans questions as to whether Marvel: Ultimate Alliance will kick butt more than any other Super Hero RPG before it.
"First and foremost, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance has pretty much the ENTIRE Marvel Universe at its disposal to work with," says Vondrak. "This means the biggest lineup of playable Marvel Super Heroes and the biggest cast of Marvel Super Villains—combined the total cast of the game is over 140 popular Marvel characters. The very fact that you can make a dream team of
Spider-Man,
Wolverine,
Thor and Captain America (just to name a few) is huge."
"And when I say make you dream team, I mean it. You can come up with your own name, pick a team logo, customize your team bonuses and gain reputation, so your team becomes known throughout the Marvel universe."
Then there's the combat system, Super Hero powers, and all the destruction that comes with," he states gleefully. "We've spent a ton of time creating character specific moves so these guys feel and look like they do in the comics. For instance, you can hang guys from ceilings with Spider-Man, or pick them up and repeatedly bash them into the ground or into other enemies with the Thing. There are so many different ways to take down your enemies it's ridiculous. When you play Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, you feel like a Super Hero, you feel like you are in the Marvel Universe."
Of course, gamers and fans will be most interested in the story possibilities. "We worked together with (Marvel Editor) C. B. Cebulski to create an all-new, inspiring story for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance." Vondrak assures. "Along with all the insane action I mentioned above, the story really drives players to find out what happens next. It's like one of those great mini-series that spans the various comics and takes months to resolve . . . only packed into a single, great action/RPG videogame.
Environments and their expansive capabilities will also most likely be prominent in the minds of would-be consumers and gamers. "It was tough narrowing down all the possible environments for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance because there are so many to choose from within the Marvel Universe. For the environments that did make it into the game, we've really taken a solid approach to make them feel different from one another. One of the best examples I can give you is that we've added an entire underwater part of the game that has players swimming through Atlantis. Another example is where we have levels that incorporate special camera angles like side-scroll or over the shoulder views to show off specific aspects of the gameplay."
"There are indoor areas, outdoor areas, the Helicarrier flying overhead, and all sorts of other exciting stuff I'm not allowed to talk about just yet!" Vondrak says emphatically.
"One of the big strengths of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is that we've nailed the controls," he points out, when referring to the game's interface and its ease of use. "They are really intuitive, and we've added on-screen button indicators to help you along even more. We also have an in-game tip system that will periodically remind you how to do certain moves like the grab attacks or jump attacks if you haven't done them in a while. As production has moved along we've continued to find ways to simplify the controls, even removing health and energy packs you had to manually use in favor or health and energy orbs that you automatically pick up as you defeat enemies.
Perhaps one of the hands-down most exciting aspects for Marvel fans will be the Marvel heroes available for gameplay, the amount of information able to be accessed on them, and the promise that they will be the characters fans know and love. "We've got plenty of in-game dialogues and conversations that show off the characters," notes Vondrak proudly. "Even though we have 20+ characters our writer was still able to write a bunch of character specific conversations so you really get to know these heroes."
"We also have Comic Missions which are one shot missions that are specific to one hero. These Comic Missions aren't related to the main story, but instead show off a legendary battle between a hero and a well-known nemesis. I'm sure the hardcore fans will appreciate that these Comic Missions are in there, but for the more casual gamers these will serve as a way to teach them a little bit of comic history about the characters."
"Everything in the game follows closely to Marvel 'canon'—however we don't follow a single universe/timeline. Marvel allowed us to pick and choose the best combination of characters and timelines to make Marvel: Ultimate Alliance the best action/RPG out there."
Vondrak is passionate about the new game and attempting to quantify exactly what will make Marvel: Ultimate Alliance the must-buy item on every gamers list. "Being able to level up your Super Heroes, customize which powers they have, customize your own team and even customize the various outfits (skins) for each hero all makes for a great RPG. Then on the action side—there are enemies and objects flying around constantly. You can pick up and throw guys 40 feet away, you can stick them with Spider-Man's webs, spin them around smashing them into other enemies then release them and send them flying through walls – and that's just with one character. There are entire strings of fighting combos you can discover, you can pick up weapons from the environment like street lights, pipes on the walls, even rip weapons like hammers and staffs out of enemies hands then bash them across the room."
"To be honest there's too much to talk about really!"
Our freshly unveiled games section is subdivided into families such as the
X-Men and Spider-Man. The site can be easily browsed for info on an old favorite or the buzz on what's new. In time, the games section will offer exclusive content for Marvel games, as well as cheats, secrets, and message boards to bring the fans together.
"I'm very excited to have more video game content on Marvel.com," added Marvel's Online Creative Director, Peter Olson, "I mean, I'm looking forward to getting the tricks to beat the final boss on X-Men Legends."
