Marvel - Ultimate Alliance

Assembling a four-hero squad from a roster that runs from Captain America to Deadpool sounds like fan service, and it is, but Raven Software built an actual system underneath it. Pick Wolverine, Cyclops, Iceman and Colossus and the game hands you an experience bonus for fielding an X-Men team. Pick four characters who all use claws or blades and you get a different one. Even alternate costumes carry stat modifiers, so the decision about which Spider-Man suit to wear is a build decision rather than a cosmetic whim.

The skeleton came straight from X-Men Legends, Raven's earlier action-RPG pair, and the studio simply widened the doors. Isometric camera, four heroes on screen, XP and skill trees, gear that boosts numbers you can see. Doctor Doom stealing power from the Beyonder gives it a plot large enough to justify Atlantis, Asgard, Mephisto's realm and the Skrull homeworld appearing in the same campaign, and the game leans on the sheer geographical spread to keep the level design from repeating itself too obviously.

What holds up best is the willingness to let choices stick. Mephisto's stage forces a decision about who lives, and the consequence follows you into the ending crawl. Rescuing bystanders or completing optional objectives changes small pieces of the epilogue. It is not sophisticated branching by any standard, but in 2006 it was more than a licensed brawler was expected to do, and it gives repeat runs a reason to exist beyond leveling a different four.

The PS2 version is the compromised one. Fewer effects, simpler crowds, longer loads than the Xbox 360 release that got the marketing, though the campaign and the roster are intact and four players can still crowd around one console. That last part matters more than the missing polish. Combat is shallow when you examine it alone, mostly light attacks, heavy attacks and powers on the shoulder buttons, but with three other people mashing beside you the shallowness reads as pace.

It remains the best argument for the idea that a Marvel game should be about the roster rather than one hero, and nothing since has made the team itself the mechanic quite this directly.