The dungeon crawl genre is one of the oldest in all of gaming. The first games in the genre appeared in the 1970s, but became more notable with the release of Gauntlet in 1985; a game which allowed four players to make their way through countless levels as they hacked and slashed through hordes of enemies. Over twenty years later, the dungeon crawl genre is still alive and well, and is represented during the Wii launch with Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Despite the genre's mature age, it has been oft criticized for offering archaic gameplay and generic mechanics. Can the Wii's unique control scheme set Activision's newest title apart from the rest, or does it fall back upon the same old formulas with just a few added wrist flicks?

When you pop the disc into your Wii you're greeted with a beautiful opening sequence that makes you feel like you're being drawn into the Marvel universe. Long time fans will that are familiar with the characters in the game (and there are tons of them) will get a kick out of all of the superhero team combinations you can create and be delighted by the numerous cameos. The large amount of fan service and comic book references spice up an otherwise bland presentation. Depite the efforst to implement a creative control scheme into the game, Marvel Ultimate: Alliance fails to use the Wii remote's pointing capabilities for menu navigation. It's not a terrible thing to navigate menus the old fashioned way, but it was an odd oversight when you consider the Wii's hardware encourages the implementation of more streamlined presentation.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance has you putting together a team of four superheroes from the Marvel universe that best suits your play style as you blast, crash, and grind your way through level after level of comic book themed areas. You are able to swap characters in and out of your party from a fairly large roster of superheroes that grows as you meet certain requirements to unlock them. Choosing the right superheroes for the right situation will be key to your overall success as you move forward throughout the game. For example, if you are playing through an ice area, someone like the Human Torch might have an upper-hand with his flame attacks when compared to a character like Iceman. Over time you'll be able to judge pretty easily when you would be best served to change up your team a bit to help yourself be more succesful. Besides the superhero swapping abilities, and the team bonuses (more on that later), Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is still pretty standard as far as dungeon crawlers go.

As mentioned earlier, the large cast of characters and the comic book inspired level designs work towards a creating a certain sense of familiarity for the gamer, but unfortunately the control scheme pushes against it. The control scheme isn't bad in Ultimate Alliance, but at times it just feels wholly unnecessary for a game built upon such a classic, or better said, archaic gameplay formula. The Wii remote is used to control the attacks of each superhero, as well as to execute any special abilities they might have. Instead of button presses, you use motion gestures to execute a variety of attacks and combos. While the gestures ultimately give you more control over your attacks than can be offered with a normal controller (a gesture often replaces a series of button presses), you'll find yourself wondering if it's all really necessary in a game of this nature. The controls aren't complicated or gimmicky; they just don't feel like a real advantage over the traditional setups found in other versions of the game in most instances.


Build your own unique team of superheroes from a large cast.

The biggest advantage offered by the Wii control scheme, however, was the way the camera is controlled. Instead of having to use a second analog stick to manipulate your camera's view, you simply need to tilt the nunchuck attachment to the right or left to cause the camera to pan around. This is especially useful in a room full of enemies as you can swing the camera about for a better view without having to interrupt your attacking to reach for the second analog stick.