Next-gen Marvel heroes have never looked so… Pre-gen.
Let’s break down some of the features of this game to really put a question mark on why someone would want to pay $60 for this game for the XBOX 360. This game includes a huge roster of Marvel Super Heroes, which is a plus for all those comic book junkies out there. But, to be honest, you’ll wind up only using a certain four characters, with an occasional temporary substitution, mostly for storyline purposes. But even then you’ll just have 3 heroes following you around as you beef up just one character that you control. (For me, it was Wolverine. He’s the most balanced in the game, and you can’t ignore his health regeneration ability either. It comes in handy sometimes.) I always had Spider-Man in my “party” as well, because of his web-swinging ability, which helps get you over gaps or on top of ledges that are too high for other characters to double-jump to. The other two were interchangeable, but mostly it was Black Panther and either Iron Man or DareDevil. There are a lot of “similar” heroes… Blade, Ghost Rider, Nick Fury, and Deadpool with their weapons, Thing and Colossus being the “heavy hitters”, and the rest are pretty much poor melee fighters who have to rely more on their “super powers” than hand-to-hand. Only thing is, this game is 99% hand-to-hand, button-mashing chaos. And throw in the “energy meter” you have in order to use your super powers, and that whole group of heroes are at a severe disadvantage. (Again, this is why Wolverine is usually your best choice to use throughout the entire game.)
The gameplay is ok, but the camera angles can sometimes hinder your view, especially of things that are flying in the air or that is much taller than the “ground level”. The diagonal top-down view is really a nuisance because its hard to see some enemies just off-screen, but it doesn’t keep your party from rushing those enemies. Which is another downside to M:UA… your party members’ AI. At first, its not so bad. But after a while, they’ll be jumping off of ledges, getting themselves killed for the fun of it. Its like they’re weaker unless you’re controlling them. Then you have the glitches that sprout up occasionally. (Once I had Spider-Man floating above everyone else stuck in some sort of pre-jumping loop. The only way it corrected itself was when I finished the level.) I’ve heard of other glitches: not being able to leave a level once you’ve defeated the boss, etc. On top of that, the storyline is really choppy and hard to follow at times. You know the grand picture: save the world. But there are times where things just feel out of place and leave you scratching your head. At least the music is super-hero like, even if everything else isn’t.
Overall, I’d say it’s a good rental until you beat it. If you’re a true comic fanatic, I’d recommend that you get this game. But for everyone else who is just mildly interested in just a few of the roster of super heroes available, I suggest that you rent it and play through it for a few hours before deciding if you want to add this to your XBOX 360 game collection.