Marvel: Ultimate Alliance [GBA]

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Yahoo! Video Games: So, what brings heroes like the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, Ghost Rider, and Blade together on the same team? An evil greater than the Star Wars TV Christmas Special?

Dan Vondrak: Dr. Doom and a newly formed Masters of Evil plan on editing Jar-Jar into Episode 4 in some bizarre twist involving him tripping over a droid head and blowing up the Deathstar, okee day! And only the largest alliance of Marvel Super Heroes ever in a video game can stop this mad plan.

At least that's what I heard on the internets, so it's got to be true!

YVG: As both an arcade action game and an RPG, what's the key to maintaining a balance between the two?

DV: You need to have deep enough RPG elements that can be hidden from the action gamers, but still made accessible to the RPG fans. We do a lot to automate the RPG side of things so action gamer can do what they do best, fight, destroy, plunder -- all the standards. Anyone interested in character growth and development though can easily access that through the menus and adjust those stats to their hearts content. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance leans more heavily towards action than our previous Action-RPGs and we're really happy we made that decision. It's awesome seeing Spider-Man sling someone around and around with his webs and have The Thing pound them into the ground when Spidey's done with him.

Many RPGs, action or otherwise, rely on the similar archetypes of wizards, swordfighters, archers, and so on. What's the advantage of using super-heroes? What types of powers and skills will we see that make Marvel: Ultimate Alliance stand out?

Superheroes have more style. A Ranger might have a throwing knife or even some type of boomerang, but seeing Captain America throw his indestructible shield, having it bounce around and cut through enemies is so much cooler. Having Ghost Rider wrap his chains around an enemy and slam them repeatedly into the ground is incredibly satisfying. Mr. Fantastic's standard attack moves are some of the coolest looking in the game. Having a guy that can stretch all over the place makes for some unique fights.