Marvel: Ultimate Alliance groups together the largest number of villains and the largest number of heroes from the Marvel universe and pits them against each other for the first time ever in video game history. There are over 140 characters from the Marvel universe in the game. Battles are fought, victories won, and somebody dies.

Players will go up against simple minions and have to find their way through a number of puzzles to go up against more prominent super-villains like the Rhino. They will also have to go up against big bad guys, and when I say big, I mean big. Galactus comes to

The game has a lot of environments that fans of the Marvel comics will recognize, and the story varies between parts taken from lore from the Marvel comics and brand new storylines. If you know a lot about the Marvel universe, don't expect the story or the characters in the game to sync up to what's going on in the comics, because the game's writers took bits and pieces from the lore itself and also wrote new things.

The experience I had playing the game ranged from good, during the normal times of running through the levels pounding enemies to dust, to bad, watching the stupidity of some of the computer controlled hero AI, to great, playing multiplayer with one of the guys from the Raven development team. In fact, the multiplayer is where the game really shines. There are two different modes to choose from in multiplayer – either arcade or co-op – both of which can be played for the entire game. We played the arcade mode, which I was told incidentally came about from the development team arguing over who did better in the levels they were playing. Arcade mode works on a points system, allowing players to know who got the better score at the end of each level. The competitive gameplay allows players to go against each other and have some serious fun.