A MUA 4 Should Leave a Long-Held Tradition in the Past

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As a long-time comic book enthusiast and video game aficionado, I’ve been following the Marvel Ultimate Alliance series since its inception. Over the years, I’ve noticed that the games have a peculiar fondness for Spider-Man villains, which can be both exciting and overwhelming at times.

The Marvel Ultimate Alliance series is fascinating because each of the three releases so far has been produced by different studios, giving them unique personalities. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order stands out as the most innovative compared to its predecessor, but it still preserves the fundamental spirit of the series amidst contemporary elements like a crowded user interface, a neglect of hubs and trivia, and an inclination towards inspiration from the Marvel Cinatic Universe that is scattered throughout.

In the next version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance, it would be best to avoid a recurring trend from past games – an overabundance of Spider-Man’s villains. If the goal is to highlight a variety of intriguing Marvel adversaries, it would be wiser to limit the early appearance of Spider-Man villains in the game. This way, other memorable antagonists can also gain recognition.

Spider-Man’s Popularity is Overwhelmingly Dominant in Marvel Ultimate Alliance

No more evidence for Spider-Man’s iconography in no small part carrying the Marvel Ultimate Alliance franchise is that he has been front and center on every key box art thus far. Furthermore, his assortment of random villains has perfumed each game, and the placement of many of them hardly seems coincidental. The first villain players encounter in every single Marvel Ultimate Alliance game, in fact, is a Spider-Man foe: Scorpion, Electro, and Sandman, respectively.

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Fortunately, the cast of characters and their adversaries find a harmonious equilibrium within the narrative, veering off occasionally to highlight captivating settings and personalities like Shadowland and the Defenders, along with Xavier’s Institute and the X-Men, not long after.

In a less than appealing manner, the third installment heavily concentrates on introducing multiple Spider-Man antagonists, such as Sandman, Electro, Venom, Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Kingpin, throughout just the second and third acts. In contrast, The Black Order mainly focuses its abundance of Spider-Man villains on a single location, the Raft, but it shares the same level of self-indulgence as every other Spider-Man villain who has unexpectedly become entwined in the grand, epic narratives presented in previous Marvel Ultimate Alliance games.

Spider-Man is an Inevitable Fixture of Marvel, and Thus of Marvel Ultimate Alliance

It’s quite likely that you’ll encounter Spider-Man’s villains extensively whenever Marvel Ultimate Alliance’s storylines involve Earth, especially New York City. Ignoring these villains in the games would seem illogical, but their frequent appearances might not necessarily be based on their relevance to the ongoing story. Instead, it’s more likely due to their popularity or familiarity among fans.

The same could also be said of countless other villains who are classic antagonists in another character’s rogues’ gallery, though many of them likely deserve and crave that limelight in a way that Spider-Man villains have basked beneath for ages in Marvel media. Spider-Man will inevitably play a role in Marvel Ultimate Alliance’s future if there is one at all, but a lot of his nemeses will hopefully stay on the bench or at least not be thrown in at the beginning to capitalize on familiarity as transparently.

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2024-12-24 15:53