In the time since Ultimate Alliance 2, a solid six years ago, Marvel’s profile has only swollen to obscene proportions, turning obscure characters like Ant-Man, Black Widow, and Falcon into household names. There were way more depending on the select console and extra content. Marvel, Black Panther, Moon Knight, and yes, Deadpool. The games included all types, including triple-A players like Wolverine, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and Captain America, as well as then-lesser known (because they didn’t have a movie or Netflix show) Elektra, Luke Cage, Ms. The hook of the Ultimate Alliance games weren’t their groundbreaking gameplay (I remember it being repetitive, honestly), but mixing and matching four characters at a time and seeing what cool power dynamics come out. It’s pretty dumb there hasn’t been a third game, especially now. The games are remembered for letting fans make up their own teams to explore different worlds throughout the Marvel Universe. Two years before Marvel Studios released Iron Man, Marvel let Activision run with its comic book license for two solid dungeon RPG games, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, released for every console that existed at the time.
But once upon a time, the world simply enjoyed superhero movies without having to know about its interwoven universe or post-credits cameos. It’s hard to remember when Marvel didn’t overwhelm the cultural landscape.
