When X-Men Legends was first released, all fans rejoiced and became delirious with pale-spotty-geek-glee. X-Men Legends II followed rapidly after the original due to its success and popularity. However (there is always a however and you will realise why when you read the rest of this sentence), Marvel fans are never satisfied. They demand perfection. The Legends series was only accepted by the masses, not the purists.

Why? Various reasons have been voiced such as the cartoonish character models, the lack of specific characters or a too complicated - or too simple - attributes system. Despite the faults, everyone expected a third instalment. However, (there it is again) in comes Marvel: Ultimate Alliance; a new name, on a new console (in terms of the 360) and with a new storyline. This is exactly what Marvel fans young and old have been waiting for, it makes all of the wrongs right and contains over 150 characters and 30 locations. Gone are the cartoonish character models, confusing attribute systems and in are over 20 playable characters and improved gameplay. Put in layman's terms: It is the badger's nadgers.

In Ultimate Alliance, Doctor takes the helm as the head super-villain. Recruiting a band of familiar villains he launches an attack on the SHIELD Helicarrier, captained by none other than Nick Fury. Nick is in need of assistance and sends out a distress call to all heroes. How has Doctor Doom managed to get all of the other villains under his control? Why is he attacking the indestructible SHIELD Helicarrier? He is up to something.

Doctor Doom wants to gain power from iconic Marvel artefacts to shape the universe under his rule. It is up to you, and your team of heroes, to chase after him through locations across the entire Marvel universe in order to stop him. Once the initial missions on the SHIELD Helicarrier have been completed you will progress onto other headquarters such as Iron Man's Stark Tower and Doctor Strange's Mansion. From this point you will be able to teleport to the different locations. You will have to dive into Atlantis, fight with the Gods in Asgard and even fight Mephisto in the depths of the realms of hell.

Through the game (including unlockable faces) you will be bale to choose between 25 Marvel characters. The team you start off with automatically are Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor and Wolverine but when you get to any SHIELD access point you will be able to change them. The other characters available are rather... random. You have those seen in recent films such as all of the Fantastic Four, Elektra, Blade and X-Men characters such as Ice-Man and Colossus, and also familiar faces from the Legends series such as Deadpool. However there might be a few that you do not recognise; Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, Black Panther and Doctor Strange are some of the, well... stranger characters.

Each of the characters have varying strengths and weaknesses but some of them are considerably weak compared to others. In fact, it is the obscure characters that are next to useless, deeming them even more undesirable to have in your team. However, fear not, there is a solid core of excellent characters that are more than enough to create a successful and powerful, four-man team.

You are also able to customise each of these characters to a reasonable level. Each one has at least three alternate costumes - some even having five - that can be unlocked the more you play through the game with that certain character. Although some of them are debatable, most of them are true to their origins, giving a wide range from classic to ultimate styles. Unfortunately with some of the characters their costumes do not vary a great deal; Thor for one has very little changes in armour, Colossus adopts the same metal sheen and the Thing is just an orange rock no matter what he is wearing. They are fun to toy around with and to many the look of your heroes and team will be extremely important.

Each of the costumes also comes with three upgradeable attributes that have different effects on your heroes' abilities. Some costumes increase your strength and defence, whilst others still increase your health and agility. There are even some that strengthen specific character's special moves and also up the amount of experience points gained from defeating enemies. However, these are more of a bonus than a necessity and the look of your character is more important than few raised attributes.

You can also customise specific teams. After choosing your four favourite super heroes you can give them a logo and a team name. Throughout the game, keeping at least three characters from your original team in your current team will increase their reputation and overall performance. Sadly, if you break the team up then everything they have earned will be lost. This is a shame and means that you will have to choose your permanent team right from the start.

The gameplay of Ultimate Alliance is just as simple as it was in X-Men Legends but easier to play which makes the game a little more more fun overall. You will follow the storyline through a number of linear levels, defeating hordes of evil enemies until you reach the level boss, or in some case, bosses. Simple, as said, but there have been important changes to the gameplay that make this title a totally different experience. Each of the characters superhero powers are the first things that have been changed. This time round you get to physically perform your powers, each move having different interactivity, instead of simply watching an animation sequence. For example, when Ice-Man fires ice shards at an enemy, instead of pressing a button and then watching him unleash a flurry of shards, you physically have to fire them yourself but tapping button. You might worry that it turns the game into even more of a button-masher but it has the complete opposite effect and adds a commendable degree of variety.