Following in the footsteps of a pair of X-Men games that met critical and popular acclaim (X-Men Legends and X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse), Raven Software is going for three hits in a row with another hack and slasher set in the Marvel comics universe – Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

And when Raven says ‘Ultimate’ it means it, with 23 playable characters (25 in the Xbox 360 version), a Who’s Who of villains, and cameo appearances from practically everyone else in the universe, from Professor Xavier and The Vision to Lockjaw and Bruce Banner (though the Hulk and The Punisher are notable no-shows). And luckily for diehard comic fans, the license is once again done justice by the folks at Raven, who have included branching dialogue trees which fill in the backstories of various heroes and heroines, as well as unlockable comic covers, art, and character-specific bonus missions which truly show the respect the developers have for the Marvel brand.

But what about the gameplay? Well, it’s basically more of the same in terms of being a dungeon crawl involving a lot of hacking away at enemies, occasionally using hero-specific super powers, and fighting your way through a typical ‘save the world’ type story involving Doctor Doom and his merry band of bad guys. Yet while a tried and true storyline like that could spell doom (pardon the pun) for a game that isn’t breaking down the walls of innovation technically, the ingenious design of some of the levels (especially in a bizarre fun house and in Mephisto’s devilish realm) saves things in a major way. Add enjoyable button mashing mini-games to the mix, the ability to steal weapons from your foes and use them (nothing beats walking around as Wolverine next to Thor with a hammer bigger than the one wielded by the God of Thunder), and interesting boss battles, and you’ve got enough new gameplay elements to get you through 30 + hours of gameplay and the sometimes painfully tedious levels when all you seem to be doing is bashing enemies and leveling up your character.

Speaking of boosting your character, each mission involves a team of four which you can pick and choose from those already available (some only get unlocked through the story or by finding various items during your travels) and that you can also build up in various ways manually or let the game automatically distribute your points to various attributes. New in this game is the ability to unlock four unique uniforms for your character, each with differing abilities that you can also develop in whatever way you see fit. And while the cast of characters is vast, after the novelty of having all these different heroes to choose from wears off, you will most likely settle into a particular group that you will take into the deep end of the game because by then they will have the most impressive stats to get you through the latter bosses. And picking your team is important because without a mix of an effective melee fighter and one who can fly or fire off projectiles, you’re in trouble with some bosses, especially when the AI for your opponents involves them standing in place while you’re getting pounded, causing a quick button and direction pad press for an assist from your teammates. By the final boss battle though, I settled in with a quartet of Wolverine, Luke Cage, Thor, and Captain America (whose shield throw is without question the coolest attack in the game), and was able to get to the finish after what seemed to be endless re-tries.

Presentation-wise, the in-game graphics are along the same lines of the two X-Men Legends games – detailed, but not wow-worthy - while the rendered cut scenes are simply gorgeous and Final Fantasy-esque in quality. Especially nice is a post-game recap of the major parts of the game and what your decisions meant to the future of the Marvel Universe – so finish those optional quests kids.

I can’t be as kind to some of the other aspects of the production, which includes some horrendous dialogue, spelling and grammatical errors during printed conversations, and very hit or miss voice acting – from a solid Wolverine (who isn’t listed in the credits but who sounds like the Mark Hamill Wolverine from previous games) to a horrible Luke Cage and a Captain America who is prone to shouting out effeminately, “That’s gonna leave a bruise.” Also, some of the conversations don’t jibe with what just happened previously in the game after completing a mission.

These nitpicks won’t detract from your gaming experience though, and as far as sequels (and this is a sequel -- at least in spirit -- to the X-Men Legends series) go, Marvel Ultimate Alliance does what few do – it actually improves on the two original games and adds something new to the series. Ultimate Alliance II? Maybe not, since it would be hard to come up with a believable enough story to bring all these heroes and villains together again. But give me a Luke Cage, Ghost Rider, and Daredevil adventure, and I’m there.