According to Game Informer, fans and Critics have expressed displeasure with Activision’s re-release of one of their most treasured franchises. The Marvel Ultimate Alliance games were the successors to Raven Software’s successful X-Men Legends games and featured the same tag team gameplay as those titles.
They were once released to rave reviews from publications such as IGN for their faithfulness and respect to the source material and the collection of playable characters. In an apparent effort to capitalize on the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Activision has released the Marvel Ultimate Alliance Bundle to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The bundle includes both Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 and 2.
Unfortunately, the bundle has been met with a cold reception from critics such as Jim Sterling. Criticisms of the bundle include the store descriptions boasting characters and content that are not in the game. The following quote is from the aforementioned store description:
Players can create and control their own completely unique team, selecting from the largest roster of legendary superheroes ever assembled in one game, including Spiderman, Hulk, Wolverine, Captain America, Ironman, and The Thing.
This is, of course, not true. Hulk was part of the DLC pack that Activision did not include in these re-releases. Because of this, fans on Facebook are now accusing Activision of lying in order to make a profit of off low effort ports. Even though the Xbox 360 Games on Demand version included the DLC pack, this bundle does not.
The price has also been a point of contention with fans and critics. The $40.00 price tag for each of the individual games or $60.00 price tag for the bundle has been described as a little steep.
Fans and critics such as Jim Sterling claim that the Marvel Ultimate Alliance series is best played with controller. However, PC players on Steam have had problems with the controller options and have been forced to play the game with mouse and keyboard. Even worse, the button mapping for the mouse and keyboard have not been well-received. The PC version is also missing visual options that were present a decade ago in the original releases. In addition, the Xbox One port has no achievements even though the PS4 version has trophies.
To mend relationships between Activision and customers, Bill Rosemann, editor for Marvel Comics, sent out a tweet to fans telling them that their concerns were being addressed.
As of now, it’s unknown if Activision has any plans to respond or address these concerns.