It's been a while since my last review and I apologize.  So to make up for it, I am posting a fairly recent game review but before I start thought I want to bore you a little with info about me and my game play habit (don't worry, it will be short and only slightly painful).  Games are a huge part of my life, my collection numbers over 1200 titles and spans consoles ranging from my very first Colecovision (which still works and I also think I just gave up how ancient I am) to my beloved XBox 360.  I don't have a PS3 just yet but it is coming.

With so many games, obviously I have not finished all of them, I'm a gaming "jack of all trades, master of none".  Especially these days when games drop 10-15 at a time over multiple consoles.  Sometimes, it can get overwhelming staring at all these titles.  And of course, no matter how great a game sounds, you won't know if it lives up to the hype 'til you try it.

Then there are those obscure titles that don't get the big budget ads and therefore, no one plays, and a lot of people miss out on a great gaming experience.  This is why starting today my reviews will come in pairs, featuring a popular game and the forgotten one.  So here's the first review:

Save point! Save point! My Kingdom for a SAVE POINT!!!!!

Sadly, that's how I've felt the past few days.

2 games I was looking forward to...2 games I couldn't wait to stop playing.

Which 2?

Bleach the 3rd Phantom....Pretty much 2 minutes after starting I wanted to end and go back to playing Theresia.

The second...well it came as a slight surprise...Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.

My husband and LOVED the first MUA, we've played it on the PS2, we've played it on the 360 and I've played it on the PSP (We REALLY loved that game). Our team of awesome is always made up of Wolverine (That's me), Deadpool (Hubby), Blade (I swear his AI is ALWAYS on aggressive, he also hogs my kills and coins) and Johnny Storm (he's pretty awesome once I stopped giggling every time he said "flame on")

First, why a save point? Because if I ever play the game again, I DO NOT WANT to have to suffer through the opening again.

And why Ultimate Alliance 2....oh sadly....lots of reasons.

First, I was surprised and dissappointed to see the characters. Now, considering all the DS games I play and also the fact I still love Atari and Coleco games, I am not really a graphics whore; however, as if I didn't hate Nick Fury enough, every time he went off on one of his monologues he looked like his face was melting off. While I give props to the costume detailing, right down to the stitching and piping...WTH happened to the faces? I remember playing the 1st one (not so long ago) and finding the character models awesome and pretty realistic. So..sad face on looks.

Then, stripped down customization. I liked being able to tweak my characters attacks and change costume and all that jazz. Sure we're not too far in but so far, its kinda meh...

Character selection...I know I know, you unlock characters as you go along, but at the start, you really have no choices at all. Not to mention that due to the Civil War story line I won't be able to be ANY of my usual characters since eventually you'll have to choose a side and its a given we'll be on Deadpool's side (pro registration) *sigh*

And finally...fusions are cool, fusions are fun...I don't really care. I miss the screen pause and the voice crying out "Feral Rage" from the first game. Also, Yay more enemies...Boo more enemies. As if it wasn't hard enough to find my character on screen in the first game, now I'm constantly lost. I think I spent like 5 minutes smacking Nick Fury til I realized He wasn't an enemy (I don't consider those 5 minutes wasted though because smacking Nick Fury is always a good thing)

So...we got past the first section, made it to Stark Tower, decided to take a break. We spent our little break reminiscing about the good times we had playing MUA and we came back in and without saying a word to each other we both tried opening the menu at the same time in order to save and quit.

Will we finish it? Possibly.

Will we like it? Doubtful.

Will we go replay the first one? Definitely.

So many games for me to play and I decide to spend $60 and my time on this one...how sad...

Then again, its not like there are too many co-op games out there for us to play together so we gotta settle for this garbage.

Re-reading this I felt a little guilty about all the hate so I thought I'd say something nice about the game....Remy LeBeau.

Gambit has always been my favorite character from the X-men, followed by Wolverine (there I said it, I think he's cooler than Wolverine).   Ok, so he's in the game, even though his character model is fugly, that's ok because he kicks MASSIVE ass.

Sihaya