cable2006 - 03 February 2010 03:56 PM

Did you forget that Fury was the secret unlockable in MUA1? That sure as heck didnt stop them from making him the same thing in MUA2.

No, and in fact it was one of the first things I complained about when he was announced - before we knew that he was RoboFury.

FireMadeFlesh - 03 February 2010 02:41 PM

I’m not sure exactly what my roster would be. I’m mainly an X-Men fan, so of course, my roster would be very X-Men heavy. I won’t begrudge other fans getting their favorites in though. I think my two biggest roster complaints are:

Nanite Fury - Do I really need to go into this? I think it’s been beaten to death.

Penance - OK, part of this is just my strong dislike of the character. Beyond that, he didn’t really have much to do with the storyline. He didn’t bring anything new as far as powers since he’s just an energy character. His powers had nice effects to them, some of the best looking in the game, but they really didn’t do anything special. His group boost made no sense. His ability to do extra damage was rarely useful, like Wolverine’s Rage Mode in MUA. Most of the time, he either gained health back too quickly for the effect to last long, or he died in one shot.

As far as roster size, I don’t think I’d want one beyond what they included. They can always add more via DLC. I’d much rather they spent more time on the levels, making them more interactive and longer. The game is way too short, and there isn’t much to do other than smash your way through it.

Rogue - I’m not a game programmer, but I am a software developer. I can take a semi-educated guess that developing her power stealing abilities requires some thought from the beginning. It’s probably not something that can be added in DLC. If she’s going to be included, she probably needs to be in the initial roster so that they can plan for her unique abilities.

Phasing - We’ve discussed at length how this can work, but I’m not sure it’s worth the effort. Vision and Moonstone have other abilities and are not dependent on phasing to make them playable, but Kitty really doesn’t bring much else to the table. If they make the levels with more puzzles, then I can see phasing be a useful ability to have.

Totally agree with you on Penance.  His power set was basically Human Torch’s radial, Iron Man’s Uni-Beam, Gambit’s 52 Pickup, and a more or less useless buff.  He’s not a classic character, and there were so many classic characters that didn’t make the cut.  I’m not a big Hawkeye fan, but he would have been such a better choice.  He would have completed the Thunderbolts bonus (yes, he hasn’t been a T-Bolt in years but he had a long stint with the team) and added another classic Avenger to the roster.

You’re right about Rogue, should have mentioned her when I talked about possible programming challenges.  She’s the only other programming challenge besides phasing.  Honestly, I don’t care much about Rogue and there are plenty of female characters I’d rather have.

Kitty Pryde, on the other hand, is my #1 pick for a future game in this series.  She would be so unique, and would be useful beyond puzzles.

30 is plenty big enough for a roster as long as they pick good characters.  I only included 44 because I was listing an MUA3 roster, so why not aim high?

FireMadeFlesh - 03 February 2010 04:17 PM

cable2006 - 03 February 2010 03:56 PM

Did you forget that Fury was the secret unlockable in MUA1? That sure as heck didnt stop them from making him the same thing in MUA2.

No, and in fact it was one of the first things I complained about when he was announced - before we knew that he was RoboFury.

To this day I still dont know what possessed them to even consider making him a initial PC over someone that is more canon Marvel than Nanite Fury. I mean why not put Black Panther in initial? It would have made a hell of a lot more sense and at least he isnt a made up version of a MU character. BP was also part of the story but yet they chose RoboFury over him as initial. No wonder Activision had no faith in this game and decided not to renew the Marvel contract for the DLC because they had morons working on this game. I feel like Rick Moranis in Spaceballs when he met Major “bleep!” “I can’t believe this I am surrounded by “bleep!” Language edited for forum purposes. I am refering to Activision and VV not anyone here on the forums.

cable2006 - 03 February 2010 06:08 PM

I feel like Rick Moranis in Spaceballs when he met Major “bleep!” “I can’t believe this I am surrounded by “bleep!” Language edited for forum purposes.

“Keep firing, -bleep-!”

Haha, gotta love Mel Brooks.

OK, these aren’t all personal favorites, but I’ve thought a lot about what a more satisfying roster would be, assuming realistic roster sizes and character restrictions (No Punisher)

Initial Free Play
Beast
Human Torch
Invisible Woman
Iron Fist
She-Hulk
Spider-Man
Storm
Thing
Wolverine

Pro-reg
Iron Man
Mr. Fantastic
Ms. Marvel

Ant-reg
Captain America
Luke Cage
Spider-Woman

Story Unlockable
Black Panther
Cyclops
Daredevil
Deadpool
Dr. Strange
Emma Frost

Item Unlockable
Ghost Rider
Hulk
Thor

Pre-order Bonus:
Hawkeye/ Ronin

I thought the T-bolts were kind of limited as a team, and didn’t think the game did much to sell them as characters or as a team.  I’ve largely substituted them with B-list solo heroes who took part in Civil War and have served on various Avengers related teams.  In my fantasy universe, the classic Thunderbolts are heavily pushed as Antagonists and NPCs in the game (Zemo takes the place of Fury as the mastermind behind and ultimate leader of the fold), with the “Faith in Monsters” team as the focus of the first expansion pack.  I made all the side-locked characters returning, since I felt having to unlock the new characters took too much focus off of them.  Ghost Rider rounds out the trinity of unlockables who didn’t fit with the Civil War story, instead of Jean, since he’s well known to casual fans and should be something of a *ahem* demon in melee combat.

I realize Jean’s omission is controversial, but I still feels like she’s just too much of an X-centric (eccentric?) character for a game that has little to do with mutants.  I’ve filled the X-men’s spots with the current AXM team.  Aside from being the most omnipresent mutant team in the comics, Scott’s pretty much the spokesperson for the X-men in the MU, and Wolverine, Storm, Hank, and Emmma all have ties to other characters that makes them good for team building.  3 of them were in the last X-men movie, and all five were prominent cast members in the “Wolverine and the X-men” toon.  Besides, in my fantasy alternate reality, the 2nd DLC pack consists entirely of classic X-men, with Jean as a major selling point.

Dr. Strange is the replacement for Nano-Fury, since he should be ridiculously powerful, his abiliites allow him the widest range of power and damage types, and it’s canon for him not to get involved until after the war is over. 

Hawkeye’s kind of a self-indulgent pick, I admit, since I don’t know how many casual fans would pre-order the game just for him.  On the other hand, maybe there’s a wisdom in making the pre-order character a cult favorite, since casual fans might not follow the game closely enough to know about the pre-order.  He’s a fun character who’s obviously still got a lot of fans, and he’d round out the Classic and New Avengers teams.

The one thing I dont understand is why VV had you unlock Green Goblin and Venom so late in the game especially when you cant start a new game with all unlockables at level 1 like the first game could do?

Spider-Man
Wolverine
Iron Man
Captain America
Captain Britain
Juggernaut
Venom
Jean Grey
Storm
Mr. Fantastic
Invisible Woman
Thing
Human Torch
Firestar
Moonstone
Luke Cage
Songbird
Hulk
She-Hulk
Elektra
Thor
Emma Frost
Black Panther
Penance
The Punisher
Carnage
Anti-Venom

One change would have improved the MUA2 roster greatly:

Replace Nanite Nick Fury with Spider-Woman.  She was a major NPC in the game, had a beautiful character model already made, would have added another female option to a game with not too many female characters, and her move set could have been almost identical to RoboFury minus the A-Bomb dash attack.

fanboy0202 - 06 February 2010 09:28 AM

One change would have improved the MUA2 roster greatly:

Replace Nanite Nick Fury with Spider-Woman.  She was a major NPC in the game, had a beautiful character model already made, would have added another female option to a game with not too many female characters, and her move set could have been almost identical to RoboFury minus the A-Bomb dash attack.

Any female character like She-Hulk or Spider-Woman would have been better than RoboFury. Heck even Aunt May would have been better.

If i would have decided the MUA2 roster then Thunderstrike would have been a playable character. Oh and so would Beta Ray Bill and Thor Girl. But Thunderstrike would be first.

Captain America
Iron Man
Wolverine
Spider-Man
Songbird
Ms. Marvel
Hulk
Venom
Thing
Mr. Fantastic
Green Goblin
Invisible Woman
Human Torch
Nanite Nick Fury
Scorpion
Crimson Dynamo,Thor
Jean Grey
Deadpool
Vulture
Luke Cage
Iron Fist
Cable
Storm
Gambit
War Machine
Shocker
DLC:
Magneto
Psylocke
Carnage
Black Panther
Black Widow
Lady Deathstrike
Penance(xbox exclusive)
Juggernaut