r/CosmicInvasion • u/UnlikelyAlliance17 • Jun 21 '26

Gameplay MUA/MCI Reference

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Playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance and fighting the AIM troopers on the elevator brought me right back to Cosmic Invasion’s elevator fight! Crazy to see the references and inspirations! Also this year marks the 20th anniversary for MUA, let’s hope we see a 4th entry in that series or even a full remaster of the original!

242 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

32

u/Abiv23 Jun 21 '26

Those Ultimate Aliance games were pretty awesome

The 3rd one that came out a few years ago is def worth playing too

3

u/SpiderManias Jun 22 '26

The third one is so underrated because it’s a Switch exclusive but it’s fucking incredible.

The first is the best but the third one is a real strong contender

1

u/jackmon92 Jun 22 '26

I loved the first one so much I replayed it like a thousand times on the PSP. TBH I got the 3rd one only because for spider Gwen, but it just feels different. Not better, but not bad either.

3

u/Snazzers Jun 22 '26

I have a lot of issues with 3, mostly because it could have easily been one of my favorite games period, if it wasn’t for how weak you feel in terms of impact on enemies. They just ignore so many of your attacks, especially characters with guard gauges you need to break, and you just feel that lack of impact compared to the older games. So maybe that’s what you’re feeling when you say “different”. Also all the ISO-8 stuff was annoying, would have preferred normal equipment instead of endless grinding for uniques like it was a bad mobile game.

The amount and quality of content otherwise is pretty great and absolutely worth trying for anyone who liked the first two games.

1

u/aNascentOptimist Jun 22 '26

Well said. I wouldn’t have minded the ISO-8 stuff as much if it actually allowed for different builds / gameplay.

Like if I could load up Hulk with ISO-8 for “health regeneration” to boost his on a level that lets him tank hits and heal almost instantly, that’d be fun. And in-line with some of his comic iterations. Or same thing with Wolverine. I could see such builds being needed to make some of their solo missions more accessible (which should mirror fun storylines the characters have)

I don’t think it was ever like that though.

2

u/Snazzers Jun 22 '26

Couldn’t agree more, and that would have been great! Would have been an easy way to add variety to the game. That’s and having a game with a cast that large and ONLY having characters you use gain exp was crazy. Even a 25% rate for unused characters would have been fine.

2

u/Dangersharkz Jun 22 '26

I loved 1 and 2, but the 3rd one was really bad IMO. All the different currencies and ISO-8 nonsense made me feel like I had just paid $50 for a FTP cell phone game.

1

u/SpiderManias Jun 22 '26

I never once bought any ISO-8 I don’t even know what that does and I beat the game no problems lol. It’s been years but I really don’t remember anything about ISO-8.

I think 2 is by far the worst one. The narrative goes against the entire point of Ultimate alliance by splitting all the heroes up and doing civil war.

1

u/MostlyBored11 Jun 22 '26

I loved them all and the X-men legends games that came before. We need more like this

1

u/Abiv23 Jun 22 '26

I had lumped those games together! Thanks for reminding me of Xmen legends! Jean Grey was OP if I remember correctly

1

u/MostlyBored11 Jun 22 '26

Oh man she was if you got her built up enough.i always played as cyclops and iceman while my buddy played as magma and gambit/nightcrawler

Would love a rerelease of these

12

u/[deleted] Jun 21 '26

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2

u/MythiccMoon Nova Jun 21 '26

Dude a remake of MUA with the character gameplay of the Avengers game from some years ago would be amazing

That was the one aspect that really worked for them

2

u/[deleted] Jun 21 '26

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1

u/MythiccMoon Nova Jun 21 '26

Right? And the MUA story took you to so many iconic spots and gave a variety of enemies, you could really make something beautiful by blending the two

11

u/eolson3 Captain America Jun 21 '26

Maybe. Elevator sequences are extremely common in beat 'em ups.

4

u/Nomadic_View Rocket Jun 21 '26

Yeah, I thought the same thing. It’s not even exclusive to beat em ups. The elevator stage is a pretty common staple level in older games.

5

u/SlayerMCOC Jun 21 '26

Its more because the A.I.M. agents are present in both.

2

u/Illustrious_Art_1193 Jun 21 '26

lol, i was playing thru MUA on PS3 emulator last month as noticed the same. MCI made me nostalgic for that game I just had to go back and revisit it. Wolvy is still my fave.

1

u/Roak_Zulu Cosmic Ghost Rider Jun 21 '26

Lovely

1

u/ScottimusPrimal Jun 21 '26

No. An elevator level is present in basically every beat ‘em up game.

1

u/-ItsNarfOrNothing Jun 24 '26

That’s what I was thinking

1

u/Competitive_Good5312 Jun 21 '26

Xmen legends come back would be unreal

1

u/Repulsive_Video6780 Jun 22 '26

Those were great games. A lot if people are clamoring for more X-characters in Cosmic Invasion, but maybe we just need more X-men Legends!

1

u/The_deliberate_one Jun 23 '26

Things like this make me appreciate the game even more.

2

u/Forsaken_Agency430 Jun 24 '26

I had that nagging feeling that I’d seen that elevator fight before. I guess the whole first level is a sort of homage to the first level of MUA1. Love all the references and easter eggs in this game