This past week has been a very busy one for my family, but over the weekend we managed to squeeze in some Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.  For our first play through, we played as Iron Man's side.  For the achievement's sake, and to experience the other side of the war, we decided to continue the game on a tougher difficulty, rather than loading our pre-choice save game. 

We finally know the details about the first DLC pack for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.  Most of us will be able to purchase the pack on November 5, though European PS3 users have to wait until November 12.  The DLC will set you back $10, or the MS Point equivalent.  So what do you get for the money?

As gamers, we often wonder what goes on behind the scenes with game developers. What hoops are jumped through? What hurdles are cleared? And where did that bit of quirk in the game come from, exactly? Well, Game Informer got a fun list of things that went on during the development of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 that made it what it we get to play.
 

A Civil War divides the Marvel universe.  Who will you side with?  Captain America, or Iron Man?  How awesome are the new Fusion attacks? Is Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 as good as the first game?  Find out in our review!

Ms. Marvel has been unveiled as the next character to add your Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 co-op team.  This leaves exactly one character yet to be revealed in the game.  My guess is we'll find out this week who it is at the GamesCom in Germany.  We have a handful of screenshots of Ms. Marvel in action.

Back during comic con came the official announcement of Gambit and Jean Grey joining the cast of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, now we have the screenshots and video to prove it.

That's right folks, everyone's favorite trash talking metal head will only be available at Gamestop if you pre-order Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.  Upon doing so you'll receive a code to unlock Juggernaut as a playable character in the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 version of the game.

Don't let the title for this article mislead you, folks.  The actual co-op in Marvel Ultimate Alliance was great, and that seems to be unchanged.  There were some problems, though, with adding players, changing characters, etc.  The interface was a bit tedious when these tasks needed to be done.  According to Aeropause Games, after a sneak peek at M:UA2, this stuff is much better in the sequel.

The official Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 website has released a new 3D screenshot from the upcoming game featuring Deadpool and Iron Fist.  MUA 2 is set to combine super hero (and villain) powers together to form unique attacks in the most co-op way we know.  

You would think E3 was this week with all of the trailers we've seen flying around the web already, and it's time for another highly anticipated Co-op trailer! Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is now sharing with us this rather amazing video. Gametrailers shows us how a lot of the fusion powers will look with different characters, as well as a few new heroes that may, or may not be playable.

This week's Xbox Live Deal of the Week features a piece of DLC for Marvel Ultimate Alliance.  The Heroes and Villains pack adds four new heroes and four new villains to your game, usable in any game mode - including co-op.

If you have been watching television, movies, or reading much of anything on the internet lately, you are likely aware that the latest comic book movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, opens today.  It is appropriate, then, for us to look back at the origins of the Marvel Ultimate Alliance franchise.  This series has all the hallmarks of a good Co-Op Casual Friday game: high kid appeal, local multiplayer, and simple gameplay.  The one that started it all for this excellent series of games was X-Men Legends.

X-Men Legends came out almost five years ago.  In 2004, the predecessors to the trio of modern consoles were in their heyday, and X-Men Legends was released for each of those systems:Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube .  The X-Men movie franchise had not yet been sullied by the third film (I'm still bitter, even years later).  X-Men Evolution, a successful cartoon series, had ended a good run the year before.  The time was ripe for a good X-Men video game, and X-Men Legends delivered.

The first Marvel Ultimate Alliance game had comic book fans absolutely giddy.  So many classic characters, a huge variety of settings, and stellar co-op gameplay made for a great experience.  If there was one weakness, it was the somewhat random nature of the plot.  Then again, it's hard to argue with a game that lets you use a SHIELD Helicarrier's anti-air cannons against an ancient green dragon named Fin Fang Foom.

One of the most unique aspects of the upcoming co-op Action/RPG Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is the ability for any two characters to "fuse" powers together.  What this does is it combines any two superhero powers into a devastating attack that's a mix of the two.  With twenty four playable characters in MUA2, that's over 250 different combinations of fusion powers.

The Marvel Universe is vast to say the least. With that vastness comes many options for character inclusion in a game like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2. Next up on that guest list is Iron Fist! Or, as the comics refer to this very classic 1970's superhero, The Immortal Iron Fist.