Wii/PS2 (n-Space's version) talk and Official News

[Noelemahc]

Nah, he's worse. His dialogue is unfun, and that is a punishable offense.

I've unlocked everyone save for Storm now, and I gotta say, Venom is broken. Half his powers don't register properly (the collision detection is waaaay off).
Songbird is FUUUUUN, because of her weird mix of powers she had as Screaming Mimi and she has now as Songbird, including a couple of wrestling moves. She also does heaps of damage, which is something I like in a woman =)
Green Goblin is a machine of destruction. The blade-throwing power has a fun shotgun effect that one-shot-kills most anyone in one go point blank, the pumpkin bombs when maxed out with the corresponding passive also maxed out are a wonderful crowd control tool. The fact that he also has Might makes him an interesting team member to consider.
Penance is average, he gains EP when is damaged and also has a "become MUCH MORE DAMAGING when hurt" passive, but his powers are all rather weakish.

And that about covers it, gonna go finish my second playthrough and start the modding experiments.

[Noelemahc]

More screensnaps! I've unlocked all there is to unlock (except for a couple Special Medals, because the Wakanda Pillar Defence mission is impossible because the objects you gotta defend get damaged from your attacks TOO; and the Hacking Challenge is sadistic bullcrap), so here's my way to the top:

Stealing enemies' weaponry is fun. Who knew Ms Marvel would look menacing with twin swords?


The Man-Ape fight is broken in more ways than one. The cameras STICK occasionally.


The Negative Zone is apparently a pretty messy place.


Magnus and son.


Songbird and her pretty pretty wings.


Almost everyone unlocked... except for Storm (at that moment).


By the time you're done with the bonus missions that become open by the end of the game, you're gonna have almost all of the medals available in their highest ranks.


Storm is as useless as she was even in XML2 (my own opinion, sorry), except that there she was one of a couple of characters who could put out fires and thus was needed in some team builds. The bonus missions apparently were all designed with "camp enemy respawn points" in mind, because there is NO OTHER WAY to get the gold rewards on all but one of them.

[BoosterMan]

i dont belive she is all those lighting bolts are awesome

[kfcrispy]

The Pillar Defense challenge is easy with JEAN. setup Mental Guardians, Mental Vortex, and spam her radial (I used the -50% dmg / confusion radial), and don't move down the screen, stay in the top area and never move down. I ended up having the top 2 pillars destroyed only, gold medal.
The Hack challenge is such BS. just cuz it's a freakin' Wii it has to be THAT stupid game??? I can't get through it either.

[Gevth]

Played trought the PS2 version during the weekend. The first thing I noticed is that apparently PS2 characters have no finger bip or whatever. Iron Man always looks like he's going to run 100m or hit someone with a karate chop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS28uh8Efos

The good: It's fun. And the level design is at least interesting. The medal system is not that bad, but I am also not of the opinion that personal equipment really adds to the experience. Gambit's recruiting mission is great.

The bad: Besides awful graphics, performance issues and bad camera angles and behavior? Hard mode is even easier than in MUA. The invisible ceiling is too low for my taste, and some invisible walls just make no sense. Fusions are boring. Besides no alternative costumes, no team bonuses.

Characters:
-Deadpool was funny in MUA. Here, he is annoying. They went from "I need health... and a pony" to "You're not going to win because you're AI" or something like that. Every single line is a reference that he's in a game. He was one of my favourites in MUA1, and left him almost always out of my team in MUA2.
-Gambit was both fun and powerful. Overall the best character in my opinion.
-Jean is so good I realized I was wasting points in her revive passive, since with her on the team noone dies.
-Thor was another character I almost never used. His voice was way off, so it drove me mad using him.
-Spider-Man's Web Warrior is less fun than in MUA. Here, he pulls an enemy and hits him. Same thing with Vemon's similar power.
-Green Goblin had long animations, which made him slow, which made him not so fun. Altough I managed to kill Hank Pym with his blades...
-Penance was also boring. Didn't he have some Speedball powers bouncing across the room and stuff?
-As for Psylocke... I liked Mr Rage's mod better, but she's not all that bad.
-Blade, Wolverine, Invisible Woman, Captain America have new double jump animations.

I beat the Hack challenge with Gold, and it wasn't worth it, for the record. The only tip I can give is that you can go through thin walls if you move fast enough.

[BLaw]

Then I'll make the Gobby mod have faster attacks, because I noticed how slow he attacks XD

[kfcrispy]

What does the Hack Challenge medal give you?
Did you end the Hack Challenge quickly by getting to the blue the very first instance you saw it? I saw it for a glimpse but I was afraid to try to move through all the walls at that time, and of course I never made it to the actual end.

[Teancum]

Been playing through the DS version.  It's pretty much the same, with some touchscreen-specific moments.  The hacking is all done via the touchscreen (which is confusing, by the way - I can't beat Von Bardas 'cause I can't figure it out), as well as things like lifting heavy objects.  I have only unlocked Thing, but it sucks because Cap and Iron Man are out this mission, which means I'm stuck with my four I have.  So far for a DS game it's fun, but they really cut a lot out that they didn't need to.  DS carts can go up to 256mb, and this ain't one. 

[Dihan]

My DS is actually my most played console but it doesn't mean I want to taint it with MUA2.

[iammingy]

Been playing through the DS version.  It's pretty much the same, with some touchscreen-specific moments.  The hacking is all done via the touchscreen (which is confusing, by the way - I can't beat Von Bardas 'cause I can't figure it out), as well as things like lifting heavy objects.  I have only unlocked Thing, but it sucks because Cap and Iron Man are out this mission, which means I'm stuck with my four I have.  So far for a DS game it's fun, but they really cut a lot out that they didn't need to.  DS carts can go up to 256mb, and this ain't one. 

I have tried the DS version on both the emulator and the DS. I got similar problem that you got on the emulator but not the DS. IIRC, you need to press certain buttons shown on the screen. In my case, No$GBA was missing a few layers of graphics, namely the ones for showing which buttons to press, and the health and energy bars. So, I have no idea which buttons to press to beat Von Barda and how much life and energy I have.

[Gevth]

What does the Hack Challenge medal give you?
Did you end the Hack Challenge quickly by getting to the blue the very first instance you saw it? I saw it for a glimpse but I was afraid to try to move through all the walls at that time, and of course I never made it to the actual end.

+10 to all traits. Not that bad, but since you can't use more than one special medal, I'd rather use something else.  To get gold, you have to grab each and every coin.

And this is a little something that I found: if you want to just pass through a level, equip one of the medals with +X% fusion leeched from melee damage, and use the Hamsterball fusion (Invisible Woman, Jean Grey or Songbird + Hulk or Luke Cage). After killing 1 or 2 enemies, you'll refill your fusion stars. Works great in Bonus missions too.

[kfcrispy]

Yeah OHJOY90 at gamefaqs pointed out the medal that fills fusion through melee works with the ball fusion...
I got gold on the Hack Challenge finally. It is much shorter than I thought it, you just have to get through the beginning then watch out while you're beginning the outer track, and then it's pretty much over.

I am starting a new game on Hard with my previous data. Everyone's in their level 80s or so, and I have been testing out moves in the stages for all characters. I feel that a lot of characters from MUA1 got watered down like crazy.
Spider-man: his best attack, Web Warrior, is buggier in a worse way - if an ally is in the way of the enemy, the enemey getting pulled doesn't get hurt! There's no elbow thrown by your ally! That's been a trait since XML1, I don't get why it doesn't register for this game. Web Warrior when it does work is a lot slower - pulling is slow, and Spider-man pauses with an elbow to the enemy's face instead of being able to just let them bang into him while you're busy webbing other things.
Storm - REALLY weak when fully upgraded. It takes 3 of her main Lightning attacks to kill an enemy in the beginning of the game. 2 hits have consistently been bringing down the target's life to near 0, and it takes another to kill him, if your allies don't get around to it. 8 Lightning strikes is nice to have, but you end up not hitting objects you want to hit, and like I said, they're REALLY weak. She needs a chargeable attack or something (or she just needs to stop sucking).
Thor - he seems slower than MUA1 version, and his self-boost no longer speeds up everything. His melee is incredibly slow WITH the boost active, which is really disappointing. The Hammer boomerang attack is still the best damage dealer, but it is relatively weak, I have to use it 2-3 times to kill an enemy, so that's 4-6 hits! I haven't bothered trying his first power, but maybe it is better than the rest of his moves.... still, I hate how slow he is with the boost active.
Blade - I think Blade is better in this game. Energy usage is not much of a problem in this game, so you can spam his attacks. However, I think his knife bomb attack knocks down Blade and his allies if you're in the range of the explosion... annoying. I find his first gun attack pretty useful since it can hit several enemies at once and there's no delay for high damage. the knife bomb's explosion does the majority of the damage now.
Iceman - Polar Explosion is weaker than before, and that is still his best attack. Much less interesting this time around.
Human Torch - similar to Iceman, HT took a hit in damage potential. Inferno is really weak now, which is sad. it takes too long to kill enemies so he's no longer fun to use. You'll end up taking out one enemy at a time with slowly charged Firestorm attacks...
Invisible Woman - well Invisibility makes using her pretty fun (criticals galore), and it makes her Bolts pretty strong (generally need just 2 hits to take out an enemy, and 2 bolts come from one button press) but the bolts have trouble hitting enemies, especially if they are standing on a higher or lower area. If the enemy is standing on a small bump on the map, the attack misses. She is definitely decent, but auto-targeting doesn't always work and missing with attacks is a big problem. I need to experiment with her Kinetic Snare more since it doesn't miss.
Luke Cage - he's pretty much as plain as he was in MUA. Drill Bit is annoying to use and has terrible recovery still. i'd say his melee is worse now. He used to melee faster and cover more ground...
Wolverine - just as boring as before, in my opinion. Can there be a "RUN" button? Why can the AI run but not the player?
Daredevil - I think DD is better in this game... no real change in his moveset, but his passive boosts damage a lot.
Deadpool - weaker than before, but his teleport attack is very much improved (it's almost cheating...)
Thing - again, thanks to energy costs being less of a problem, Thing can spam his moves which are semi-decent. Bull Rush is very powerful and he has acceptable crowd control with his radials.
Captain America - was his Energy Shield always that crappy? He's lost his self-boost that sped his attacks up and improved his damage... so he's worse off.
Iron Man - he's still slow and his passive boost for melee speed doesn't have a noticeable effect - just spam powers and walk his slow robo-butt around... very boring guy to use. his new beam attack and homing missiles are pretty much his best attacks now.
Mr. Fantastic - still powerful but not like MUA1 god-tier. However, he does have a good passive that boosts energy regen for all party members.
Ms. Marvel is improved just because she can use Prism more often thanks to more energy in this game.
Fury - has strong attacks but he's very lame.....


New characters
Songbird - her passive boosts her power damage by 75%! Her charge attack is hard to control but has good damage, and her hammer attack is definitely my main attack choice.. her radials can be effective but they're slow. Projectile is good. One of the stronger characters..
Psylocke - FUN to use, thanks to being able to use 2 boosts, and her passive speeds her up.. Psylocke is the ultimate melee character with extremely high damage with boosts active, chances to instant kill, high chance to critical, and boosted attack speed. Her powers are useful early on but don't grow in damage too much, EXCEPT her Butterflies attack really multiplies when it's maxed--it generates 10 butterflies that do at least 80 dmg each, you do the math... it takes time to use, but it's probably the highest damage output for energy cost (well, besides Mental Guardian...).
Jean Grey - a little slow at killing when you're roaming, but if you're in an area where a lot of enemies spawn or facing a tough boss, she can unleash hell by setting up Mental Vortex and Mental Guardians (3 when maxed, and each Guardian shoots 3 shots at a time).
Gambit - very good, as mentioned already...
Hulk - very meh
Penance - he has too many close-up attacks, a no-range Headbutt (which comes out slowly and usually misses) AND a no-range Gut Punch? On top of that I think he has another no-range "radial" that only hits enemies touching him. He moves slowly so it's definitely "painful" to use him.
Goblin - has some powerful attacks, but he is very slow unless he's on his glider. Overall annoying to use, and his "radial" bomb attack doesn't hit directly near him, so i haven't found a good way to destroy objects around the room with him.
Venom - has the Flail attack that pushes away lots of targets, but his best move (for throwable enemies only) is the grab-uppercut... this is almost always a 1 hit kill, and if it doesn't kill, the enemy is helplessly on the ground and any other attack will finish the job. Won't be that effective vs bosses.. his pounce attack is also strong but wastes a lot of time.

[nodoubt_jr]

Ok so after playing around with the Wii and PS2 files i can tell you this:

1. Black Panther at one point was being worked on as a playable. He has a herostat entry in the herostats file (named Dr. Phong or something like that). He has character packages with effects, powerstyle, talents, skeleton but no skin, he has both power sounds and voice (most likely still from MUA1). He may have more, but so far thats all i have found.

2. Songbird, Jean and Psylocke have different effects in the Wii version than they do in the PS2 version. I didnt really notice a difference in Jean's, but Songbird's are flashier and Psylocke's a lot better. For example Songbird's flying activation effect has additional little stars in the Wii version and Psylocke has a head effect and better hit effect for her first power in the Wii. Wii effects are better IMO.

3. PS2 skeletons dont animate right in MUA1 and may not animate right in the PS2 game either. The finger's dont animate right, so they dont bend when they should. And i noticed Jean's hair goes through her body in menu (using the ps2 XML2 skin).

Just thought id share.

[BLaw]

I thought he had a skin. Otherwise I wouldn't have his texture (courtesy of Noelemahc) and the model ripped.

[nodoubt_jr]

His character packages dont have a skin, the skin is in the map packages. so yes he has a skin in game, but not in the little package they were doing for him as a playable.

edit: his character package is named "edit_1102", if you open it you'll see that all his files are in there and his skin extracts as 1102.igb, but its 0 bytes.