Greetings humans, Monki here with an email interview I did with Dan Vondrak, the Project Lead of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance over at Raven Software. (Not to be confused with the Games of the Week Dan who lives in a box under a bridge.)

My old roomates love this series of four player bird's eye games and I enjoyed it when I got my hands on it. Any time you get four people playing together towards a goal is pretty sweet in my opinion.

I'm going to throw some pictures up along with the interview, the two before the interview are from the XBox 360 version, the two in the interview are from the Wii version and the two after are from the PLAYSTATION 3 version.

Monki: You guys are undertaking a huge challenge in creating this game with as many characters as you are. Exactly how many different playable characters will there be in the finished title?

Dan Vondrak: I look back on it and am amazed at how many characters we were able to fit into Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. The biggest challenge was making sure we treated each one with the respect they deserved. We wanted to make sure each character played and acted just like the fans would want. Once you've unlocked all the characters there are over 20 to play with. If I tell you the exact count, they'll hang me by my Captain America underoos.

Monki: How far back did you guys dig to find characters for the game? Is there anyone who actually has the coolest job in the world of just reading through old Marvel comics to track down characters?

DV: Ha ha, there's a fair amount of reading through old comics. Rob Gee and Bob Love here at Raven have stacks and stacks of comics in their offices. Everyone on the team raids them from time to time for reference material. Picking the roster of characters was a huge debate that lasted for months. We were still flip-flopping on characters until the final months of the project. There are a few that even got started on and not completed... wouldn't you like to know who those were. :)

Monki: How much input do you guys receive from Marvel? How have they liked the games you've produced?

DV: Marvel is great. They always give a ton of input but also make sure not to micromanage us. From the very start of the project, we had a big meeting with them and they were in contact with us throughout development. Ames Kirshen is our main contact and he has his hands in a ton of the Marvel projects - games and movies. So he's great at making sure we have the latest info and reference material.

Monki: Who wrote the story for the game? Were any comic-writers involved during that process?

DV: The story was a combination of Raven and Marvel. Our in-house writer, Bob Love, worked with Marvel's C.B. Cebulski to craft the story. C.B. gave us a ton of great insight into the Marvel world. It's a brand new story using some elements of previous storylines. We were originally thinking about recreating Secret Wars but we wanted something original that the comic fans could live through for the first time.

Monki: I'm curious about the voice-cast from the game. I know a while back you held a competition to give anyone the opportunity to play a voice role in the game. How did that contest turn out? Are there any surprises in store for us? Neil Patrick Harris as Spider-Man perhaps?

DV: The voice contest turned out awesome! I could not believe how many people sent in submissions. We made a compilation of some of the better and funnier clips and it's available to watch in the game. And YES, we did use the winners in the game. We had Namor and Jean Grey voiced by the fans that won.

Monki: What was your favorite aspect of the game design? What do you think players will enjoy most out of this new title?

DV: I love the new Arcade mode, which is a competitive version of the coop game. In Arcade mode, every player gets points for the various things they do such as kills, damage, etc. Nothing is shared like in normal coop. Whoever picks up the health, energy or SHIELD credits is the only character that gets it. At the end of the level all the points are added up in a Score screen and the winner receives a reward. There's no friendly fire, so it's all about stealing the kills and smashing the most stuff. There are all different rewards that give you bonus points like "Who picked up the most SHIELD credits, who did the most damage, who smashed the most objects, etc."

Monki: Will Ultimate Alliance take advantages of the marketplace setup on the XBox 360 or Playstation 3? Downloadable characters or new missions?

DV: We've got some downloadable themes and gamerpics planned. I'm unfortunately not allowed to talk about any other possible downloadable plans at this time.

Monki: I love the cooperative aspect of the previous games, will this be strengthened in Ultimate Alliance? Is there a possibility for online cooperative four player?

DV: Co-op is where it's at in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. You can have four player coop both online and offline. And, it's the full story mode all the way through from start to finish. Make sure to try out the Comic Missions in co-op. There's only one hero in the Comic Missions, so everyone else can take control of the enemies and fight the hero. Those can be some fun battles, especially if you have three friends playing enemies.

Monki: Is there any chance you can give our readers a heads up about a cheat code or Easter egg in the game?

DV: Make sure you take ******** along with you on the third level of the Helicarrier and talk to a specific captured sailor behind a force field. You'll get the funniest conversation in the game. Okay, I just found out I can't reveal that character yet... I guess you'll have to try and guess who it is. Comic fans may be able to guess. And make sure to talk to everyone in the headquarter (hub) levels, there's a little secondary story going on there. When you beat the game, make sure you listen all the way through the credits. :)

So, special thanks goes out to Dan for an insight into this upcoming title. I'll have to check it out if only for the four player cooperative online mode. That is of course if I stop playing DOOM for a while.

I have a couple more interviews heading my way about some pretty spectacular games, so stay tuned! Until then, back up the tree I go.

-Monki