Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth – Review & Gameplay

Avengers Assemble! In Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth you take control of the superheroes and supervillians of the Marvel Universe to defend the Earth from the Skrulls – an alien race bent on destroying our home. At its core, Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth is a fighting game that utilizes the Kinect to capture your movements and translates them into fighting moves. Ubisoft did a superb job on the human-kinect interface and the kinect-game translation. What Ubisoft did was slow down the action to allow plenty of time for the Kinect to recognize your body movements. So, while this does the affect the bottom line for this being considered a competitive fighting game (you will definitely not be counting frames), it increases the fun factor of the game.

That’s really where Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth shines. The game is genuinely fun. It satisfies all the needs you would expect to want from this game. You feel like you really are your favorite Marvel character, each character feels powerful in his or her own way and the physical movements give you the impression you’re doing the moves being translated on the screen. All this combines to give you a rewarding experience that makes you want to play over and over again.

The big downside of this game is one of the things that make this game fun – Kinect. First, is the weariness you feel from playing match after match. Especially when you are in situations having an ultra move or a super kick, you launch your opponent into the air and you need a flurry of fists to rack up a high number of hits. In any other fighting game, that is simply button presses. In this game, that is punching at Kinect as fast as you can, it’s tiring.

The other detriment brought to you by the Kinect is the limited number of moves you have available during a bout. Even with your ultra bar filled up, that only gives you seven total moves: punch, kick, ultra, switch out your character and the character’s three unique moves. Unfortunately, this severely limits you as a player and each battle can become repetitive. I will say Ubisoft does try to combat this by constantly mixing the fighting duos you are representing.

Overall, Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth is a solid Kinect game with good graphics, great physical and voice interfaces and fun gameplay. Unfortunately, this experience is marred by a shallow storyline, weak character progression and limited skill sets. Ubisoft continues to be the third party leader in Kinect games, and while Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth is fun, it still isn’t the premier hardcore Kinect game we are waiting for.

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Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth – Review & Gameplay