Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

How long is a game fun for? It depends on the game, I guess. Some games, like Super Mario World or Grand Theft Auto 3 are pretty much fun forever. Other games aren't fun at all. And some games are super fun for like a week and then goddamn you never wanna play em again.
Such is Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.
This game, as with almost all games, pits you as some superpowered fascists leading a crusade against other superpowered fascists. It's a battle of ideologies, sort of, but I'm never quite sure what side is quite the right one to root for. Both sides are unwaveringly committed to their ideas of justice but why should we find the US government backed protagonists more sympathetic than Dr. Doom's ragtag group of freedom fighters? We are forced into the role of accepting the heroes qua heroes and there's no time to waste: an explosion is happening aboard the SHIELD helicarrier, triggering easy parallels to 9/11 and the thoughtless but fierce determinism that followed.
The gameplay is engaging enough, at least at first. It takes a 3/4 view of the action as you control a squadron of four swappable characters. Each character has unique powers and periodically charming battlecries ("I feel as mighty as Odin!" "I'm the best there is at what I do!"). There is also no shortage of playable characters. My current team consists of such D-listers as Miss Marvel and Luke Cage, chosen out of a persistent white liberal guilt that haunted me with a more conventional team. You run around smacking around foot soldiers and breaking barrels until you reach the end villain who taunts you before you destroy him, usually so quickly you have no idea what happened. The combat is fun for a while, with a varied array of special attacks, grapples, and weapons to utilize. There are upgrades and costume changes, all the usual trappings of the RPG genre.
Ultimately (haha), the game is too easy and too lacking in personality. Despite the wide array of characters you will encounter (most recently, I had a runin with Corsair of all people), it eventually blurs together into a forgettable, interminable grind. But when the novelty is fresh, it's exhilarating.
The game can be obtained cheaply, as it is several years old, and is worth it for the week or so of fun it will provide. I guess.