Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects

Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects is a fighting game for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, DS, and PSP, which ties into the "Marvel Nemesis" comic book series.

Gameplay
The game pitches a series of Marvel heroes and villains, including Venom, Wolverine, Iron Man, and Spider-Man against a series of original EA-created/owned characters. Combat is simplified in favor of allowing the player greater movement, and the game initially drew comparisons to Power Stone, Super Smash Bros. and Ehrgeiz as a result. The video game is based on the Marvel comic book series with the same name, a 6-issue miniseries published from June to December 2005. The miniseries does not depict the events in the game or vice versa, and has a completely different story than the video game. There are even points in the video game story and the comic books that directly contradict each other. The comic does, however, star the same characters as the video game and introduces the EA characters with, aside from one or two minor details, the same background stories and powers. The EA characters are said to be part of the regular Marvel continuity but due to the games' poor response and the fact that they're owned by Electronic Arts, they have only appeared in the above mentioned miniseries and may never be heard of in the Marvel Universe again.

The game received considerable backlash from fans of the Marvel characters, being that they were easily defeated, and even killed, by the "Imperfect" EA characters. At the end of Imperfect character chapters, the Imperfect would, as part of the story cut scene, use their fatality move, or some other form of fatal attack, on the Marvel characters, killing them. The Imperfects appeared to be favored over the Marvel characters, likely due to the fact that they were owned by EA as their exclusive IP.

The game featured Fatality-like finishing moves that could be triggered as soon as an opponent's health falls to 25% or lower. Many complaints about the game revolved around the fact that AI opponents would chain-abuse projectile special moves, dealing significant damage to a player character, with the AI character immediately triggering the fatality upon dropping the player to low health.

Plot
The game begins with The Thing discovering alien invaders destroying a bridge. The Thing fights his way to the end of the bridge and finds another alien that has the same strength as him. The Thing smashes him and the alien reveals they do not want the humans; they want something the humans have. The Thing fights through the city defeating every alien he can. The whole city learns of the invasion and learns that the aliens have defeated Captain America, The Punisher, and Hulk.

Meanwhile, Wolverine learns of the invasion and fights through the streets. He arrives at the Avengers Mansion to find it infected with aliens. He fights his way through the mansion and finds The Wink stealing information from the Avengers computer. Wolverine fights the Wink and soon defeats her. The Wink tells Wolverine she was collecting information for her maker, and then she disappears. Wolverine travels to the bridge to find something wrong with Storm. After defeating her, Wolverine finds a mysterious alien device on her and removes it, returning her to normal.

Elektra, in the Avengers Mansion, gets a call from Daredevil saying he is in trouble. She goes looking for him and finds him on the Daily Bugle building, infected. She fights Daredevil and defeats him. She takes off an alien device from the back of his neck, saving him. Niles Van Roekel is revealed to be watching everything and is disappointed about Daredevil's defeat and decides to let his Imperfects into the city. Fault Zone locates The Thing and they engage in a shaking battle in which he loses.

Daredevil, no longer under the control of Roekel, fights the aliens on the rooftops. He makes his way to Grand Central Station. There he finds Johnny Ohm. They engage in a deadly battle, for Johnny is using an electric clock to access powerful amounts of electricity. Daredevil destroys the clock and is able to defeat Johnny. The game moves to a different story showing a girl named Maya. Roekel tells Maya that she will be the world's best and most deadly warrior ever. She begins her training by destroying different alien devices. The game goes back to Daredevil where he finds Elektra under control of the aliens. Although he was badly poisoned by her, he still defeats her and she comes to her senses.

Later on the bridge, Storm fights her way to the end of the bridge. There she finds Fault Zone. Fault Zone creates an earthquake, and hurls rocks at Storm. But Storm still defeats her. Around the same time, the Imperfect, Brigade, engages Wolverine in battle and beats him.

Venom, who stole information from the Avengers computer, makes his way out of the Mansion. He finds that he can heal himself by destroying a certain alien device. He goes to the power plant and finds Solara, who confronts him. Solara is using the alien device to enhance her abilities and has heat tanks to heal herself. However, she is still defeated by Venom, who gains possession and control of the alien device to voluntarily infect himself after his victory. Later, Elektra finds The Wink at the power plant. They fight and The Wink walks away as the victor.

Maya, now called Paragon, continues her training, fighting the same aliens the heroes are fighting. She fights her way out of the headquarters. Spider-Man sees her escaping and chases her, but she easily loses him. Spider-Man gets a call from the Human Torch saying he thinks Paragon has gone to the power plant. Spider-Man goes there and destroys many alien machines, but with Paragon not there, he leaves. He finds helicopters waiting for civilians to get on board. Spider-Man protects the helicopters during this time. Then he goes to the Daily Bugle and finds an infected Venom, where it's revealed of Venom's intention to defeat the web-slinger with the help of the alien device. The deadly battle ends with Spider-Man defeating Venom. He goes to a bridge and finds Hazmat who he also defeats. Johnny Ohm later finds Spider-Man and defeats him in battle. Meanwhile, Solara, who survived Venom's attack, finds Daredevil and defeats him in a fight in the streets.

The Human Torch goes to the Daily Bugle hoping to find Spider-Man, but Spider-Man is not there. He goes to Grand Central Station and kills many of the aliens. He finds the secret headquarters of the Imperfects. He finds an infected Thing and defeats him. He removes the alien device to bring him back to normal. The Human Torch goes to the power plant and sees an infected Spider-Man. The Human Torch is no match for his attacks and is beaten. Storm finds the secret headquarters and is badly beaten by an infected Wolverine.

Iron Man, at the Avengers Mansion to investigate the present events, kills the aliens. He escapes and goes to the power plant. There he finds Brigade. He defeats Brigade and leaves the power plant. Outside an infected Human Torch faces off with him. He defeats him and heads back for the Avengers Mansion. There he finds Roekel in a deadly alien suit. Roekel defeats Iron Man in a high-powered battle. At Grand Central Station, Hazmat defeats Venom after a deadly battle.

Magneto fights around the city and finds Paragon. He uses the alien device to control her thinking she will serve as his minion. Magneto then faces off against Hazmat who is trying to rescue Paragon. Hazmat crumbles under the pressure and is beaten by Magneto. Paragon breaks free of the device's control and defeats Magneto. She realizes that she is not evil and plans to stop Roekel. She finds him and fights him. Roekel reveals that he is an alien, that he is the man responsible for the invasion, and that he will spread the invasion. She viciously attacks Roekel and kills him by taking away his life force. She stops the invasion, and she and the other Imperfects join together to share the Earth with the heroes.

Playable characters

 * †PSP only
 * ~Not present on PSP

Development
Rise of the Imperfects was the only game from a Marvel-Electronic Arts partnership formed in 2004. The partnership terminated in early 2008. There was a six-issue comic book limited series published by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Greg Pak and drawn by Renato Arlem. It was a tie-in and prequel to the game published from July 2005 to December 2006.

Reception

 * GT Video Review
 * Gamespot Review
 * Team Xbox Review
 * The Daily Raider Review