As a pretty big comics fan, I'm really excited about this game. Basically, it'll be an action RPG just like X-Men Legends, except you can make a team of some of the most legendary Marvel heroes.
Confirmed Playable characters:
Spider-Man
Wolverine
Captain America
Thor
Blade
Elektra
Ghost Rider
Dr. Strange
Iron Man
Storm
Mr. Fantastic
Invisible Woman
Human Torch
The Thing
Iceman
Luke Cage
There's word of Deadpool, Spider-Woman, and Warbird being confirmed as playable from a video that was once on the official site but was quickly taken down. I won't try to get too excited until I see it officially confirmed, but goddamn, Deadpool is a dream (he was awesome to use in XML2, too).
Silver Surfer is already confirmed as a hidden character. These are the other rumored unlockable characters: Nick Fury, Daredevil, and Black Panther.
The next gen consoles will have 3 exclusive characters (I have a feeling they'll be Deadpool, Warbird, and Spider-Woman).
Ronin and Hawkeye are PSP exclusives, but honestly, anyone who'd get the PSP one instead of one of the nextgen console versions is nuts.
One feature that's going to be really cool is the costume feature. I've heard that costumes will be kind of a substitue for levelling up, but I'm not sure how it works out. However, there's a lot of awesome costumes confirmed so far, including:
- Captain America: (US Agent, his WWII costume)
- Spider-Man's symbiote suit
- Thor (BETA RAY BILL. BETA RAY FUCKING BILL)
- A good deal of Iron Man's various armors, including War Machine
- Ghost Rider (Vengeance and the Phantom Rider)
I'm having trouble thinking up my tentative team for this… right now it's something like Ghost Rider, Dr. Strange, Thor, and The Thing. I might switch Thor or the Thing for Deadpool or Nick Fury (if he is unlockable). But one of the great things about XML was being able to switch your team around at any time, so… we'll see.
I'll be getting the Wii version, because that's the next-gen console I'm planning on getting right now and the control scheme they have set up for it sounds really cool. It's too bad thet apparently won't be able to set up online play for it yet...
My only gripe so far? Namor isn't playable. Come on! The Hulk and the Punisher would've been cool as well, but apparently other companies own the video game rights to those characters and Activision couldn't acquire them. The Sentry would've been awesome, but I don't think he's caught on with everyone yet, so I can understand him not being included.