Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Gameplay involves switching between four active heroes at all times during the game, unless they get knocked out. Certain combinations of heroes will give you a bonus which varies by team. You can switch characters at any time. Each character has a health meter and a stamina meter. The stamina meter recharges on its own and controls use of powers. Each hero has a jump (which can also be used to double-jump, fly or web-swing, depending on the character), grab, quick strike and powerful strike. These can be used in combination to do things like jumping attacks, pick up an enemy, then punch them, etc. Combining these with a modifier button allows you to use powers. Each hero has a wide variety of powers. Leveling up gives you points to spend on improving the powers. You can re-assign the points and change which powers are active at any time.

Defeating enemies and smashing environment items gives you health refills and points that can be spent upgrading statistics for each hero. There are also health icons to pick up. You can carry two of these at a time. Each icon can be used to instantly fully heal a character or to revive one that has been knocked out. There are also items that you can carry that will give stat bonuses like increased HP or a bonus to a specific type of damage.

You start with a handful of characters and can unlock more by playing through the game or performing specific accomplishments. Each character has a second costume to unlock. What you do to unlock it varies by character.

Throughout the game, you will have conversations with various NPCs. Some of them react differently to specific characters. At various points, you can choose an aggressive, diplomatic or defensive reaction. By answering a specific way enough times, you can unlock boosts.

The big change over the previous game is the addition of fusions, which are two-character team-up attacks. You fill a fusion meter by defeating enemies and are allowed to have up to two fusions at a time. Any two characters have a unique fusion. These come in three basic types: Targeted fusions, clearing fusions and guided fusions. Fusions do high damage to a single target or all enemies in a given radius. They also have a "high score" which is a target number of enemies to defeat. If you achieve this, you get a health token.