I went toe-to-toe with a few of the CPU controlled characters in a number of the different context-sensitive environments, and everything played pretty smoothly. The whole game is in fact on big context-sensitive mechanic. If you are far away from your opponent, you'll let rip with ranged attacks. Get in close and they change to melee hits and throws and even parries, blocks and reversals. Using the location to your advantage means that you'll soon be pummeling the enemies with steel piping, flaming barrels and even much larger inanimate structures. Going for the KO or a ring-out is the ultimate objective, but you'll need to learn and master each fighter's methods of combat first.

In addition to the brawling, there's a really cool rewards system built in to the game that comes in the form of playing cards. Before you balk at the notion of cards (don't think Metal Gear Ac!d) this system offers up over 170 different randomly given cards which can be used in-game to power up your characters. These cards are handed out based on a success rating received when battling enemies. The cards are split up into "suits" and combining cards of like suits will grant better powers. The cards are selected and used via the d-pad in-battle, and add a new dimension to replayability to the over game. Sadly, there's no way to share your cards with another PSP, but that might be a feature we see in any sequel further down the line.


Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects will also offer two-player action over Ad-Hoc and as mentioned, Infrastructure too so be prepared to start vying for a place on that upcoming online leader board that should be available at launch. We'll be sure to bring you more on RotI -- both PSP and console versions -- as it becomes available.