In the next few weeks, Marvel Ultimate Alliance will be expanding its already impressive character roster with some choice Xbox Live downloadable content--eight new characters!

Looking to get in on the action, you'll have four different packs available for download.
The hero pack (500 MS points) includes Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Hawkeye and Hulk, while the villain pack (500 MS points) includes Dr. Doom, Magneto, Venom and Sabertooth. Or, you can download all eight in one shot with the combo pack (800 MS points). But let's say you're a little apprehensive. If you don't want to dish out the dough, there is a free download that will enable you to play with others online without having to download the new character packs yourself. You won't be able to get achievements and you can't use the new characters offline, but you can still participate in games with others that are using the new content. Everybody wins!

One of the coolest things about the new characters has got to be the addition of villains. Why add in villains to team up with a game swarming with superheroes? Aside from the fact that it's just good to be bad sometimes, the villains arrive mainly due to you, the loyal fan. The new character selection was due to in part by the Marvel Ultimate Alliance VIP community, where fans spoke up about what characters they'd like to see in the game. The most requested villains? Venom, of course. The inclusion of Venom eventually spurred on the addition of the rest of the villains.

New characters also means new teams and team bonuses. Existing teams have been modified to include new characters where appropriate. For example, Hulk can be on the Avengers and Cyclops on the X-Men. There are a total of 13 new teams, not including the old teams that have been changed to accommodate the new characters. The downloadable content will have exclusive teams available only with the downloaded characters, such as the villains team. The addition of villains also allows for some fun stuff when you team up traditionalrRivals. Download the new characters and throw Spider-Man and Venom together or Sabertooth and Wolverine to see what happens.

Players will be rewarded for playing through the entire game as new characters, so it's not just that you have the chance to play as new characters--you have a reason to. Expect to get new achievements and see some interesting changes in the plot. Depending on what character you play as there might be some drastic effects on the storyline. But don't fear, bits and pieces of the storyline have been tweaked to fit with the new characters so that everything makes sense depending on who's on your team.

With each new character also comes new achievements. The downloadable content adds 12 new achievements to Marvel Ultimate Alliance's existing 48, bringing it to a lofty total of 60. There will of course be one new achievement per character for unlocking their costumes. Each character has four skins to choose from that can be unlocked through gameplay. Additionally, there will be four storyline breaking achievements, but we don't want to ruin that for you. So you'll just have to grab the new content and play through the game to find out what they are.

If you or your friends don't already own Marvel Ultimate Alliance, stay tuned for a special surprise in May. For now, watch this video and see what you're missing!