Encounter villains, heroes in Marvel Adventure City

NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario — The last thing I expected to see a block away from one of the world’s most famous natural wonders was a 23-story building with a gigantic, two-dimensional Hulk bursting from its corner.

Yet there it stood, above the main entrance to Marvel Adventure City, an approximately 30,000-square-foot home to the Marvel Comics universe that mixes a traditional game arcade with multisensory attractions.

As part of the Canadian Niagara Group’s Falls Avenue Complex, the ode to Stan Lee’s favorite comic book company has existed for the past couple of years next to such attractions as MGM Studios’ Great Movie Journey, the World Wrestling Entertainment Pile Driver and the Pink Panther Falls Balloon ride, along with an avalanche of hotels, shops and restaurants.

Marvel Adventure City, which will never be confused with the more sophisticated and thrilling Universal Studios’ Islands of Adventure in Orlando (which has devoted a huge chunk of theme park real estate to Marvel icons), comes off more as a co-op arcade on steroids rather than mini-theme park.

Still, the overall experience will temporarily fill the bill for fidgety youngsters tired of looking at cascading water and in need of a superhero fix.

As visitors enters the City, they are greeted to a quick showdown between life-size, animatronic versions of Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, who banter a bit and move around.

A hard-rock version of the Spider-Man theme song concludes the performance as sirens blast away and a narrator beckons brave humans into the colorful environment to “help save the world.”

A cavalcade of coin-op machines and characters culled from Marvel’s Ultimate lines of sequential art dominate the City, although only a few machines actually offer Marvel hero themes — either through stand-alone Spidey mobiles or actual arcade video games.

As visitors view giant colorful cutouts of such stalwarts as the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Captain America, Kingpin, the X-Men and artist Greg Horn’s famed Elektra illustration hung above them, they will also run into a reproduction of the “Spider-Man 2” movie costume on display.

The major, multisensory attractions reside along the corners of the City and offer a “hit and miss” opportunity for families looking for a quick thrill.

• Spider-Man Ultimate Ride: This stands out as the best of the bunch. It’s an actual ride that melds 3-D technology, multimedia and target shooting. Visitors are whisked through a railed maze in an egg-shaped vehicle.

Bad guys such as Doctor Octopus, the Lizard and Scorpion greet the riders, who, after putting on those dorky looking 3-D glasses, point a weapon shaped as a Spider-Man arm/hand at stationary targets to collect points and make the targets react; that is, open, spin or move.

Slick movie moments accompany the roughly three-minute experience via monitors and screens as characters and terrain come to life.

More animatronic villains, webbed and hanging upside down, reside at the end of the ride that delivers a real treat for the web-slinger fan.

• X-Men Bumper Cars: This puts visitors in vehicles shaped like Professor X’s high-tech wheelchair and mixes mutant-themed action with the traditional bumper ride as opponents shoot and ram each other to collect points posted on a giant leader board.

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