Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 Review

The Ultimate Alliance series back upon its original release was one of the best ways to get to step in the shoes of the Marvel Superheroes, and at a time when Comic Book Superheroes games were mediocre at best; the action-RPG Beat’em up stood out by delivering a large cast of heroes and villains, and in the case of the sequel, translating one of the biggest storylines to hit the Marvel Universe at the time – the Civil War between Captain America and Iron Man – fairly faithfully.

Sadly, the games did not age well, but there is still fun in the idea of gathering 4 heroes to attempt to save the world. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 gives the series over to Team Ninja in an attempt to modernize the series, taking inspirations from comics, cartoons and comics alike.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 follows a familiar plot, one that we’ve been following for almost 11 years now – the Infinity Stones have been found and now Thanos is on his way. The Guardians of the Galaxy show up to save the day and in a battle against Nebula, Ronan The Accuser and The Black Order’s Proxima Midnight, Starlord snatches the stones and teleports them across the universe to Earth. This of-course sends a chain reaction of various villains finding the stones for themselves and attempt to increase their power.

The quest for the Infinity Stones brings us all over the Marvel Universe, with locations like The Avengers Tower, The Dark Dimension, Shadowlands and more. Surprisingly, the levels don’t feel like they’ve been just shoehorned into it, as every level tends to have a purpose to the story or in the very least prove to be exciting enough that you don’t worry about it. There are exceptions however as the story tends to take some dips, but it does tend to recover quickly.

Which brings us to our cast, which is in impressive bunch to say the least. Like the previous Ultimate Alliance games, you have heroes and villains joining your roster from a variety of Marvel own teams like The Avengers, Defenders, Guardians of the Galaxy, Inhumans and the X-Men, all teaming up against some biggest bads that the comic/film brand has to throw at them.

It was great to see fan favourite newcomers like Miles Morales, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch and Spider-Gwen who all made an appearance thanks to their popularity in the MCU but also some who’ve yet to get a proper introduction like Ms.Marvel, Elsa Bloodstone and Crystal. Most characters owe their physical appearance to the MCU versions, however the game has a mish-mash of various sources, pulling from their comic appearance, and even other games like Marvel vs Capcom Infinite.

What helps the cast of 30+ characters stand out is how they control. In past games, every character had a light and strong attack along with a series of special powers, while that system hasn’t changed that much, the attacks now feel different per character with range strikes, extended combos, knock-up attacks and ground shattering strikes which depend on the character you’re controlling. Combos are fairly straight forward with the light attack being your basic crutch through the game, while linking to the strong attack which helps clear a path through the countless goons sent your way.

I never had a problem with the constant button mashing that I was doing thanks mainly thanks to the use of special powers which helped deliver powerful attacks which helped clear out rooms. You will notice after some time, and thanks to the labeling of some locked areas that require a “synergy attack” that the special attacks are just variations of rapid strikes, area of effect blast, a dash or run-through, powerful knock-up strikes, guns, or a 360-degree attack. Yet because these are uses sparingly due to the use of EP, the they’re still flashy when pulled out.

There is also the Extreme Attacks which do a wider area of attack and deals a large amount of damage, this can be built up and use with all members of the hero’s party for an Alliance Extreme Attack (called AX Attack) for even more damage. This is the only time I really saw the game take a framerate hit and depending how close everyone is to their partner, it’s hard to tell what exactly happened amongst the energy blasts, explosions, webs and bodies that go flying during this time.

Where Ultimate Alliance fall sort is its lack of meaningful customization. Throughout the game, players are given two means of upgrading their stats, by spending coin and materials in the Lab which boosts up the stats for the entire team, or by ISO-8 crystals which boosts a single character. Both of which only provide numeral upgrades and it’s hardly noticeable as you playthrough the game.

Another complaint I had involved the lack of Experience sharing between heroes. As you progress through the game and the base level for the mission continues to rise, you’ll eventually get more heroes to join the Alliance that will be a higher level. Switching to them may cause a change in dynamic for the characters with other heroes being left in lower levels as you continue to improve the newer characters. There is a couple of things you can do to balance this out, specifically XP Cubes which can be used to increase their XP gauge by a set number or level up in the process, or to bring the low level hero into battle with a couple of higher rank fighters as well, but it almost becomes too much of a hassle.

There is also the special Infinity Challenges which can be used to gain XP Cubes, ISO-8 Crystals, special costumes or characters. These challenges can range from defeating an amount of villains in a time-limit, beat a boss with special attacks or synergy attacks, or take on 3 bosses at the same time.

If the end goal wasn’t to unlock some extra characters like Electra or Magneto, or even to level up some characters, I would say that the Infinity Trials are a waste of time as the rewards are not worth the effort put into them. Special Costumes I’ve unlocked so far have just been colour swapped versions of the main costume.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order definitely improves upon the old formula, and the game is still as button-mashing fun you’d expect from the Action RPG series, but it also feels like Team Ninja could have done more. Customization, a better online experience, and better additional costumes are the stuff that stands out to me when I think about the game’s flaws.

Yet the way the game finds a way to pace out the action and still make it engaging after hours of playing through and its treatment of some of our favourite superheroes makes it a great brawler and one of the better couch-co-op experience on the Switch, and especially great for Marvel Fans and newcomers alike.