Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 Review
Release Date: July 19, 2019 Platform: Switch Developer: Team Ninja Publisher: Nintendo Genre: Action RPG/Beat em upThe strength of the Marvel Ultimate Alliancegames, as well as their X-Men Legends predecessors, is that they capture the pure fun of arcade beat em ups while also using light RPG elements and a cadre of unlockables to make the experience feel substantial and full of features. The latest, Switch-exclusive entry in the series, essentially boasts all of the strengths and weaknesses of its predecessors, but with updated rosters and nods to Marvel’s recent big-screen outings.After all these years, Marvel Ultimate Alliance’s core gameplay still holds up.
The button mash-y action’s simplicity is masked by dynamic special attack and stagger gauges as well as the sheer number and variety of heroes to choose from. Each character plays pretty much the same, boasting weak and strong attacks as well as four special attacks and one “Extreme” attack that does massive damage, often with screen-clearing areas of effect. Heroes’ abilities can be combined in “Synergy Attacks” to make them more effective (and flashy-looking), which also fills the heroes’ special meters. You (and a few friends, if you fancy) take control of a four-hero team as you play through the campaign and challenge modes, and as always, mixing and matching all of your favorite characters from the universe is unabashedly geeky and cool. In addition to Iron Man, the, and the rest of the MCU mainstays, there are characters who have yet to be featured in Marvel Studios’ oeuvre, like the, Ghost Rider, Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, Blade , and more. It’s an eclectic cast of characters, and depending on their associations to one another, your team will benefit from star boosts, like if you pair up original members of the Avengers, or all four Guardians, for example.
Unlike most games, character selection in itself is as delightful as the actual gameplay.Online multiplayer is the best way to play the game, as is the case with most arcade-style beat-em-ups. Coordinating your abilities is an essential skill if you want to progress through the game without grinding, and learning how and when to synchronize perfectly is pretty fun to boot. Playing solo is okay, but the AI can be dumb as dirt, often times failing to dodge blatantly telegraphed enemy attacks. The campaign unfolds as something of a greatest hits of classic Marvel Comics scenarios, from containing a supervillain breakout at The Raft, to defending the Xavier Institute from Sentinels, to taking on Dormammu in the Dark Dimension, to clashing with Thanos and his Black Order over the Infinity Stones. New characters are unlocked as you play, and while the storytelling is anything but elegant, and the dialogue is insipid, the game’s overall Saturday morning cartoon aesthetic and vibe make these shortcomings feel more forgivable than if the game had taken itself more seriously.
That being said, I feel like Ultimate Alliance 3 caters to all fans in some way. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order doesn't try to be more than it is, a fun romp with characters everyone. The story itself revolves around Marvel super heroes looking to prevent the Black Order from achieving their goals and saving the universe. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is an action beat-em-up style game, where players can select up to four heroes at a given time.
Visually, the game is about as average as they come, both artistically and technically. The character designs look enough like the comics to invoke feelings of nostalgia, but they aren’t exactly memorable or all that cool-looking, either. Overall, the game’s aesthetic feels uninspired. And while developer Team Ninja does a good job of keeping the action running smoothly, the frame rate does dip quite regularly, which is surprising considering it sometimes dips when there isn’t all that much going on onscreen.By far, the biggest complaint I have about Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is its in-game camera. It’s awful at times, constantly getting stuck on invisible walls, or pulling back so far that you can’t tell who’s who on the battlefield, leading to utter confusion and, too often, failure.
In fact, losing track of my characters during battle was far too common of an occurrence. Also, my characters were frequently killed by projectiles shot from off-screen enemies who, despite my best efforts, I could not get in my sights. This was incredibly frustrating, and the camera became a thorn in my side that needled at me during almost every moment.Heavy-handed writing and a wonky camera make Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 a decidedly unpolished game, but the gameplay is just too fun to be overshadowed by artistic and technical nuisances. Ultimately (had to do it), the off-the-wall joy of creating random teams like Hulk/Daredevil/Psylocke/Groot, or Wolverine/Doctor Strange/Spider-Gwen/Hawkeye, and seeing what happens when they wreak havoc together is what’ll stick with you long after you’ve forgotten all of the game’s flaws.
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Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 (NS) – avenging with friendsThe old co-op action role-playing series makes an unexpected return as a Switch exclusive – but how super is it really?Why it took so long is a mystery, but at last Marvel seems to be taking video games seriously. Surprisingly, there’s still no adaptation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but after the PlayStation 4 exclusive Spider-Man game was such a huge success we’ve had announcements for a game and title. It’s not exactly a flood of new titles but it’s more than we’ve had for the last decade and hopefully a sign of more to come.A new Marvel Ultimate Alliance was certainly an unexpected sequel though, especially as it used to be a multiformat franchise published by Activision and this is a Switch exclusive. The series started life as X-Men Legends, before incorporating the whole of the Marvel universe, but all that happened before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was properly established.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 came out a year after the first Iron Man movie and then that seemed to be it for the concept. AdvertisementWhy it stopped is a mystery but despite promoting itself as an action role-playing game the series really had more in common with old co-op scrolling beat ‘em-ups, with extremely simple combat but a gormless charm that was difficult to dislike. Its position in the market was replaced by the somewhat similar Lego games, of which there have been several Marvel-related iterations, but now it’s back and it’s pretty much the same deal as it always was.Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is the video game equivalent of junk food, but that’s not necessarily a criticism. It’s mindless and it’s repetitive but it knows it and given this is technically the fifth entry in the series its nature shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. That makes it a difficult game to review because despite its shallowness it is doing exactly what is asked of it.
And while the developer has switched to Dead Or Alive makers Team Ninja you’d barely guess anything had changed behind the scenes.That said, this isn’t really a direct sequel in the sense of a continuing narrative and while the plot nominally revolves around preventing Thanos and his lackeys (the Black Order of the subtitle) from obtaining the Infinity Stones the story is really just about jamming as many hero and villain cameos in as possible. There are around 30 playable characters in total (including a number of X-Men but no-one from the Fantastic Four – although they are part of planned DLC) but many more than that once you start to count non-playable cameos that range from Mysterio to Jessica Jones. AdvertisementWhether you’re playing with friends or not there are always at least four superheroes on-screen at once, but no matter which character you play as the controls work in the same way. Basic combat amounts to nothing but a choice of light or heavy attack, or a jump attack if you’re feeling daring, and there are no combos as such. But everyone gets an ‘Extreme’ attack that takes ages to power up and various synergy moves depending on who the other characters are – although the window to activate these is frustratingly small for even experienced players.You also gradually unlock a number of special moves which run on a recharging power meter. Some of these are what you’d expect, such as Iron Man’s unibeam or Spider-Man’s webbing, while others are generic abilities like a tornado attack for Star-Lord, which, as far as we know, isn’t something he’s known for.Even the seemingly unique powers are often functionally identical to at least one or two others, which is a shortcut the Lego games also take – but then they have many times more characters, so it seems more forgivable there.
The Lego games also have proper flight controls, whereas here heroes can only float a few feet off the ground. The puzzles in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 also manage to make the ones in the Lego tie-ins look like Mensa tests by comparison.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 (NS) – just mash the buttons and you’ll be all rightThe role-playing element is also incredibly simplistic and revolves around levelling up and unlocking new abilities, which in turn can be upgraded with collected items. There are also a number of customisation options, including collectible crystals that give you minor buffs and debuffs, an unlockable web of similar enhancements that apply across all characters, and bonuses depending on the make-up of your team and whether they’re similar in some way or have a shared history.
AdvertisementThere’s a pretence of depth in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 but while it’s entirely unconvincing it doesn’t feel disingenuous. The story campaign isn’t too long, especially on easy, but there’s a wide range of challenge levels that have particular requirements such as a time limit or the characters you can use. There’s a certain amount of level grinding required if you play on the higher difficulties, but you can generally avoid repeating whole stages if you instead try to complete challenges along the way. Visually, the game is quite appealing, with a quasi-cartoonish style reminiscent of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, while the script occasionally exhibits a wry sense of humour that also recalls Capcom’s use of the licence. (We’d say maybe that’s indicative of how Japanese developers in general see superheroes, but the script is by American comic book writer Marc Sumerak.) Given how many characters can be on screen at once the graphics are quite simplistic, particularly the backdrops, but given there’s still some slowdown at times that seems a sensible compromise.We can’t vouch for online performance, as we were unable to get much of a go before launch, but there is couch co-op as well, with everyone using the same overhead view and being teleported back to the pack if they lag behind.
This works much better than Lego’s split-screen approach, although there is also a closer ‘heroic camera’ option if you’re playing alone. In Short: Shallow, stupid, and very repetitive but as long as you play with friends there’s a goofy charm to what is, for better or worse, the best Marvel team-up game in a long while.Pros: Large cast of characters with a fun visual style and script. Four player co-op is good mindless fun and there’s plenty of content.Cons: Extremely shallow and repetitive combat, with very limited role-playing elements. Character powers are never as unique as they first seem.Score: 6/10Formats: Nintendo SwitchPrice: £49.99Publisher: NintendoDeveloper: Team NinjaRelease Date: 19th July 2019Age Rating: 12Email, leave a comment below,.