Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order
"If we wanna survive here, we do it as a team." — Nick Fury Jr.
Protagonist(s): Marvel Super Heroes Genre(s): Action role-playing Platform(s): Nintendo Switch Release Date: July 29, 2019 Developer(s): Team Ninja Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan United States Predecessor: Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is a hack-and-slash action role-playing game developed by Koei Tecmo's Team Ninja and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the third game in the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance series, and the first game in the series to not be published by Activision (as their license to publish Marvel games expired in 2016).

Good Qualities

1. It's nice to see the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance series again after ten years.
2. The story is based on the Infinity Stones saga, with a few touches that make it unique from the source material, such as the plot twist of Thane usurping the Infinity Gauntlet from his father upon the latter's defeat.
3. Decent graphics that look like a combination of MCU movies and the comics they are based on, but... (see BQ #2)
4. As usual, there are many Marvel characters to play as, ranging from classic groups such as the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Inhumans and the X-Men, to more modern ones such as the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Web Warriors, the Marvel Family, and the Marvel Knights. You even get to play as some villains such as Venom, Loki, Magneto, and even Thanos himself!
   • This is also the first time X-Men and Fantastic Four characters have been in any Marvel game since LEGO Marvel Super Heroes due to Fox's embargo on their film rights.
5. The gameplay, despite not changing much from the previous titles, is still as fun as ever and includes some new features such as Synergy Attacks (which combine characters' special moves to create new effects) and EX Attacks (which can be combined to make one big EX Attack).
6. You can upgrade your heroes' abilities and strengthen their attributes using Ability Orbs and ISO-8 crystals.
7. Good locations from across the Marvel universe, such as Avengers Tower, Shadowland, the Xavier Institute, Wakanda, Attilan, Asgard and Knowhere.
8. Top-notch voice acting, with many actors from previous Marvel shows and games returning here, such as Fred Tatasciore (Hulk/Ghost Rider), John Eric Bentley (Nick Fury Jr.), Steven Jay Blum (Wolverine/Venom), Nolan North (Deadpool/Rocket Raccoon), etc.
9. The Infinity Trials are fun challenges that can be unlocked by either finding dimensional rifts in each level or clearing other trials to unlock those around it.
   • Some challenges unlock characters who weren't obtained in the main story, such as Cyclops, Colossus, Elektra, Magneto and Loki, while others unlock new costumes.
10. As per usual for the franchise, the co-op gameplay is intuitive and makes the game more fun when playing with friends.
11. Lots of replay value, primarily due to the Infinity Trials allowing for many rewards.
12. The three DLC packs increase the roster size and provide much fanservice for X-Men, Fantastic Four and Marvel Knights fans.
    • The first wave, Curse of the Vampire, introduces a Gauntlet Mode that pits the players through a series of challenges for rewards (including the Marvel Knights after clearing each one once).
    • The second wave, Rise of the Phoenix, introduces the Danger Room, where you compete against the computer or cooperate other players to clear increasing challenges that get harder as you go.
    • The final wave includes an epilogue story, Shadow of Doom, which features the return of the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom, and also includes some costumes (such as Future Foundation, Classic Guardians of the Galaxy, etc.)

Bad Qualities

1. Due to being a continuity reboot, this game barely has any connections to the previous Marvel: Ultimate Alliance games.
   • At times, the story also cannot decide if it wants to be an MCU story or comics story, due to including character designs from both places. The X-Men and Fantastic Four more than make up for this, however, and give the game a combination of the two sources.
2. The game only released on Nintendo Switch due to Nintendo funding and publishing it, which is disappointing for PlayStation, PC, and Xbox players who could have also benefitted from a port.
   • This problem would continue with DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power for similar reasons.
3. While the graphics are decent, they do not look good by 2019 standards, likely due to the way modern Koei Tecmo's standards reign, making them look more like mobile or Vita games.
4. Long loading times that can last up to a minute.
5. The online multiplayer is barebones and having some serious issue that this online co-op unplayable, like having lagging constantly, repeatedly freezing for unknown reasons, or having been disconnected.
6. Some of the Infinity Trials are hard to complete due to enemies swarming the player, especially if you are below the level recommended by the trial.

Reception

"You fucked it up!/You done fucked it up!"This game was given a 6/10 by AngryJoe.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 received mixed reviews from critics (scoring 73/100 on Metacritic), with praise being directed at the gameplay and storyline while the lack of innovation and graphics were criticized.

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