Marvel is bigger than ever these days. This is thanks to the MCU and more awareness about the comics on one end, and a willingness to go further into gaming. This includes things like Spider-Man on PS4, Square Enix’s Avengers game, and the long awaited Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order. When this was first announced, many were surprised to learn it would be a Switch exclusive, and even more surprised to learn it would be developed by Team Ninja. The resulting game is a loving tribute to everything Marvel, but is it a good game?
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order plays like the first two entries, and the X-Men Legends games, being action RPGS with a squad of four playable characters at a time. The game supports multiplayer for 4 players locally or online, and this works very well in how its implemented. What stands out though, isn’t the overall gameplay but the fact that Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is not primarily MCU based, but rather based on a variety of Marvel sources. These include the MCU yes, but also the comics, cartoons and even other video games. These different sources blended well to create a great introduction to Marvel overall for those who are unfamiliar with the properties.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order starts off with the Guardians of The Galaxy accidentally causing an issue that impacts all of the universe, and uses that as a jumping point to explore all of Marvel. You will fight characters like the Green Goblin, Kingpin and Ultron, while exploring various areas like Kree starships, Superhuman prisons and mystical dimensions. There is a massive roster of characters here, both with well known characters like Thor, Spider-Man and Captain America, and lesser known characters like the monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone. Each character plays differently thankfully, and you can create some innovative teams. One possible team for instance, comprises of the various Spider-Man characters like Peter Parker, Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen and Venom. You will get stat bonuses depending on your team, and if it lines up with a set pattern. For instance, Women of Marvel, Heavy Hitters, Guardians of the Galaxy and so on. Its a nice touch and pushes people to learn more about Marvel.
Another bonus about Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is that most of the voice acting is extremely well done, and the story is well written and contains genuine twists. Each character levels up and earns more moves and using these moves right is the key to success. Team moves are also necessary to learn, in order to defeat some bosses and get certain secrets. It is clear that Team Ninja had a love for the source materials and they put a good amount of effort into this game.
There secrets to find and there are hidden characters as well, and overall this feels like the ideal Marvel Comics game. Or rather it would, but there are a few issues. The issue I had the most was with the camera constantly messing up and throwing me off. This got annoying more than once, but thankfully was not a deal breaker for me. I do hope that Team Ninja and Nintendo work to somehow add more camera controls to the game, which would help immensely.
Overall though, I really did like the experience. It didn’t favor any one aspect of Marvel over another, instead creating a new universe to play in. The characters felt true to their canonical selves and the care and attention Team Ninja gave is admirable. If not for the camera, I would say the game is perfect. As it is though, I will say this is still a must play for any Switch owner or any Marvel fan.