The old co-op action role-playing series makes an unexpected return as a Switch exclusive – but how super is it really?
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Why it took so long is a mystery, but at last Marvel seems to be taking video games seriously. Surprisingly, theres still no adaptation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but after the PlayStation 4 exclusive Spider-Man game was such a huge success weve had announcements for a VR Iron Man game and Square Enixs Avengers title. Its not exactly a flood of new titles but its more than weve 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.
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Why 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 its back and… its pretty much the same deal as it always was.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is the video game equivalent of junk food, but thats not necessarily a criticism. Its mindless and its repetitive but it knows it and given this is technically the fifth entry in the series its nature shouldnt 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 youd barely guess anything had changed behind the scenes.
That said, this isnt 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.
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Whether youre 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 youre 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 youd expect, such as Iron Mans unibeam or Spider-Mans webbing, while others are generic abilities like a tornado attack for Star-Lord, which, as far as we know, isnt something hes 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.
The 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 theyre similar in some way or have a shared history.
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Theres a pretence of depth in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 but while its entirely unconvincing it doesnt feel disingenuous. The story campaign isnt too long, especially on easy, but theres a wide range of challenge levels that have particular requirements such as a time limit or the characters you can use. Theres 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.
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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 humRead More – Source
