It surprised everyone when Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order was announced as a Nintendo Switch exclusive. I admit, I’ve never played a Marvel Ultimate Alliance game, so I was stepping into new territory. The game had a certain charm to it though and felt extremely old school, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 for the NES or Turtles in Time for the Super Nintendo. That’s a part of its charm. It’s somewhat old school, but offers something familiar and something new. This is what every great game does. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is a ton of fun and was the best game at Nintendo’s third-party booth.
In Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order you can choose from a multitude of different characters from the Marvel universe. What’s even better is that you can change characters at any time. I played as Star Lord throughout the demo. What’s great about Star Lord is his ability to float in the air via the rockets in his boots. This makes traversing areas much easier, as I was able to jump over fences and other various blockades. Combat is rather simple, and each character has three (I think) special moves they are able to use. This helps when clearing out enemies, but when you’re attacked by a swarm, it makes things more complicated. Special moves need to be used with care. The gameplay is a lot of fun though. It’s not too complicated and with so many characters, combat and specials vary to a considerable degree.
The game can either be played single player or co-op. Co-op is preferred, but playing on your own can be just as fun. Combat can get crazy and it can be easy to lose track of your character, but the circles underneath your character help you keep track of them. The game is fairly linear and reminds me of the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle games for the NES and SNES, which is a good thing. The game involves some light puzzles, if I remember correctly, but nothing too complicated; combat is the main focus of the title. The game is addictive. Fighting through hordes of enemies can appear to be frustrating, but is ultimately rewarding. Graphically, the game looks great and runs smoothly. It handles the number of enemies on screen very well. This has the potential to be the surprise Switch game of the year, especially considering it’s a third-party game (although it’s published by Nintendo.
I’m more excited for this game than the Avengers game from Square Enix. It has all the action and multitude of characters one can ask for in a Marvel game. It’s linear and a beat’um up to a certain extent, but it’s fun. Each character has their own moves, specials, and advantages, and there are so many to choose from! This is definitely the best Marvel game to come out in years and will be the best superhero game to come out in the foreseeable future. The homage to old-school games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 and Turtles in Time make it all the more appealing. Regardless of being third-party, this was one of the best games Nintendo had to offer at E3 2019. The Switch has so many incredible games coming out in 2019 and hopefully, this isn’t overshadowed by Fire Emblem, which releases a week later.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance: The Black Order comes out on July 19, which cannot come soon enough!