no img no img

Write what you are looking for and press enter to begin your search!

Logo
live-news-icon

Live News

My Hero Academia Vigilantes Spinoff Anime Premieres In April 2025: In an intense match, the Lone Wolves came out victorious. Read all about the big night here // Watch This Fatal Fury: City Of The Wolves Veteran Beat Up His Sister With His Eyes Closed In This New Trailer: In an intense match, the Lone Wolves came out victorious. Read all about the big night here // Blue Exorcist The Blue Night Saga Premieres January 2025: In an intense match, the Lone Wolves came out victorious. Read all about the big night here
post-16 post-13

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 Is A Welcome Return To License-Based Co-Op Brawling

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Genre: Marvel Mashup Button Masher

The days of multiple developers and publishers working on various genres featuring Marvel games of back then are slowly creeping back into the fold. This is probably thanks to the current Disney Marvel regime that’s arguably trying to do good by unifying its creative vision. Sure, it’s not as fruitful and elaborate as the mid and late 2000s, but there’s a bit to look forward to.

Like the upcoming Avengers game for Square Enix…no wait, we didn’t like that one. Or how about those dozen Korean auto-battlers with the Marvel license? No, we’re not quite fans of that. But there’s Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, a return to form to Raven Software and Activision’s co-op action RPG brawler courtesy of Nintendo and Team Ninja, the latter being famous for their rather bouncy fighting game Dead or Alive. If anything, the team are better at doing action games than stories.

Tales To Astonish?

Not so in this case. While the game starts off as a chase for Infinity Stones and getting the heck away from Thanos and his Black Order buddies, its narrative caps off in unexpected ways. It also blends in many aspects of Marvel lore in a seamless and fan-service-savvy fashion.

You’ll take a trip down to the X-Mansion and even Ryker’s Prison to fight Sentinels and super-powered criminals. And yes, you’ll see more Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan and GotG Starlord’s making their mark in the game’s many story-tying cutscenes. As long as you remember that the game is combining the Marvel Cinematic Universe and newer Marvel Comics characters and iterations in this package, you’ll enjoy this nonsense of a thrill ride.

Of course, you’re not going to nitpick too much about its portrayal because the game gives you a plethora of heroes to use. See, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 lets you create a team of up to four characters out of a roster filled with 36 heroes and villains (with more on the way). Depending on your setup, they can be buffed up if they’re from the same factions or if they work well together.

If you put Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Daredevil in one team, you’ll get a Defenders bonus amongst other stat boosts that can increase their toughness. Likewise, if you team up Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Deadpool, and Wolverine; you’ll get a huge boost at life and damage via the X-Force and X-Men alliance bonus. If you know your Marvel lore, you’ll want to team up your favourite heroes together for that stats boost and their potential synergy attacks. I’m sure a few of you want to just team Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider up for that Midnight Sons bonus.

Kinda surprised they added Elsa Bloodstone, a D-lister hero, into the fold.

 

And yes, Marvel vs Capcom fans; you can create your own OP team of Magneto, Storm, Wolverine, and Psylocke if you feel that the last MvC game was underwhelming. MUA 3 is the soothing ointment for that long-scarring burn.

A Rollercoaster Ride Of Marvel Fandom Old & New

Most stages in MUA 3 are long paths of corridors and small rooms filled with a ton of enemies. Some of them have stamina bars you need to exhaust so that they get stunned. Sometimes each room has a simple puzzle that changes the brawling up a bit. All you have to do for the most part is beat up anything in your way. Your controls are pretty slick; you have your light and heavy attacks, your jump, your block/dodge button which you’ll need to use a ton, and your special attack hotkeys

All of them are usually capped off with interesting boss fights against Marvel’s insanely-large rogue’s gallery, which are both fun and challenging. From Green Goblin’s fly-by attacks with his goblin grenades and Time Stone shenanigans to Ultron’s laser-dodging party, you may end up dying a couple of times before figuring out their patterns.

mua3_fightUltron

Speaking of which, you’ll need to have a balanced group of ranged, damage-dealers, and tanks to at least have various special moves you can synergize with. You can perform synergy attacks with your other teammates for hard-hitting damage, provided they’re close enough to you. You can also press A when you see your teammates doing a special move so that you can create another synergy attack.

All of this, coupled with Extreme attacks (press L and R when your yellow extreme meter is charged for a screen-clearing move) that can stack with your three other teammate’s Extreme move, makes for a very, very messy chaotic time. Even with the markers on your selected playable heroes, it can be hard to see what the blazes is going on once you unleash a lot of synergy attacks like Psylocke’s “psychic purple uppercut” and Ms. Marvel’s ground pound AoE moves.

The camera also doesn’t help as it sometimes can shove itself in a spot where it’s up too close to your characters unless you move further from the corner. Thankfully, the rest of the game gets pretty fun even if you’re at odds with the game’s way of presenting the action to you.

Stone-Cold Crazy

mua3_sentinel.png

Apart from the Alliance bonuses, your heroes can equip ISO-8 stones that can give you stat boosts, as a way to fill up the RPG criteria of this game. Need to boost up Wolverine’s damage? Put on a giant big ISO-8 that increases his strength to 500. Want to make Nightcrawler take a bit more damage? Slap on a resilience and defence-focused ISO-8. Your characters can equip up to four of these bad boys once they’re at a high level, so you have ample opportunities to tweak your favourite Marvel-branded ass-kicker to be the best there is at what they do.

On top of that, there’s a giant-as-heck hexagonal tree you can level up to boost your current team’s overall stats. The nodes of the tree increase strength, vitality, and even some offensive and defensive buffs like faster XP-gaining.

All of this customization is useful and fun, and helps players experiment thoroughly if they want to make it out in one piece with the game. Example: If I find myself dying a lot at a boss or at a particular obstacle, I just go back to my menus and switch up my alliances, or just micro-manage my ISO-8s. And when your characters are level 20 and beyond, they can be equipped and tweaked up the wazoo.

Left Behind

MARVEL ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 3 The Black Order E3 (6)

Speaking of levels, your other neglected superheroes will be left behind. In a game with a 38+ hero roster, 3/4ths of them will not be beyond level 20 or up to par with your 1/4th pack. I got through 10 hours of the game with Ms. Marvel and the majority of the X-Men because those are my favourite characters. It’s friggin’ Kamala Khan; how can you not love her optimism and gung-ho attitude? Everyone else from Iron Man to the other Avengers gets the shaft.

Even with that problem, you still can replay the game over and over again to get the most out of it post-credits. That’s MUA 3’s other superpower apart from fun combat and its simple-yet-custom-heavy RPG system: replayability.

Finishing the game unlocks Superior difficulty where everything starts off at Level 40 and ramps up from there. There are also the Infinity challenges where you earn cosmetic rewards, new ISO-8 equipment, and XP boosters if you complete specific tasks like using Spider-Man alone for one stage or fight a super-powered version of a main story boss with extra stipulations like bleeding lifebars.

In case you think the main game wasn’t tough enough, all of these are sure to keep you invested and playing the game more. And then there’s the co-op aspect; you can play this with online folks or with your pals and loved ones on the couch.

Not-So-Secret War

MARVEL ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 3 The Black Order E3 (14)

I remember playing a ton of Marvel Heroes before it shut down. It’s pretty much action RPG fun with a group of folks online where you get your jollies from just beating up waves of enemies and getting loot out of it. I get the same kind of gratification in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, albeit in a more personal setting with your close pals, or with yourself if you just want to 100% the game.

It’s been a while since we’ve received a console action-savvy Marvel game that’s better than a sum of its parts. It even brought back some much-needed complexity in its action formula, especially when past MUA games take that away for god-knows-what reason. So if you want a licensed game done right and is content with what it wants to deliver, make yours Marvel.

Pros

  • Fun combat for all ages
  • Challenging gameplay and stages with huge replayability
  • Deep customization system with ISO-8s
  • Cute handling of story and Marvel lore

Cons

  • The camera gets wonky and stubborn during hectic bits
  • Can get incredibly messy; easy to lose track
  • You’ll end up with a lot of unleveled heroes once you finish the game

FINAL SCORE: 70/100

Related News

post-07
George Perez Retires: 6 Reasons Why He's A Comic Book Legend

Comic book legend George Perez has officially announced his retirement after a whopping 46 years in the comics industry. In a published open letter, h...

post-07
Death Trick: Double Blind Visual Novel Slated For Switch In 2024

In the recent 2023 Nintendo Indie World Showcase, Misty Mountain Studio and Neon Doctrine revealed their new visual novel, Death Trick: Double Blind. ...

post-07
Loki Season 2 Will Not See The Return Of Director Kate Herron

Loki Season 1 has officially ended its run on Disney+ Hotstar Malaysia, but a second season has already been confirmed at the end of the first season'...

Write a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Tournament Tool Kit

Latest Video

Follow Us

Recent Posts

post-17
Steam Winter Sale 2024: Steam’s Winter Wonderland
post-17
Heroes We Need To Come To Marvel Rivals
post-17
[Updated] Comic Fiesta 2024: What You Need To Know
post-17
Must-Watch Animes This Winter: 2025 Season
post-17
[Updated] MLBB: M6 World Championship – Teams, Schedule & Result
post-17
Kakuchopurei’s Holiday Gift Guide 2024: Dell Edition
post-17
The Top 5 Most Hyped Reveals From The Game Awards 2024
post-17
The Game Awards 2024: The Biggest News & Announcements
post-17
The Game Awards 2024 Winners: Victory Dance Sweep For Astro Bot
post-17
Marvel Rivals: The Best Heroes To Counter Iron Fist
post-17
Marvel Rivals: The Best Heroes To Counter Jeff The Land Shark
post-17
Path Of Exile 2 Early Access: All Uniques In The Game So Far
post-17
Infinity Nikki: All Dungeons & Boss Guides & Walkthroughs
post-17
Path of Exile 2 Early Access: All Ascendancy Nodes Revealed
post-17
Indiana Jones And The Great Circle: PC Specs & Southeast Asia Launch Times Revealed
post-17
Infinity Nikki Gacha & Monetization Explained
post-17
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl – How To Increase Carry Weight?
post-17
These Are The Finalist Games For Apple’s App Store Awards
post-17
The Best Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals To Get: Gaming & Hardware Edition
post-17
What If Season 3 Review: Leave This Behind, X-Men 97 Is The Future Of Marvel Animation
post-17
My Hero Academia Vigilantes Spinoff Anime Premieres In April 2025
post-17
Watch This Fatal Fury: City Of The Wolves Veteran Beat Up His Sister With His Eyes Closed In This New Trailer
post-17
Blue Exorcist The Blue Night Saga Premieres January 2025
post-17
Solo Leveling Season 2 Trailer Reveals January 2025 Release Date & Opening Theme
post-17
Ranma 1/2 Season 2 Announced Following End Of First Season
post-17
Genshin Impact 5.3 Update Lets You Play As A Godlike Hottie
post-17
Samsung Galaxy AI Unlocks The Infinite Possibilities Of eXtended Reality
post-17
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Ending Explained & Post-Credits Breakdown