While this could be a constraint, each character typically has at least one ability that can serve this purpose, even those heroes like Psylocke may be best suited to the role. You’ll need to make use of characters that have abilities that can break stagger in order to succeed in fights. But bosses, as well as bigger minions, have Stagger bars that must be depleted in order to stun them and open the door to higher damage moves. Normal minions just need to be punched a lot to be defeated. But what makes Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 so much better is how enemy fights are constructed. It also makes creating interesting teams fun, as you mix and match characters to see what works best for you (Iron Fist and Spider-Gwen are a great tag team combo).Īll of this is interesting and would be perfectly fine in and of itself. Thankfully, you can see what heroes work best with others via a tagline system that gives each hero four to six descriptors, such as ‘Original Avenger’ and ‘Web Crawler’. This adds another layer to team compositions, as you’ll want to pair characters who can bounce off of each other’s power sets. Interestingly, these abilities can be used alongside your teammates’ abilities to unleash Synergy attacks, which combine two characters abilities for a ton of damage. Each hero has four upgradeable abilities that can be activated by pressing the right shoulder button and a corresponding face button. The abilities are ostensibly what makes each character unique, though again, there are similarities between what different special attacks do. Characters are broadly sorted into different categories of fighters, so some may have similar styles of attack to others.
As a ranged character like Star-Lord, however, your heavy attack can be charged to deal more damage. Playing as Iron Fist, your attacks mostly consist of straightforward, no-nonsense punches and kicks. You can mix these ups to create combos of your own, though different characters will have different uses for each button. There are two primary buttons you’ll use in battle one dedicated to light attacks and another to heavy attacks. Like previous entries, you’ll select a party of four heroes that can be switched between at the press of the d-pad if you’re playing single-player or have less than a party of four in multiplayer. This is all to ensure that the actual fighting, which makes up the bulk of what you do, takes center stage. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order – Image Credit: Nintendo
It’s not always well-paced - one chapter features two back-to-back fights that you must lose to progress that come up swiftly and without warning - but Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, much like a big comic crossover, keeps things moving without sweating over the details. New characters join the alliance at a breezy pace, ensuring barely twenty minutes go by without someone making their grand entrance. I would be lying if I said that the story mattered because in truth it is just used as a vehicle to smash iconic Marvel heroes (as well as some notably less well-known heroes) against iconic Marvel villains. This time, it’s all in the service of preventing Thanos and his Black Order from collecting the Infinity Stones and using them to - you know the drill. It retains much of the same structure as its predecessors, where a large cast of Marvel superheroes traverse through iconic Marvel locations, beating up thugs and more powerful villains along the way. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 comes to the Nintendo Switch courtesy of Team Ninja, the developers behind Hyrule Warriorsand Fire Emblem Warriors.