Time flies, doesn’t it? Back in late 2009, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 was released and since then, we haven’t seen another title from this series. The idea of pairing up dozens of heroes and having them beat down foes together was not only ambitious but truly entertaining. Add to that co-op play with friends and you had a RPG that had some nice depth to it. Now after ten years, we have a third Marvel Ultimate Alliance game—exclusive for Nintendo Switch—and we have to wonder…has time been kind to this series? Here at Honey’s Anime, we have that answer to said question in our full review of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order down below!

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order plays very similarly to the original two games before it. Players take control of 4 heroes from the Marvel world and fight in a top down perspective against waves of enemies. As the player progresses through the story, they will be able to unlock more heroes to use and can level up their favorites to give them stronger skills and abilities. You can enjoy Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order alone with the AI controlling the other three heroes or play with up to 4 players and unleash heroic actions together.

Thanos once more has his eyes set on one of the universe’s great forces, the six Infinity Stones. Working to make Thanos’ dream a reality is his powerful team known as the Black Order who are foiled by the notorious Guardians of the Galaxy. However, Thanos and his order aren’t so quick to accept defeat and realize they will need help from outside sources which in turn activates the Avengers to hopefully keep Thanos away from the stones. The ultimate battle is about to commence in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order!

Ever since the dawn of comic books, we as fans have always dreamed up strange team-ups. There’s a beauty to having Wolverine team up with Spider Man whether it's in a comic book or in your mind. While dreaming up your team-ups can be fun, doing it in a video game is even better! Way back in 2006 developer Raven Software, alongside Activision, made it possible with their Marvel Ultimate Alliance title. Nearly 14 years later, we finally have the third Ultimate Alliance game now done by well known developer Team Ninja. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order—exclusive for the Nintendo Switch—brings back our fantasy team-up action RPG, but does it still work in this current gaming age? Our answer will show itself in our review of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order for the Nintendo Switch.

Seeing as how it’s been a while since Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 has been released, let us explain the main idea behind Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order. As mentioned above, players take control of 4 heroes teams—you can switch between those four at any time—and beat down random baddies as well as large named villains who we won’t spoil their appearance in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order. Akin to most action RPGs, you control your character and unleash basic combos, special attacks and level up as you play. Where Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order succeeds is that it allows players to choose from nearly 50 heroes—more being added via DLC—and create your dream teams! Want Spider Man, Captain America, Groot/Rocket Raccoon and Ghost Rider on a team? You can do that in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order! There’s millions of combinations and things only get better once you realize how those teams can be even better in combat.

Like most action themed RPGs, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order has each character controlling similarly. There are your light and heavy attacks, your special attacks and your various motions movements. Falcon and Star Lord have flight so they can hover in the air for extra skills or you have Spider Man and his ability to web swing around. Add this assortment of abilities together and you’ll find Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order gives each character a wide assortment of abilities that only go further when you realize they can be combined with other heroes! Chain together various hero skills and you can make some truly wicked combos that lead to not only increased damage on enemies but visual treats that will make your inner childhood smile.

Speaking of combat, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is pretty simple but has some unique concepts. Enemies usually play out like most beat ‘em ups where you lay waste to them till their health bar drops. Where Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order gets tougher—and more interesting—is when you get to enemies that have stagger bars. These purple bars give the enemy an almost second health but also comes at a cost for them. If that bar depletes, it allows the player time to lay waste to them as they are stunned and this especially applies to bosses. When an enemy is stunned, you’ll find unleashing your special moves is the most punishing motion to make and will net you an easier win on harder difficulties as you play.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order might seem like the ultimate action RPG—pun very much intended—but not everything is heroic in this title. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order suffers from a few problems the biggest of which comes in the form of the camera and graphics. There are two camera options in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order one being the top down perspective and the other being the heroic camera. The heroic camera is pretty neat allowing players to almost make Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order a third person action title but the top down camera—and sometimes the heroic one—suffer from strange movements when you are in closed rooms or tight corridors. When you do see the game closer up, you also will notice that Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order kind of looks dated. When you have titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey, you know the Switch is capable of a lot more. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order doesn’t look horrible mind you, but it looks a few years older than what it should be and that is even more noticeable on a monitor versus the handheld mode.

The last glaring issue in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order can be its repetitive gameplay. When you’re playing with friends and trying to master the art of combining skills together—which is tough— Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is fun and rarely boring. Alone though, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order can become repetitive after several hours of gameplay. While the leveling up system is robust offering incentive to level grind characters, gameplay rarely divulges from how it starts even when you gain all the heroes. We didn’t feel Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order gets boring, but it can become a bit stale after several or more hours alone.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order might not be the best action RPG out there, but no one can denounce what it does right. Thanks to the large roster of heroes and the fun co-op gameplay, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order has a lot of content worth the price of admission and there is even more DLC planned for it. While the action can become repetitive—especially if you’re playing single player—and it doesn’t look the best, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order never feels boring to play and rarely makes you question if your time invested into it was worth it. Overall, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is one of the better single/co-op action RPGs for the Nintendo Switch and should definitely be added to your library if you consider yourself a Marvel fan.

While Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order might have some minor issues here and there, we can’t deny how much fun we had playing this heroic title. With so many large named heroes to play as—and lesser known ones— Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order fulfills what you need it to do, be a good action RPG that caters to that inner comic book fan within you. That’s why we highly recommend Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order and know you fans of Marvel and superheroes will love it. Has anyone out there picked up Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order or plans to? Comment below so we can hear your thoughts on this awesome title. For more game reviews and gaming articles, be sure to keep stuck to our ultimate hive here at Honey’s Anime!