Thanos is back and causing havoc with the Marvel Universe! No, it’s not a yet-to-be-revealed Avengers movie, but the plot of a new video game. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is a Nintendo Switch exclusive. It’s scheduled to be released on July 19, and you can pre-order your copy now.
Finding the Formula
In case you’re not familiar with the franchise or what’s at stake, let me give you the rundown: The Marvel: Ultimate Alliance series began in 2006. The original developer was Raven Software and the original publisher was Activision. I mentioned in my previous Spider-Man article that Activision had the game publishing rights to several Marvel titles. That was until a few years ago when the rights were moved to different studios.
Raven Software set the standard for comic book characters in the action role-playing genre. The studio originally put their name on the map with X-Men Legends in 2004, and X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse in 2005. These games became a sort of testing grounds for the Ultimate Alliance (MUA) formula.
Many action or adventure games focus on one character and are linear experiences. Whereas action role-playing games like the ones mentioned above feature a cast of playable characters and allow tremendous freedom in exploration and combat, with an experience that can be repeated under different scenarios. In these titles, gamers explore stages based on actual comic stories and fight the villains from them. Audiences can revisit certain levels again and again to unlock characters, powers, and various secrets. In fact, players are rewarded by going through stages with different characters.
The Legends series was based on the X-Men, a team of super-powered mutants. Many of the iconic members of the team were playable in the games, including Wolverine, Cyclops, Colossus, Storm, and the Phoenix, each with individualized attacks that players could use and customize; e.g. Cyclops shot optic laser blasts, Storm caused lightning strikes, and Wolverine fought with razor-sharp Adamantium claws. They faced off against classic rivals, like Sabertooth, Magneto, and the Juggernaut. The more that players used these characters the stronger they became. This gave the title a tremendous replay value.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 1 & 2
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance built on that formula from Legends and expanded on the universe. Now audiences could choose from different Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and stand-alone characters like Ghost Rider, Daredevil and Deadpool.
In 2009 a new developer took over the franchise. Vicarious Visions created Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2. The studio updated the graphics and gameplay mechanics. Visually the characters looked more like their comic book counterparts. In the previous game, they were shown as more realistic.
For comic book fans, it was the best of all worlds. The controls were solid, the graphics captured the spirit of the icons, there was a fun story to play through inspired by the events of Marvel’s Civil War. The game also introduced audiences to a “fusion” attack. These were unique attacks that could be created by combining the forces of any two characters’ special abilities in the game. Players could experiment and try out cool combinations like Spider-Man and Black Panther, or Iron Man and Magneto, and see what effects they produced. It was easily of one of the most memorable action role-playing games of all time. Sadly it would take a decade before a new game was announced.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is being developed by Team Ninja and published by Koei Tecmo Games. The Marvel universe hangs in the balance (doesn’t it always?) as the heroes are under siege by Thanos and the Black Order. This game promises to take the heroes all over the Marvel universe, including the furthest reaches of space in their fight against Thanos.
The Black Order has been featured in comics as well as in the movies. These are the elite group of warriors that accompanied Thanos in the Avengers: Infinity War film. The members are Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, Supergiant and Cull Obsidian (aka Black Dwarf). Proxima and Corvus are married, and Cull is Corvus’ brother. You may know that they refer to each other as a family.
Standing against Thanos and his super-powered team are Marvel’s biggest heroes. There are 28 playable characters that have been revealed thus far, including members of the Avengers, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, Defenders, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, and the Inhumans. The Fantastic Four have not officially be announced but will hopefully appear. Either way, this is looking to be one of the biggest lineups in the history of action role-playing games. It is too early to speculate if additional characters, stages or costumes will be available as downloadable content (DLC).
Raven Software and Vicarious Visions have a proven track record. What about this new developer? Team Ninja is well known to gamers. The developer had a string of arcade and console hits going back to the ’80s. Their two biggest franchises being Ninja Gaiden, and Dead or Alive. The studio didn’t have much experience in the action role-playing genre with the exception of Nioh, which came out in 2017. That game was set in a fictional feudal Japan where players faced tradition
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is the studio’s first major western-based comic book title. They are taking the elements that made the previous MUA games hits and bu
If you have a Nintendo Switch and love the Marvel Universe then be sure to pre-order this game today.
https://www.marvel.com/games/
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