Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is a fun, if fairly simple, comic book beat-em-up that's enjoyable alone or with friends alike.

The long-dormant series returns in a superhero caper that excels because of its diversity and synergized action.

With this surprise Switch exclusive, Nintendo has taken an old-school approach - for better and for worse.

Come for the crunchy combat and stay for the seductive systems that will keep you playing long after the compelling campaign has been conquered.

The bland level designs and baffling character progression hold the action back and make it somewhat of a slog

There's plenty of room for improvement, but I had fun playing through Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3. With the Marvel IP less muddled and the simplicity of this deal between Marvel and Nintendo, I'd love to see another with enhancements in tow.

If an animated rehash of 10 years’ worth of movies and television is the framing needed to get me an action role-playing game as rich, challenging and satisfying as Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, then so be it.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order isn't a groundbreaking, narrative-heavy reinterpretation of the comic characters you know and love, but then again neither were the first two games. In that regard, it's a very faithful sequel that mines the vast roster of characters from the comics while including plenty of nods to the current state of the more modern Marvel Cinematic Universe. While it doesn't do anything particularly new or outstanding, it embraces the brainless fun of its brawler combat with gusto, and it's at its absolute best when played with a team of player-controlled supers.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 proves itself as an enjoyable, if not straightforward, isometric RPG that doesn't strive to be more than it is.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 retains much of the formula that made the original games the best of their genre.