A decade after Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 came out, the series returns in curious circumstances. This isn't an Activision gig, published to all the platforms of the time. Nor is it a Raven Software or Vicarious Visions development, as the originals were respectively. Rather, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is developed by Team Ninja, the people behind Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden and Nioh, and published by Nintendo exclusively for the Switch. Such a change! Still, despite this publisher and developer shakeup, Nintendo has taken an old-school approach - for better and for worse.
The formula follows its predecessors closely: four Marvel characters on-screen, smashing scores of enemies to bits using a combination of light and heavy attacks, special attacks and screen-clearing ultimate attacks. With the camera in the classic view (there's a new "heroic" perspective that puts the camera closer to the character you control, but I didn't use it because I like to see as much of the arena as possible), MUA3 has a Diablo vibe to it, as its predecessors did. Combat is the focus. Tweaking the makeup of your team to trigger stat bonuses, such as "Heavy Hitters" and "Big Brains", is merely the preamble to the bashing of buttons.
Thankfully, the combat is as satisfying as it needs to be for this kind of game. Everything benefits from the new cel-shaded art style, which makes for a more colourful and vibrant look than the previous two games and puts Crystal Dynamics' laughable look for Marvel's The Avongers to shame. The black outlines make the action pop and help you keep track of your characters amid the fast-paced fighting. When you do area of effect attacks on lots of enemies, there's a nice audio ping and big damage numbers crash zoom into your face. We've seen this kind of thing done before and better, of course, and Blizzard remains the master of the crit, but MUA3 is not without a sense of impact.
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