Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 Is Coming To Switch

A major new game for Nintendo Switch was revealed during The Game Awards, and it's an unexpected one. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, a follow-up to the dormant series is in development exclusively for Switch. Like its predecessors, The Black Order is a co-op beat-em-up, featuring veteran characters such as Wolverine and Hulk, but also welcoming newcomers like the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy. The timing worked out nicely, with Avengers: Endgame's trailer dropping this morning.

Perhaps the most surprising news of all: The Black Order is being developed by Team Ninja, the crew behind the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series. Nintendo will publish it. The trailer began with Nebula giving the Guardians of the Galaxy a talking to for dooming the universe.

From that point it's a rapid showcase of the playable cast of characters, which includes Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Gamora, Star-Lord, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, and Spider-Man, among many others. In terms of villains, it looks like the big bad is Thanos, who is equipped with a fully gemmed out Infinity Gauntlet. However, there's a few other surprise villains including The Black Order and X-Men hounders the Sentinels.

In a press release, Nintendo said the game "brings together super heroes and super villains from across the Marvel Universe to battle for the limitless power of the Infinity Gauntlet, one Stone at a time. This unprecedented team of characters must use their unique superpowers to defeat the mad cosmic tyrant Thanos and his ruthless warmasters, The Black Order. The game will feature an original story and a playable cast of dozens of Marvel Super Heroes, including the Avengers, the X-Men, and--for the first time in series history--the Guardians of the Galaxy."

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 has a cel-shaded style, which suits Marvel's characters nicely and brings to mind the recent Marvel Vs. Capcom fighting games. Previous Marvel Ultimate Alliance games had a huge cast, and although the trailer shown during The Game Awards certainly features a good selection of iconic Marvel heroes and villains, we've got our fingers crossed for more reveals in the future.

The new game offers four-player multiplayer support, and players can drop in at any time. Multiplayer covers local and online support, and you can use a single Joy-Con controller to play.