Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order Launches This July, Exclusively On Switch

Nintendo has announced Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order--a Switch exclusive--is scheduled to release on July 19. That puts the launch of The Black Order almost a decade after the release of its predecessor, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.

There are currently 27 playable characters confirmed for The Black Order. The roster has been mostly pulled from the line-up of heroes that compose the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Defenders, Inhumans, and X-Men. However, there are a few outliers as well, such as Deadpool and Venom.

The newest Marvel Ultimate Alliance game seems to be heavily inspired from the successes of recent Marvel movies. Although franchise veterans, such as Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Iron Man, return, they're joined by heroes never before seen in the series, like Falcon, Captain Marvel, Miles Morales, and Gwen Stacey. The main villains in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 are also Thanos and his Black Order--both of which played major roles in Avengers: Infinity War, and the former of which is the big bad in the upcoming Avengers: Endgame.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance is an action role-playing game series that explores stories that involve dozens of heroes and villains from across Marvel's comics. In the first game, Nick Fury calls upon Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor, and Wolverine to respond to an attack from Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil, a battle that ends with the four heroes calling upon all their known allies to join together as one task force in order to track the villainous organization down. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 sees that team divided over the course of a story that borrows elements from both Marvel's Secret War and Civil War comic books. It hasn't been revealed whether Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is a direct continuation of the series' overall story.

You know what's also been about 10 years in the making? Avengers Endgame, which celebrated its imminent release with a brand-new trailer that recounts the greatest moments of the MCU, from 2008's Iron Man to 2019's Captain Marvel. If you're as excited for Endgame as we are, be warned: spoilers for the movie have leaked. Stay vigilant.