came out almost ten years ago. In that time the Marvel brand has exploded to become arguably the biggest media property on the planet. This family of franchises and faces has become synonymous with the popular culture, so it's an opportune time to wheel out another crossover extravaganza featuring a...

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is like many Hollywood blockbusters: Good fun, little substance. Considering it crams many of the most well-known movie characters around into one over-the-top experience, its identity as an epic crossover event makes sense.

Humongous cast of playable heroes; Flashy animations; Fun co-op; Low barrier to entry; No microtransactions

Repetitive button mashing; Stale environments; Hindering leveling system; Frivolous RPG mechanics

"I don't see any other doors," says Iron Fist, as we come up against one of the ninja clan The Hand's nefarious traps. "We'll have to solve this puzzle if we want to get through the door." The statues are a few centimetres away from glowing floor tiles.

A wide range of Marvel characters; Miles Morales! Spider-Gwen; Plenty of locations and references fans will recognise

Fighting is competent but not that exciting; RPG features are cut back and lacklustre; Poor continuation of the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance franchise

The old co-op action role-playing series makes an unexpected return as a Switch exclusive – but how super is it really

Large cast of characters with a fun visual style and script; Four player co-op is good mindless fun and there's plenty of content

Extremely shallow and repetitive combat, with very limited role-playing elements; Character powers are never as unique as they first seem

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is mindless video game fun that never asks you to take it seriously. It also feels outdated for a full-price game, while the skin-deep, repetitive nature of the gameplay will likely cause some players to bounce off it before they reach the credits. But if you’ve got a Nintendo Switch, some friends and you love Marvel, there are far less entertaining ways to spend an evening.

Easy-to-learn combat; Loads of Marvel fans service; Various co-op options;

Camera struggles to keep up at times; Very repetitive; Forgettable story;

Easy-to-learn combat; Loads of Marvel fans service; Various co-op options;

Camera struggles to keep up at times; Very repetitive; Forgettable story;

Can Team Ninja deliver a super hero of epic proportions or should this series have been left on the back-burner

+ Excellent character roster; + Some great looking animations and effects; + Lots of variety between levels; + Cutscenes look excellent; + Voice acting is mostly on-point

- Bizarre difficulty spikes, - Questionable leveling system, - Massive fights can be hard to make out in handheld mode with all of the effects going off; - Combat is far too simple

Assemble your ultimate team of Marvel superheroes from a huge cast including the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the X-Men, and more!

Marvel diehards will certainly enjoy the fanservice on offer here, but even if you have no idea who the bloody hell Scarlet Witch is, there's a solid Hack ‘n Slash to play through, if you're willing to overlook its flaws.

Good; mindless fun; especially in co-op; Marvel fans will get a lot out of the 36 characters on offer; Voice acting is entertaining throughout

Hack ‘n Slash gameplay might get repetitive for some; Long loading times; Some serious camera issues in single-screen co-op; Not enough Deadpool dialogue

I've always known about the Ultimate Alliance games but despite multiple attempts to get into the series I never quite gelled with them. Marvel has never been my thing, but as games, they always seemed a bit too simplistic and I could never find the right group of friends to jump in.

Diverse Roster; Nice Art; Great Co-Op

Simplistic Combat; Online Limitations