Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 Review: 7 Ups & 6 Downs

3. An Awesome Roster With Unique Heroes

When it comes to the roster for an Ultimate Alliance game, there are inevitably going to be omissions. Consequently, when Team Ninja announced the bulk of the 30-plus characters, a lot of the focus was on the heroes and villains who didn't make the cut. Where were the Fantastic Four? Silver Surfer? What about smaller characters like Blade?

Those criticisms kind of miss the forest for the trees though, as the devs have done a fantastic job of compiling a bunch of varied, complimentary characters to team up as. For the most part, the huge staples are covered, while smaller characters like Ms. Marvel, Spider-Gwen and Elsa Bloodstone get chances to shine amongst the more popular players.

As a result, you're encouraged to mix up the team at every step, rather than simply stick to the heroes you recognise. Even better, despite having a huge roster starring characters with similar powers (just look at how many web-slingers there are), each one feels genuinely distinct. They're not radically different, but each character has a unique fighting style and set of abilities that stops them becoming interchangeable in a way some heroes were in the earlier games.

You won't just find four you love and stick with them for the entire game, and if anything, will be frustrated that you couldn't have spent more time with more heroes by the time the credits roll.