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Netflix’s GLOW is more than just a compelling comedy/drama exploring relationships, life, and work. It’s loosely based on the real-life Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, a wrestling promotion comprised entirely of women. For many people, the draw of GLOW is the backdrop of a struggling wrestling promotion. Season 1 saw the cast learning to wrestle and putting on a show, while Season 2 explored putting together a weekly television series and running the promotion to the best of their abilities.

GLOW returns to Netflix for its third season on August 9, relocating the wrestlers to Las Vegas, performing for tourists looking to win big. However, this season is a big gamble as it moves away from the show’s thematic backdrop in order to primarily focus on everything and anything aside from wrestling, which was a disappointment.

For Season 3, the women of GLOW are off to Vegas to work a nightly show on the strip at the Fan-Tan Hotel and Casino run by former showgirl Sandy Devereaux St. Clair (Geena Davis). They perform while continuing to adjust to the Vegas atmosphere and living away from their Los Angeles home. Very quickly, the show hammers in the idea that these women are in a tedious and never-ending cycle of performing the same show night after night.

At its heart, GLOW Season 3 has its merits even if it isn’t what fans expect, given what they’ve seen in previous seasons. It explores the relationships between the women working for GLOW, both platonic and romantic, while progressing its characters arcs. However, the main problem with the season is how far it strays from its roots. The show is about a wrestling promotion and the people within it, but wrestling feels like largely forgotten throughout Season 3. It is treated like an afterthought at best. There are four episodes, at most, of this 10 episode season that actually deal with this aspect. Sure, these women are performing the same routine every day so how in-depth can GLOW get into this aspect of the show when its non-stop repetition for them?

That question isn’t rhetorical by any means because GLOW answers it roughly mid-way through the season with an episode revolving mainly around Tammé (Kia Stevens AKA Awesome Kong in AEW) dealing with her body hurting from the daily routine while wanting to do her job, a constant struggle for those who perform and love the industry. Additionally, there is an episode later on–when the women end their first contract at the Fan-Tan–where the wrestlers switch it up and play each other’s characters to break the cycle of repetition.

Every character’s arc is more about their outside life rather than the show they’ve created and continue to produce. This is only one half of the equation. At times, there is a lot to keep track of since this is an ensemble cast, and there could be a few episodes between the continuation of their stories. It is a battle to keep track of what’s going on, as some of the less-impactful stories fall by the wayside, while other, more interesting, stories don’t get the full focus they should. A prime example of this is Carmen reconnecting with her wrestler brother, which is boiled down to a couple of scenes in the season. Carmen’s wrestling family roots were a jumping-off point for Season 1, and seeing her family back in her life will lead her to some very interesting decisions in the future. Without going too much into detail about how this plays out throughout the season, it is something that could have used more of the spotlight for this season, as the story felt rushed.

However, there are still many bright spots that shimmer within Season 3 of GLOW. The director of the show Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron) forms a closer bond with his estranged daughter Justine (Britt Baron), as she follows in her father’s footsteps. Although Sam isn’t as integral a part of the GLOW wrestling show as previous seasons–he feels he doesn’t need to be as present for the daily show–he evolves a lot as a character here. His cynicism slowly fades, and you start to see him get a new lease on life. The same goes for his daughter Justine, as she’s grown older and come into her own, finding out that she’s a fantastic writer. Seeing these two branch out from GLOW may not be something fans want to see, but the way the story is paced and cut between the episodes this season leads you to want them to have their own series. And viewers are treated to an episode focussing primarily on Sam and Justine’s trip to Hollywood which is one of the highlights of the entire season as the two grow closer.

Additionally, Debbie (Betty Gilpin) grows a lot throughout this season and goes through some drastic changes as she juggles producing GLOW, being away from her child, keeping her friendship with Ruth afloat, and finding love. She has the most dynamic arc throughout the season, and Gilpin dominates her performance. Her story is complicated, as is her character, but she is the best part of Season 3, and there is a huge moment during the season finale, which will make fans extremely excited for Season 4.

Season 3 of GLOW feels transitional, as if it’s leading to something far more exciting with Season 4. The series is left at a place where many of the problems–some unsettled–could easily be swept under the rug for later offerings. There is a whole story introducing entertainer Bobby Barnes (Kevin Cahoon) who has a variety drag show. The character of Barnes may be interesting, but everything about the story feels completely throw-away. There is also a mud wrestling sequence, which is out of place and will cause the audience extreme whiplash as they try to find their footing and figure out why this scene is in the series in the first place.

It’s not to say that Season 3 doesn’t matter though. There are some key character storylines here that will ultimately be extremely important for the future, primarily involving Debbie, Sam, Carmen, and Justine. Much of the excellent content from this season takes place in the final episode, “A Very GLOW Christmas.” This is where everything the audience needs to know for Season 4 is set up, with the backdrop being a retelling of A Christmas Carol starring Zoya as Scrooge. There are moments like this which are reminiscent of the fun of GLOW–which the pinnacle was Season 2, Episode 8, “The Good Twin” where viewers were treated to an on-air version of the TV show.

The latest offering of Netflix’s comedic drama feels less fun than previous seasons. Tonally, it’s much more serious, dealing with these character’s life-altering problems rather than the goofiness of trying to figure out what professional wrestling is or putting on an entertaining show. The show steps away from actual wrestling, even when wrestling is a daily event for these women, which is a strange choice.

GLOW Season 3 debuts on Netflix on August 9, and the first two seasons are currently available to stream.

The NPD Group has released its report for June 2019, and it wasn’t a great month for the United States video game industry. Every tracked category–software, hardware, and accessories/game cards–posted a year-over-year decrease in sales. In total, across all categories, spending for June 2019 reached $959 million; that’s down 13 percent year-over-year.

In terms of game sales, Super Mario Maker 2 was June’s top-seller. Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled, Mortal Kombat 11, Grand Theft Auto V, and Minecraft rounded out the top five. As for Mario Maker 2, its launch month sales were stronger than the first game in September 2015 and Super Mario Maker for 3DS in December 2016.

Nitro Fueled’s June sales amounted to the highest launch-month sales in the history of the Crash Bandicoot series. The N. Sane Trilogy was the previous record-holder.

As for Mortal Kombat 11, it continues to be the best-selling game of 2019. Additionally, with June’s sales accounted for, Mortal Kombat 11 has now passed the lifetime sales of 2011’s Mortal Kombat, but it’s still behind y Mortal Kombat X and Mortal Kombat III.

Total spending on video games in the US for June 2019 amounted to $386 million, which is down 1 percent.

Moving to hardware, the Nintendo Switch was the top-selling system of June, while it is also the No. 1 best-seller for the entire first half of 2019 in terms of unit and dollar sales. It’s expected that the PS4 and Xbox One would be performing comparatively poorly due to their age relative to the Switch. Next-generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony are expected to release in Holiday 2020.

Total hardware spending for June 2019 fell a dramatic 33 percent to $235 million. Only the Nintendo Switch posted year-over-year growth.

In terms of accessories and game cards, spending dropped 7 percent to $338 million. Sony’s black DualShock 4 controller was the top-selling accessory of June 2019 and the entire year so far.

Top 20 Best-Selling Games Of June 2019

1. Super Mario Maker 2*
2. Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled
3. Mortal Kombat 11
4. Grand Theft Auto V
5. Minecraft#
6. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
7. Spider-Man
8. NBA 2K19
9. Mario Kart 8*
10. Days Gone
11. Rainbow Six Siege
12. Red Dead Redemption II
13. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
14. MLB 19: The Show
15. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4^
16. The Division 2^
17. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
18. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
19. Super Mario Party*
20. God of War

*Digital sales not included

^PC digital sales not included

#Minecraft digital sales on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One included

Marvel’s popularity has grown exponentially in the 10 years since Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 was first released, as forays into shared universes in both film and TV have propelled the company to the forefront of pop culture relevance. Previously obscure characters such as the Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther have risen to prominence thanks to appearances in movies, becoming household names, while new characters like Miles Morales, Ms. Marvel, and Spider-Gwen have made their debuts in the vibrant pages of comic books. The stacked roster in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order reflects the past 10 years of Marvel’s history, assembling a cast of beloved characters, both old and new, that extends its reach into almost every corner of the cosmos. The diversity of Ultimate Alliance’s playable characters has always been the series’ strongest aspect, and that remains true in Ultimate Alliance 3, where our favorite heroes team up for an enjoyable adventure brimming with synergized action.

Much like its predecessors, Ultimate Alliance 3 is an isometric action-RPG, hack-and-slash hybrid featuring four playable characters at any one time that you can switch between on the fly. There are a couple of left-field character inclusions counted amongst its comprehensive roster, like the monster-hunting Elsa Bloodstone and The Inhumans’ Crystal, but it’s an otherwise familiar list of names that features everyone from Hawkeye and Doctor Strange to Iron Man and Thor. Somewhat predictably, the plot revolves around the Infinity Stones after a Guardians of the Galaxy-related mishap scatters them across the Earth and into the hands of the evil-doers in Marvel’s rogues’ gallery.

Thanos and his ruthless Black Order play their part, but the story is less Marvel Cinematic Universe and more Saturday morning cartoon. That works in the game’s favor, and the light-hearted writing and enthusiastic voice acting carry a narrative that does as much as it can with so many characters vying for screen time. There are fun one-liners, and the characters feel true to the ones we know, with their iterations pulling from the MCU, comics, and TV. It also helps that this isn’t simply a rehash of well-trodden ground, despite the presence of many common elements. Instead, Ultimate Alliance 3 tells an original tale that takes some inspiration from 1991’s The Infinity Gauntlet, while also encompassing various aspects of Marvel’s films, comic books, and TV shows to create something of its own.

You only need to glance at the roster to see how Ultimate Alliance 3 pulls from every eclectic branch of the Marvel machine. Costumes and character designs are judiciously plucked from numerous sources–all homogenized by a uniform comic book-inspired art style that’s full of color. The most important thing about these characters, however, is how each of them feels to play. Each hero has light and heavy attacks that can unleash various combos, as well as four super abilities that are gradually unlocked as each character levels up. There’s also a block that negates some damage and a handy roll for dodging out of danger. Simple stuff. What elevates Ultimate Alliance 3’s combat is the variety inherent to each of its heroes and the numerous ways in which they work in tandem. Take someone like Captain America, for example, who’s all about punching enemies in the face and following up with a vibranium shield to the ribs. He plays a lot differently to a ranged character like Star-Lord, who is ideally suited to fighting from a distance with his dual elemental pistols and flight-enabling jet boots. The differences aren’t just restricted to each hero’s choice of weaponry or traversal, either; the Hulk is a lumbering force of nature, Wolverine strikes with quick and agile ferocity, and myriad damage types like piercing, ethereal, fire, and ice differentiate each character even further.

Then there are the abilities that tap into every hero’s spate of superpowers. An energy meter governs how often you can let loose with these snazzy attacks, but Ultimate Alliance 3 is fairly generous about replenishing any lost energy in rapid fashion. This is important because using these abilities with abandon and combining them with others is a ton of fun. The basic light/heavy combat is satisfying on its own. There’s a lot of button mashing, but fights can get pretty hectic when enemy projectiles are bouncing all over the screen, so you still need to be wary of your positioning and be able to avoid danger. Abilities add another layer, letting you blast away a crowd of goons with a wrecking ball comprised of Spider-Man’s webs, spin Mjolnir around in a deadly electrified circle, or mow down anyone unfortunate enough to get in the way of Ghost Rider’s hellfire bike.

Proximity to teammates also allows you to combine certain abilities with others to unleash devastating synergy attacks that amplify their damage output, whether it’s Iron Man reflecting his beam off Captain America’s shield or Deadpool tossing a deluge of grenades as Storm shoots a bolt of lightning out of her fingertips. Dole out enough punishment and you can activate a big Alliance Extreme attack that triggers all four of your character’s synergy attacks at once, filling the screen with a vivid cascade of particle effects, explosions, and ever-increasing damage numbers. The frame rate can take a hit during these moments, but you’re just watching the fireworks at that point, so it isn’t really an issue in gameplay.

The diversity of Ultimate Alliance’s playable characters has always been the series’ strongest aspect, and that remains true in Ultimate Alliance 3, where our favorite heroes team up for an enjoyable adventure brimming with synergized action

The level design is fairly straightforward, funneling you down corridors and into more open areas with little deviation. This does, however, lend itself to a sense of forward momentum as you’re constantly encountering new foes to fight. The only thing that slows it down are some terribly dull puzzles that are fortunately few and far between, revolving around pressing levers and pushing boxes, and a camera that has a tendency to get stuck behind objects or jitter up and down when not completely stuck. This is an occasional problem during combat when you’re momentarily blind to enemy attacks, but it can be an annoyance when simply traversing as well.

It’s a shame you can’t just forget the camera is even there because each level takes place in a new location and the environments on show are fantastically varied. Dimension-hopping allows the action to venture away from Earth and into some of Marvel’s more outlandish settings as you barrel towards the end credits, and Ultimate Alliance 3 makes good use of the sheer number of enemy factions that exist in the Marvel universe. Within the first couple of hours you’ll brawl your way through The Raft and tangle with Spider-Man’s nemeses before joining Daredevil and Iron Fist in a battle against The Hand’s ninja army. This makes for a disparate mix of enemy types and aesthetics that keeps each level feeling fresh, and the same can be said of the plethora of boss fights you regularly encounter, too.

Facing off against the likes of Green Goblin, Dormammu, and Ultron can be quite challenging by yourself on the default difficulty level. Fortunately, there’s a surprising amount of depth when it comes to upgrading each hero. Aside from accumulating XP to unlock more abilities, you can also spend currency to enhance each of their powers, reducing the energy cost or improving their potency. There’s also a sprawling hexagonal skill tree that allows you to purchase stat increases that are applied to every hero on the roster, whether you’re improving their strength, vitality, and resilience or unlocking various offensive and defensive buffs. Meanwhile, ISO-8 crystals give you the opportunity to apply additional bonuses to specific heroes. It’s minute stuff like increasing health or decreasing damage under certain conditions, but it makes a difference and gives you a degree of customization that can be used to turn the tide of battle–and that’s without even mentioning the importance of your chosen team’s makeup.

Picking heroes that work well together applies various team bonuses that can further enhance their stats. This is based on tangibles like their team affiliation, intelligence, agility, and so on. You could assemble a team of the original Avengers, the X-Men, Defenders, or Midnight Sons and see an increase in particular stats that will also take into account whether any of the heroes have shared traits like “wisecracking warrior” or “anti-hero.” Maybe you want to compile a team of web-slingers, Marvel royalty, or one that encompasses the women of Marvel. You have the opportunity to recreate canon teams or mix and match to create your own based on which bonuses are applied and how they can benefit you.

The only problem with all of this is that heroes only level up when you use them. Increases in strength, vitality and other similar skills are applied to everyone, but as you reach the latter half of the campaign, the lack of abilities, their upgrades, and the capability to equip multiple ISO-8s is keenly felt in your lower-level heroes, which means you end up neglecting most of the roster because they just aren’t powerful enough. The workaround for this comes in the shape of XP boosts you can discover within levels and by completing optional Infinity Rifts that task you with repeating modified boss fights and challenges to earn different rewards. Getting enough XP boosts can be a long, grindy process, though, and that’s just to get enough to significantly level up a single character. The diversity of Ultimate Alliance 3’s roster is one of its core pillars, so feeling restricted to only using a few heroes during its final hours is a glaring disappointment.

More so than its predecessors, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order excels because of its character diversity and the ways its disparate heroes work together. For this reason alone it’s an ideal co-op game, whether you’re playing with another friend in the same room or with three friends online, but the AI more than holds its own if you’re playing alone, too. It falters in places, but there’s still nothing quite like the Ultimate Alliance series, and this long-awaited third entry makes it a triumphant return for a superhero brawler that feels more relevant than ever.

Editor’s note: This review will be updated and finalized once we’ve tested more of the cooperative multiplayer, both locally and online, after the servers are populated.

Microsoft reported earnings for its latest period today, and the company’s gaming numbers were up and down. For the quarter ended June 30, total gaming revenue for Microsoft was $2.053 billion, which is down 10 percent from $2.286 billion this quarter last year.

Hardware revenue specifically was down 48 percent due to a decrease in the number of consoles sold. A downturn in console sales is to be expected, given the Xbox One has been on sale since 2013. It’s also a historical pattern that console sales drop before the release of new hardware, and that seems to be the case here with Project Scarlett slated for release in Holiday 2020.

Another thing to consider is that the money in gaming is made with software and services, not console hardware. It’s not just Microsoft that’s experiencing a downturn in hardware sales. The NPD Group reported today that total hardware spending in the United States fell 33 percent year-over-year. PS4 sales are falling as well; only the Nintendo Switch posted year-over-year growth.

Microsoft’s gaming revenue from software and services for the period was down a more modest 3 percent. Microsoft said this downturn was due in part to the same quarter last year being exceptionally strong due to a “third-party title,” which is likely a reference to Fortnite. Also, Microsoft said its subscription revenue grew in the latest quarter, which is a positive.

Microsoft has recently expanded its subscription revenue category through Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The new streaming service, xCloud, could be yet another channel of subscription revenue for Microsoft when the platform rolls out later this year.

Another positive for Microsoft is that Xbox Live users grew to 65 million for the quarter, which is up 14 percent compared to the 57 million members that Microsoft reported a year ago.

Microsoft is one of the biggest companies on planet Earth, and gaming is just one part of its businesses. Altogether, Microsoft posted revenue of $33.7 billion for the quarter, which was up 12 percent. Additionally, Microsoft made $13.2 billion in profit for the three-month period.

Looking ahead, Sony, Nintendo, and EA will all announce their own earnings on July 30, while Take-Two and Activision will follow in August.

Marvel’s popularity has grown exponentially in the 10 years since Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 was first released, as forays into shared universes in both film and TV have propelled the company to the forefront of pop culture relevance. Previously obscure characters such as the Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther have risen to prominence thanks to appearances in movies, becoming household names, while new characters like Miles Morales, Ms. Marvel, and Spider-Gwen have made their debuts in the vibrant pages of comic books. The stacked roster in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order reflects the past 10 years of Marvel’s history, assembling a cast of beloved characters, both old and new, that extends its reach into almost every corner of the cosmos. The diversity of Ultimate Alliance’s playable characters has always been the series’ strongest aspect, and that remains true in Ultimate Alliance 3, where our favorite heroes team up for an enjoyable adventure brimming with synergized action.

Much like its predecessors, Ultimate Alliance 3 is an isometric action-RPG, hack-and-slash hybrid featuring four playable characters at any one time that you can switch between on the fly. There are a couple of left-field character inclusions counted amongst its comprehensive roster, like the monster-hunting Elsa Bloodstone and The Inhumans’ Crystal, but it’s an otherwise familiar list of names that features everyone from Hawkeye and Doctor Strange to Iron Man and Thor. Somewhat predictably, the plot revolves around the Infinity Stones after a Guardians of the Galaxy-related mishap scatters them across the Earth and into the hands of the evil-doers in Marvel’s rogues’ gallery.

Thanos and his ruthless Black Order play their part, but the story is less Marvel Cinematic Universe and more Saturday morning cartoon. That works in the game’s favor, and the light-hearted writing and enthusiastic voice acting carry a narrative that does as much as it can with so many characters vying for screen time. There are fun one-liners, and the characters feel true to the ones we know, with their iterations pulling from the MCU, comics, and TV. It also helps that this isn’t simply a rehash of well-trodden ground, despite the presence of many common elements. Instead, Ultimate Alliance 3 tells an original tale that takes some inspiration from 1991’s The Infinity Gauntlet, while also encompassing various aspects of Marvel’s films, comic books, and TV shows to create something of its own.

You only need to glance at the roster to see how Ultimate Alliance 3 pulls from every eclectic branch of the Marvel machine. Costumes and character designs are judiciously plucked from numerous sources–all homogenized by a uniform comic book-inspired art style that’s full of color. The most important thing about these characters, however, is how each of them feels to play. Each hero has light and heavy attacks that can unleash various combos, as well as four super abilities that are gradually unlocked as each character levels up. There’s also a block that negates some damage and a handy roll for dodging out of danger. Simple stuff. What elevates Ultimate Alliance 3’s combat is the variety inherent to each of its heroes and the numerous ways in which they work in tandem. Take someone like Captain America, for example, who’s all about punching enemies in the face and following up with a vibranium shield to the ribs. He plays a lot differently to a ranged character like Star-Lord, who is ideally suited to fighting from a distance with his dual elemental pistols and flight-enabling jet boots. The differences aren’t just restricted to each hero’s choice of weaponry or traversal, either; the Hulk is a lumbering force of nature, Wolverine strikes with quick and agile ferocity, and myriad damage types like piercing, ethereal, fire, and ice differentiate each character even further.

Then there are the abilities that tap into every hero’s spate of superpowers. An energy meter governs how often you can let loose with these snazzy attacks, but Ultimate Alliance 3 is fairly generous about replenishing any lost energy in rapid fashion. This is important because using these abilities with abandon and combining them with others is a ton of fun. The basic light/heavy combat is satisfying on its own. There’s a lot of button mashing, but fights can get pretty hectic when enemy projectiles are bouncing all over the screen, so you still need to be wary of your positioning and be able to avoid danger. Abilities add another layer, letting you blast away a crowd of goons with a wrecking ball comprised of Spider-Man’s webs, spin Mjolnir around in a deadly electrified circle, or mow down anyone unfortunate enough to get in the way of Ghost Rider’s hellfire bike.

Proximity to teammates also allows you to combine certain abilities with others to unleash devastating synergy attacks that amplify their damage output, whether it’s Iron Man reflecting his beam off Captain America’s shield or Deadpool tossing a deluge of grenades as Storm shoots a bolt of lightning out of her fingertips. Dole out enough punishment and you can activate a big Alliance Extreme attack that triggers all four of your character’s synergy attacks at once, filling the screen with a vivid cascade of particle effects, explosions, and ever-increasing damage numbers. The frame rate can take a hit during these moments, but you’re just watching the fireworks at that point, so it isn’t really an issue in gameplay.

The diversity of Ultimate Alliance’s playable characters has always been the series’ strongest aspect, and that remains true in Ultimate Alliance 3, where our favorite heroes team up for an enjoyable adventure brimming with synergized action

The level design is fairly straightforward, funneling you down corridors and into more open areas with little deviation. This does, however, lend itself to a sense of forward momentum as you’re constantly encountering new foes to fight. The only thing that slows it down are some terribly dull puzzles that are fortunately few and far between, revolving around pressing levers and pushing boxes, and a camera that has a tendency to get stuck behind objects or jitter up and down when not completely stuck. This is an occasional problem during combat when you’re momentarily blind to enemy attacks, but it can be an annoyance when simply traversing as well.

It’s a shame you can’t just forget the camera is even there because each level takes place in a new location and the environments on show are fantastically varied. Dimension-hopping allows the action to venture away from Earth and into some of Marvel’s more outlandish settings as you barrel towards the end credits, and Ultimate Alliance 3 makes good use of the sheer number of enemy factions that exist in the Marvel universe. Within the first couple of hours you’ll brawl your way through The Raft and tangle with Spider-Man’s nemeses before joining Daredevil and Iron Fist in a battle against The Hand’s ninja army. This makes for a disparate mix of enemy types and aesthetics that keeps each level feeling fresh, and the same can be said of the plethora of boss fights you regularly encounter, too.

Facing off against the likes of Green Goblin, Dormammu, and Ultron can be quite challenging by yourself on the default difficulty level. Fortunately, there’s a surprising amount of depth when it comes to upgrading each hero. Aside from accumulating XP to unlock more abilities, you can also spend currency to enhance each of their powers, reducing the energy cost or improving their potency. There’s also a sprawling hexagonal skill tree that allows you to purchase stat increases that are applied to every hero on the roster, whether you’re improving their strength, vitality, and resilience or unlocking various offensive and defensive buffs. Meanwhile, ISO-8 crystals give you the opportunity to apply additional bonuses to specific heroes. It’s minute stuff like increasing health or decreasing damage under certain conditions, but it makes a difference and gives you a degree of customization that can be used to turn the tide of battle–and that’s without even mentioning the importance of your chosen team’s makeup.

Picking heroes that work well together applies various team bonuses that can further enhance their stats. This is based on tangibles like their team affiliation, intelligence, agility, and so on. You could assemble a team of the original Avengers, the X-Men, Defenders, or Midnight Sons and see an increase in particular stats that will also take into account whether any of the heroes have shared traits like “wisecracking warrior” or “anti-hero.” Maybe you want to compile a team of web-slingers, Marvel royalty, or one that encompasses the women of Marvel. You have the opportunity to recreate canon teams or mix and match to create your own based on which bonuses are applied and how they can benefit you.

The only problem with all of this is that heroes only level up when you use them. Increases in strength, vitality and other similar skills are applied to everyone, but as you reach the latter half of the campaign, the lack of abilities, their upgrades, and the capability to equip multiple ISO-8s is keenly felt in your lower-level heroes, which means you end up neglecting most of the roster because they just aren’t powerful enough. The workaround for this comes in the shape of XP boosts you can discover within levels and by completing optional Infinity Rifts that task you with repeating modified boss fights and challenges to earn different rewards. Getting enough XP boosts can be a long, grindy process, though, and that’s just to get enough to significantly level up a single character. The diversity of Ultimate Alliance 3’s roster is one of its core pillars, so feeling restricted to only using a few heroes during its final hours is a glaring disappointment.

More so than its predecessors, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order excels because of its character diversity and the ways its disparate heroes work together. For this reason alone it’s an ideal co-op game, whether you’re playing with another friend in the same room or with three friends online, but the AI more than holds its own if you’re playing alone, too. It falters in places, but there’s still nothing quite like the Ultimate Alliance series, and this long-awaited third entry makes it a triumphant return for a superhero brawler that feels more relevant than ever.

Editor’s note: This review will be updated and finalized once we’ve tested more of the cooperative multiplayer, both locally and online, after the servers are populated.