The first announcement of The Game Awards 2019 has been made, as the award ceremony's pre-show is ongoing. Nintendo and Team Ninja have announced the next major DLC pack for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order. Titled X-Men: Rise of the Phoenix, this will be Ultimate Alliance 3's second premium DLC released since the game launched in July on the Nintendo Switch. Like the previous DLC pack, Rise of the Phoenix will feature 4 different characters, only this time they'll all be iconic X-Men.
Rise of the Phoenix's 4 DLC characters will be immediately familiar to X-Men comic, cartoon, or movie fans. The first is the time-traveling mutant Cable, who is wielding a gun so large even his creator Rob Liefeld should be pleased. Movie fans will recognize him from the recent Deadpool 2 film. Character number two is Bobby Drake, the Iceman, with the ability to freeze all in his path. Character three is the New Orleans lover of Rogue, Gambit. Finally, Jean Grey, the Phoenix riding, rounds out DLC Pack 2.
Rise of the Phoenix's 4 X-Men DLC characters won't be the first to join the game. X-Men that are already available to play include Colossus, Cyclops, Magneto, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Storm, and Wolverine. The upcoming 4 coming as DLC will fit perfect with the already-available X-Men. Jean Grey and Iceman are especially important, given that they're two of the original X-Men. The team just needs Beast to get the whole crew together.
This isn't Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3's first premium DLC release. Already available is the Curse of the Vampire DLC pack, the first of three included with Ultimate Alliance 3's Expansion Pass. Curse of the Vampire included Blade, Moon Knight, the Punisher, and Spider-Man villain Morbius. Little is known about DLC Pack 3, but fans can expect it to launch in 2020. If the current DLC release schedule is any clue, DLC Pack 3 should arrive around 3 months after DLC Pack 2.
Perhaps the best news of all about the DLC pack is that Ultimate Alliance 3 players won't have to wait long to play it. The Rise of the Phoenix DLC pack will be available to download starting December 23, less than two weeks from now. DLC Pack 2 can be purchased digitally via Ultimate Alliance 3's Expansion Pass for $19.99.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is available now exclusively on Nintendo Switch.