#I'm hoping since Cable is back we can see ''Best frenemies'' return from MUA2

[acetokens]

MUA3 returns with ‘The Rise of the Pheonix!’

Despite my worry about a possibly long delay (like...a really, really long delay), MUA3′s new expansion pack, ‘The Rise of the Pheonix’ was announced last night at The VGA! There’s a decent amount of content they showed in the trailer, which I’m gonna be explaining and also theorizing about under the cut! 

Seems Marvel can’t stop rebooting the Dark Pheonix saga over and over, huh? 

I can’t say I’m surprised that this is the basis for the new expansion. MUA3′s storyline was similar to the recently released ‘Infinity War’ so it makes sense the X-Men DLC would try to capitalize on the newest X-Men movie as well. Similarly unsurprising is the character selection we have for this expansion: Cable, Gambit, Iceman and Pheonix. All of them MUA regulars and fan favorities. I predicted these exact four characters would be the ones we got in the DLC in a post months ago, but bragging aside, I’m about as excited for this lineup as I was for the Marvel Knights. I’m happy for those that like the characters but personally they just don’t do it for me. Admittedly I am feeling quite disappointed that X-23 wasn’t included, even if her chances were slim, and that hampers any hype I might’ve gotten about the other characters. Still, I had fun trying out the new Marvel Knights so I’ll probably have fun trying out these new heroes too when they arrive.

Alongside the characters, MUA3 has a brand new mode incoming called ‘Danger Room Showdown’. There isn’t much info on it at the moment, but it seems to be an online, player vs player mode where you complete trials in competition with eachother, whilst trying to avoid ‘debuffs and hazards’. I reckon this’ll either be a mode where players complete trials at the same time and the one who finishes first wins or players take turns completing trials, and the one who isn’t currently fighting gets to try and disrupt the other player by dropping in hazards and such. They had a similar feature in MUA2 on the Wii, where during solo missions, player 2 got to control enemies to make it harder for player 1. I’m hoping this mode has offline features they just haven’t showcased yet, because I don’t have online on the Switch. So if I can’t use this mode at all it’ll be a bummer. Something else I also found interesting is at 0:46 the heroes appear to be fighting the Nova Corps, so we might be getting a new type of enemy to battle, at least in DRS.

The trailer also showcased three more phases for Gauntlet Mode! I really liked Gauntlet Mode’s unique features in the last expansion, so I’m more than happy to see it return with more trials in this one. I strongly suspect that we’ll be able to unlock the new X-Men in phase one of this new Gauntlet, just like the Marvel Knights in the last one. We can also assume from the new Gauntlet menu that MUA3 will see another level cap increase, most likely up to Level 200, as the highest level trial shown is ‘Pheonix Aftermath’ at Level 180. Meaning that the level cap is now double what it was when the game first game out. On the one hand, I’m happy I can now make my favorite heroes even stronger, especially with the new AE upgrades that will likely be added. On the other hand, I’m pretty sick of grinding by this point. Its just not enjoyable anymore. So we’ll see if the new content this expansion offers makes all that grinding worthwhile.

The Japanese trailer for the 2nd expansion also showcases something the western one doesn’t: new costumes!

Alongside the new outfits for Punisher, Moon Knight, Blade and Mobius revealed on the MUA3 Japanese website, that means this new expansion will add 16 costumes (32 if you count the inevitable palette swaps). That’s amazing! Certainly a lot better than the 3-4 we’d get in previous updates. I’m especially excited to unlock Psylocke’s new costume, which I remember her looking amazing in during MUA2.

Thats all we have confirmation on at the moment. If the Curse of the Vampire is anything to go by, we’ll likely receive more than just this when the update drops, since MUA3 seems to be allergic to proper advertisement. If not...well, this update doesn’t look too bad on its own. I’m disappointed about the lack of X-23, but relieved we won’t have to wait until April 2020 like I feared. In fact, this update will drop on the 23rd December 2019. So, we only have to wait 10 days!

Until then...I might go back and replay MUA2 to get me hyped up!