Marvel Cosmic Invasion review for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch

Beat’em ups certainly have seen a revival as of late and Marvel as a company have certainly offered up their characters to partake in this genre throughout the years, X-Men, Captain America and the Avengers, Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage and depending on your perspective (isometric ¾ view) the Marvel Ultimate Alliance series. So it makes sense that the House of Ideas would take part in this latest renaissance and boy did they tap the right developer for their latest romp in this genre. Tribute Games, the Montréal based developer, worked on what could be considered the pinnacle of the genre’s recent comeback, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. So will Tribute Games bring something new to the table which will make Marvel Cosmic Invasion a step up from the TMNT brawler or will it just be Shredder’s Revenge with a Super Hero Skin?

Marvel Cosmic Invasion posits the following, What if the 2006 comic event Annihilation took place in the 90s. For those who aren’t big readers of the funny books, or don’t have a time machine to see how the MCU adapts this storyline, here’s a quick summary. Fantastic Four villain Annihilus finds a way to escape his home dimension and invades the Marvel universe. The action primarily takes place in the cosmic realm of the marvel universe, meaning earthbound characters don’t see much action here. However in Tribute Games’ iteration of the event, they do manage to make it to Earth, teaming up with the terrorist organization Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.), Sentinels, Symbiotes and now it’s up to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (Some of them), Mutants and others to stop this invasion.

The campaign sends you across 15 locales in the Marvel Universe, some very recognizable (New York, Wakanda, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier, also we have no idea if Nick Fury in this continuity is white or black), others will require you to head to the Marvel Encyclopedia or a Wiki to confirm it’s real. While they didn’t have to do this, Tribute opted to give each stage’s food power up a “local” twist making it feel like you’re truly traveling the Marvel Universe (Pass on the weird fruit that’s found on Klyntar, but I will indulge in another M.O.D.O.K. popsicle!). I also appreciate that the game’s full roster isn’t available and you do have to fight them as bosses to make them playable.

Speaking of the roster, unlike most beat’em up games where the only difference is really just Power/Speed/Defense, each character in Cosmic plays relatively differently. You have characters that can fly, throw their weapon (Although why Captain America doesn’t have a cooldown on his shield toss, but Beta Ray Bill has “ammo” for his hammer throw is beyond me), fire projectiles, block enemy attacks and even grapple and toss enemies around. No single character is perfect for every scenario which is why I’m sort of glad Tribute opted to implement the following.

The tag system, a single player you will always have to select two heroes when you play. Knowing how to mitigate each hero’s strengths and weaknesses is the only way you’ll survive. Always pick one hero that can dodge when you need to fight shielded enemies, one that blocks so you can disrupt enemy attacks and give yourself an opening and hope that one of your choices can fly…since flying enemies can be a pain to fight. If you find yourself in a jam, you can always summon your partner to get you some breathing room. You can also use the tag system to create some inventive combos…although the game really doesn’t reward high level play.

Each hero can be leveled up which will unlock HP, Focus increases, a character exclusive passive bonus as well as color palettes. For some characters these color palettes are references to alternate costumes from Marvel’s publication history or even video game history (I see you Capcom Blue Venom!), for others the color schemes don’t work very well (You’re the Silver Surfer…not Yellow Tint Surfer). Some color palettes can also be unlocked by spending cosmic cubes found throughout the levels and slotting them into the Cosmic Matrix. The Cosmic Matrix can also unlock music tracks, game modifiers and character profiles.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion absolutely builds on the solid foundation that Tribute laid with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. The stage challenges return and while some can be challenging they never hit the difficulty that some of the challenges Shredder’s Revenge posited (Beat a Stage Unharmed would be left incomplete on my save). We also don’t quite get to navigate a sprawling cosmic map like we did for TMNT’s New York, but I have to say I appreciate the substance over style with that decision. However I will have to say Marvel Cosmic Invasions’ larger character sprites made the environment feel a lot more cramped when compared to what we experienced in Shredder’s Revenge.

Once again Tribute Games does another master course on how beat’em ups should be created. If their work on Shredder’s Revenge is a predictor for the trajectory of Cosmic Invasion, I expect there to be post release modes and characters (If Dev Diary #4’s background comic selection isn’t a teaser then I don’t know what is.) to come for the next year and change. Marvel Cosmic Invasion asks What if beat’em ups were good again and in this story, the answer is yes…yes they are.

Note: Dotemu provided us with a Marvel Cosmic Invasion code for review purposes.