Marvel Cosmic Invasion Review

I’ve played a lot of 8-bit and 16-bit Beat ‘Em Ups in my life. It’s something I grew up on, with the Sega Genesis being the first console I ever actually played regularly. There were so many different games in this genre back then, from properties like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Marvel to original IPs like Streets of Rage. Recently, we’ve seen a resurgence of games trying to recapture some of that nostalgia with Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind, TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, Battletoads, and Streets of Rage 4. This popularity has led Tribute Games to develop a brand-new game set in the Marvel universe. Find out if this one is worth your time in our Marvel Cosmic Invasion Review!

See our full playthrough here!

Story

Marvel Cosmic Invasion tells its story through quick, static cutscenes featuring a couple of the heroes on the mission. The story is simple, so don’t expect much elaboration here. The enemy Annihilus is sending his Annihilation Wave to sweep across the galaxy. This Annihilation Wave is an interdimensional invading force that has taken over galaxies and slaughtered everyone in its path. That means it’s our job, along with a selection of Marvel heroes, to take Annihilus down and save the day. It’s really all I needed for this type of game, and the short cutscenes added some decent structure to the campaign.

Heroes

Tribute Games limited the list of heroes to 15 at the time of release. Popular picks include Wolverine, Spider-Man, Captain America, Storm, Iron Man, and Black Panther. My personal favorite, Venom, is included, along with Rocket Raccoon, She-Hulk, Nova, and Phoenix. Then you have some of the more obscure choices like Beta Ray Bill, Cosmic Ghost Rider, Phyla-Vell, and even Silver Surfer. There’s a wide variety of characters that give you a lot of freedom in how you play. I really enjoyed choosing different combinations for each level before finally settling on Captain America as one of my choices in the back half of the game.

Each character has a distinctive look because of the beautiful spritework. You can see Eddie Brock beneath the Symbiote during some of Venom’s transitions, Wolverine hunches over ready to pounce, and Phoenix has her hair rise as she’s levitating. This extends to the voicework used for some of the game’s one-liners. These heroes sound exactly like what you would imagine they would sound like when you’re reading a comic. I can’t say enough good things about how well these characters were captured in the game. You can even swap the color palette for each one to your liking if you prefer a different style.

Level Design

Modes and Paths

Marvel Cosmic Invasion doesn’t reinvent the wheel too much in its structure. There is a Campaign Mode or Arcade Mode for those who want a more traditional way to play. The Arcade Mode gives you limited lives and no option to save. There are 15 levels in the game, not counting the tutorial. You’ll visit places like New York City, Savage Land, Asgard, and Wakanda. The stage selection is primarily linear, but a few branching paths are included. The branch doesn’t really matter, so I don’t really see why they didn’t just make it linear. You still have to complete both of the missions on the branching paths, and you’ll want to anyway because the game is relatively short.

Items and Hazards

The levels themselves look fantastic, with a lot of things going on in the background, such as Galactus looking over things and helping you out on one level, and a bunch of experiments stuck in pods in another. It ends up being mostly window dressing, as there isn’t much to interact with. There are boxes with items in them here and there, an environmental hazard like a stream of fire, and maybe a hole to fall into. Dinosaurs try to trample you on one level. Another one requires you to duck and jump over signs on top of a train. There were even machine guns to use sparingly in some of the later levels. The ideas were good here, but it just became a bit repetitive at times without more environmental interaction.

Level Extras

There is a collectible to find in each level to keep you on your toes. We didn’t see many of them on our first run, so they must be pretty well hidden in a lot of the levels. Each level includes three unique challenges. Two of those are hero-specific, while one is related to the level. These challenges pushed me to use heroes I might not have cared about and to adopt strategies I wouldn’t have otherwise. Each level takes between 10 and 15 minutes to complete, so you won’t be spending too much time trying to get through them. It’s the sweet spot of time for me.

Gameplay

Characters

The bread and butter of Marvel Cosmic Invasion are the characters in the game. Every character you choose is so different from the last. At first glance, it may seem like you have the regular light, medium, and heavy characters, but things go so much deeper than that. Take Wolverine and Venom, for example. Wolverine can grab someone out of the air and stab them with his claws. Venom will grab someone out of the air and throw them at other enemies or smash them into the ground repeatedly. Captain America can throw his shield like a boomerang, while Beta Ray Bill can throw his hammer, and it spins in place, juggling anyone who comes into contact with it. This extends to special moves with characters like Storm putting lightning strikes all across the screen while Wolverine makes some devastating claw strikes in a small radius around him.

Some characters like Black Panther and Spider-Man can zip around the screen with T’Challa being incredibly fast, while Spidey can swing on his webs. Some of the characters can block and parry, while others have dodges. I learned this the hard way, getting hit multiple times while trying to block and parry with a character that couldn’t do that. There are flying characters like Storm that deal with other flying enemies much more easily and can avoid stampedes or attacks that shoot across an entire level of the screen. There is so much variety, and experimenting can be the difference between beating a level and having to start over.

Tag-Team

One of the most unique elements of this game is the tag-team aspect. You can choose two players to be on your team, but you can only play as one at a time. You can, however, summon your tag partner for assists when you really need it, such as a combo, unique ability, special attack, etc. It’s not something I used a ton in my first playthrough, but something I want to explore more as I go back to complete challenges and level up my team. You can lose a hero mid-round if your health bar is depleted. If that happens, you can bring them back by finding a health pick-up with one of the various food items.

Upgrades

Characters do level up as you use them, which gives you an incentive to keep using your favorites to get them to max level. It also gives you an incentive to keep switching characters to have a more well-rounded squad once you do max out your favorites. It was a brilliant addition to the game, which you can beat in 2-3 hours, that boosts replayability. Each character gains more health, focus upgrades, and one new passive ability. There is then a special new color palette for each character once you reach max level. You can also gain new arcade modifiers, color palettes, and other goodies in the Cosmic Matrix by spending Cosmic Cubes.

Enemies

One of the low points of Marvel Cosmic Invasion has to be the variety of enemies, or lack thereof. You’ll be seeing the same handful of enemies for most of your playthrough with slight palette swaps here and there. This isn’t something out of place for the genre, but it can feel a bit old after the first hour. What I enjoyed much more were the plethora of bosses, a mix of playable characters like Venom and Silver Surfer, and notable villains like Thanos, MODOK, and Annihilus. There was a lot of variety in the boss battles, especially as the game progressed.

Final Thoughts

I had a great time with Marvel Cosmic Invasion. At $29.99 US, the game felt like a good bargain given its replayability. The game does feature cross-play, which we used across Xbox Series X and PS5. Other than a hiccup where my friend Austin had to rejoin after the first level, it was flawless. This game lasted a little over two hours for us on our first playthrough on Normal difficulty, and I still have a bunch of challenges to complete and things to unlock in the matrix. It’s a fun game with the same shortcomings that most Beat ‘Em Up games suffer from, in lack of enemy variety and length. It makes up for that with a large character roster, leveling system, and unlockable extras. Give this one a try, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.