Marvel Cosmic Invasion is the latest game in the recent run of arcade-style beat ‘em ups that have made a resurgence in recent years. From the same developers behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and the upcoming Scott Pilgrim EX comes a new telling of a popular storyline from the mid-2000s.
Annihilus has launched an attack across the galaxy. It’s up to you to fight your way across earth and beyond to stop the Annihilation Wave from destroying everything.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion takes a classic Saturday morning cartoon energy and blends it with the slick pixel art style fans have come to expect from Tribute Games. Each level is loaded with bright animations, detailed designs, impressive music, and clever nods to the original Annihilation comics.
What helps sell the experience is how fast everything moves. Combat is quick, responsive, and surprisingly readable even when four players are swapping characters with a screen full of enemies.
It feels chaotic in a good way. There’s just enough depth to keep the action engaging without overwhelming players who just want a fun, vintage beat ‘em up.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion Review
The main gameplay element of Marvel Cosmic Invasion is its “Cosmic Swap” system. This allows you to quickly swap with the second character you select for your run. Players can go solo or play with up to three friends, and choose two characters per level or run.
Each hero—there are 15 in total after everyone is unlocked—has their own list of moves. Some have a couple more than others, but even those with fewer moves still feel fun such as Storm and Black Panther.
With your two heroes selected, you can swap out as often as you’d like when both characters are still alive. But, it’s not always about swapping whenever you like. Sure, you can do that or just not swap at all for that matter. But there’s a benefit towards timing the change during your fight.
You can swap to perform combos with certain characters. One such combo is using Beta Ray Bill’s “Soaring Hammer” attack that sends enemies into the air followed by a Spider-Man swinging kick to launch them off a ledge. There are even Cosmic Assists that can be called in such as specials or other attacks to do extra damage and clear out larger groups of enemies.
You can even use the swap to get out of trouble. For example, you could find yourself grabbed by a tentacle. Swapping allows your other hero to come in and free the trapped character.
A Quick Campaign
In the game you have the option to play the campaign in a modern format with saved progress or do it with an old-school arcade experience with limited lives, continues, and no save progression. For a first run, it’s definitely recommended to go through with progression because it also allows you to unlock everything available.
Each level has hero-specific challenges that allow you to earn Cosmic Cubes for the Cosmic Matrix. That matrix is where you unlock new color pallets, music tracks, corps files (bios), and arcade-mode modifiers like faster enemies, the ability to play as the same character, free play, and more. As you complete levels, you’ll also upgrade your heroes with extra HP, focus upgrades, and passive skills.
You can play each level with whomever you want, but the cutscenes they show will feature the characters the level was designed for. So, if your challenges call for She-Hulk and Storm like in the Savage Land, that’s who you’ll see in the scenes. They’ll also be highlighted on the character selection screen as a reminder.
In the campaign, it also offers what look to be branching paths. But it’s kind of misleading. You’ll see branches that make it look like completing the level before it will allow you to progress only to find you need to complete both anyway to move forward. It makes the lines kind of pointless.
There were also a couple times where bugs required full level restart. During the boss fight on the second level, one of my characters died (Wolverine). Rather than swap the way it should’ve to Storm, the fight kept going but I couldn’t play. Wolverine just stayed laying down. The only solution was to restart the level. Then, it happened again at the same point.
Those were the only instances where it happened, and it was tough to figure out what actually caused it. It’s something that will certainly be fixed in an update, but shouldn’t have made it through in the first place.
Overall, the campaign will take you about three-to-seven hours depending on how you play for a first run. With everything to find and unlock, however, it’s not likely to be the only playthrough you want to do.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion Review Verdict
Marvel Cosmic Invasion hits the sweet spot between nostalgic arcade fun and modern polish. The Cosmic Swap system gives combat a surprising amount of strategy, the roster has no real duds, and the progression loop makes it easy to jump back in for another level or run. A couple of bugs do hurt the momentum, but not enough to take away from how enjoyable the ride is. If you are looking for a co-op brawler to play with friends, this one delivers in every way.
A copy of Marvel Cosmic Invasion for PC (Steam) was provided for the purposes of this review. (Read our review policy). To talk about this game, and others, join the Insider Gaming Discord. And don’t forget to sign up for the Insider Gaming weekly newsletter.
MARVEL Cosmic Invasion
4.5
