Back in the 90s, the side-scrolling beat'em up genre dominated video games, with series like CAPCOM's Final Fight, SEGA's Streets of Rage, and Konami's licensed games such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons gaining widespread success, which sometimes even surpassed traditional fighting games, thanks, for the most part, to the immediacy of their gameplay.
Despite its popularity, however, the genre quickly disappeared from the spotlight when 3D graphics became all the rage, leaving it to smaller, independent teams to create new side-scrolling beat'em ups. However, the genre had some sort of resurgence following the launch of the amazing Streets of Rage 4, which led to the creation of a lot of excellent games that tributed the best games of the 90s while also innovating the classic formula, such as TMNT: Shredder's Revenge, a fantastic game that easily stands head to head with the classics developed by Konami.
A few years after the release of the game, Tribute Games returned to side-scrolling beat'em ups with MARVEL Cosmic Invasion. Leveraging universally recognizable characters and the tag-team mechanics that fighting game fans associate with the Marvel name, the developer created a game with tons of personality that is very fun to play, despite not reaching the heights of Shredder's Revenge due to some design and balance flaws.
MARVEL Cosmic Invasion's story is relatively simple, but it does an excellent job of bringing together heroes from both Earth and the cosmic realms to fight against the super-villain Annihilus and prevent his Annihilation Wave from destroying the universe. Traversing a variety of battlefields, ranging from New York City to floating citadels and the Negative Zone from which Annihilus launched his invasion, Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Nova, Wolverine, Cosmic Ghost Rider and nine other heroes will fight the villain's forces and his closest allies such as M.O.D.O.K. and Taskmaster to save the universe in the most epic of clashes.
Involving some of the most established characters in media nowadays, MARVEL Cosmic Invasion doesn't reserve any huge surprises in terms of plot or character development. If you are a fan of Marvel Comics, you already know what to expect: humorous quips, tons of fun interactions, and all-powerful, arrogant villains brought down after tense battles. Much of this simple story, which is told via pixel art cutscenes and quick in-game dialogues happening before boss battles, merely serves as a credible background for all the intense action of the game, much like in classic side-scrolling beat'em ups, and in this sense, it does well the little it is supposed to accomplish.
Being a side-scrolling beat'em up, much of the success of MARVEL Cosmic Invasion hinges on its combat mechanics and character roster, which are solid, for the most part. However, some issues, as already mentioned, impact the experience, which is ultimately not as good as TMNT: Shredder's Revenge.
The highlight of the combat mechanics is the Cosmic-Swap tag-team mechanics. Before starting any of the game's stages, players select two among the 15 heroes available in the game, which can be swapped at pretty much every time, including when the controlled character is grabbed or in a hit-stun state, and unleash a selection of assist attacks that change depending on the button pressed together with the Cosmic-Swap button as long as enough Focus is available. This not only makes for an incredibly dynamic experience, but opens up some creative combo possibilities as almost the entire moveset of the two selected characters is available with the press of a few buttons.
Compounding these mechanics well is each character's moveset design. All 15 characters in MARVEL Cosmic Invasion have very different movesets, deeply rooted in each character's history and unique characteristics. Some characters like Nova and Storm, for example, can fly. Others, like Spider-Man and Venom, can use their powers to glide across the screen. Others, like Cosmic Ghost Rider, Iron Man, and Rocket Raccoon, have excellent long-range fighting abilities, compounded by their extensive weapon arsenals.
Even defensive options are different, depending on the character. Some, like Captain America and Venom, can block and parry enemy attacks. Others, like Black Panther and Wolverine, can dodge and quickly reposition themselves thanks to their superior agility. These different offensive and defensive abilities add a layer of depth to team creation, forcing players to prioritize these abilities over simple personal preference for certain characters. With how some enemies are designed, especially bosses, you will definitely want to have two characters that cover all offensive and defensive options.
Although characters' movesets are quite diverse, their design is a little too safe, in my opinion. As if the tag-team mechanics wouldn't have been enough to make the game feel like a CAPCOM's Marvel series spin-off, the movesets of characters that appeared in a fighting game by the Japanese studio feel a little too familiar. So much so that I think this is a result of the desire to tribute the series in some way, and does not stem from a lack of inspiration.
While the safety of the roster's movesets is not inherently an issue, as even so, their movesets synergize well together to create complex combos, other combat issues have a much bigger impact on the experience. Unlike Shredder's Revenge, which I feel strikes a good balance in terms of enemy density for both solo and multiplayer, MARVEL Cosmic Invasion seems to have been balanced with multiplayer in mind. Not counting the first few stages, players are constantly harassed by a swarm of enemies with different movesets that are sometimes frustrating to deal with while playing solo.
While one could make the argument that Cosmic-Swap tag-team mechanics forced this balancing approach, it still feels like Tribute Games may have gone a little too far. As a result, the last few stages are very frustrating to play solo, also due to the excessive number of environmental hazards, which make it difficult not only to avoid damage, but even to understand what is going on at certain times. Thrown in flying enemies that are really good at getting away from the player, and you get a very frustrating final hours or so of the experience when playing solo. I am usually someone who complains that games are way too easy nowadays, but there's a fine line between challenging and frustrating that MARVEL Cosmic Invasion, sadly, crosses too often.
Boss battles are also a great indication of how the game may have been balanced with multiplayer first in mind. Most of the end-stage enemies not only come with a damage-protecting "super armor" that must be depleted first before dealing real damage, but their attacks also have wide ranges, and they can also call regular enemies to help. In addition, there are times when they are not staggered, even when they should be in certain situations, which adds a degree of uncertainty to the experience and makes boss battles less enjoyable than they could have been.
Even in terms of content, MARVEL Cosmic Invasion disappoints somewhat. The light RPG mechanics that power character progression are not as meaningful as in Shredder's Revenge since characters don't learn new moves when they level up, but only get HP and Focus improvements and learn a Passive Skill, so they essentially play the same no matter their level. And while each stage presents its own set of challenges and collectibles that can be used to unlock new color palettes and additional content, the game doesn't offer much beyond its 4-hour-long story campaign and classic Arcade Mode.
With its gorgeous 2D graphics, MARVEL Cosmic Invasion is deeply rooted in the comic books that made these characters so iconic, but it's not just the visuals that give the game a ton of personality. Great care has been put into the interactions that all heroes have when using the Cosmic Swap tag-team mechanics, as each pairing has unique voice lines to address each other. This is a genuinely great touch that masterfully leverages the long history of these characters, enhancing the experience considerably for their fans with a generally solid presentation.
Unfortunately, outside of solid voice acting, audio leaves something to be desired. Not only does music sound generic and not really memorable, but the sound effects are also really thin, and prevent hits from being as impactful as they should be in a game that is centered on combat.
Although the good outweighs the bad, it is difficult to recommend MARVEL Cosmic Invasion to anyone but the most hardcore of Marvel Comics and beat'em up enthusiasts, due to the limited amount of content and the asking price of $29.99/ €29.99. With games like Streets of Rage 4 and Absolum that offer a lot in terms of content and gameplay depth at similar or lower prices, MARVEL Cosmic Invasion definitely needed to be something more than a well-made tribute to the Marvel universe to have a broader appeal.
PC version tested. Review code provided by the publisher.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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