Marvel Cosmic Invasion Hands-On: Ain’t Nothing Negative About This Zone

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I’m so grateful to be living through the 90s beat-em-up renaissance right now. Between Streets of Rage 4, TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, MMPR: Rita’s Rewind, Battletoads, and upcoming games like Scott Pilgrim EX and Absolum, there has been plenty of nostalgia bait for arcade rats over the last few years. Slurp it up you geriatric nerds, we’re eating good.

The Marvel heroes, and in particular Spider-Man and the X-Men, have been notably absent from the party. They arguably made the biggest contribution to the beat-em-up, yet Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have yet to make their retro return. Thankfully, Shredder’s Revenge studio, Tribute Games, has taken up the (human) torch with Marvel Cosmic Invasion.

I got to play a few missions during Summer Game Fest last weekend, and I’m impressed by how much Tribute’s style has evolved since Shredder’s Revenge, considering that that was already such a great game. Marvel Cosmic Invasion puts the focus on the heroes and what makes them different, adds a touch of tag fighting flair, and flavors it with a side of the Marvel universe that’s underexplored. It’s been a long wait for a new superhero beat, but Tribute is making sure it was worth the wait.

A Dream Roster Of Supes

The most well-known Marvel beat-em-up, X-men Arcade, had six playable heroes. Marvel Cosmic Invasion more than doubles that roster to 15, ensuring that whatever side of the Marvel fandom you’re on, there will be a character for you.

Much of the roster is made up of the obvious A-listers. You can’t do a throwback like this without the likes of Spider-Man, Venom, Captain America, Wolverine, and Storm, obviously, but the other characters – at least the ones that have been revealed so far – aren’t necessarily the ones you’d expect.

Cosmic Invasion is based on the 2006 Marvel comics crossover event Annihilation, an outer space-centric story about Annihilus’ invasion of the 616 universe from the Negative Zone. This event is notable in Marvel history for several reasons: it introduced Richard Ryder as Nova Prime, it saw Phyla-Vell take over the mantle of Quasar, and it led to the creation of the modern Guardians of the Galaxy team as we know it today. Nova, Phyla-Vell, and Rocket Raccoon are all on the Cosmic Invasion roster, which is a strong indicator that the Annihilation story is more than just window dressing for beating up lots of bug guys.

Full Kits For Every Hero

While the turtles in Shredder’s Revenge all played similarly, Cosmic Invasions heroes are all completely different. Some fly, some web swing, and some leap across the stage to pounce on a guy and stab him over and over with adamantium claws. Some heroes can dodge, others can block. Some thrive at range, others are more in your face, slicing and dicing with those big sharp claws.

It’s great to see such a diverse crop of characters, especially given the huge roster. Buttons do completely different things depending on which character you’re playing. Spider-Man has multiple hold inputs, for example. Holding jump lets him webswing (which can turn into a swinging kick, naturally) while holding punch will shoot out a web that pulls enemies towards you. You can fire web missiles that stun and blind enemies, or hold to unleash a spray of web missiles for some impressive crowd control. Wolverine, on the other hand, has a variety of grab and throw techniques he can use to isolate enemies or toss them away from allies. He also has those big ‘ol claws I mentioned once or twice.

All of that individuality really comes to life thanks to Cosmic Invasion’s character swap mechanic. Similar to classic tag team Marvel fighting games, you select two heroes at the start of each mission, and you can freely swap between them whenever you want. This can sometimes be advantageous depending on each hero’s abilities. It might be a good idea to swap in Storm right before a stampede of enemies takes over the entire bottom half of the screen so that you can safely fly over it, for example. But most of the time, character swapping is less about tactics and more about pulling off cool moves.

There’s a little bit of overlap between your characters whenever you swap, so if you’re mid combo with Spider-Man when you swap to Venom, that combo will continue as Spidey lands his last few blows and Venom takes over. It has Marvel Vs. Capcom flair without being as technically demanding. Character swapping keeps the action fresh and exciting, which can sometimes be a challenge for this genre.

Embrace The Annihilation Wave

Tribute is showing a lot of love for the comics in Cosmic Invasion. Annihilation is an important but often overlooked storyline that directly led to the MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and I can’t wait to see how the game explores that era of Marvel comics.

Publisher Dotemu has made a name for itself with retro beat-em-ups, and as much as I’ve enjoyed playing each one, they’re not games I feel pulled to come back to again and again – despite being so short. With the number of characters and combinations in Cosmic Invasion, I’m already itching to explore new team-ups and strategies. Just think about it: with 15 characters, that means there are 14 different sidekicks for Wolverine! I think I’ll let him handle the stabbing, while everyone else can do everything else.

“}]] Tribute Games builds on TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge with a Marvel beat-em-up like no other.  Read More