by Leigh LambMarvel Cosmic Invasion is one of those games that is BEGGING for DLC, and Tribute Games and Dotemu are already delivering.
The Thing
Marvel Cosmic Invasion‘s soster gained two new characters and both are fun, and one is laughably overpowered. The first is Aunt Petunia’s favorite nephew Benjamin J. Grimm, aka The Thing from Yancy Street. Oh, and some of you know him from the Fantastic Four.
What’s interesting about The Thing is you’d expect him to play like a traditional tank character, but he really doesn’t. He’s almost like an elastic wrecking ball and has a lot of forward motion that defies the archetype of a tank character. She-Hulk is a character who basically plants her feet and tosses everybody else around, whereas Thing throws himself around and grapples people to mix up what you’d expect from a traditional character. It takes a bit of getting used to, and if you don’t like traditional grapple/tank characters, The Thing is for you, and you should give him a shot.
Cyclops
Scott Summers, also known as Cyclops, is a whole different beast. He’s REDONKULOUS. Yes, that’s a word. I’m a professional.
Cyclops is basically a combo machine. He plays a lot like his Marvel vs. Capcom counterpart, and that type of combo ability SHOULD work in a game where combos and juggles are encouraged, but his moveset almost makes him feel like Super Turbo’s version of Akuma with the double fireball. The game just isn’t designed to deal with his moveset.
Here’s why he’s broken: Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a brawler, and Cyclops can plink people across the screen safely and has defensive and offensive attacks that are multi-directional that can stop anyone from approaching him, while also being safe AND creating dozens of juggling opportunities. If he’s in the air, he fires down. If he’s standing still, he can fire straight, he can fire diagonally up, or diagonally down. His running slide attack launches people instead of knocking them away. His slide attack also hits people BEHIND him. His evade actually launches enemies as well. HIS EVADE? Cyclops is RE-DONK-U-LOUS.
What’s Next?
Now, some people will say this doesn’t matter. Cosmic Invasion is a PVE game, so introducing new characters that are fun rather than balanced should be the priority. I would agree with that, and I think Tribute Games and Dotemu do as well. The DLC characters for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (also by Tribute), like Miyamoto Usagi and Karai, had some insane abilities that created fun synergy with different characters in the base game, just like Cyclops and Aunt Petunia’s favorite nephew do here.
Also, the price point can’t be beat here. $3.99 for these characters is a steal. They play great, they look great, and I’m really excited about what other characters are coming next. I’d love for Tribute and Dotemu to pull some long forgotten characters like Darkhawk, characters they could be really creative with like Doop (NOT THE FUNK!) or characters that are just F’n awesome like Dinosaur Doom, the T-Rex version of Dr. Doom. I mean, just LOOK at this guy:
Any game with Dino Doom would quite literally be the greatest game of all time. He’s Dr. Doom, as a dinosaur, with a gun. Make it happen, Tribute!
Marvel Cosmic Invasion
