2025 has been a marquee year for both Dotemu and classical style 2D beat-em-ups in general. From Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound to Absolum and let’s give some flowers to Sega’s Shinobi: Art of Vengenace too–there’s definitely been fun to be had for gamers longing for arcade action, and Marvel Cosmic Invasion caps the year off with another superb sidescroller that’ll more than satisfy those looking for an old-school yet modern feel.
While hardly anybody plays a sidescrolling beat-em-up for the plot, Marvel Cosmic Invasion follows standard comic book fare. Of course the galaxy is in grave danger, and this time it’s thanks to Annihilus and his Annihilation Wave threatening every corner of the universe from New York City to Knowhere. For Marvel fans like me who aren’t in tune with the comics and whose knowledge is relegated to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Annihilus is a “universal threat” to several heroes, namely the Fantastic Four, and has been a menace to more than Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
That said, Marvel Cosmic Invasion features a stacked roster of characters that, funnily enough, doesn’t feature any of the Fantastic Four. But with mainstays like Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, and Iron Man as well as deeper cuts like Beta Ray Bill, Nova, Cosmic Ghost Rider, and She-Hulk, the varied representation doesn’t leave much to complain about.
Is that Black Panther slashing Thanos in the crotch with Cosmic Ghost Rider just watching? Yep, play how you want!
Each of the game’s 15 characters feels different from one another, providing various levels of depth to what’s an otherwise standard 2D beat-em-up. Each character possesses the expected melee strikes, running tackles, and aerial moves you come to expect from the genre, but they also each have various signature and ultimate moves that make each hero stand out. Let’s take Captain America, for example. He’s obviously a force at hand-to-hand combat, but his shield gives him robust defense as well as a heck of a projectile weapon. His ultimate ability, activated with the right shoulder button, allows him to have his shield orbiting him leading to all sorts of pain for enemies in his immediate hit radius. Of course, Cap can’t fly, making characters like Iron Man and Storm more nifty if you’re looking for extended maneuverability with your hero(es).
With so many characters at your disposal, you’ll want to use them all, which brings us to what really separates Cosmic Invasion distinctly from any other game in the genre. Before each level, you have to select two characters to use. Then as soon as you start, you can use the Cosmic Swap ability with the left shoulder button to tag your other hero in at any time, not unlike a tag team fighting game. In fact, it’s the tag fighter feel that makes Cosmic Invasion so engaging. In addition to tagging heroes in and out, you’ll also be able and expected to use tandem moves to further juggle enemies and up your combos, playing to however fight style you want.
The possibilities are virtually endless with so many characters at your disposal, and the best part is the game supports up to four players simultaneously both via couch co-op as well as online cross-play. That means you can potentially have eight heroes wreaking havoc at the same time as long as you press the right buttons. Unfortunately, we were only given one code prior to the review embargo lifting and neither Dotemu nor the PR agency opened up a Discord with other publications to test it, so we weren’t able to test out the online multiplayer or crossplay. I did, however, enjoy the game with both my girlfriend and brother, and it was a good time that also made the game more of a breeze to get through. I didn’t notice any hitches on the PS5 either, so we’re looking at a nicely polished build there.
With 15 characters available to use and four-player couch and online crossplay support, Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a game you’ll wanna get for every Marvel fan in the family.
The game’s campaign isn’t particularly long or difficult, especially when playing with others, but it’s worth noting that the game does feature an interesting character progression system. As you complete each level (or die), each character used gains experience points to level up and upgrade stats like their HP or gain access to certain passive abilities–for example, when Iron Man gets to Hero Level 5, he’ll unlock the Overcharged ability, which gives him unlimited ammo for a short amount of time after parrying an enemy.
This is something I didn’t expect at all, and while it might be weird to have such a system in a beat-em-up, it’s a pretty cool way to make people want to switch characters. One of the reasons why I started to die more often as I got to the late part of the campaign, aside from playing by myself, was because I had some characters that were “underleveled” and had way less health than characters I’ve been using more than others. So when those lightly used characters took a hit, I really felt it. Luckily, as mentioned, when you die, you level up right then and there.
The best thing about the game is that you can play it however you want. Every level in the game suggests using certain characters to make the story flow better, and in turn will offer you optional challenges in the level to give you some form of a checklist to follow when clearing as many annihilation hordes as you can. But if you don’t want to use those characters? No need. Do you have to complete those challenges? Nope. Don’t care about tagging in and out as you fight your way through a level? You do what you need to do. The high amount of satisfaction you get from this three-to-five-hour campaign will more or less stay the same, and if you really want to pursue pain, that’s what the Arcade mode is for. If you want to do everything there is to do with every character? You’re looking at least 20 hours of action, and the simple gameplay (as well as accessibility options) should make it a blast for the whole family.
In addition to XP for each hero, everything you do in Marvel Cosmic Invasion will get you points for the Cosmic Matrix, which houses most of the unlockables in the game.
This is one of those games where you can really tell the developers loved what they were making from both a sourcing and gameplay standpoint. I talked a lot about the gameplay mechanics with each character, but the real sickos out there should find a lot to appreciate about the secrets and easter eggs you’ll find at every level, as well as the individuality in the attitudes of all the characters. You can say the MCU is at a down point, but that’s also because Marvel is as beloved and popular as ever. RDJ isn’t Iron Man here, but with the small amount of voice acting there was, it’s easy to see that his version of Tony Stark was an inspiration. She-Hulk constantly breaking the fourth wall as she progresses through each screen is also something you’ll want to hear. There’s just a lot of love here in between the lines of the gameplay and what there is to unlock. I don’t even know who Phyla-Vell is–damn right this made me search!
Marvel Cosmic Invasion is exactly the kind of fun you should expect from a Marvel video game no matter what era you’re living in. Like I said in my review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge three years ago, Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a reminder that with the right approach, seemingly outdated genres can be more than relevant today. Tribute Games has done it again, and I’m more than excited for next year’s release of Scott Pilgrim EX.
2025 has been a marquee year for both Dotemu and classical style 2D beat-em-ups in general. From Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound to Absolum and let’s give some flowers to Sega’s Shinobi: Art of Vengenace too–there’s definitely been fun to be had for gamers longing for arcade action, and Marvel Cosmic Invasion caps the year off with another superb sidescroller that’ll more than satisfy those looking for an old-school yet modern feel.
While hardly anybody plays a sidescrolling beat-em-up for the plot, Marvel Cosmic Invasion follows standard comic book fare. Of course the galaxy is in grave danger, and this time it’s thanks to Annihilus and his Annihilation Wave threatening every corner of the universe from New York City to Knowhere. For Marvel fans like me who aren’t in tune with the comics and whose knowledge is relegated to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Annihilus is a “universal threat” to several heroes, namely the Fantastic Four, and has been a menace to more than Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
That said, Marvel Cosmic Invasion features a stacked roster of characters that, funnily enough, doesn’t feature any of the Fantastic Four. But with mainstays like Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, and Iron Man as well as deeper cuts like Beta Ray Bill, Nova, Cosmic Ghost Rider, and She-Hulk, the varied representation doesn’t leave much to complain about.
Is that Black Panther slashing Thanos in the crotch with Cosmic Ghost Rider just watching? Yep, play how you want!
Each of the game’s 15 characters feels different from one another, providing various levels of depth to what’s an otherwise standard 2D beat-em-up. Each character possesses the expected melee strikes, running tackles, and aerial moves you come to expect from the genre, but they also each have various signature and ultimate moves that make each hero stand out. Let’s take Captain America, for example. He’s obviously a force at hand-to-hand combat, but his shield gives him robust defense as well as a heck of a projectile weapon. His ultimate ability, activated with the right shoulder button, allows him to have his shield orbiting him leading to all sorts of pain for enemies in his immediate hit radius. Of course, Cap can’t fly, making characters like Iron Man and Storm more nifty if you’re looking for extended maneuverability with your hero(es).
With so many characters at your disposal, you’ll want to use them all, which brings us to what really separates Cosmic Invasion distinctly from any other game in the genre. Before each level, you have to select two characters to use. Then as soon as you start, you can use the Cosmic Swap ability with the left shoulder button to tag your other hero in at any time, not unlike a tag team fighting game. In fact, it’s the tag fighter feel that makes Cosmic Invasion so engaging. In addition to tagging heroes in and out, you’ll also be able and expected to use tandem moves to further juggle enemies and up your combos, playing to however fight style you want.
The possibilities are virtually endless with so many characters at your disposal, and the best part is the game supports up to four players simultaneously both via couch co-op as well as online cross-play. That means you can potentially have eight heroes wreaking havoc at the same time as long as you press the right buttons. Unfortunately, we were only given one code prior to the review embargo lifting and neither Dotemu nor the PR agency opened up a Discord with other publications to test it, so we weren’t able to test out the online multiplayer or crossplay. I did, however, enjoy the game with both my girlfriend and brother, and it was a good time that also made the game more of a breeze to get through. I didn’t notice any hitches on the PS5 either, so we’re looking at a nicely polished build there.
With 15 characters available to use and four-player couch and online crossplay support, Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a game you’ll wanna get for every Marvel fan in the family.
The game’s campaign isn’t particularly long or difficult, especially when playing with others, but it’s worth noting that the game does feature an interesting character progression system. As you complete each level (or die), each character used gains experience points to level up and upgrade stats like their HP or gain access to certain passive abilities–for example, when Iron Man gets to Hero Level 5, he’ll unlock the Overcharged ability, which gives him unlimited ammo for a short amount of time after parrying an enemy.
This is something I didn’t expect at all, and while it might be weird to have such a system in a beat-em-up, it’s a pretty cool way to make people want to switch characters. One of the reasons why I started to die more often as I got to the late part of the campaign, aside from playing by myself, was because I had some characters that were “underleveled” and had way less health than characters I’ve been using more than others. So when those lightly used characters took a hit, I really felt it. Luckily, as mentioned, when you die, you level up right then and there.
The best thing about the game is that you can play it however you want. Every level in the game suggests using certain characters to make the story flow better, and in turn will offer you optional challenges in the level to give you some form of a checklist to follow when clearing as many annihilation hordes as you can. But if you don’t want to use those characters? No need. Do you have to complete those challenges? Nope. Don’t care about tagging in and out as you fight your way through a level? You do what you need to do. The high amount of satisfaction you get from this three-to-five-hour campaign will more or less stay the same, and if you really want to pursue pain, that’s what the Arcade mode is for. If you want to do everything there is to do with every character? You’re looking at least 20 hours of action, and the simple gameplay (as well as accessibility options) should make it a blast for the whole family.
In addition to XP for each hero, everything you do in Marvel Cosmic Invasion will get you points for the Cosmic Matrix, which houses most of the unlockables in the game.
This is one of those games where you can really tell the developers loved what they were making from both a sourcing and gameplay standpoint. I talked a lot about the gameplay mechanics with each character, but the real sickos out there should find a lot to appreciate about the secrets and easter eggs you’ll find at every level, as well as the individuality in the attitudes of all the characters. You can say the MCU is at a down point, but that’s also because Marvel is as beloved and popular as ever. RDJ isn’t Iron Man here, but with the small amount of voice acting there was, it’s easy to see that his version of Tony Stark was an inspiration. She-Hulk constantly breaking the fourth wall as she progresses through each screen is also something you’ll want to hear. There’s just a lot of love here in between the lines of the gameplay and what there is to unlock. I don’t even know who Phyla-Vell is–damn right this made me search!
Marvel Cosmic Invasion is exactly the kind of fun you should expect from a Marvel video game no matter what era you’re living in. Like I said in my review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge three years ago, Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a reminder that with the right approach, seemingly outdated genres can be more than relevant today. Tribute Games has done it again, and I’m more than excited for next year’s release of Scott Pilgrim EX.
by Danreb Victorio
