Marvel Cosmic Invasion assembles an unlikely group of heroes (and antiheroes) to stop an alien invasion in an old-fashioned beat ’em up. While the game’s big bad Annihilus hasn’t entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet, if you ask around, you’ll be told he’s among Marvel’s greatest villains of all time.
In this co-op brawler, which you can also enjoy solo if you’re mighty enough, Annihilus has escaped the Negative Zone, a parallel pocket dimension where only the weirdest and strongest beings can survive. His terrifying plan? To take over the Milky Way and other cosmic realms with the insectoid Annihilation Wave invading force.
The same could be said about the turn-based game Midnight Suns and its journey into the often overlooked “dark fantasy” and horror-inspired side of Marvel. We’ve had no shortage of excellent Marvel video games in recent times, but too many of them are content with orbiting around first-class heroes like Spider-Man and the Avengers. In Marvel Cosmic Invasion, headliners like the web-slinger or Captain America are fully playable, but when was the last (or first) time you could select Cosmic Ghost Rider or Nova to kick the aliens’ and goons’ butts?
Marvel Cosmic Invasion constantly honors the past while looking to Marvel’s present for inspiration, and the same applies to the actual moment-to-moment gameplay. The brawlers of old were fine, and the Marvel brand is no stranger to them, so the sensible way forward for a new video game in this space was to refresh both the material and how it plays. Thankfully, Tribute Games nailed not only the pixelated and colorful visuals, but also the more fluid and flexible combat system, all while taking heroes, villains, and otherworldly locations from all over Marvel’s long history.
Things start off familiar enough with Annihilus’ forces invading New York City. In the background, you’ll quickly spot nods to Wilson Fisk and Mary Jane Watson. After only a few levels, the heroes will be taking the fight to outer space, visiting locations like the homeworld of the Kree Empire or Klyntar, where the King in Black plots to extinguish all light as the galaxy is thrown into widespread chaos. It’s the sort of breezy and “rad” old-school adventure that avoids the temptation of spending too much time with famous faces and the conflicts we’ve seen and played through too many times, instead inviting the more casual crowd to explore Marvel’s rich cosmic history.
Even with its paper-thin story beats and seconds-long cutscenes (this is the exact sort of game you’d find in an arcade back in the 1990s), the developers managed to give heavy-hitters like Galactus something different to do. Likewise, it’s fun to see She-Hulk roast the Cosmic Ghost Rider as they crush space bugs in Wakanda. There’s fun and dynamic banter happening between all the 15 playable characters depending on which pairs you select, which highlights Tribute Games’ attention to detail beyond the visuals and all-you-can-eat of cameos and deep-cut references.
As teased before, this labor of love is also seen through the gameplay, which feels less rigid than in its biggest influences and iterates on what already worked great in TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge. Swapping between the two selected heroes is fast, but sometimes you’ll only want to “summon” the Phoenix for a fiery assist while you continue to pick up and throw around entire groups of enemies with Wolverine. It’s all quite simple and button-mashy still, but there’s a bit of a tag-team fighter sensibility to Marvel Cosmic Invasion, and the distinct move sets and level-up upgrades ensure this beat ’em up is worth more than a couple of replays.
Though short by today’s standards (but true to its arcade roots), I was really shocked by the actual length of the complete adventure too. Most modern takes on brawler classics can be beaten in less than two hours, but this one took me on a wild cosmic ride which lasted closer to four. Since it jumps between locations regularly and its boss fights feel dissimilar in most cases (shooting Thanos in the face with laser turrets is something I wasn’t expecting), the limited gameplay loop never hits the point of “alright, I’ve had enough, let’s wrap this up.” By the time I and three other online players took the battle to Annihilus himself, I wasn’t feeling tired, but sad we’d already reached the finale.
With most people now used to Marvel tackling epic science fiction and fantasy which extends beyond Earth, video games like Marvel Cosmic Invasion should be a common sight rather than an exception. As much as I love the classical teams and icons leaving a mark on pop culture, it’s up to games like this one and Marvel Rivals to get outsiders to dive into the weirder stories that haven’t escaped the comic books’ pages yet.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion is available now for purchase on PC (Steam), PS4/5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 1/2. It’s also available via Xbox & PC Game Pass day one. An Xbox code was provided by the publisher for this review.