Canadian-made Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a beat ’em up masterpiece

In 2022, Montreal-based developer Tribute Games took the gaming world by storm with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, a glorious arcade-style beat ’em up. Drawing heavily from the ’80s TMNT animated series and games and featuring the same actors from the former, Shredder’s Revenge quickly became the Turtles’ highest-rated gaming title.

Now, Tribute has brought that same love and care to the Marvel Universe. Enter Marvel Cosmic Invasion, another retro-inspired beat ’em up. But while it shares that same stamp of high quality, Marvel Cosmic Invasion also introduces more than a few tricks of its own. The end result is another fantastic must-play game from the Canadian developer.

Gonna take you for a ride

In Marvel Cosmic Invasion, a group of ragtag heroes must unite for a galaxy-spanning journey to stop the villainous Annihilus. It’s not a deep story by any means, but it immediately feels like a Saturday morning cartoon in the best way. That’s because Tribute has assembled a eclectic lineup of 15 playable heroes from all corners of the Marvel Universe. This means that you can have heavy hitters like Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Iron Man teaming up with deeper cuts like former Captain Marvel Mar-Vell’s daughter Phyla-Vell, the intergalactic police officer Nova, Thor-related alien warrior Beta Ray Bill and the alternate reality Punisher known as the Cosmic Ghost Rider.

Part of the appeal of comic book stories is seeing these kinds of quirky team-ups, and Cosmic Invasion uses them to great effect. Structurally, the game’s cutscenes focus on two characters in each mission, even though you’re free to use whoever you’d like. This results in wonderfully entertaining pairings like Spider-Man and She-Hulk fighting through monster hunter Lady Hellbender’s bug-infested spaceship, The Destromundo, with the fourth wall-breaking green lawyer praising cameos like Jeff the Land Shark while also lamenting their captivity. Completing this mission will unlock Venom, who will later partner with Black Panther to venture into the hellish depths to battle symbiote leader Knull, with T’Challa lecturing the villain about true kingship as they go. These are just some of the many fun interactions on offer in Cosmic Invasion. 

Adding to the delightful comic book-y feel of the experience are the absolutely gorgeous visuals. Like Shredder’s Revenge, Tribute’s latest features a lovingly retro full-colour pixel art aesthetic that feels plucked right out of an arcade machine. Enhancing that are snappy character animations and a banging soundtrack from Shredder’s Revenge composer Tee Lopes.

Best of all, Cosmic Invasion boasts a huge cast of returning Marvel voice actors, like Spectacular Spider-Man‘s Josh Keaton (both Spider-Man and Iron Man), Edmonton-born Guardians of the Galaxy TV series star Trevor Devall (Rocket Raccoon), and Canadian X-Men ’97 stars Cal Dodd (Wolverine), Alison Sealy-Smith (Storm) and Jennifer Hale (Phoenix). As someone who spent countless childhood hours playing arcade classics like Marvel vs. Capcom and The Simpsons and devouring episodes of animated hits like Spider-Man: The Animated Series and X-Men: The Animated Series, Cosmic Invasion‘s nostalgic presentation consistently brought a smile to my face.

Out of this world gameplay

All of that helps make Marvel Cosmic Invasion look authentic, but of course, it’s even more important that it also feels authentic. Thankfully, the veterans at Tribute were more than up to the task, delivering a truly sensational beat ’em up experience. As Tribute creative director Fred Gemus mentioned to me earlier this year, beat ’em ups generally only have between four and eight characters, with the studio’s own Shredder’s Revenge sporting seven total. Therefore, it’s remarkable that Cosmic Invasion features more than double that, with 15 characters.

Even more impressive is the sheer variety of the roster. Spider-Man is an all-around balanced fighter who can pummel enemies with speedy punches and kicks while also web-swinging and dodging around the arena to avoid incoming attacks. On the flip side, Captain America makes up for comparatively less agility by being able to throw his shield for multiple hits while also using it to block and, with a well-timed input, even parry. Characters like Storm and Silver Surfer, meanwhile, can hover in place, which proves invaluable both in swatting at aerial enemies and avoiding certain stage hazards like hordes of NPCs rushing the stage.

That’s to say nothing of characters like She-Hulk or Phoenix, who offer unique spins on the grappler framework. The former’s wrestling fighting style includes a grapple that slams an enemy into the ground before spinning around and lobbing them into the air to hit enemies on both the upward and downward trajectories, while the latter can telekinetically yank an enemy for close-up damage before launching them forward into a group like a bowling ball smashing into pins.

But that roster variety really comes alive through the Cosmic Swap mechanic. Similar to Marvel vs. Capcom, you can switch between your two characters, and doing so at the right time can allow for some inventive combos. This could mean using Phyla-Vell’s wide-swinging sword slashes to send an enemy flying, ricochet them off the wall and then switching Spider-Man to continue to juggle them in the air. Or maybe you use Wolverine’s claws to launch an enemy skyward, only for She-Hulk to jump, grab and piledrive the enemy.

Naturally, the combo system becomes only more dynamic and flexible in the optional drop-in/drop-out multiplayer, which supports up to four players in either couch co-op or online. With up to eight total heroes being able to command the screen at a given moment, you can create all sorts of glorious mayhem. This sort of tag team system is novel in the beat ’em up space, and it makes Cosmic Invasion even more standout while further capturing the sense of excitement and wonder of the classic superhero crossover.

If that weren’t enough, there are also tons of flourishes to each character that add little strategic elements. For instance, Storm’s lightning attacks deal extra damage to machines like Sentinels, so you might want to include her in stages featuring robotic enemies. Beta Ray Bill’s special, meanwhile, allows him to throw his Stormbreaker axe to have it stay in place to fend off enemies while draining projectile energy charges, so knowing when to call it back to replenish some juice and hit enemies on the rebound is key. And befitting of his rambunctiousness, Rocket Raccoon’s kit is playfully chaotic thanks to a dodge attack that leaves a trip mine and a grenade special that can sometimes trigger a miniature nuke.

My only real gripe with Cosmic Invasion is that it doesn’t always make it easy to experiment with different teams. On the one hand, it’s great to have an RPG-lite levelling system where your characters gain experience and receive perks like bonus HP and improved Focus to power your supermove. But on the other, it means that swapping to one of the newer characters later in the campaign means they’re not quite as effective as those you’ve been using earlier on. Some of the later bosses prove to be a bit tricky, so I found myself sometimes falling back on my go-to Spidey/Iron Man combo instead of using newer characters.

Exacerbating this problem is the frustrating lack of a proper training mode. The campaign’s very first mission serves as a tutorial in a Marvel vs. Capcom-style digital arena, but it only lets you use Nova, with no option to switch to anyone else. Given that one of Cosmic Invasion‘s greatest strengths lies in the synergy between the many possible character duos, it’s a frankly bizarre oversight to not allow a way for the player to freely test out characters against inactive CPUs.

If nothing else, Cosmic Invasion at least somewhat makes up for this omission by including other content. Alongside the main campaign and its optional objectives (beating bosses with a particular hero or avoiding specific stage hazards), there’s an Arcade Mode variant of it that ramps up the difficulty. And in the Cosmic Matrix, you can spend cubes you’ve earned from missions to open concealed tiles on a grid and unlock alternate character looks (like a symbiote-esque black suit for Spidey or Wolverine’s classic yellow and blue costume), dossiers on villains and even Arcade Mode modifiers like double enemy HP. To obtain everything, you’re looking at around 15 to 20 hours of playtime, which is a nice way to extend the base campaign’s three-to-five-hour duration.

Amazing, spectacular and ultimate

Tribute Games has done it again. Building on the foundation of TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, Marvel Cosmic Invasion reverently pulls from decades of Marvel history to deliver a dazzling beat ’em up experience. From the incredible retro-inspired visuals and audio to the surprisingly deep and diverse roster, Cosmic Invasion is the full package. Face front, True Believers — this is some of the most fun you’ll have all year.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is now available on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC (Steam). It’s also included with Xbox Game Pass on day one.

Image credit: Dotemu