As someone who grew up on Marvel beat-em-ups like Captain America and The Avengers and Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage, I was immediately enamored with the latest title from Tribute Games when I first saw it announced and in action.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion elicits the same nostalgic joy from those titles, featuring a retro art style and a fun roster of playable heroes, but I just wish the excitement lasted longer and had a bit more to do in its package.
Assemble
The biggest draw for Marvel Cosmic Invasion is its IP. Similarly to how Tribute Games ratcheted up the retro arcade nostalgia with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, the star of the game is its established characters and world.
The side-scroller features a fun roster of Marvel mainstays (Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Storm) and some lesser-known heroes (Nova, Phyla-Vell, Cosmic Ghost Rider, Beta Ray Bill) teaming up to battle against Annihilus and his army of bugs as the cosmic villain takes center stage as an antagonist.
In each stage, you choose two heroes to play as and then can combine them and their skills using basic attacks, special attacks, and fighting game-like assists to clear the screen of enemies. It's fun, simple, and satisfying to pull off massive combos and defeat the variety of Marvel goons that are sent your way.
The heroes all have their own distinct feel and abilities, and each is exciting in their own way. Storm uses wind and lightning to blast foes, Spider-Man can web-swing kick the crowd, Silver Surfer uses his surfboard to glide around, and Wolverine dashes and slashes through enemy waves.
Other than the characters having specific moves, the main separator is that several characters on the roster can fly, making them better for handling certain enemy types. Heroes like Storm, Nova, Phyla-Vell, and Iron Man can dominate the top half of the screen because of this, and I found them to be more fun to play in most instances.
The game can be played in co-op for up to four players, meaning you can feasibly have eight Marvel heroes on the screen at once if everyone is calling in an assist or super ability at once, turning it into a wild sight and good time for a group of friends. Using different combos of heroes is exciting and representative of the IP it's based on, enhanced by a good soundtrack and several familiar iconic voice actors like Steve Blum and Josh Keaton.
In addition to the heroes, the story mode features familiar locations and several iconic Marvel villains to battle (or team up with), including Thanos, Galactus, Venom, and Hela, making it a worthy journey for fans of the comics, movies, or games that Marvel has amassed over the past few decades. There are even several easter eggs, including characters and locations for eagle-eyed fans to spot and seek out on each stage.
But not for long
Marvel Cosmic Invasion is fun to play, but it is a disappointingly short game. The main story can be cleared in 3-4 hours, and then replayability from there focuses on leveling up and playing as different characters to complete mission-specific objectives. Completionists will likely achieve everything in under 20 hours.
These objectives are basic, like using a certain hero to defeat the mission's boss in lore-accurate ways or using a hero's special attack to defeat a number of enemies. Completing these unlocks minor additions like hero palette swaps, arcade mode modifiers, and music tracks, so outside of the achievements/trophies, there isn't all that much to grind for.
Arcade mode is the classic style you would've found in the almost-extinct setting of a bunch of game machines lined up waiting to be filled up with your quarters, and the aforementioned modifiers can add or remove challenges based on how you want to play. It's worth playing through the story multiple times to fully level up each hero and finish the challenges within, but beyond that, there's just not a ton of content to dive into.
Several events and minor mentions throughout the story seem to be setting up a future DLC expansion, which lines up with how Tribute Games added post-launch content for TMNT: Shredder's Revenge. I wish the day one package felt beefier, but the game is fun enough that I am looking forward to whatever comes next.
I love the concept of Marvel Cosmic Invasion. I'm a lifelong Marvel fan and I love this style of gameplay, but I just wish there was more to the game than what it currently holds within.
The post Marvel Cosmic Invasion review – Super short but sweet, beautiful nostalgia appeared first on Destructoid.
