“Nostalgia is remembering when you didn’t have to pay bills and attributing that feeling to Mario.” That’s what my head tells me, anyway. My coronary heart, however, leaps and applauds each time the plumber embarks on a brand new journey. Let’s not beat across the bush: Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a nostalgia play. Its greatest trick is briefly reminding you of when your life was another person’s downside. It’s a lazy morning spent watching cartoons. It’s losing a fistful of quarters on the X-Males machine on the arcade, barely beating the second stage, and never regretting a single second. It’s one of many slickest, most enjoyable beat ’em ups I’ve performed shortly. Making the old-school, repetitive button-mashing method really feel this good and recent once more in 2025 is not any small feat.
Out December 1, Marvel Cosmic Invasion pits Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and extra towards the Unfavorable Zone’s Anihiilus and the alien insectoids’ newest try to take over the galaxy. The result’s a sprawling forged of 15 playable characters, together with back-benchers like Ghost Rider and Phyla-Vell, every with distinctive animations, strikes, particular skills, and voiced dialogue, hopscotching by way of a best hits reel of Marvel places, villains, and up to date film lore tie-ins. The story doesn’t go a lot deeper than Anihilius utilizing his alien parasites to mind-control everybody from Grasp Mould to Galactus, nevertheless it doesn’t have to. We’re right here to smash stuff, and it’s nearly as good an excuse as any to have you ever buying and selling blows with unhealthy guys in addition to heroes.
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Disliked:
Some ranges really feel quick and enemies get a bit same-y
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Platforms:
Xbox Sequence X/S, Xbox One, PS5 (performed), PS4, Change, PC
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Launch date:
December 1, 2025
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Performed
10 hours. 5 to complete the principle marketing campaign, one other 5 on arcade mode and unlocking extras. Nonetheless have tons of challenges and achievements to finish.
The general construction is similar to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, the final 2D arcade throwback Tribute Video games (Flinthoookay, Mercenary Kings) made with Dotemu (Streets of Rage 4, Windjammers 2). There are 16 ranges, every full of small bits of environmental storytelling and beautiful backgrounds. You combat a bunch of mobs, discover some collectibles, full additional challenges, and go up towards a boss in a race to see whose well being meter depletes first. It’s within the particulars, although, that Marvel Cosmic Invasion distinguishes itself. An important is a hero-swapping mechanic that makes it really feel as a lot a descendant of Marvel vs. Capcom as the unique 1992 X-Males arcade beat ’em up.
A sprinkle of Marvel vs. Capcom and a contact of Diablo
Each hero has a punch, a dodge, or a block, and a particular capability and supreme which might be each on cooldowns. As a substitute of simply deciding on one character to play as in every degree, you’ll be able to choose two and swap between them at will. You’ll wish to do that as a result of some characters can fly whereas others can’t. Black Panther is fast and lethal at shut vary, however struggles from far-off or up within the air. Iron Man can pepper enemies like Mega Man or knee-stomp them from the air. Phoenix can use her telekinetic skills to seize foes and fling them throughout the display again at each other. Most significantly, you’ll be able to name your second hero in to punch enemies with you or hearth off a fast final assault everytime you need.
This makes the moment-to-moment gameplay rather a lot faster and extra dense than your normal side-scrolling beat ’em up and even 2023’s Shredder’s Revenge. By the tip of my preliminary playthrough, I used to be firing off all of Iron Man’s blasts, closing the space along with his down diagonal jump-kick assault, calling in Jean Gray for an additional pummeling, utilizing my large beam canon final, after which swapping again to the X-Males to unload her cooldown assaults. The meter in your particular assaults builds up over time as an alternative of with every fundamental assault, letting you be much more picky and strategic about the way you have interaction in fights. It virtually feels a bit like Diablo at instances, besides you’re more likely to get punished the second you attempt to go on autopilot.
Heroes degree as much as 10 and unlock small buffs alongside the best way, however there’s no build-crafting to avoid wasting you right here, solely your thumbs. Including one other dimension to fight is a dynamic well being bar borrowed from Streets of Rage 4. Get attacked, and a piece of the bar turns into discolored. Go lengthy sufficient killing enemies with out getting hit once more, and also you’ll be capable to heal it again. On regular problem, Marvel Cosmic Invasion is never difficult sufficient to make you suppose onerous about how this mechanic suits into the general rhythm of fight, nevertheless it’s nonetheless an fascinating wrinkle that offers the sport a bit extra aptitude than some lesser releases within the style.
I spent most of my time enjoying two-player sofa co-op. Marvel Cosmic Invasion‘s big ultimates and onscreen enemy count made this feel just the right level of busy, even if sometimes it still veers into chaotic spectacle over precision action. It makes me wonder if four players, while still fun, might start to just feel like a big trash can of nachos: novel, tasty, and way too much. The only time I ever got slight framerate drops playing on PS5 was when several characters on the screen were performing flying animations at the same time. It’s not rated for Steam Deck but, nevertheless it carried out simply nice on my Rog Xbox Ally X.
A blinding journey that ends too quickly
Marvel Cosmic Invasion has some very cool ranges, together with an Asgard go to that has you preventing aliens throughout a technicolor Bifrost rainbow bridge. It additionally has some filler ones that left a little or no impression. They only felt like lengthy corridors full of acquainted foes. Enemy selection is respectable, however hardly ever requires mixing up ways an excessive amount of. By the house stretch, I used to be positively a bit upset to maintain blasting the identical sentinels, bugs, and symbiotes I’d been thrashing all recreation. The forged of heroes and their bespoke loadouts is so spectacular that it could go away the remainder of the sport struggling to measure up. Give gamers an creative toolbox field they usually’ll begin on the lookout for issues that may’t be solved by pumping the identical button again and again for a number of hours.
This sameness stays an inextricable a part of Marvel Cosmic Invasion‘s charm, though. It sets you up in cool cosplay, gives you wild powers, and unleashes you in a 2D candy shop whose aisles shatter and explode in the most satisfying ways. Every character has a distinct moveset. Rocket Raccoon can slide into enemies and place mines or throw grenades. Beta Ray Bill can smash the ground with his hammer or throw it and keep it suspended in mid-air, spinning as it keeps comboing enemies into the side of the screen. The only thing more impressive than the game’s roster is its dedication to creating every one really feel as fleshed out and lovingly crafted as any retro recreation’s predominant character.
Early brawlers had been designed to check persistence, eat wallets, and make gamers navigate the pitfalls of letting tedium lull them into an unwarranted sense of complacency. To utterly give your self over to the monotony of a beat ’em up, like letting your sleepy eyes look shut on the freeway, is to court docket existential hazard. The sport, like life, will punch again the second you let your guard down. Marvel Cosmic Invasion provides a brand new layer of spectacle and moveset administration to the fray that, at instances, borders on the breadth and inventive prospects you’d extra typically discover in a preventing recreation.
It’s over too quickly and only one additional mode shy of what may really feel like a extra full expertise. If it follows the mildew of Shredder’s Revenge, we’ll get a gentle cadence of free updates and a paid DLC sooner or later. However for now, it does precisely what it must: add recent methods to a traditional style that makes it really feel such as you’re a ’90s Marvel motion determine rampaging by way of a Saturday morning cartoon.
