Review: Marvel Cosmic Invasion (PS5) – Marvel’s Most Fun Beat-‘Em-Up in Decades

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Classic-style beat-’em-up games are making a comeback, with recent hits like TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind leading the way.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a standout game, beautifully designed with retro pixel art. It’s a four-player experience that clearly pays homage to classic arcade games from the 90s, like Capcom’s The Punisher and Konami’s X-Men – games that were popular in arcades back in the day.

This game doesn’t offer many surprises. You choose one of 15 superheroes and battle through 15 levels, all based on iconic places from the Marvel Universe.

Your main goal is to defeat Annihilus, a bug-like villain, and destroy his powerful Cosmic Control Rod. The story draws inspiration from the ‘Annihilation Wave’ comic book series.

The game plays much like other titles in the genre, but with a unique feature: players choose two superheroes and switch between them during gameplay, adding a new strategic element to the usual fast-paced action.

As a huge fan, one of the coolest things about this game is how seamlessly you can switch between playing as different characters whenever you want! And it gets even better – you can also team up with other players, which lets you unleash some seriously powerful attacks on enemies. Imagine this: if all four of us are playing, there could be eight superheroes battling at once – it’s total chaos in the best way!

Tribute Games is launching with a strong lineup of playable characters. It includes popular heroes like Spider-Man and Wolverine, alongside some surprising and less common choices such as Beta-Ray Bill and Cosmic Ghost Rider.

So, everyone ends up with the same core skills in the game, but honestly, playing as each character feels totally different. It’s cool how much variety there is even though the basics are shared.

She-Hulk isn’t as fast as some other heroes, but she makes up for it with incredible strength. For instance, Storm and Silver Surfer are better at flying and moving quickly through the air.

Every character has unique abilities. For example, Black Panther can throw Vibranium spears, and Rocket Raccoon uses a variety of explosives.

Successfully hitting enemies builds up your Focus, letting you unleash a powerful, screen-clearing attack. Each character’s super move is different – for example, Captain America spins his shield around him, while Phoenix covers the screen in fire.

The character animation is really well done, especially when Venom transforms – you can sometimes even see a bit of Eddie Brock underneath the symbiote.

As a huge fan, I’ve been loving all the little details hidden in the levels! Whether it’s spotting nods to the Daily Bugle when you’re exploring New York City, or being totally immersed in the prehistoric atmosphere of the Savage Land, the developers really packed this game with awesome Easter eggs.

We don’t want to give away too much, but this movie is a fast-paced adventure through the Marvel universe, and it features some fantastic surprise appearances that even people who aren’t huge fans will enjoy.

The game is fun to play alone, but it’s really designed for playing with others, either online or in person. Luckily, it’s easy for friends and family to join and leave games whenever they want, making it convenient for everyone.

We haven’t had a chance to try the online mode in the pre-release version yet, but we did play in local co-op. We found the gameplay was more exciting and exaggerated when playing with someone locally.

The game has some noticeably challenging parts when played alone. While these difficulties can be overcome, the game is generally much easier and more enjoyable with two or three friends playing alongside you.

As you use your superheroes in the main campaign, they’ll grow stronger, gaining more health and unlocking new abilities and passive skills.

I was a little frustrated sometimes when the game seemed to penalize me for trying out new characters who weren’t fully leveled up. But honestly, the game really wants you to replay it and experiment, and it’s not so hard that you can’t clear levels with heroes you’ve never played before. It’s actually pretty fun to try different combinations!

The game’s biggest flaw is its depth perception, which is already a challenge in side-scrolling games. This problem is made worse by the many flying enemies, making it harder to judge distances and time attacks.

We often missed aerial attacks, not because of how opponents were moving (like their shadows), but because our positioning – being too close to or far from the stage – was off. It’s hard to focus on shadows anyway when so much is happening on screen.

Okay, so it’s not game-breaking, but honestly, it’s super annoying when you think you have a perfect shot lined up on an enemy, and then you completely miss – an air ball, basically! My friends and I kept running into this issue throughout almost every level of the game, and it got pretty frustrating.

You can finish the main story in about three hours when you play for the first time. However, the game encourages you to replay levels to complete challenges that require using certain characters or playing with specific strategies.

After completing that step, you can use the resources you’ve collected to unlock character backgrounds, different color schemes, and special arcade options within the game.

Also, that refers to a classic arcade mode. This mode streamlines the game, letting you choose between levels at important points as you work your way to the final battle with Annihilus.

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2025-12-01 19:08