Tribute Games clearly believes in the power of nostalgia. Its last project, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, brought the heroes in a half shell back to their 2D side-scrolling roots, to critical acclaim, while the rest of the company’s portfolio is marked with games steeped in a retro look and feel. Now, Tribute is trying it again with Marvel Cosmic Invasion, a beat-’em-up featuring Marvel superheroes, and the results are similarly great, as Cosmic Invasion earns its place alongside the top retro brawlers of the modern era, thanks to both a solid roster of playable heroes and a few influences from other parts of Marvel’s gaming history.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion drops its all-star cast of heroes into a galactic battle against Annihilus, who is using an army of parasitic bugs to take over the universe. Campaign mode plays out across over a dozen locations in the Marvel multiverse, including the Savage Land, Genosha, Wakanda, and more, with a rogues’ gallery of villains leading up to the final battle with Annihilus. The campaign unfolds across 16 stages, each of them ending with a unique boss. Meanwhile, the Arcade mode streamlines the same story to 12 stages, with a few allowing you to choose between two locations.
A full run only took me about three hours to complete on Normal difficulty. Stages are mostly side-scrolling, and while a few curveballs with vertical sequences or unique stage hazards appear once in a while, the stage design doesn’t stray far from a classic side-scroller. As such, eventually the sight of the same locations and enemies begins to wear thin, rendering the entire experience a bit shallow. There are unique collectibles to find and challenges to complete in each stage, as well as modifiers in Arcade mode–like increased health and speed for enemies, or super attacks costing health instead of focus–to add a bit of flair to each run, but each stage’s fundamental structure, from visual designs to voice-acting cues, stays the same every time.
Despite this, Marvel Cosmic Invasion does offer a lot for retro side-scrolling fans to dig into. For starters, I appreciate Tribute Games using more of the Marvel canon than just the greatest hits, both for the playable roster and the story beats. I know who Captain America, Spider-Man, and Black Panther are, and where Wakanda is, but I don’t have any idea about this dinosaur-looking dude Beta Ray Bill, or why he’s dressed like Thor. Ghost Rider is here, but he’s specifically “Cosmic” Ghost Rider, leaving me wondering how he’s different. Also, there’s a floating menagerie stage called Destromundo that seems cool, though I’m curious how he got there. While the game doesn’t answer these questions, it does inspire me to go look them up for myself.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion
Gallery
Taking the opportunity to dig into deeper cuts like this goes a long way in introducing them to the more casual Marvel fan. Comic books weren’t a big part of my childhood, but thanks to things like X-Men: The Arcade Game and Capcom’s fighting games, I became familiar with names like Colossus, Doctor Doom, and Blackheart, alongside the marquee names like Iron Man and Hulk. Marvel Cosmic Invasion brings that experience back, and I now have more insight into Marvel’s broader universe than I did before I started the game. That is a cool opportunity video games should capitalize on more often, and I’m happy to see Tribute do so.
It’s clear I wasn’t the only one influenced by Capcom’s fighting games either; Marvel Cosmic Invasion pulls a lot of its core elements from those fighters. Many of Cosmic Invasion’s playable characters, who also appeared in Marvel Super Heroes or the Vs. series, use moves seen in those past battles. Wolverine perches himself on an enemy and quickly stabs them with his claws before a throw, reminiscent of his attack in Marvel Super Heroes. Iron Man’s ultimate move, the Beam Cannon, is the Proton Cannon from his Capcom appearances in all but name. Even some enemies are a wink and a nod to the past; one stage has a Sentinel enemy whose colors will make you think of the New York Knicks.
These influences also manifest in the combat mechanics, thanks to a versatile tag system that lets you switch between two chosen heroes at will. You can start a combo as Iron Man, find a place to tag in She-Hulk, and then immediately take control of her while Iron Man disappears from view. If you continue the combo and figure out a way to get Iron Man involved again, so be it. Combo strings end when you take damage, but thanks to the dodge and parry system, you can keep combos alive with a bit of pizzazz–like parrying into a tag, which is satisfying every single time.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion
This system is akin to the Active Tag system of Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite, and it is amazingly adapted to the side-scrolling format here. With 11 playable characters available at the start, and 15 once you’ve unlocked them all, the combo synergy potential feels limitless, and it alone makes me want to start up an Arcade run and see what kind of mind-blowing nonsense I can pull off–and that’s during solo runs. Once some friends tag along via online co-op, combos can get creative: In one session, a friend’s She-Hulk threw an enemy toward my Venom, and I continued the combo while they worked on other enemies. The online co-op mode worked with little issue–a bit of stuttering but nothing too concerning–so timing these combos was never a problem.
Some light RPG elements also appear in Marvel Cosmic Invasion, with characters leveling up after every completed stage, but this system is slightly undercooked. Every character gains the same buff at each level–either extra HP, extra Focus, a unique passive skill, or a new color choice. I would have preferred to choose my character’s buffs rather than have the same sequence assigned to every character.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion is, fittingly, a loving tribute to the superhero side-scrollers of old. Experimenting with different teams in each stage offers a good amount of replay value, even if the same stages and enemies can grow tiresome after a while. The collectibles and challenges in each stage offer some nice extra incentives, and the depth of the source material will appeal to Marvel fans, new and old. The only thing Marvel Cosmic Invasion is missing, really, is Colossus’s “whoooooaaaaa” sound effect from X-Men: The Arcade Game–though I suspect players will be saying “whoa” plenty of times while playing this terrific retro romp.
