What parents need to know
Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a beat’em up featuring 15 heroes from Marvel comics during their Cosmic arc.
The game is in 2D, you choose 2 characters among the 15 and you progress by hitting everything that moves in about twenty levels. You can team up with 3 other players either locally or online. Each player then has his team of 2 characters.
Each character has a normal series of moves, a special move with limited use or not, a super attack that can be used when the fury bar is full, and 4 attacks to be made in conjunction with his second character.
At any time, the player can switch between the 2 chosen characters. Some characters can fly through the air, some can make projectiles, others are better for air attacks (Dragon Punch/Shoryuken).
Note that when it was released, the game was not available in physical format, only digital. You have to wait a few weeks to be able to get it. Also, there are big price differences between the different versions. In digital it hovers around $40, while in physical it is close to $80. Take the time to compare.
The game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. It does not influence our opinion.
Details
Level of experience required
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Evaluation
Marvel comic book violence. Punches, kicks, bladed weapons, firearms, fire magic, ice, electricity, wind.
Not a drop of blood.
Nothing.
Very few texts in the story and dubbed in English.
You will have to read some texts in the menus though.
Encourages cooperation.
A bit difficult in solo, it becomes very easy with 2, 3 and 4 players.
For now, it’s a one-time game with all the content inside. However, the structure of the game and previous games from the publisher and developer can predict that there will be additional content in the coming months if the game is successful.
The game lends itself to additional game modes such as a Survival mode, in the style of Streets Of Rage 4 and TMNT Shredder’s Revenge, as well as additional characters, levels and bonuses.
Local game modes
A Campaign mode to navigate the story, level up character experience levels, and choose missions.
An Arcade mode to play through all the levels of the game in a row, such as… in an arcade. When there is a fork between 2 levels, players keep the choice of their next destination. Characters do not gain experience and upgrade in this mode.
Both game modes are playable from 1 to 4 players.
Online Game Modes
Both game modes are playable online. At any time, we can either join another game or invite friends or strangers to join us in our progress. You can leave at any time as well.
The game is crossplay. You can play with all online platforms.
Our opinion
Two months after releasing Absolum, another beat’em up, DotEmu, the publisher, is back with Marvel Cosmic Invasion. After relaunching this kind of game with Streets Of Rage 4 (SOR4) in 2020, here is the fourth beat’em up (with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder’s Revenge (TMNT SR)) from them in 5 years. Since then, other developers have relaunched themselves in the genre but without success. Can this Marvel Cosmic Invasion convince fans?
Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a good game, You go through the boards with pleasure, stuffing all the blows possible, however there is a funny feeling when you hit enemies in this game. I think it’s in the sound design that it lacks a bit, you don’t feel the impacts of the hits as well as in TMNT SR or SOR 4.
The enemies are all insects, it’s not as interesting to face them as the Foot Soldiers. They don’t necessarily obey gravity, they don’t have an anchor in the ground, and so handling them, throwing them is less fun than for anthropomorphic enemies. It’s funny to see a Foot Soldier fall by mistake into a hole, or to project it towards the screen, on the other hand the insects that you face 1000 times, it’s a bit tasteless.
The levels are mostly cellars and alien ships because of the theme of the cosmic invasion of Annihilus.
This makes for an interesting game to play with your friends for a few hours, but not as good as those predecessors that I often come back to with pleasure.
We think that Marvel Cosmic Invasion will get better with time and the next updates. Tribute Games and DotEmu have something good in hand, we are waiting for the sequel.
