Marvel Cosmic Invasion Review

There's been an influx of 2D beat em ups over these past few years especially since the release of Streets of Rage 4. I have enjoyed games like Dawn of the Monsters and Super Crush KO. However even though I do enjoy them to varying degrees, they tend to blur into one. I wasn't big on Tribute Games' previous effort with TMNT: Shredder's Revenge. Looking at Cosmic Invasion from afar it mainly just seemed like yet another licensed throwback game with Marvel characters drawn with their looks from the 90s. I was going in with moderate expectations but surprisingly, Cosmic Invasion went above and beyond that. It not only far surpasses the aforementioned Shredder's Revenge but it might be my favorite 2D beat em up of all time as of now.

One major aspect as to why I enjoyed Cosmic Invasion as much as I did is because it's ultimately a fighting game in the style of a beat em up. It takes the ideas found in those games but incoporates them into the style of beat em up where the name of the game is crowd control.

It's shocks me even more that this game has more in common with the Marvel vs. Capcom games than the latter's actual beat em up with the brand on the Super Nintendo. If you ever wanted a MvC game in the style of fighting hordes of enemies, here's a game that does that.

What do I mean by this? There is one major aspect that sets Cosmic Invasion apart from other games in the genre: the partner system. You not only get one but two characters to use during gameplay. You can mix and match different characters from the multiple heroes on the roster. I primarily used Wolverine and Iron Man. Wolverine for close range and Iron Man for distant enemies.

You can tag them in and out while also calling on them to do assists. One big gripe I do have is that there is no dedicated assist button and you could've used R2 as a means to do it since it has no use as of now. You also have ultimate moves for both heroes, a dodge button and certain heroes like the aforementioned Iron Man can of course fly as well as parry.

There is also other aspects to the combat like health regeneration and and focus mode renegeration and this is heavily encouraged by doing combos and keeping hitstreaks going for as long as you can.

Combat really shines here since due to everything I mentioned, the game heavily encourages crowd controls and trying to keep juggles going as much as possible. It's everything Slave Zero X tried to be with juggles and crowd control being the name of the game but far better realized. Mainly due to health regen and focus mode regen being heavily tied to juggling and crowd control.

You can't style on them endlessly either some enemies are highly aggressive, agile and can also break out of your combo if you aren't careful. It's as easy to get down to critical health as it is to have it be at full especially if you play mindlessly or have a team set up you don't have. Some of the bosses like Venom, Knull and Thanos can finish over the player quickly with mindless play. This is all balanced out by the fact that in story mode there is a decent amount of health and focus pick ups. If you get a game over, with both heroes dead, you need to restart the stage again. Due to everything I mentioned, while I did curse at the screen when I died, the combat was so enjoyable and I felt so in control that every attempt upon dying was an excuse for me to get better.

Due to all this, it took me longer than I was expecting to beat the game especially since Cosmic Invasion has no easy mode where you can breeze through the stages much quicker either. The latter caught me off guard due to many games in the genre offering it but it says a lot that I like the game so much and that's it more than doable without one.

There is also a decent variety of stage hazards and gimmicks to contend with from to keep things from being too one note. They can hurt you but you can also use them on enemies as well.

Some issues is that the bosses while enjoyable can range from mostly being doable in one go to being really challenging. Venom being the stand out. He moves so quickly across the boss arena, does a lot of damage and can move very erratically during his goo form attacks. Being good at evasion can still throw you off. Knull was more about waiting for the right opening and Thanos did have a weird puzzle element with the turrets and how you need to strike an offline one to have them stop attacking you.

It has other issues found in the genre where fast moving enemies that dart from one end of the screen to the other so quickly that it can be hard to anticipate their movements in the moments. That and combine with the hitboxes for some enemies being so small that you got to have pixel perfect precesion to actually hit them particularly with enemies that fly.

Overall while the issues I stated could sound problematic they are just minor speed bumps. This turned out to be more than another modern 2D beat em up featuring the Marvel brand.