Beat ’em up fans have had an incredible last five years. We’ve seen games like Streets of Rage 4, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate, River City Girls 2, and more. When looking at this genre, very few publishers have released more consistently great beat ’em ups during this time than Dotemu. That streak is set to continue with Marvel Cosmic Invasion, which was announced back in March for release in 2025.
Developer Tribute Games, best known for TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge and the upcoming Scott Pilgrim EX, is the development team behind Marvel Cosmic Invasion, and that should be enough to get any beat ’em up fan excited. I had the opportunity to go hands-on with this highly anticipated release at Summer Game Fest: Play Days, and I left the booth eagerly looking forward to the final game.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion stars 15 different Marvel characters in a fight against Annihilus. This battle is one of galactic proportions, as you will traverse across numerous iconic locations like New York City and even the Negative Zone. Right off the bat, I have to commend Tribute Games for offering a great blend of iconic characters and niche pulls. So far, the team has confirmed 9 of the 15 playable characters: Nova, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Phyla-Vell, Captain America, Storm, She-Hulk, Rocket Raccoon, and Venom.
At the start of the game, you get to choose two different characters to play as, and these can be freely swapped at any point mid-game. I was sort of interested to see just how varied every character would be, but I found that Tribute Games has made them each compelling. You’ll find that every character has a completely unique moveset with different ranges, attacks, and abilities. A focus has been made on making everything accurate to the beloved comics, so you might spot some familiar moves from your favorite Marvel characters.
Depending on which characters you pair up, you might be able to perform special attacks. Similar to other games in the genre, Marvel Cosmic Invasion allows for up to four players to play together at once in either local or online co-op. Crossplay is also supported, which is a very exciting feature considering this game is set to launch on all platforms. I always have a blast playing through beat ’em ups with friends around the world, and I’m already ready to dive into this one. Don’t worry about fighting over characters, as you can all choose whoever you’d like.
During my time with the game, I tested out five different characters: Wolverine, Nova, Phyla-Vell, Storm, and Spider-Man. I was very impressed by not only the diversity in movesets but also the incredibly detailed animations. Wolverine, for example, has his iconic lunge forward with his claws that most recently appeared in Marvel Rivals. Nova, Phyla-Vell, and Storm can all fly across the stage, too, since they are all able to do so in the comics. I asked the team at Summer Game Fest whether there are any plans to release additional characters in the future. They said that while the focus is on the 15 announced characters, they will monitor fan feedback to assess demand for that.
At Summer Game Fest, Dotemu released the next trailer for Marvel Cosmic Invasion, which revealed both She-Hulk and Rocket Raccoon. These two characters were not playable in the build I went hands-on with, but I’m super excited to check out Rocket Raccoon in the full release. Developers at Tribute Games told me that the legendary hero has all sorts of fun surprises up his sleeve. I’m also curious to see who the remaining six heroes are set to be – will we see more X-Men or Avengers? Or maybe another niche character out of nowhere?
Gameplay is as you’d expect for a beat ’em up, but this time, throwing in your favorite Marvel characters into the mix. You start on the very left side of a stage, and slowly, you’ll defeat waves of enemies to progress to the end, which is conveniently located on the right. Along the way, you’ll end up facing different classes and types of enemies and powerful bosses, which require teamwork and precision to properly deal with. Thankfully, the game scales the health of these enemies depending on how many people are playing, so you can always expect a tough yet fair fight.
While I had a great time with the gameplay and character variety, I was even more impressed by the artwork and visuals on display. Marvel Cosmic Invasion has some incredible pixel art that I think any fan of Marvel will appreciate. It takes me right back to some of the ’90s Marvel games like The Punisher, which finally saw a release on modern platforms last year with Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. There is so much care put into each stylish animation that it’s hard not to crack a smile while playing.
Sometimes, I think that beat ’em ups can get sort of repetitive when it comes to animations and such. A lot of the time, this can be the result of only a few characters to choose from, which isn’t the case here. However, beyond that, I felt that Marvel Cosmic Invasion had a very intriguing combination of visuals going on. The character animations are all great, and I especially loved the ultimate attacks. It doesn’t end here, though. While I was only able to check out two of the stages, both of these had very likely background art that visually told a story. I’m not exactly sure how much of a narrative is going to be present (if at all), but these details were enough to keep me engaged and knock down the waves of enemies each time.
Overall, I’m very excited to check out Marvel Cosmic Invasion when it releases. The team at Tribute Games clearly has immense passion for Marvel and each of the characters in this game. Between the epic boss battles, stylish animations, and fun multiplayer co-op, I feel this is a title that almost anyone can pick up and enjoy.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion is set to release for Xbox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam in 2025.
