MARVEL Cosmic Invasion is the latest video game entry from the superhero company itself. Prepare for a focused, fun-filled ride as MARVEL Cosmic Invasion boasts great variety, exciting characters, fantastic artwork and much more. I haven’t had this much fun with a licensed game in a long time, and I feel that they really hit the nail on the head with this title. The game is simple, satisfying and fun from the get-go. This is a side-scroller beat ’em up – arcade style, with a fresh character roster to choose from. Unusual picks like Beta Ray Bill, She-Hulk and Phyla-Vell are all playable.
Dynamic Duo
MARVEL Cosmic Invasion feels great to play. Controls are simple, and moves and combos are fun to master. It starts off pretty easy and becomes a tough but feasible challenge by the end. The difficulty curve is so smooth, I really progressed into the difficulty at a natural pace and just had a blast. Special moves and character team-up moves help diversify combat, and chaining moves to juggle is a fun mini-game in itself. Bouncing guys off the wall with She-Hulk’s throw just to combo them with a teammate never got old. Speaking of teammates, I would HIGHLY recommend playing Cosmic Invasion with a buddy. The co-op experience added a lot of positive chaotic energy to the play-through, and I feel that this is the best way to experience the game. My buddy and I played the whole thing through and had great fun filling the screen with explosions and super-powered madness.
Very colourful tights
As I’ve mentioned, MARVEL Cosmic Invasion has a fantastic character roster. Classic Marvel arcade picks like Spider-Man, Storm and Wolverine make appearances alongside odd inclusions like Cosmic Ghost Rider. I greatly appreciated the inclusion of Venom – I love him. It’s easy to create powerful team-ups as you get to choose two characters to take control of per mission. Coming up with combinations that complement each character’s skill set is essential to doing well in later missions. But by all means, you can pick who you want; I never felt pigeon-holed into any specific “build” or anything. Everyone is powerful, and everyone is fun to use.
Artistically, MARVEL Cosmic Invasion hits all of its strides and nails every aspect. Beautiful pixel art captures the definitive looks for all of its characters. The colour palette is vibrant, exciting and complementary – a scene is always balanced and beautiful. Sprites and animations are excellently crafted, with Silver Surfer being a big standout for how great he looks in motion. The soundtrack is retro but very sophisticated and very tight. Story-wise, the game has Annihulus as the big bad, causing chaos across the Marvel Universe due to his will to dominate all life. He gets the job done, and you’ll be fighting plenty of his little bug guy goons. The narrative will ping pong you around locations like The Savage Land, Asgard, Genosha and even Klyntar. Cutscenes provide some brief context, but they’re sort of just slideshow photos and not very good ones either.
The Final Swing
During my play, I was reminded of what makes or breaks these sorts of games. Cosmic Invasion feels fantastic, looks great and is fun and exciting. You don’t really need much more to have an amazing game on your hands. In a world of games full of bloat features and slop RPG mechanics, it’s refreshing to just be able to jump in, mash square and only play the good parts of a game. As great as the game is, I should mention that it is on the shorter side and at €45.00, it’s a bit of a tough sell. On a sale, however, I would highly recommend this for any action / Marvel lovers.
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