The aptly-named “beat ’em up” genre is in the middle of a major Renaissance, charming gamers by fulfilling one of the most primal urges of the pastime: To crush their enemies by the dozens. Dotemu and Tribute Games are no stranger to this resurgence, having contributed to it directly in 2022 with the hit release Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, which has received overwhelmingly positive praise in its own right. As such, it probably comes as little surprise to hear that the team has scored another success with their latest release, Marvel Cosmic Invasion.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion
Developer: Tribute Games
Platform: PC, PS4&5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2
Release Date: 12/01/2025
This time, Tribute has been set to play in the toybox of the Marvel universe, and between their expertise in crafting exciting beat ’em ups based in existing IPs and the endless expanse of Marvel lore to draw from, the developers have forged an entertaining experience that’s sure to please Marvel fans and brawler aficionados alike.
Cartoons and Arcades
From the moment you turn the game on, Cosmic Invasion lets you know exactly what you’re in for with an introductory video that feels like it was ripped straight off of a Saturday morning cartoon from the late 90’s. In fact, that CRT-style aesthetic is maintained moving forward into the game itself, with its wonderfully chunky pixel sprites and detailed sprites. Even the music, though itself fairly understated and standard fare for the genre, really digs in to the gritty guitar-fueled tones of the time.
The presentation of the game’s story mode leans even further into this synergy. The panels of a comic book are already like enough to the static images that conveyed story progression in many 90’s arcade classics, and so the comic-styled cutscenes that book-end each level in the campaign feel right at home in that cozy world of 90’s nostalgia. If nothing else, Cosmic Invasion succeeds in spades in its presentation. From start to finish, the game is just steeped in that same 90’s throwback aesthetic that worked so well in Shredder’s Revenge, and it works again here.
The story itself is also flashy and entertaining, even if it’s lacking in any real depth. Beat ’em ups are rarely known for such in their storylines, though, and in Cosmic Invasion, it’s once again just a vehicle that takes players to new locations to punch bugs in. Annihilus is taking over the universe, and he’s recruited or kidnapped a bunch of Marvel heroes and villains to do his bidding. It feels like about like the kind of storyline you’d get out of a child playing with their superhero action figures, which is honestly perfect for a game such as this.
Tight and Timely Tussles
Where the game truly shines, though, is in its execution. One of the biggest problems with beat ’em ups lies in navigating a paradox – gameplay needs to be exceedingly simple to encourage the ‘pick up and play’ mentality, but there also ought to be a selection of characters to choose from that all feel unique to each other. Often, devs end up simply having to sacrifice one of those for the other, Shredder’s Revenge itself suffered a bit from all of its playable characters ultimately feeling rather samey. Whether Tribute felt more freedom from the larger breadth of Marvel characters available or simply improved in their craft since 2022, Cosmic Invasion feels like it has threaded that needle nearly perfectly.
Every character’s buttons are more or less the same – a regular attack that chains into combos, a jump, a defensive button that blocks or dodges, and a special attack, unique to each hero. Between the unique attack and the organization of each of the 15 characters into power or speed-based heroes, every character feels just different enough from the others while still being extremely easy to grasp the basics of immediately. They are further separated by other little touches that give each character their own strengths and, notably, weaknesses. No singular character can easily handle everything the game might throw at them, so Tribute made sure that no hero goes it alone with the tag system.
Having players select a team of two heroes is what really blows the whole game’s mechanics wide open. The unplayed character can be called in to do multiple assists, and can also be tagged in with a single button press to extend combos. Even a button masher can easily start to see the opportunities that can arise from simply adding the tag button to the end of their mashing to keep mashing, but real technical powerhouses are going to find some outrageous combos based on perfect team-ups and timing. We’re going to see some very cool combo compilation videos on YouTube within the next six months, I’m sure.
Lightweight and Lacking for it?
While the gameplay mechanics themselves are truly top-notch, Cosmic Invasion has some things that hold it back from being a perfect release. Namely – it’s very short. The campaign tries to stretch out the length by offering you the option of which level to complete next sometimes, only to require you to beat both levels before letting you move on, presenting you with the illusion of choice. This is coupled with a slightly awkward method of regulating the difficulty of the campaign – the challenges.
Each level has a hidden Cosmic Cube as well as three challenges to complete. Two of the three challenges are (almost) always tied to specific characters, and the characters are (almost) never the same from level to level. On its own, this isn’t so bad, except that the campaign mode also includes the character leveling system that Shredder’s Revenge had, and scales the difficulty up with each passing tier of levels on the assumption that your character is regularly leveling up each tier. If you choose to play for the challenges, however, you’ll find yourself swapping off to fresh or low leveled characters every time, forcing you to choose between the comfort of an old favorite or an unfamiliar fighter unequipped for the combat ahead.
But is the juice even worth the squeeze? In the case of Cosmic Invasion, it’s a mixed bag. Each challenge completed and cube collected earns you unlocks upon the vaunted Cosmic Matrix, a big old hexagon made of many smaller hexagons, each one containing a secret reward behind it once unlocked. Rewards include dossiers on heroes and villains, musical tracks from the game, new color palettes for the characters, and permutations for the game’s only other playable game mode, Arcade. The colors are nice and the new rules provide a bit of spice to Arcade mode, but it only further highlights the one glaring issue that the game can really speak to: There’s not a lot here.
There are a whopping two modes for players to engage with: Campaign, which takes them through every single stage while leveling characters along the way, and Arcade, which lets them pick the stage to play each time but removes the character leveling. The aforementioned mutations provide some replay value to that mode, but after completing the challenges and leveling your characters, there just isn’t much more reason to go through Campaign again outside of pure love of the game.
Final Thoughts
When it gets right down to it, it’s easy to say that Marvel Cosmic Invasion is asking a fairly steep price at $30 USD for what it’s offering: a short Campaign Mode that loses its luster after two or three playthroughs, and an even shorter Arcade Mode that may only be worth a handful more than that. It’s also just as easy, however, to say that Cosmic Invasion packs a massive punch in that short time, featuring a depth of gameplay in the tag system that only improves when experiencing it with friends, of which up to three others can come along on the journey.
For what it’s worth, however, fans of Marvel comics or beat ’em ups truly need look no further for a game that’s perfect for wasting an afternoon on a good time. There’s definitely enough here for any gamer to sink their teeth into, but anyone who was looking forward to Cosmic Invasion will doubtlessly be happy with what came out. Plus, with so many Marvel characters out there, there’s no doubt that the well for additional content runs quite deep.
