MARVEL Cosmic Invasion – PS5 Review

MARVEL Cosmic Invasion is an arcade-style beat ’em up from Quebec-based studio Tribute Games who were behind other coin-op/retro-inspired titles like Mercenary Kings and Scott Pilgrim.  But more recently the were behind the brilliant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge which, like this game, was very much a love letter to the fighting games of the ’80s and ’90s.

These days people are a little bit Marvel-ed out following a couple of decades worth of films and TV shows but back in the ’90s, there were some real fan favourite games.  Marvel Super Heroes and X-Men: Children of the Atom were examples of one-on-one fighting games that used the comic rosters to great effect but we also got great beat ’em ups like The Punisher and Captain America and The Avengers.  This game follows in that vein somewhat.

Although the story isn’t a huge part of the game, each round of the Campaign mode starts and ends with a cutscene that brings in various characters from the Marvel comic universe as the game’s heroes attempt to stop a cosmic invasion for Annihilus, one of the supervillains from Marvel’s history that hasn’t made it to film yet (apparently this is based on the Annihilation storyline which still hasn’t been adapted to film or, until now, games).  But they’ve also brought in various villains as bosses for each of the game’s many stages and have highlighted relationships that you’ll recognise if you’re a fan of the universe.  For example, you’ll face off against Dark Phoenix but you’re encouraged to do so as Wolverine while Spidey and Venom, of course, have their moment to shine later on.

The game offers up a roster of fifteen characters (albeit some do need to be unlocked during gameplay) and you’ll select two before entering a level.  The Campaign mode lets you switch up on every stage which is cool but also incentivised as there are individual challenges to unlock on each stage that can be character-specific.  It’s a really good mix that brings in classic characters from various Marvel franchises.  Iron Man, Black Panther and Captain America are your big hitters from the films.  You’ve got the likes of Storm and Wolverine from the X-Men.  There’s even the likes of She-Hulk, Rocket Raccoon and Silver Surfer.  Fans of the comics will be glad to see lesser-known characters like Beta Ray Bill (a sort of Thor spin-off) and Phyla-Vell (linked to Captain Marvel) in there.

Of course, at fifteen characters there are a lot of missing names in there that you might have wanted to see.  There’s no Hulk, Black Widow, Cyclops and others.  We were sad to see there was no Gambit but on the plus side Ghost Rider is in there (as Cosmic Ghost Rider) and he’s the best character anyway.  So that’s good.

Anyway, that isn’t just fan service with new skins.  Each character has a different feel and play style.  Some can fly (well, hover) which can be useful, some have ranged attacks where others don’t.  Some characters block and parry while others dodge.  It’s really fun to experiment with them and find combinations of characters to find out who works best in each situation.

That’s always where this game shines.  Look, beat ’em ups are by their nature kind of repetitive and we’re not about to say that Cosmic Invasion avoids that completely but there’s enough variation in the enemy types to keep you on your toes and actually unlike the real credit-feeder arcade games of the ’80s (we’re looking at you Final Fight), we actually felt like we were getting better at the game as we played.  Sure, there is a little bit of character levelling up in there which means that individuals will get stronger and more durable the more you use them, but we did also seem to be learning from our failures when they came.

The combat is certainly a lot of fun.  It’s fast, exciting and impactful and, mercifully, it’s not too cheap.  If you liked games like Streets of Rage II but also kind of hated their bullshit antics, Cosmic Invasion will feel like a much smoother ride.  Sure, it can still present stiff challenges along the way, especially with some of the boss encounters, but it’s never a complete and utter bastard about it.  Something that is sadly very refreshing in this genre.

Aside from the Campaign mode, there’s also an Arcade option too.  This plays the stages in order and removes the XP upgrades.  However, there are also a lot of modifiers available for it (you have to unlock them though).  The main draw of this mode is that unlike the Campaign mode, you get to pick a difficulty level here.  So if you find Campaign a little too easy, this will give you what you want.

There’s something we always consider when it comes to retro-style modern games.  The question is ‘would this game have been good back in the day?’ and often we find that indie developers are too keen to just put out an average game with a bit of pixel art when, in truth, that game would have been average-to-poor back on the SNES.  Well, that’s not a problem here.  Cosmic Invasion has great gameplay, good controls, varied play styles to check out and a great attention to detail.  It looks premium.  Not 2025 premium, that’s not the assignment, but if this had hit arcades back in the ’90s it would have melted faces.

Visually, it’s a glorious tribute to the era for sure.  Yeah, we can take or leave the CRT filters that it offers, but in terms of character design, definition and animation, it’s spot on.  Everything looks like an arcade game (rather than smoothing it out too much to make it look like a comic book that’s come to life) but just a bit more modern.  It’s bright, colourful and fun to look at.  And there’s a good, dramatic soundtrack in there too.  You even get some voice acting in there too (but short and choppy like an old coin-op).

This might not be a game for everyone though.  A ten year old who’s been raised on Marvel films might be like ‘WTF is this shit, grandad?’ before demanding you put Fortnite back on but if you’ve got memories of the golden era of coin-ops and are a fan of anything from Double Dragon to Streets of Rage, then this is about as good an example of the genre as you’ll find.