Depending on who you talk to, fighting games are either repetitive, button-pushing coin-op games or a deceptively plain vehicle for absolute combat mastery. I? I am in the latter camp. But how do I interest people who aren’t crazy like me? How to convince them to take their first steps on Sicko Road? This year Absolute I tried it, combining a mechanically excellent fighting game with a mediocre roguelite. Marvel Cosmic Invasion developer Tribute Games – creators of Shredder’s Revenge, the best TMNT game since Turtles in Time – takes a different approach. Refers to the aged fighting games Marvel vs. Capcom and asks one of the boldest questions I’ve seen in a fighting game in a New York Minute: What if this was a tag game where you controlled multiple heroes? The answer, as it turns out, rules, even if the actual implementation of Cosmic Invasion doesn’t quite live up to that concept.
I’ll be sincere with you; I’m not a Marvel guy. My dad was into comics and got me into it, but DC has always been into it (he owns every published Wonder Woman comic book and no, that’s not an exaggeration), so I’m a DC kid at heart and have a pliable spot for independent comics. But I love the weirder parts of Marvel, especially the millions of conflicting X-men timelines and the cosmic stuff. It’s not the most popular thing Marvel puts out (it is and always will be Spider-Man, though X-men is no slouch), but it is the most intriguing. Give me that any day instead of the MCU.
If the title didn’t give it away, that’s what Marvel Cosmic Invasion is all about. The story is really plain, as if it was ripped straight from the pages of a multi-issue event series. Big Bad Annihilus’s wave of destruction (listen, it’s comics, okay?) is sweeping the galaxy! Your whole life hangs in the balance! So it’s up to Marvel’s array of heroes, both earthly and cosmic, to take him down. That’s all you need to know. And you know what? It works.
Much depends on the team of 15 heroes that Tribute Games has assembled. Yes, you have icons, regulars who definitely and positively do not accept substitutes, they have to be there. You know the ones: Storm, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Captain America. Then we have the cats that were B-list before the movies catapulted them to stardom: Black Panther, Iron Man, Rocket Raccoon, She-Hulk, Nova, Phoenix, Venom. And then there are the weird and wacky additions. Thor is not here; you will receive a bill for Beta Ray instead. The real ones know. What do you think about Cosmic Ghost Rider? Then there’s my girlfriend, Phyla-Vell. Oh, and since this is a cosmic Marvel, the Silver Surfer is also here and there parched. To the degenerate Silver Surfer from Tribute Games: I see you and I appreciate you.
But the reality is that everyone here looks stunning because the pixel spritework is absolutely gorgeous. Whether it’s Phyla-Vell’s hair gently blowing in the wind, Wolverine always looking like a coiled spring, or the subtle transformations that sometimes reveal Eddie Brock under the symbiote as Venom, Cosmic Invasion captures the essence of these characters, right down to their voices. Go ahead and watch one of the videos on this site and tell me it doesn’t exactly sound like what Wolverine, Storm, or Iron Man sounds like in your head. True believers, the atmosphere is immaculate.
Structurally, Cosmic Invasion is a fairly standard fighting game. Not counting the tutorial, there are 15 stages, including aged Marvel reservations like New York, Wakanda, Savage Land, and Genosha, as well as more exotic locales like Fort Galactus, each with a fun little bonus description (Genosha to Heavy Metal; Savage Land to Rumble in the Jungle). Stage selection is mostly done in a straight line, but sometimes the path will split before converging again and you’ll need to complete both branches before continuing.
The levels themselves are good, but nothing out of the ordinary for a fighting game, with occasional environmental hazards. Each stage has a collectible item that brings the fun to life, as well as three challenges in each stage – two are hero-specific, such as defeating a certain number of enemies with a specific character’s special attack, while the last one is related to the stage itself. This is all good: the challenges encourage you to exploit fresh characters and learn the intricacies of each arena, and the stages are well-designed, snappy (each lasting about 10-15 minutes), and visually distinct in frigid ways – you’ll never mistake Savage Lands for Klyntar or Genosha – but nothing here will change your expectations of what a fighting game can be.
What makes Cosmic Invasion unique are its characters. Cosmic Invasion can be played by up to four people at the same time, each controlling two characters. What’s impressive is how different each character is, even though they may not feel that way at first. Take Nova and Iron Man; sure, both of their unique attacks are ranged energy blasts, but Nova can pass through and hit multiple targets at once. Iron Man doesn’t do that. Nova’s special attack is an energy field that only hits enemies at close range, while Iron Man’s giant laser, a Marvel vs. Capcom 2, can hit anyone standing anywhere on the screen, but this requires lining up enemies and good aim.
Meanwhile, Rocket is a powerful ranged attack, but her charged bulky attack deals a ton of damage, while Phyla-Vell, who is more focused on melee, can stun – and no one else has anything like her sword, which she can throw and then teleport to start combos and then keep them moving across the screen. Both Beta Ray, Bill, and Cap can also throw weapons, but Cap’s shield automatically returns to him; Bill will spin in place, potentially attracting anyone unlucky enough to come into contact with him, until you manually summon him. Even She-Hulk and Wolverine, both up-close-and-personal killers, play differently. Logan is faster and can string together long jab and thrust combos, while Jen is a powerhouse who focuses on tiny combos that launch her victims into the air for potential follow-up attacks. They both have grapplers, but they work in very different ways.
Some characters can dodge, while others can block and parry if their timing is right, opening up more defensive options. Characters who fly have a much easier time dealing with winged enemies than those who don’t, and have an easier time avoiding panic. Everyone is miniature are different from each other, which can have a huge impact on their play.
What’s really frigid, though, is the tag team elements. You only actively control one character at a time and can summon your tag partner for various assists to deal damage, opening up frigid fresh offensive possibilities – it could be a launcher, a standard combo, their unique ability, their dosage of “I want these guys dead‘, special attack, etc. It’s a lot of fun to come up with the best combos and moveset interactions, especially since you don’t start by unlocking them all. You can lose a mid-level character (they have separate health bars), but even then, all is not lost. You continue playing with the remaining hero, and if you come across food on the floor, which is a time-honored tradition in fighting games, they’ll come back with a bit of health.
Characters also level up as you use them, gaining more health, passive skills, etc., encouraging you to experiment, especially in co-op. I played through the entire game with my wife (a single playthrough of the campaign took three hours), and although I think Cosmic Invasion is a good solo game, like basically any fighting game, it’s better with friends.
If there’s a black eye to this fighting game, it’s the lack of enemy variety. You’ll see the same main cast of baddies Very in Cosmic Invasion, and while this isn’t a huge problem (it happens in most fighting games), it can get a little old. It’s also hilariously obvious when you’re fighting a boss who later becomes a playable character, because yes I feel like you’re fighting someone you can play with later. This can lead to some really funny moments, like when we were fighting the Silver Surfer in an elevator and kept throwing him into the abyss. He eventually levitated back to us for more, only to be knocked down again. It wasn’t bad, but it was as stupid as Rob Liefeld’s drawn feet and pouches.
If you get tired of beating up Annihilus’ minions, you can head to the Vault where you can see each hero’s progress in the Hero Lab, learn about their history and the history of your enemies in the Nova Corps Files, and listen to some excellent Cosmic Invasion songs. You can also spend earned Cosmic Cubes to unlock Cosmic Matrix nodes for more color palettes, hero profiles, melodies, and Nova Corps files. It’s a frigid little system that can even serve as a frigid way to create art if you unlock the right nodes in a way that creates a pattern. I made a cute little bug and I will miss him when I complete everything and he is gone.
