by
Nicholas Taylor
, posted on 02 January 2026 / 3,288 Views
After developing 2022’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, developer Tribute Games has now set its sights on an even bigger intellectual property ripe with beat ’em up nostalgia, namely the Marvel Comics universe. Similar to its previous title, Marvel Cosmic Invasion is definitely a love letter to games of yore, and if you’re someone who enjoyed these types of games, particularly during their heyday back in the ’90s, this should be right up your alley.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion is very much a game in the same vein as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, with one of the key returning features being co-op play for up to four players to battle their way through the game’s stages together, which can be done locally or online. Personally, I spent most of my time playing it locally with a few friends, which to me is the ideal way to play these types of games.
Being based on Marvel Comics means that there are literally thousands of potential characters to choose from when deciding on your roster and, although Marvel Cosmic Invasion doesn’t offer a playable roster of quite that magnitude, it comes in at a whopping 15 heroes to pick from, with 11 of them available from the start and the others being unlocked as you progress through stages. The selection is a nice variety of expected mainstays, such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Captain America, mixed together with some very niche picks and deep cuts, such as Beta Ray Bill, Phyla-Vell, and Cosmic Ghost Rider. On a personal level, very few of my favorites were available in the game, but looking at the roster through an objective lens it’s hard to deny that there’s some very robust variety at play here (though I’d be remiss to mention that a game focusing on Annihilus as the main villain really should include at least someone from the Fantastic Four).
Although the gameplay is quite similar to Tribute Games’ previous title, there are definitely some new bells and whistles added to Marvel Cosmic Invasion, the main one being active swapping between characters. The player picks two different characters and is able to actively switch between them during gameplay, or simply use the other one to throw in assist attacks to extend your combos – something that should definitely feel familiar to fans of Marvel games given the company’s long history with tag-team fighting games, including the famed Marvel vs. Capcom series.
This is where the size of the roster really comes into play and, in a genre where character moves tend to be fairly samey for the most part, there’s actually quite a bit of nuance between the different Marvel heroes here. Some of them can fly, some of them have ammo limitations that need to recharge, and in general there’s a lot of variety in how to play each character, which makes repeat playthroughs a lot more appealing. Couple that with just trying out how well different heroes co-operate with each other, plus having up to three friends join in with their own combinations, and there’s actually a surprising amount of replay value, even though the campaign itself isn’t particularly long (it took me and my friends somewhere around four to five hours to finish our first run through the campaign).
By playing the game you earn Cosmic Cubes, an in-game currency that can be exchanged for rewards. Some of these rewards are alternate colors for your heroes, many of which are direct references to different costumes from their long histories, or even in some cases nods to other characters, but there are also music tracks, lore pages, and arcade modifiers to be unlocked. These arcade modifiers provide even more replay value, as they let you impose certain restrictions on repeat playthroughs through arcade mode, where you already have no continues available (unlike the story mode, where you can keep trying even if you die), so adding even more challenges on top of that is definitely aimed at the hardcore gamers who want that extra level of difficulty.
While the gameplay is definitely aimed at beat ’em up enthusiasts, there’s also a lot for general Marvel fans here to enjoy, with tons of different villains and stage cameos present from characters across all corners of the Marvel universe. Everything from niche Spider-Man villain The Beetle all the way to potentially universe-level threats like Galactus show up, and even for someone like myself who has been fanatically reading Marvel comics ever since my teen years, I couldn’t quite place every character, so much like the playable roster there’s a healthy mix of expected big names and deep cuts.
Overall, it’s a solid experience, especially with friends joining you, and while the price point isn’t exactly expensive, it’s a bit high for how short the game’s main mode is. If you’re someone who genuinely likes the genre, or think that you and your friends will want to do several runs through the game’s 16 stages, then it’ll definitely be worth the price. However, if you only see yourself wanting to do a single playthrough and then move on, it might be worth thinking twice about the cost-to-gameplay ratio.
What I will say, though, is that even if you’re only looking to play one run through the game’s campaign, it’s a very fun experience, and if you get creative with combining your attacks you can even do some wild stuff. Perhaps the most notable one for my group was when one of my friends managed to loop Wolverine’s grab move on the final boss Annihilus, to the point where he never even got to move during our battle against him. It was a slow burn, but seeing the final boss utterly helpless in the face of our combined juggling did make for a hilarious climax to the game and is a gaming memory I won’t forget any time soon.
VGChartz Verdict
This review is based on a digital copy of Marvel Cosmic Invasion for the NS2
