MARVEL Cosmic Invasion from Tribute Games and Dotemu brings us an intergalactic pixeltastic beat ’em up on PlayStation 5. Learn more in our MARVEL Cosmic Invasion review!
MARVEL Cosmic Invasion from Tribute Games and Dotemu brings us an intergalactic pixeltastic beat ’em up on PlayStation 5. Annihilus, the living death that walks, aims to destroy the cosmos so that it can live. With the entire universe at stake, you’ll need to pick a pair of characters from the extensive MARVEL catalog, as you use their abilities to save the day. With 15 playable characters – including Spider-Man, Wolverine, She-Hulk, Captain America, Phoenix, Black Panther, Storm, Iron Man, Rocket Raccoon, Beta Ray Bill, Venom, Cosmic Ghost Rider, Nova, Phyla-Vell, and the Silver Surfer – you’ll certainly manage to find a favorite or two.
This particular developer and publisher combo previously gave us the most-excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, for which I got a chance to do a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge review on Nintendo Switch back in 2022. In this new game set in the MARVEL universe, you’ll be able to take on matters on your own, or take advantage of the local/online play and drop-in/drop-out adaptive multiplayer system.
For this important mission, you’ll need to pick two superheroes that will join forces as you use the Cosmic Swag tag-team system in each of the levels that MARVEL Cosmic Invasion has to offer. You’ll be able to instantly switch between them at the press of a button, as you make the most of their individual skills and abilities, all while you combo your way to victory.
After the fantastic hand-drawn animated intro that presents you with all of the heroes you’ll be able to choose from – as well as the big bosses you’ll be fighting against – you’ll get to pick between two game modes: Campaign and Arcade. Campaign Mode is going to be the main draw for most, giving you a chance to explore all playable characters as you progress through the game’s story, which features voice acting for the different characters. As for Arcade Mode, it brings to the table a more classic beat ’em up experience, with limited lives and continues and no save progression.
Once you’ve picked your dynamic duo, you’ll be taking control of one character at a time by using the left analog stick or the D-Pad to move through each area. You can double-tap left or right to sprint in that direction. You can attack by pressing the Square button and jump by pressing the X button. Pressing the Square button while you’re up in the air will allow you to perform a jump attack. You also have a slower power attack mapped ot the Triangle button that will deal more damage to enemies. Some power attacks – such as Spider-Man’s webs – work on charges, which is the game’s way of balancing things out. If your hero can fly, you can activate flight by quickly pressing the X button twice.
You can block incoming attacks by pressing the Circle button. This button can also be used to perform a dodge if you’re fast enough. You can also use it to parry an attack if you time your block just right. There’s even a special attack mapped to the R1 button that is unique to each character, which can be used to deal a ton of damage to enemies and bosses. To use this one, you’ll first need to gain enough Focus by attacking enemies and bosses. Oh, and you can switch between the pair of heroes that you’ve picked by pressing the L2 button. If you hold down the L2 button while moving left or right, you can summon your teamtate for a double attack.
Each of the levels that you’ll be taking on will have a series of additional challenges for you to complete. You know, if you feel like it. This includes doing things such as hitting 3 enemies with a single web-swing kick while using Spider-Man, defeating 10 enemies with Nova’s energy beam, not taking any damage from swarming bugs, hitting 3 enemies with a single electro-charge attack with Iron Man, tossing 5 enemies into pits while using Captain America, or defeating 15 enemies using the helicarrier’s turret guns.
Trophy-wise, this one features a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy waiting for you. And since it’s a Cross-Buy release, you’ll be able to download both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game to your PS5 console at no extra cost, and each one will have its own trophy list with a Platinum trophy. Each of the lists will be split into 12 Bronze trophies, 20 Silver trophies, and 3 Gold trophies for you to work on. What will you need to do for that shiny Platinum trophy?
Some of the objectives to complete include finishing the Prologue, unlocking all rewards in the Cosmic Matrix, maxing out a superhero’s level, deflecting 50 projectiles with Captain America’s shield, knocking down 3 enemies affected by cosmic damage with a single Silver Surfer tackle, defeating 50 enemies with Nova’s photon blasts, defeating 50 enemies with Rocket’s grenades, performing 50 kinetic parries as Black Panther, knocking down 5 enemies in a single swinging kick with Spider-Man, performing a 200 hit combo, or completing a stage in multiplayer, to name some examples.
MARVEL Cosmic Invasion brings us an intergalactic pixeltastic beat ’em up on PlayStation 5. Annihilus, the living death that walks, aims to destroy the cosmos so that it can live. With the entire universe at stake, you’ll need to pick a pair of characters from the extensive MARVEL catalog, as you use their abilities to save the day. With 15 playable characters – including Spider-Man, Wolverine, She-Hulk, Captain America, Phoenix, Black Panther, Storm, Iron Man, Rocket Raccoon, Beta Ray Bill, Venom, Cosmic Ghost Rider, Nova, Phyla-Vell, and the Silver Surfer – you’ll certainly manage to find a favorite or two.
There’s a Vault section you can visit to check out the Hero Lab, Cosmic Matrix, and Corps Files. The Hero Lab allows you to review the Team level and the progress made with each of the different heroes that the game has to offer, based on the experience points gained and how many level ups it’s managed to achieve. You can also review each character’s move list while there.
The Cosmix Matrix allows you to insert the cosmic cubes you’ve collected so that you can unlock rewards. That way, you’ll gain access to new skins for each superhero, get new files added to the Corps Files section to learn more about the superheroes and villains, get some music tracks, unlock some of the superheroes – yes, they’re not all available from the start! – or get some modifiers that can be used to switch things around in the Arcade Mode. MARVEL Cosmic Invasion is available as a Cross-Buy title, so your $29.99 purchase will allow you to download the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game at no extra cost.
Disclaimer
This MARVEL Cosmic Invasion review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Dotemu.
