Marvel Cosmic Invasion review: Tagging in a Marvelous beatdown

A diverse array of characters, satisfying co-op brawling, and a plethora of exciting levels and challenges make Marvel Cosmic Invasion an absolute delight.

Tribute Games has been doing cool things for quite a long time, but the studio won a tidal wave of love with its 2022 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2D co-op beat-‘em-up, Shredder’s Revenge. It should have come as no surprise that with such a stellar release, Tribute would be tapped once again for another licensed brawler. Cue Dotemu and Tribute’s Marvel Cosmic Invasion: A new brawler that builds upon the excellent things Shredder’s Revenge did while utilizing a wide array of Marvel heroes and villains we don’t often get to see in action. I’ve had my eye on this one closely for a while, and here at the dawn of its release, Marvel Cosmic Invasion did not disappoint.

X-Men, Avengers & a little bit extra

As a similar co-op brawler to Shredder’s Revenge, but set in Marvel’s universe, Cosmic Invasion features loads of familiar elements for players of Tribute’s previous games, improved with some new gimmicks and features. The backdrop for this one is that the lord of the Negative Zone, Annihilus, has freed himself and launched an all-out assault on Earth with his insectoid armies. Annihilus is taking any allies he can get, and the villainous AIM, the Sentinels, Taskmaster, Sauron, and more answer in greedy desire of some of the power Annihilus holds. It’s up to Earth’s mightiest heroes to fight back.

And what a cast of heroes it is. We’ve definitely had more than our fill of Avengers and X-Men through the MCU and other media, but some of the choices here are just absolutely absurd in the best way. Beta Ray Bill, She-Hulk, and Cosmic Ghost Rider join favorites like Wolverine, Storm, Iron Man, Black Panther, and more surprises in one of the best brawler playable casts I’ve seen. There are so many good fighters here that Tribute Games doesn’t make you just pick one. You get to pick two, and swap them back and forth with assists, super attacks, and recoveries to give you two movesets of your choosing at all times. The whole cast isn’t unlocked at the start. Playing through it nets you extra characters that just continue to make the whole thing more fun. And most of them aren’t that hard to unlock outside of simply playing the game a lot, so even as you go, you have more to look forward to as you hit various unlocks.

The enemies and stages also offer a diverse run of worlds and villains throughout Marvel. I mentioned Taskmaster and Sauron, but there are plenty more fun fights awaiting players deeper into the game with solid stages and gimmicks leading up to them. Tribute Games’ lush art chops once again lend themselves well to the beat-‘em-up genre with a colorful array of stages full of enemies, traps, elevator stages, and unique boss elements. It’s all punctuated by another solid Tee Lopes soundtrack that lends heroic drama and vibes to every battle.

I think the only part of this presentation that slightly underwhelmed me was the voice work. For the most part, the voice lines in this game are a never-ending array of classic quips we’ve heard from a lot of these heroes over the years. That said, some of the line delivery is really cheesy. I can deal with some cheese, but it was just a bit much for my tastes. Part of it is because while you can skip the cutscenes, there’s still dialogue in the levels that is unskippable because it’s connected to the events playing out as you battle through. Otherwise, this is a solid smorgasbord of Marvel fan service and nods to the history of these characters.

More than Marvel mashing

Tribute Games had already proven that it knows its way around a brawler, making the levels, characters, and mechanics of Shredder’s Revenge a bountiful delight and #3 in our Top 10 Games of the Year of 2022. Marvel Cosmic Invasion continues that pedigree by giving us a cool cast of heroes to play, but also making them play different enough to make your decision-making at the character select screen a feast of riches.

It starts with the basics. Every character has a regular striking combo, a jump, jump attacks, a special hero power button, a dodge or parry (depending on the hero), and an area-clearing super move. The hero power is really where these characters differentiate because it does drastically change up their priorities in combat. For instance, Captain America has his shield throw, which will bounce off several enemies and hit anything on its way back to Cap. Meanwhile, Beta Ray Bill can throw his electric hammer and leave spinning mid-air in a spot for a few seconds, juggling enemies back to Bill while he combos them between himself and the hammer. Other heroes have special throws, different projectiles, or even random attacks that make each of them fun to explore.

And that’s when you add in the fun of the tag feature. Reminder, each player gets to pick two heroes, and that means you get to mix and match what you can do. At any point you can swap between your two heroes. If you do it mid-combo, your benched hero will do an assist attack coming in, but if you take damage or get caught in a grab attack, you can also use the tag button to break free and go back on the offense. Going back and forth between your heroes and effectively using their powers is fun and engaging, and when you’ve got up to four players on screen, that’s the powers of eight different heroes in play. It gets crazy.

Maybe a little too crazy at times. Performance in Marvel Cosmic Invasion was generally smooth and I didn’t ever have issues that affected whether I won or lost in a level, but there was some funk on the screen at times. As said prior, you sometimes end up with a lot of players and enemies in play, and when that happened, I sometimes saw stutter and dropped frames in Marvel Cosmic Invasion. Meanwhile, there were some points where I’d be advancing through levels and the screen would jitter as it scrolled the level forward. It wasn’t much, but it was hard to miss when it happened.

Even so, Marvel Cosmic Invasion's fun is compounded you get others involved. The game features couch co-op, and online play for four, and it has crossplay across platforms. It’s a very similar system to what Tribute Games had in Shredder’s Revenge with some small improvements, and it works the way it ought to. This always feels like something that could make or break an otherwise good multiplayer experience, and I’m happy to say Marvel Cosmic Invasion sticks the landing.

And there’s plenty of fun to be had in terms of what a co-op brawler should offer. We have a story mode here to give players some fun context alongside their levels (as well as being where you unlock content like new characters) and a classic arcade mode that cuts the story and branching level select, instead sending you right to the levels on a three-life gauntlet. Easy, medium, hard, and super hard difficulties are also available out of the gate, but you’ll also unlock modifiers that can add unique challenges or ease-of-access to the game depending on how you want to play. It’s a tidy amount content that matches what Tribute’s stuffed into these games in the past.

Marvel brawling buffet

If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. I respect Tribute Games’ approach with Marvel Cosmic Invasion because it’s very much an extension of nearly everything Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge did right with just a bit of improvement and additions along the way. This big character pool makes the tag feature a delight, giving us more chances to experience some oddball and safe picks as we go. Meanwhile, with up-to-four player online and local gameplay on solidly working systems, it feels like another fun option for folks that want to get together and have an entertaining time with friends in a universe we love. Marvel Cosmic Invasion didn’t have much need to reinvent the wheel. It’s a well-tuned Tribute Games brawler that will fit nicely into game nights.

This review is based on a PC digital copy supplied by the publisher. Marvel Cosmic Invasion comes to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2 on December 1, 2025

Review for
Marvel Cosmic Invasion
9
Pros

• Deep pool of familiar and oddball characters
• The cast has satisfyingly different move sets
• Fun collection of villains and enemies
• Solid soundtrack
• Up-to-four player co-op local and online
• Crossplay between available platforms
• Lots of fun unlockables as you play

Cons

• Some technical problems with lots of characters on screen
• Voice acting is so-so