The Tag-Team Brawler That Captures the ’90s
An unprecedented attack across the galaxy – Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America, and many more heroes the last line of defence left between Annihilus… and all life. The future is in your hands, yet will you be enough to save it? Thus goes the story of Marvel’s latest endeavour into gaming, MARVEL Cosmic Invasion.
This title sees you pitted against Annihilus, a villain hellbent on destruction – as is status quo for the majority – willing to stop at no cost whilst he destroys life. Any of you who have played the Marvel vs. Capcom series (in my case through the Dreamcast) will be familiar with the way this is achieved, that being through the use of 2D side-scrolling gameplay, and the tag-team mechanic I’ll touch upon later.
MARVEL Cosmic Invasion takes this same approach, albeit working a slight detour in how it’s achieved.
Old-School Foundation, Modern Power
Core gameplay sees you running through campaign missions, which are in abundance, whilst taking the mantle of various iconic Marvel heroes; Spider-Man, Iron Man, and many of the X-Men, are all here, and most importantly, harbouring distinct and genuinely interesting skill. Before we get to that however, it’s best to go over the fundamentals that you must know to succeed in any side-scrolling fighter.
It goes as you’d typically expect: basic attack, special attack, block and party, and special moves. As far as basics go, not much to remember, and personalised animations incorporated into each and every character will make you feel as if you’re truly fighting the flying monstrosities running around New York. Master these and you can achieve anything in MARVEL Cosmic Invasion.
Cosmic Swap
The fun truly begins once the full breadth of these move-sets are opened up to you, introducing characters who can fly, or the tag-team mechanic.
Flying is simply explained – double tap A to become airborne – leaving tag-team moves to stand out; press LT to swap heroes, or hold LT and press any attack button to summon them for a brief attack, also extending to specials moves creating an attack of cataclysmic proportions.
There are many modern aspects thrown into the mixing pot here too, most intriguing of all being the levelling system. Whether you have a favourite hero to main, or find yourself rotating through the wide roster, you’ll gain XP upon each mission completed, leading to perks and benefits such as extra HP to guide you through your playthrough. Whilst often simple, and quite frankly what you’d expect as a bare minimum for any game in this genre, MARVEL Cosmic Invasion has a way of creating an engaging combat foundation, pivotal in a fighting game, yet modernised for new audiences, and filled with all that comic book goodness.
Web-Slingers and Adamantium Claws
Nowhere is this more apparent than the skillset of every hero. Each character has a refreshingly distinct kit of moves, be it Spider-Man’s webs putting a spin on the basic gameplay, or Wolverine’s claws guaranteed to iron out your flaws (adamantium doesn’t really work for my pun there before you comic enthusiasts come after me). Each basic attack is elevated to new heights through the use of combos, tag-team, and special abilities, leaving enough diversity to fill your campaign playthrough… for the most part.
You see, the gameplay loop is largely fun, I was enjoying defeating foes no matter their appearance (I don’t discriminate) and each boss battle that concluded stages only grew in sense of grandeur. Unfortunately, and perhaps due to the innate shortcomings of the genre, the novelty wore off eventually, leaving little incentive to progress any further. I believe this comes down to a number of factors, such as each stage not offering much in the way of new mechanics of actual progression, each stage following the same format yet wrapped slightly differently, and side content being optional to the point of having no reward.
All of this culminates in a downward slope of concentration, quality, and enjoyment from MARVEL Cosmic Invasion, yet fans of similar titles in the genre will likely not find issue in this.
Returning to my point about the side content, each stage offers you three distinct challenges focused around various heroes. They’ll often be something such as “Defeat X amount of enemy with X ability/hero”, providing brief enjoyment and diversity to your objective as you start, yet becoming a tedious chore that even Thanos wouldn’t punish his worst enemy with by the end.
Leaving this side content with no reward or incentive to be completed can be viewed two ways: paying homage to the 90s roots embedded in the title, or a system which has been underdeveloped in a modern gaming world, especially when compared to the other modernised aspects of the title. I definitely fall into the latter camp, viewing it as a let-down from a game with masterpiece potential.
A Pixel-Art Masterpiece That Falls Just Short
As hinted at earlier, level design is just fine in MARVEL Cosmic Invasion; it won’t become detrimental to your overall experience, yet it’s unlikely to make a crater-sized impact to enjoyment either. It’s simply passable. This largely returns to that same issue of, more or less, traversing through the same laid out stages multiple times, only difference being aesthetic. For huge Marvel fans such as myself, this was enough to keep me going (seeing each environment in stunning 2D pixel-art was a blessing) yet to the average layman, this staleness may become apparent more immediately.
With gorgeous sprite-based visuals, modernised 90s based mechanics, and a foundation of combat able to provide hours of entertainment, MARVEL Cosmic Invasion more than earns itself a place in the fighting genre. Sadly, a lack of refreshing mechanics introduced, largely the same level design format, and overall repetitiveness, leaves the title a highlight to fans of the genre, yet missing out on masterpiece status in my eyes.
Important Links
Cosmic Swap Tag-Team Action – MARVEL Cosmic Invasion is Your New Xbox & Game Pass Obsession – https://www.thexboxhub.com/cosmic-swap-tag-team-action-marvel-cosmic-invasion-is-your-new-xbox-game-pass-obsession/
Buy MARVEL Cosmic Invasion from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/marvel-cosmic-invasion/9n79tqtztqq4
