It’s been a while since I last reviewed a belt scrolling beat ‘em up, but when the developers of Streets of Rage 4 publish a game starring Marvel superheroes I’m eventually going to take interest. I resisted diving into Marvel Cosmic Invasion right away when it first came out due to my busy day job, but after some enticing DLC additions and a Steam sale I finally pulled the trigger. Special thanks to my brother PeaceRibbon, who joined me for some multiplayer mayhem as I made my way through the main campaign. Don your tights and fasten your capes because this is going to be one action-packed issue of Catholic Game Reviews.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is loosely based on 2006’s Annihilation event, a massive saga told across multiple ongoing comic series to keep the cosmic side of Marvel busy while earth’s heroes were going through the infamous Civil War event. Annihilus, ruler of the Negative Zone and long-time adversary of the Fantastic Four, leads his army in a massive invasion across every corner of the Marvel Universe and it’s up to a small coalition of Avengers, X-Men, and Guardians of the Galaxy to save the day. Since Cosmic Invasion is an arcade-style beat ‘em up the story content is very light, mostly consisting of scenes where the heroes arrive on the scene to fight the villains, then learn where to go next from said villain or from another superhero making a quick cameo. The story’s simplicity isn’t inherently a bad thing, but considering the Annihilation event is considered one of the better Marvel storylines of the early 2000s I can’t help but feel there’s some untapped potential being left on the cutting room floor.

I also think that the game’s roster of playable characters has some questionable exclusions and substitutions. In terms of exclusions my main issue is the lack of Fantastic Four characters in the base roster when the game’s main antagonist is a Fantastic Four villain. Fortunately, The Thing was added as a playable character in the first wave of DLC so it’s kind of a non-issue at this point, but he really should have been there from the start. I also think the game could have used a few more characters who were involved in the original Annihilation event like Star-Lord or Drax even if it’s not strictly supposed to be an adaptation of the source material.

Exacerbating these exclusions are what I call substitutions, characters who are largely derivative of more popular characters. I understand these inclusions help give the roster more variety in between the usual suspects, but the execution is very hit or miss. The best substitute in the game is Beta Ray Bill, the first character other than Thor himself deemed worthy to wield Thor’s hammer. While I think Thor gets benched a little too often in the realm of video games, Beta Ray Bill is easily the second best choice. Then there’s the Hulk’s cousin She-Hulk, who believe it or not used to be a decent character before Disney ruined her. I might have been okay with this substitution, but Cosmic Invasion downplays She-Hulk’s feminine qualities to such an extent that it made me question why they chose her over her male counterpart in the first place. Finally there’s Cosmic Ghost Rider, an alternate future version of The Punisher who made deals with both Mephisto and Galactus in order to cheat death and continue his quest for vengeance on a cosmic scale. Cosmic Ghost Rider certainly fits the theme of Cosmic invasion, but when his inclusion substitutes the classic Ghost Rider and The Punisher simultaneously I honestly don’t think it was worth it.

Gripes with the story and characters aside, Cosmic Invasion fares much better in terms of its overall presentation. Visually it takes most of its cues from comics and games from the 1990s. Storm’s white and gold costume? You got it! Nova’s big red mullet? Sure, why not?! Buttery smooth pixel graphics? Were you expecting anything else? There’s also a lot of influence from old Marvel beat ‘em ups and fighting games, with characters having very similar animations and moves to their predecessors. The soundtrack was handled by Tee Lopes, a composer for many recent retro throwback games and he once again delivers a solid body of work. The voice acting features a lot of the same voice actors that have played these characters in other recent Marvel games like Marvel Rivals, but in the spirit of Cosmic Invasion’s 90s throwback aesthetics some characters like Wolverine and Storm are voiced by actors who first played the characters 30 years ago, which is very impressive.

As for the gameplay, Cosmic Invasion offers a variety of special combat mechanics. All playable characters have access to running, jumping, basic attacks, a special attack, a super attack, and a defensive maneuver. With a roster of 16 heroes(plus Venom for some reason) and more on the way it should come as no surprise that the forms these moves take can vary wildly. Some characters defend by blocking while others defend by dodging. Some have access to long range projectiles, but others will have access to guard breaking grabs. The only downside to this level of variation is that it quickly became obvious which characters were the most powerful, namely ones with the ability to fly which trivializes most environmental hazards. The most noteworthy mechanic however, is the fact that every player selects a tag team of heroes they can switch between at any time or call in for assist attacks. The influence of tag team fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom is not lost on me here because this system opens the door for some crazy combos even when using some of the game’s weaker characters.

There are 2 primary game modes in Cosmic Invasion, Campaign and Arcade. Campaign mode requires the player to complete all stages in the game accompanied by story cutscenes. There are 16 stages in the game, but most of them are fairly short so completing all of them isn’t a particularly monumental task. That being said, there are bonus rewards the player can unlock in the vault by completing a series of optional challenges tied to each stage. Most challenges require the player to perform special techniques with a character associated with the stage or skillfully overcome an obstacle introduced in the stage. Furthermore, the player is encouraged to constantly switch up the characters they use by a leveling system which makes each character stronger the more enemies they defeat by the end of a stage.

Arcade mode, as the name implies, functions more like a traditional arcade beat ‘em up experience. The mode goes through the same levels as Campaign mode, but some stages are presented as branching paths reducing the amount of required stages from 16 to 11. Furthermore, the challenges and leveling system are absent so the player’s chosen characters are locked in and at full strength right from the beginning. Both Campaign and Arcade mode are compatible with local and online multiplayer with groups of up to 4 players, which is the optimal experience for any game in this particular genre.

From a Catholic perspective, the main point of interest in Cosmic Invasion is its main antagonist. The key to understanding Annihilus’s unapologetic desire for conquest and destruction isn’t simply the fact he’s an alien bug monster, but because he’s a nihilist. Nihilism is the philosophical position that life or the universe is devoid of any greater, objective meaning and everything we do is ultimately pointless. Many nihilists in fiction tend to be aimless drifters who reject the call to anything greater than satisfying their basic needs and easy pleasures, but Annihilus represents a far more dangerous type of nihilist. Because Annihilus believes nothing has any true meaning, he cannot conceive of any moral or even logical argument strong enough to stop him from doing what he wants regardless of the consequences, hence the relentless and indiscriminate warmongering. As Catholics we believe life is inherently meaningful by virtue of God’s infinite love for his creations and we are called to live in accordance with that love, which obviously puts us at odds with nihilism on a fundamental level. In our modern age filled with nihilism we must be resolute in our witness to the profound meaning in our lives, lest the nihilists among us become Annihiluses.

So what’s the verdict on Marvel Cosmic Invasion? Well it’s certainly a well made beat ‘em up I was happy to enjoy with a friend, but as it stands right now the price is a little steep. If you already love beat ‘em ups and have a friend to play with you I can definitely recommend picking this one up on sale. For everyone else I’d say wait till the second wave of DLC is released later this year, which is going to add even more playable characters and a brand new mode, before you make that decision. Ending things on a cliffhanger like that might come off as a little dissatisfying, but Marvel’s been doing that for decades. How else am I supposed to get you to read the next exciting issue of Catholic Game Reviews?

About Gaius Requiem