Tag! You’re it! The classic childhood game where the ultimate goal is to hunt down and touch another human being (get your mind out of the gutter) has been around for eons, perhaps even since humanity began. But in Marvel’s Cosmic Invasion, from the incredible team at Tribute Games, it takes on a whole new meaning, because in this case it’s Wolverine, or Spider-Man, or She-Hulk. It’s tag-team wrestling on steroids. It’s a pixelated side-scrolling brawler filled with chaos and Marvel icons. It. Is. Marvel-ous.

It wouldn’t be Marvel without some galaxy-level threat pulling up and throwing punches. This game’s big bad is Annihilus, a name you might know from the Annihilation comic event. The game is based roughly on that storyline, but all you really need to know is that Annihilus has appeared and is invading with his bug army, so some of Earth’s most powerful heroes are going to have to join forces and deliver a good old-fashioned ass-whooping.

Available On: PS4, PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC, Switch, Switch 2
Reviewed On: PS5
Developed By: Tribute Games
Published By: Dotemu, Gamirror Games

Review code supplied by the publisher.

Through the brief retro-inspired cutscenes that occur at the start of every mission and the occasional snippets of dialogue mid-stage, the game tells a fun comic-book story. Simple and to the point, right down to the slightly cheesy voice-acting which captures the vibe perfectly.

The big gimmick here is that you choose two characters from the roster of 15 to take into battle, and you can swap between them with a single button. One second you’re slicing and dicing as Wolverine, the next you’re slamming people as She-Hulk. But the tag-teaming (MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER!) action doesn’t stop there, because you can have your team-mate pop in for a quick attack and hop out again. Think the Marvel vs Capcom games, and you’re in the right ballpark.

Going deeper, the swap mechanic is encouraged in a few other ways, too. Sometimes an enemy will grab you and you’ll be locked in place unless you switch over. There are no ground recovery options for when you’re downed, either – just wait it out, or call in your team-mate instead.

It works wonderfully well. Swapping in and out is responsive and smooth, and figuring out the best way to combo attacks with your secondary character is a lot of fun for those looking to get the most out of the game. Mind you, this is also a great button-mashing brawler, too. Just hammering out attacks, dashing around and unleashing specials feels terrific and can carry you through a lot of the game. Some form of difficulty selection would have been good, though, so that anyone looking to push the mechanics to their limits can.

Plus, when people start joining in the chaos can mean smart play goes out of the window and into a death spiral. A max of four people can play together, via local or online or a mix, and when that happens the onscreen insanity is a sight to behold. More enemies and up to 8 heroes results in a hell of a lot of flashes, explosions and on-screen noise to parse. It can be hectic, almost to the point of frustrating if you prefer your fighting clean and precise. Embrace the chaos, though, and it’s more fun than one of Spidey’s hilariously terrible jokes.

On the topic of a little chaotic – flying characters. It’s really cool to levitate above the battle as Iron Man and tackle flying enemies on their own turf, but depth perception can be trickier. This is doubly-true because you can’t see your shadow on the ground sometimes amidst the destruction and bodies. I found myself punching thin-air more than a few times. A similar problem occurs with Spidey and Venom, both of who have web-swinging air attacks that are difficult to aim correctly.

Let’s jump into the core combat now. You’ve got your standard attack which usually helps you build up your Focus meter for some flashy foe-destruction. This bar is separate from your health, which I personally prefer because it gives you freedom to use special moves without gambling away survival, like in other brawlers. This meter has a secondary use to, because it is also used to perform the tag-team assist attacks.

Dodges and blocking are in the game, too. This is different from hero to hero: Spidey dodges, but Cap can reflect ranged attacks, while Black Panther has a special style of block that involves holding down the attack button. Learning blocks, dodges and counters is important when you want to tackle Arcade mode on higher difficulty settings, and is arguably even a little overpowered.

Then you’ve got each character’s unique attack, like Wolverine hopping on enemies and stabbing them, She-Hulk’s grabs and Silver Surfer’s cosmic blasts. With 15 characters to pick from, there’s a danger of characters feeling too similar, but Tribute do a great job of differentiating between characters. Sure, they have similarities, but their unique attacks, specials, movement speeds and other little tricks and quirks ensure you’ll always find a favourite or 5 to play as.

Oh! And that gives me a good opportunity to talk about the character selection. I’ve seen a few people moaning about B-list heroes, but for me that’s what makes the roster great. You have your big hitters like Captain American, Storm, Iron Man and Venom, but then you’ve got some deeper cuts.

Silver Surfer? Awesome choice. Beta-Ray Bill? A fun addition instead of going with the obvious. Phyla-Vell? Hell yes! Nova! Badass. Cosmic Ghost Rider? Dude! And I have to assume that if the game is successful enough we will see some DLC that adds more characters. Perhaps a couple more X-Men, or the Fantastic Four?

I assume you know the general gist of how these games work, but let’s cover it again: move from left to right, punch the snot out of everything that dares enter the screen. Repeat. It’s a simple formula, and Tribute do a good job of bringing in small twists here and there to make it even more enjoyable. One minute you’re battling through the Badlands amidst dinosaur stampedes, the next Galactus is looming behind the stage or you’re punching a minigun to make it blast enemies off the screen.

Each stage is capped off with a boss battle, some of whom will be joining your roster when defeated. The fights here are solid, and I appreciate that Tribute has mixed things up a little by adding in different mechanics, like having to destroy certain objects to make a boss vulnerable. It adds some variety to the fights, although a couple of them might make you pull your hair out on the first attempt or five. Some balance tweaks might be in order.

The levelling up mechanics from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge have made a comeback, too. Like before, playing the game will earn your characters XP, and in turn will unlock health upgrades, other niceties and some nifty passive buffs. For example, Jean’s buff kicks in after after level 5 which activates her Phoenix fire when she has a full focus bar. This levelling system helps combat the fact that there’s no difficulty system, so if you find a boss tough you can grind a few extra levels – it might be enough to give you the edge.

Once you’ve played through the campaign a time or two, there’s also Arcade mode which comes with unlockable modifiers. You can dial up the challenge, change it so special moves drain health like a classic brawler, have more enemies spawn and loads more.

I’ve not even touched the graphics yet as we near the final stretch of this review, but I think it goes without saying that it’s gorgeous! A lot of inspiration is taken from the Marvel vs Capcom games in terms of character stances and animations. And I have to say, as good as Marvel’s Cosmic Invasion looks, those old sprites are just as good, if not better, in some cases.

But let’s try and balance this review out a little more, because I did run into some problems worth discussing. Each stage is only going to be around 5-10 minutes long so having to restart is not a big deal, but it’s still annoying to run into an event that does trigger, forcing you to exit to the main menu because there’s no option to restart a stage from pause. Multiplayer could sometimes be weird, too, in that if I came back and resumed a game from sleep, it just wouldn’t work. Restarting the whole game would fix that.

Is Marvel’s Cosmic Invasion the best of the modern retro brawler revival? Yes! No? Maybe? Honestly, it’s a tough call. After all, Streets of Rage 4 is a beastly good game, as is Tribute’s own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. And much like those games, Marvel’s Cosmic Invasion isn’t doing anything particularly new or innovative in the genre.

Shoving that debate into the back of a cupboard with my old comics, though, Marvel’s Cosmic Invasion is my favourite of bunch. It ticks every box. Beautiful graphics, a roster of Marvel characters I love, a chaotic, smooth gameplay style that is fun whether I’m in the mood for button mashing or the mood for ripping apart its mechanics. It’s spectacular. Amazing. Astonishing. Uncanny. Incredible. I love it, so it’s getting those five stars.