How do you make a retro beat-em-up feel new? That’s a question that the team at Dotemu has had to ask itself a lot in the past five years. The studio has found tremendous success ushering in a new age of throwback brawlers, from Streets of Rage 4 to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. Its efforts are only doubling, as it is currently juggling three 2D projects between multiple development studios. Each one has to find a way to do something a little new in a genre that doesn’t feel like it can flex too much more.
And yet, Marvel Cosmic Invasion still finds a way. At this year’s Summer Game Fest, I tried the latest project from Streets of Rage 4 developer Tribute Games. While it’s another classic brawler filled with nostalgic pixel art and a wide roster of superheroes, it infuses that tried and true formula with just enough fighting game DNA to keep it distinct.
The most important moment of my demo came when I was asked to choose not just one, but two characters. I had access to a handful of Cosmic Invasion’s final roster, but I decided to go with Venom and Wolverine. That choice was the first sign that the project is doing things a little differently as I initially didn’t know why I had to pick a duo rather than one hero.
That became clear the moment I started playing and Cosmic Invasion’s one big trick revealed itself. It pays homage to the likes of Marvel vs. Capcom as much as any arcade beat-em-up thanks to its tag system. At any point, I can hold down a button to swap between my two characters. Naturally, that means I have more options when knocking goons out. In one run, I played with a Storm/Captain America combo. While I could use Storm to take enemies out at close range, I could switch to Cap and toss his shield across the screen to thwack far off enemies and block projectiles. There’s some synergy potential there that makes good use of the game’s large roster.
That’s not all. By simply pressing the tag button rather than holding it, I can call in my second hero to deliver a quick attack. If I’m playing well, I can do that while I’m juggling an enemy to extend my combo even more. It’s a seamless system that calls Mortal Kombat 1 and its Kameos to mind. It will feel natural to fighting game players and I can say that with certainty. Hours before trying Cosmic Invasion, I went hands-on with Invincible Vs, which features a nearly identical tag system. I got the hang of calling on a friend to extend my damage by the end of my session. As soon as I picked up Cosmic Invasion, I was able to transfer that skill instantly. The developers on hand seemed a little shocked by how fast I picked it up, but the muscle memory had been built up hours before.
That little trick helps create more dynamic action that naturally slots into Dotemu’s typically fine-tuned brawler formula. During my demo, my co-op partner and I were able to juggle our enemies for comically long amounts of time. He’d keep punching them up into the air with Cap while I used Venom’s wrecking ball move to smack them back and forth in midair and called on Wolverine to add insult to injury. It was a delight, even if that level of trolling isn’t becoming of a superhero (okay, Venom absolutely would do that, though).
With a planned runtime similar to that of Shredder’s Revenge, Marvel Cosmic Invasion should keep things tight as a one or two sitting game that encourages players to experiment with new combos each time. I’m ready to see how much more chaos I can inflict with a full team of friends controlling eight heroes at once.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion launches this fall for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
