Growing up, my first pop-culture obsession – before Mario, Sonic, Donkey Kong, or Pokémon – was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I obsessed over their animated adventures and live-action movies, and I lived through their Golden Age of video games back when Konami was at the top of its game. For that reason, I could not have possibly been more excited about 2022’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. That game, developed by Tribute Games and published by Dotemu, brought forward the spirit of those late-’80s/early-’90s TMNT side-scrollers and somehow exceeded even my wildest expectations. Now, that same development team is back with Marvel Cosmic Invasion, following a similar formula with arguably my most beloved IP in adulthood, so I was extremely excited to get my hands on a new build of the game this week.
The demo I played had nine characters to choose from: Captain America, Nova, Storm, Venom, Wolverine, Phyla-Vell, Spider-Man, Rocket Raccoon, and She-Hulk. Not in this build, but confirmed for the launch roster are Beta Ray Bill and Silver Surfer. At least four more playable heroes are expected to be confirmed prior to launch. Though we played much of this content at Summer Game Fest, this marks the first time we’ve gotten our hands on Rocket and She-Hulk.
In Marvel Cosmic Invasion, each of the up to four players chooses two Marvel heroes to control. Once in the game, players can tag between their characters, each of whom has distinct movement abilities and attacks. Outside of their individual basic and special attacks, this is perhaps most aptly demonstrated by what happens when you double-tap the jump button. Some characters, like Wolverine, have no double-jump, while others, like Storm or Spider-Man, levitate or swing, respectively. Each hero has a standard melee attack, a hero-specific attack, and a strong special that requires focus (accumulated by landing other attacks on enemies).
The story follows this star-studded cast of superheroes as they take on Annihilus across the Marvel Universe. I had the chance to play through two Earth-based stages under attack from enemy forces. I took to the streets of New York as the one-two punch of Venom and Spider-Man. True to Tribute Games’ pedigree, the background is littered with nods to the broader world, with Daily Bugle headlines about how Norman Osborn is missing, and, of course, an obligatory “Spider Menace” headline. I’d love to go frame by frame and pick apart references and easter eggs, but New York has bigger problems: Annihilus has sent his bug-like minions to attack the city.
New York is fairly straightforward, but it gave me a great chance to get a feel for my characters. Spidey is agile, able to swing from one side of the screen to the other, while also being able to blast enemies with his webs from across the screen; you have to be judicious with those, however, as his web-shooters need to recharge. Venom is much more of a brute, with a special attack that deals heavy damage to anyone near him, and an incredible crawling animation when you sprint with him. The New York stage ends with a boss fight against Beetle, who succumbs to Annihilus’ control. Outside of him summoning some of Annihilus’ minions in the latter half of the battle, Beetle delivers a pretty simple fight; he moves around the screen, calls down a zig-zagging laser, and flies around, blasting projectiles your way. There were a couple of dicey moments, but nothing too stressful, as I beat him into submission and moved on to the next level.
To get a sense of the wider roster, I replay New York as Storm and Wolverine, and continue the fight into the next stage, which is a SHIELD Helicarrier. Though normally a bastion of safety for Marvel heroes, those things also have a tendency to fall under attack, which is precisely what is happening here. SHIELD has apparently imprisoned MODOK, leading AIM and Annihilus to coordinate an attack on their airborne base. These AIM minions are a bit tougher than Annihilus’ forces, as they all have elemental-based weapons, like electricity and fire. Storm is highly versatile, with her melee attacks giving way to her mastery of the weather, with gusts of wind attacking enemies at range and a potent lightning storm serving as her strongest attack. What Wolverine lacks in flight and range, he makes up for in quickness. I loved bouncing around the screen, mounting enemies, and repeatedly digging his adamantium claws into them.
The Helicarrier takes you through a bit more diverse stage than what I saw in New York, complete with a traditional elevator sequence, where you must fight off incoming baddies until you reach the top, and an area where you can use mounted laser turrets to blast enemies as they drop in. The stage culminates with a fight against one of my favorite Marvel villains, Taskmaster. True to his origin, Taskmaster can defend against a lot of your strikes, but when he tries to toss his shield like Captain America, that’s your chance to strike. After waiting out his loop and raining down lightning, the stage ends.
I wrapped up my session by playing the two newest characters in the demo: Rocket and She-Hulk. She-Hulk is, well, a hulking character, possessing extremely powerful moves, including smashing the ground and clearing much of the screen, but Rocket fills almost the exact opposite role. While She-Hulk plays a bit too slow and rigid for my taste, Rocket is hyper-mobile and very quick. Not only that, but he makes full use of his gadgets and weapons. For example, if you tap the standard attack button, he will pull out a zapper and attack at range. However, if he’s up close, he will go into a melee combo. He can also toss grenades with his other attack, and if you attack while sprinting, he drops a trip mine to deal damage to nearby enemies. Finally, his special attack sees him pulling out a wide array of guns and dealing substantial damage to every nearby enemy. Playing as Rocket truly feels like his movie-stealing scene from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 distilled into a 2D brawler.
Knowing my love for Shredder’s Revenge, as well as the Marvel universe and the characters therein, I came into my demo fairly confident I would enjoy my time. That is exactly how I came out of my demo, and now that my hands-on time is behind me, it’s apparent that I will enjoy the final product. And with such a broad cast of characters, I’m almost as excited to see what other deep cuts, cameos, and fun nods to the comics, movies, and shows Marvel Cosmic Invasion will bring when it releases. Unfortunately, we don’t yet know when it will arrive, except that it will be sometime this year. But when it does come, I will be ready to eagerly take on Annihilus’ forces.