Marvel Cosmic Invasion Is 2025’s Best Marvel Game

There’s a timelessness to the arcade beat 'em up, and developer Tribute Games seems set on making sure that today’s players never forget that fact. A little over three years after the excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, the studio has crafted another instant arcade classic that feels pulled from an alternative timeline where quarter-munching machines never went out of style.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion isn’t doing anything you haven’t seen before. It takes the beloved comic book imprint and converts it into a playable Saturday morning cartoon. It’s the perfect amount of goofy and lovingly referential to the source material. It’s also endlessly fun and replayable thanks to a huge roster of distinct characters and challenges.

Whether you’re an older player who remembers the joy of playing an arcade game alongside friends, or a diehard Marvel fan who enjoys seeing these heroes in action, Marvel Cosmic Invasion is an absolute delight. From its perfect sprite work, catchy chiptune soundtrack, and awesome cast pulled straight from the golden years of comics, this throwback is the definitive Marvel arcade game, surpassing fan favorites like X-Men and The Punisher. Cosmic Invasion is one of 2025’s easiest game recommendations.

Straight From The Comics

Marvel Cosmic Invasion loosely retells the story of the 2006 Marvel Comics crossover event Annihilation, which sees the cosmic villain Annihilus amass a giant fleet of warships and invade much of the known universe in an effort to rule it all.

The comic takes place entirely in deep space and mostly stars Marvel’s lesser-known cosmic entities, but Cosmic Invasion changes Annihilation’s story to fold in the more recognizable heroes of Earth. It’s a big change, but a smart one that makes the story more palatable to casual fans.

Even with such a significant tweak, Annihilation proves to be an excellent choice for a video game adaptation. Fighting the insectoid foot soldiers of the Annihilation Wave feels fresher than fighting random street-level thugs you’d expect from a game like this, and the scope of this space-faring adventure allows levels to take place in all corners of the Marvel universe. You’ll be fighting on the streets of Manhattan and Wakanda one minute, then the wilds of the Savage Lands and the halls of the Destromundo space menagerie the next.

For Marvel diehards, don’t expect this modified, Cliff Notes retelling of the classic crossover to hit all the twists and emotional highs of the book. However, the game’s cutscenes do just enough to make you smile. Each level is preceded by pithy exchanges between members of the game’s roster and the other villains and heroes they encounter along the way. These moments are cute nods to these characters' place in the larger Marvel universe, and feature the over-the-top voice acting you’d expect from the animated adaptations of X-Men and Spider-Man. It does just enough to hook you in and hype you up for the next stage.

Reigning King Of Arcades

From a gameplay standpoint, Marvel Cosmic Invasion is exactly what you expect: it’s a simple arcade-style brawler that excels when played with friends. You select two heroes you can swap between at any point, then fun forward and fight waves of bad guys until a tougher end-level boss spawns. Some of these bosses are recruited to the team, adding unexpected excitement to the first playthrough.

If you’ve played Shredder’s Revenge, Cosmic Invasion will feel very familiar. However, Tribute Games made a point to have each hero play differently. They all have a basic attack, a power-attack, a jump, an evade or block, and a super attack, typically reserved for clearing the screen when things get hairy. How each is used varies depending on the character selected, and with health pick-ups scarce, playing smartly is rewarded.

I mostly used the duo of Captain America and She-Hulk. Captain America’s power attack has him throw his shield how you’d expect, ricocheting off multiple enemies and knocking others over as it flies back to the star-spangled soldier. When timed correctly, Cap’s block also doubles as a parry that can be used to send projectiles back towards enemies.

She-Hulk, on the other hand, plays like a pro wrestler. She can grapple enemies, slamming them into the ground before hurling them towards others. She can also throw clotheslines and flying elbows from above, making her an offensive tank who’s particularly useful for evening overwhelming odds.

The two made for a great combo that served me well for nearly all of the game’s levels, but I also enjoyed seeing how the other characters' abilities changed the game. Spider-Man, for example, has an evasive jump instead of a block, and a webswing instead of a double jump. Playing the character effectively requires you to get a few hits in before leaping across the screen to avoid damage, which is accurate to the beloved character’s fighting style. Some characters, like Storm and Nova, can fly, while others, like Rocket Raccoon and Iron Man, pack an arsenal of firearms that make them great for ranged play. They all play just differently enough to make second, third, and fourth playthroughs as fun as the first.

A Hero’s Grind

As fun as it is to discover how each character’s powerset changes the straightforward beat 'em up gameplay, there is one underbaked RPG mechanic that forces players to grind through previous levels to progress. Each hero can level up, and while it takes just a handful of hours to reach the level cap, solo players will inevitably hit points where they’re simply too underpowered to defeat a boss.

While I’m not opposed to introducing RPG mechanics into a beat-em up, it feels superfluous here. Whereas games like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World had in-game shops to help build your character in specific ways, Cosmic Invasion grants bog-standard upgrades to health points and attack strength. Leveling up doesn’t give your hero new powers. You don’t even get to make strategy-changing choices about their builds.

This isn’t a deal breaker, as solo players can pair off their strongest hero with an underleveled one to assist them and reduce the grind. The roster depth also makes it easier to forget that you’ll be replaying a lot of the same levels and fighting the same bosses over and over again to progress the story. However, it doesn’t change the fact that the RPG mechanics feel underbaked compared to other games in the genre. It’s a missed opportunity that could have added even more replayability to this otherwise awesome package.

Cosmic Invasion is also a little light on variety. The game can be beaten in just a handful of hours, especially if you’re playing with a friend or three, and levels rarely shake things up. You won’t be hopping onto a vehicle or entering a turret for a perspective-changing shoot-em-up section like a Battletoads or TMNT on the NES. You are a boots-on-the-ground hero for the entirety of the run time, and so there are few “holy crap!” moments.

Conclusion

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is another retro triumph for developer Tribute Games. While it falls just short of the high bar set by other titles in the genre, like Streets of Rage 4 or this year’s Absolum, it makes up for it with the familiar, colorful charm of the Marvel universe.

There’s something for everyone here. For Marvel fans, it's chock-full of crowd-pleasing Easter eggs and fan service. For nostalgic arcade junkies, it's an absolute blast to play through, and it looks and sounds damn good the entire time. Marvel Comics Invasion is the definitive Marvel beat ‘em up, and one that will be well worth revisiting as many times as we did its arcade forebearers 30 years ago.

8/10

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Inverse was provided a PC copy of the game for this review.

INVERSE VIDEO GAME REVIEW ETHOS: Every Inverse video game review answers two questions: Is this game worth your time? Are you getting what you pay for? We have no tolerance for endless fetch quests, clunky mechanics, or bugs that dilute the experience. We care deeply about a game’s design, world-building, character arcs, and storytelling come together. Inverse will never punch down, but we aren’t afraid to punch up. We love magic and science-fiction in equal measure, and as much as we love experiencing rich stories and worlds through games, we won’t ignore the real-world context in which those games are made.