Marvel Cosmic Invasion Combines Tag Team Mayhem With Classic Beat ‘Em Up Charm
At this point, Dotemu has more than earned a reputation when it comes to beat ‘em ups. They published and co-developed the excellent Streets of Rage 4, published the standout Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, and are publishing and co-developing the promising Absolum. To top it all off, they’re also publishing the upcoming Marvel Cosmic Invasion, which is being developed by the Shredder’s Revenge studio Tribute Games.
And at least from the little over an hour I played of Cosmic Invasion, it very much lives up to this pedigree, combining old-school beat ‘em up feel with a clever tag system inspired by fighting games assists—I have a hunch that at least a few of these devs are Marvel Vs. Capcom fans. It’s not the first beat ‘em up to let you swap in a partner mid-fight (Double Dragon Gaiden had a tag system as well), but it does it so well that you’ll wonder why it isn’t a staple for these beatdown sessions.
As for how the tag system works, at the start of each stage, you pick two superheroes (or villains in the case of Venom), each of whom have fairly different movesets and abilities—some can fly, like Storm and Nova, some can websling like Venom and Spidey, some can block incoming attacks like Captain America and She-Hulk, some have projectiles, etc. Each character can do a basic melee combo, unleash a charged melee strike, activate a power attack (projectiles, command grabs, and more), perform a defensive action like a roll or block, and do a screen-filling special attack (these are akin to desperation moves that cost health in classic beat ‘em ups).
Where things get zany, though, is that you can summon your ally at almost any time, either to switch places or have them perform one of five attack types. You can tag them in to apply pressure and extend your strings, fire a projectile to knock a flying foe out of the sky, have them perform a ranged tackle to push an opponent into a hole, and switch places with them mid-combo. While all of these maneuvers cost a resource called Focus, you’ll naturally build this by simply attacking foes, meaning as long as you’re not spamming the special attacks that cost a full bar, you’ll almost always be able to call in your teammate.
In practice, this sets up for outrageously empowering scenarios, as you land a blow, keep the combo going with an assist, and then relentlessly volley your enemies until they crumple and blink into nonexistence. There’s a jazzy, freeform feel here that plays as if you took the limiters of a tag fighting game, letting you summon your counterpart so often it is like you’re playing two characters at once. At one point, I called on Captain America and sent him barreling towards a cartoon scientist with a laser gun, while I whirled around with my point character, Spider-Man, swinging through the air with a flying kick that sent an army of goons reeling, at which point I re-summoned the Captain to continue a good old American beatdown.
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