Marvel Cosmic Invasion Combines Tag Team Mayhem With Classic Beat ‘Em Up Charm

By Elijah Gonzalez | August 5, 2025 | 11:00am

Video Games Features marvel cosmic invasion

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).

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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.

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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.

And it’s all the more appealing to switch out from time to time because all nine (out of the full game’s 15) characters I played had relatively unique movesets. Attributes like the ability to fly, parry, or shoot projectiles, alongside differences in movement speeds and attack strings make it so that each fighter has their own vibe.

Of these, I particularly enjoyed She-Hulk and her grappler-referencing moveset that includes Zangief’s jab and a Potemkin Buster-looking command grab. She feels completely different from someone like Wolverine, who barrels across the screen like the feral short king he is, hacking and slashing with speedy ferocity.

These differences make it so that selecting your duo is a big deal. It’s usually best to cover as many different categories as you can so you can deal with a variety of threats, airborne or otherwise. For instance, I was very glad that I had Storm on my team while under attack from flying insect men, and I missed Captain America and his shield parry while getting knocked around by a charging bruiser with few gaps in their defense.

These characters’ moves have a lot of personality, animated in a way that conjures late ‘90s pixel art and comic book flair. Venom bashes his foes into the ground with slapstick abandon, and Storm’s special attack rightly puts the fear of a goddess into cronies caught in her typhoon. It’s all colorful and wacky, channeling Silver Age pulp through its interstellar premise and big bad, Annihilus. You probably won’t be seeing Beta Ray Bill or Phyla-Vell in the MCU anytime soon, but Cosmic Invasion is willing to cut fairly deep into the catalogue to great effect.

Overall, my only misgiving is that while I had a great time bashing skulls, the demo was a tad on the easier side. Between the powerful tag system and abundance of trashcan pizza, I rarely ran into a situation where my health bar started running low. It’s very possible that the chunk I played is an easy stretch from the beginning of the game, and that things will get more challenging from here, but it would be good if it felt more necessary to pull off slick tag maneuvers to survive. Beyond this, I don’t have a solid grasp on what the main Campaign mode will look like, because the build I played only gave access to a classic Arcade style setup with its permanent Game Overs.

That said, the game’s core villain punching is very much already there. It combines beat ‘em up simplicity with a tag system that allows for creativity and massive combos, as its sizable cast of superpowered bruisers differentiate themselves with unique abilities and skills. These fisticuffs are bolstered by a clear love for a specific era of comic books and arcade games, which it faithfully renders in pixel art glory. By combining throwback elements with some fresh tag-fighting flavor, Marvel Cosmic Invasion has a real chance at being out of this world when it comes out later this year for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Elijah Gonzalez is an associate editor for Endless Mode. In addition to playing the latest, he also loves anime, movies, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon games. You can follow him on Bluesky @elijahgonzalez.bsky.social.