Loosely based on the Marvel’s Annihilation comic book event from the mid 00’s, Marvel Cosmic Invasion brings the epic annihilation wave to video gaming in 2025. The game is a side scrolling beat’ em up that feels reminiscent of Konami’s X-Men or Data East’s Captain America and The Avengers.
Annihilation (Comic Books)
Taking place during 2006, Marvel Comics published an event called Annihilation, made up of a prologue one-shot, some 4 issue limited series based around characters such as Silver Surfer and Nova, a 6 issue Annihilation series, a 2 part follow up and an new ongoing title for Nova.
The main plot of the event was Annihilus leaving the Negative Zone and attacking the galaxy with a wave of army bugs, seeing a revival of Marvel’s cosmic heroes as they attempted to stop Annihilus. Throw in some of Marvel’s cosmic heavy hitters and it was a good space event with little focus on Earth / Earth’s heroes.
Cosmic Invasion
The game takes some beats from the Annihilation event, and then throws in some levels based on Earth based locations such as a SHIELD Helicarrier, the Savage Land, and New York City before taking the heroes to space. These levels have more grounded foes such as Beetle, Task Master, and Sentinels mixed in with the bugs of the Annihilation wave.
Gameplay
Players pick two characters to act as tag team, with the ability to switch between the characters freely during a stage. Each character has different abilities such as Iron Man shooting repulser blasts, She-Hulk having sonic claps, and Venom being able to grab foes. The characters also have special (focus) attacks that can take up larger attack areas of the screen to damage multiple foes.
Cosmic Invasion allows for single player, but it is multiplayer (local or online) where it best shines with each player having their own tag-team allowing for lots of on screen action.
The stages are of similar lengths to each other (each in the 10 minute to 15 minute range to complete) and they feel just right in length. Difficulty does seem to jump slightly towards the end of the game, especially if attempting a stage challenge with a character of low level but that is a good thing.
Character Selection
A total of 15 characters are available to play as, with some requiring unlocking through progressing the storyline. Tribute Games have made some good choices here with well known characters mixed in with lesser known characters. The full roster is:
- Beta Ray Bill
- Black Panther
- Captain America
- Cosmic Ghost Rider
- Iron Man
- Nova
- Phoenix
- Phyla-Vell
- Rocket Raccoon
- She-Hulk
- Silver Surfer
- Spider-Man
- Storm
- Wolverine
- Venom
Each character has colour palette swaps available, and further colour palette swaps can be unlocked, allowing for characters’ costumes to reflect some comic moments (e.g. Iron Man’s stealth armour, Wolverine’s black X-Force costume, Spider-Man’s black costume).
As the game progresses characters can gain experience and level up, with new levels unlocking capabilities such as extra health, extra focus or passive ability upgrades.
Game Modes
Marvel Cosmic Invasion has a campaign mode, where progress can be saved (1 save slot). The campaign mode levels help your heroes level up whilst progressing the story. Each level has three challenges, viewable before loading the level or during the level via pause menu, and a hidden cosmic cube. Completing the challenges or finding the cosmic cube gives the player points to spend on unlocking colour palettes, arcade modifications, fact files or music. The campaign mode levels can be replayed without starting a new campaign, which helps when attempting challenges or grinding for character levels.
Arcade mode is the same levels from campaign mode, but played in the traditional arcade experience (no saves!). The arcade mode can be modified via unlocks, these include modifications such as vampire (health depletes) and altering special moves so that they use HP rather Focus.
A vault section shows the games achievements list, descriptions of characters / stages, and the cosmic matrix where points can be used to unlock content.
Opinion
Marvel and/ or side scrolling beat ’em up fans, especially those that enjoy the 90’s retro feel, will find Marvel Cosmic Invasion a fun game. I found that the playing the game in a pick up and play (10 to 15 minute sessions) burst style a great way to complete the campaign. The achievements, unlocks, and stage challenges offer some replay opportunities.
Although single player is fun, getting others involved in multiplayer is where Cosmic Invasion is best experienced especially if you have memories of 90’s local multiplayer.
Hopefully Tribute Games / Dotemu create some DLC for the title (‘Annihilation Conquest’ for some Ultron based levels, or ‘War of Kings’) in the future.
Review Specifications
I’m playing Marvel Cosmic Invasion on the X-Box Series S and at the time of the review the game is available as part of the X-Box Game Pass subscription, or for £24.99. Cosmic Invasion was released 1st December 2025 and is available on XBox (Series S/X), Nintendo Switch (1/2), Playstation (4/5) and Windows.