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Digital Trends
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Marvel Cosmic Invasion's tag system lets me finally feel like a beat-em-up pro
As a kid, there was never a trip to a movie theater or bowling alley where I didn't sink at least a handful of quarters into whatever beat-em-up arcade game was on site. I was enamored with The Simpsons arcade game and bewitched by TMNT, but the one that ate the vast majority of my quarters (okay, my parents' quarters) was the X-Men arcade game. Even looking at a screenshot of those majestic pixel-art graphics gives me phantosmia of slightly burnt popcorn and hot pretzels. I never had the skill or quarters necessary to get beyond one or two stages in those games, but that never diminished my love for beat-em-ups. I still like checking out new entries when I can, but love watching combo videos even more. Seeing one or two people work in perfect harmony with the game's mechanics to juggle, bounce, and style on those poor NPC enemies is an art form that I never thought I'd be able to participate in. Recommended Videos That was until this week when I got to play the first two stages of Marvel Cosmic Invasion. Be your own sidekick Coming from developer Tribute Games and Dotemu to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Switch 2, and PC, Marvel Cosmic Invasion is more than just a love letter to the old arcade beat-em-up genre — it is the culmination of everything I want it to be. If you've played a beat-em-up before, you will recognize the core systems here. You pick your favorite superhero from a final roster that will consist of 15 heroes to brawl through sidescrolling stages against waves of enemies and a boss at the end. Your bread and butter buttons are a standard combo, special move, and ultimate ability to pull out in a pinch, but it is the layers Marvel Cosmic Invasion puts on top of the core formula that made me feel more like a pro on my first shot than I ever did in other games in the genre. My demo only featured two stages and a roster of 9 out of the final 15 heroes, but that was more than enough to give me a taste of the possibilities this game has. I knew one of the core features of Marvel Cosmic Invasion was the Cosmic Swap system, which would let me swap between two different heroes rather than be stuck as just one for the entire game. I assumed that would be a cool way to keep the game from feeling stale, but not be as transformative and integral to the moment-to-moment flow of combat as it ended up being. I chose Wolverine and Phyla-Vell as my initial pairing as a way to try something familiar and something new. Wolverine is the raw ball of fury I expected, rushing in with claws, leaping onto enemies to stab them, and charging up a big cross slash. Besides my default combo, I instinctively found a launcher by hitting attack and jump at the same time, as well as the aforementioned charge attack by holding attack. There was no tutorial or explanation on how to play in my demo beyond the control layout in the menu, so hopefully that is included in the full game to explain some of the less-obvious moves to those who aren't familiar with the language of beat-em-ups. That was all standard stuff. It felt and looked amazing, but didn't show its hand until I messed with the Cosmic Swap system. This isn't just a button I press to swap characters when I get tired of Wolverine's moves, though it could be used that way. This is more akin to the tag system in a fighting game like Marvel Vs. Capcom, where I can hold the assist button plus press one of my attacks to summon my backup character to inject one of their moves into my combo with or without swapping to them depending on the button. This cracked open the combat system in a way I'd never been able to even approach before. I found myself pulling off complex and extended combos almost on instinct by calling out an assist move when I left myself unable to continue juggling an enemy with my primary character. By pure accident, I was pulling off the types of combos I had only seen in clips online. I want to stress that I've never been able to do more than some basic combos before, but on the first stage in this Marvel Cosmic Invasion demo I managed to rack up a combo of over 200 purely by experimenting with all the moves. I can only imagine what two or more people, each controlling multiple characters, will be able to pull off. But the tag system didn't just make me feel like a pro because it let me dominate enemies that, for the most part, are there to be styled on. It also removes the most aggravating part of beat-em-ups, which is when I end up on the wrong side of a combo. Marvel Cosmic Invasion doesn't tone down the frustratingly long amount of time I am stunned when I do find myself getting hit, but instead of forcing me to grit my teeth and bear it, the tag system gives me an out. If I find myself getting hit, I can call in my assist to interrupt my attacker long enough to break out of the stun and strike back. Or, I can completely swap out to my second character to bypass the hitstun. Once I had ingrained that lesson into my toolkit, I always felt like I had an option in every scenario to turn things around. I would say the Cosmic Assist system is a little overpowered, but I think that's the point. It does come at a cost — a meter that drains as I use it but refills upon hitting an enemy. But unless I spammed it, that meter would stay replenished without having to think much about it. There were only two bosses in my demo, and even fighting them I never came close to death. Who knows how the difficulty will ramp up later, but I don't think Marvel Cosmic Invasion leaning on the easier side is by any means a bad thing. It lets average players like me feel like I'm making the most of the combat systems. Every time I experimented, even when I wasn't sure what attack my assist was going to do, I was almost always rewarded for it. Marvel Cosmic Invasion launches later this year.
Daily Mirror
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Marvel Cosmic Invasion's greatest superpower is the sheer beat-em-up variety its heroes allow for
Tribute Games is following up its work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge with yet another licensed beat-em-up that pays homage to the genre's glory days. After repeatedly playing through two stages of Marvel Cosmic Invasion as multiple characters, this is one beat-em-up that's shaping up to be the real deal. If you're going to get any developer to make a modern, yet undeniably old-school, version of a Marvel beat-em-up, it's hard to imagine a better fit than Tribute Games. Having already worked pixelated magic in its own right with original titles, Panzer Paladin and the criminally underrated Flinthook, the studio did brilliant justice by everyone's favourite pizza-eating reptiles with 2022's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. That's why, after recently getting hands-on with multiple superheroes across two stages, I can comfortably say Marvel Cosmic Invasion is on track to be just as charming and punchy to play (if not more). The main thing that separates Cosmic Invasion from Shredder's Revenge in my eyes is easily the increased character count on offer here. Featuring a wide gamut of familiar playable heroes from across the Marvel universe (all of them not yet revealed) there's simply a greater degree of combat and power variety on offer. True, Tribute Games did an impeccable job at distinguishing Donatello's staff's extended reach from Michaelangelo's speedier nun-chucks, but most attacks in the turtles' outing occurred at ground level. This is far from the case in Marvel: Cosmic Invasion. The first stage I got to play was a great example of this, following our heroes' pursuit of a street-level villain called Beetle throughout New York City. Swinging across the screen as both Spider-Man and Venom feels gratifying as expected, yet the need to judge the arc of their swing exactly helps differentiate them from the likes of Storm, Nova, and Phyla-Vell, who all have the ability to fly. Especially when played with another person in co-op, covering both halves of the screen in this way is much easier providing you have the perfect team setup. It makes for a style of play I never felt locked into thanks to Cosmic Invasion's generous decision to let players switch between two heroes on the fly. My preview build of the game sadly included no story content – outside of character barks – to speak of, but this hero-switching ability I'm sure will be explained in-universe as being the result of Annihilus' villainous acts. For now, however, I found fighting through the city streets of New York to be a great way of mastering Marvel Cosmic Invasion's specific rhythm of beat-em-up combat, which mostly boils down to light attacks, special attacks, and one screen decimating manoeuvre. That said, all 15 characters are specific to one of several unique class types, allowing the likes of Nova and Spider-Man to shoot enemies from afar using energy blasts and webs respectively while others don't have ammo to stay wary of. A modern marvel It should go without saying just how much of a, well, marvel this game is on the visual front. Character sprites are satisfyingly chunky in a way that makes each's set of animations appear all the more characterful, even if it does mean that larger characters such as She-Hulk always end up taking up a large portion of the screen. It's the little details with regards to how all are animated that I got the biggest kick out of, such as how Eddie Brock will briefly appear in amongst Venom's pixels whenever his tentacles are prone to lash out and swirl, or obviously on the rare occasion I played as him and was knocked to the ground. The second stage of my preview took place on a helicarrier, with the team in hot pursuit of Taskmaster and a curiously shrunken-down Modok. Again, the narrative circumstances for the latter remain a mystery for me, but it was here that Tribute Games really showed off the ways in which a stage's environment can impact combat. The main way ended up being holes blown in the floor that I was always at risk of falling through. It sounds easy to avoid but not always when the action on screen is this chaotic. Far more interesting, however, were the laser gun turrets that appeared towards the end of the stage, which if kicked in the right direction will automatically shoot at enemies. Doing this helped saved me a lot of time. I sadly wasn't able to play as the two most recently revealed heroes, Silver Surfer and Beta Ray Bill, but my favourite two-character team so far ended up being Venom and Nova. Venom proved particularly useful since automatic grabs aren't a thing in Cosmic Invasion, with this ability instead reserved for the hulking symbiote who can then slam or throw enemies around with ease. Nova's flying ability, meanwhile, makes taking on flying oversized bugs less of a chore, while his energy blasts feel more satisfying to pull off than Storm's giant gusts of wind. Truth be told, there's a lot of crossover here with how heroes handle, but there's still plenty of combat variety to be found when choosing certain team-ups. If there's one major concern I have about Marvel Cosmic Invasion right now, after playing through two levels, it's that it just might be too easy. Even alone I found that I could mash through most enemies without much challenge, purely due to how overpowered most (if not all) of these heroes are. Especially when you throw in the fact you technically have two health bars to fall back on, at least judging by the two stages I repeatedly played through, I can't imagine myself ever seeing the 'Game Over' screen. Hopefully Tribute Games has a few more enemy types saved for later on primed to truly test players' beat-em-up skills. In almost every sense, then, with Cosmic Invasion Tribute Games appears to have very much understood the assignment – at least in terms of gameplay and sheer character expression. Story elements are still being kept under the studio's hat, so we'll need to wait until closer to release to see whether the game has cooked up something new here. Even without a good narrative hook, though, for friends looking to recapture the days when arcade beat-em-ups ruled the world, Marvel Cosmic Invasion is shaping up to be another solid addition to the genre's modern oeuvre, understanding this universe's characters to no end and letting you feel uniquely powerful as all of them.
Digital Trends
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Marvel Cosmic Invasion has some surprising Marvel vs. Capcom DNA
How do you make a retro beat-em-up feel new? That's a question that the team at Dotemu has had to ask itself a lot in the past five years. The studio has found tremendous success ushering in a new age of throwback brawlers, from Streets of Rage 4 to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. Its efforts are only doubling, as it is currently juggling three 2D projects between multiple development studios. Each one has to find a way to do something a little new in a genre that doesn't feel like it can flex too much more. And yet, Marvel Cosmic Invasion still finds a way. At this year's Summer Game Fest, I tried the latest project from Streets of Rage 4 developer Tribute Games. While it's another classic brawler filled with nostalgic pixel art and a wide roster of superheroes, it infuses that tried and true formula with just enough fighting game DNA to keep it distinct. The most important moment of my demo came when I was asked to choose not just one, but two characters. I had access to a handful of Cosmic Invasion's final roster, but I decided to go with Venom and Wolverine. That choice was the first sign that the project is doing things a little differently as I initially didn't know why I had to pick a duo rather than one hero. Recommended Videos That became clear the moment I started playing and Cosmic Invasion's one big trick revealed itself. It pays homage to the likes of Marvel vs. Capcom as much as any arcade beat-em-up thanks to its tag system. At any point, I can hold down a button to swap between my two characters. Naturally, that means I have more options when knocking goons out. In one run, I played with a Storm/Captain America combo. While I could use Storm to take enemies out at close range, I could switch to Cap and toss his shield across the screen to thwack far off enemies and block projectiles. There's some synergy potential there that makes good use of the game's large roster. That's not all. By simply pressing the tag button rather than holding it, I can call in my second hero to deliver a quick attack. If I'm playing well, I can do that while I'm juggling an enemy to extend my combo even more. It's a seamless system that calls Mortal Kombat 1 and its Kameos to mind. It will feel natural to fighting game players and I can say that with certainty. Hours before trying Cosmic Invasion, I went hands-on with Invincible Vs, which features a nearly identical tag system. I got the hang of calling on a friend to extend my damage by the end of my session. As soon as I picked up Cosmic Invasion, I was able to transfer that skill instantly. The developers on hand seemed a little shocked by how fast I picked it up, but the muscle memory had been built up hours before. That little trick helps create more dynamic action that naturally slots into Dotemu's typically fine-tuned brawler formula. During my demo, my co-op partner and I were able to juggle our enemies for comically long amounts of time. He'd keep punching them up into the air with Cap while I used Venom's wrecking ball move to smack them back and forth in midair and called on Wolverine to add insult to injury. It was a delight, even if that level of trolling isn't becoming of a superhero (okay, Venom absolutely would do that, though). With a planned runtime similar to that of Shredder's Revenge, Marvel Cosmic Invasion should keep things tight as a one or two sitting game that encourages players to experiment with new combos each time. I'm ready to see how much more chaos I can inflict with a full team of friends controlling eight heroes at once. Marvel Cosmic Invasion launches this fall for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Express Tribune
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Scott Pilgrim EX announced by Tribute Games as new beat-em-up adventure
Scott Pilgrim EX, a brand-new beat-em-up game, has been officially announced by Tribute Games during the 2025 Summer Game Fest, as reported by Mike Minotti of VentureBeat on June 6. Known for developing the fan-favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge and the upcoming Marvel Cosmic Invasion, Tribute Games is returning to the retro-inspired action genre with a fresh take on the beloved Scott Pilgrim franchise. Though not a direct sequel or remake, Scott Pilgrim EX draws inspiration from the legacy of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, a 2010 side-scrolling brawler that garnered critical acclaim for its pixel art style, nostalgic gameplay, and soundtrack. The Scott Pilgrim universe originally began as a comic book series by Bryan Lee O'Malley and has since expanded into a cult-classic film and animated adaptations. While specific details remain limited, the announcement trailer showcased classic beat-em-up action, cooperative multiplayer, and stylistic callbacks to both the comics and earlier game. Tribute Games, known for its polished pixel art and fluid gameplay mechanics, aims to reintroduce Scott Pilgrim to a new generation while appealing to longtime fans of the series. The original game, re-released in 2021 after years of fan demand, became a cult classic. With Scott Pilgrim EX, Tribute Games signals a return to that beloved style—potentially with new characters, features, and levels. More information about platforms, release dates, and gameplay specifics for Scott Pilgrim EX is expected in the coming months as Tribute Games continues development.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Scott Pilgrim EX Takes Off At Summer Game Fest 2025
Tribute Games, in collaboration with Universal Products & Experiences and revealed at Summer Game Fest 2025 an all-new, action-packed video game entry into the Scott Pilgrim universe, Scott Pilgrim EX Featuring a brand new story from Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim EX showed off a Toronto that was under attack from three rival gangs. It's up to Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers to take down these gangs with their kung-fu skills and videogame know-how. Scott Pilgrim EX reimagines the fan-favorite universe with a modern approach to traditional brawlers. Featuring Tribute Game's iconic 16-bit style, arcade action, seven fan-favourite characters, and seamless four-player drop-in co-op. Each of the seven playable characters features a full move set from the start, but players can customize their experience through upgradeable stats, and equippable special items making every fighter feel truly personal. Not only that, but the game will feature new pixel art from famed artist Paul Robertson, as well as new music from Anamanaguchi. 'Working on a game like this is a dream come true, especially with this team of old friends and new collaborators. Scott Pilgrim fans won't know what hit them in the slightest! EX-pect the un-EX-pected!' said Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O'Malley. Following this up, Game Director at Tribute Games Jonathan Lavigne said, 'Scott Pilgrim EX is the culmination of years of experience working on brawlers combined with our intimate knowledge of Scott Pilgrim. It's a full-circle moment for us.' With hard-hitting combat and explosive art, Scott Pilgrim EX reinvents classic 2D brawling for a new era, blending high-energy action with fun character progression. While no specific release date was given for Scott Pilgrim EX, the game is set to launch in 2026 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
