MARVEL is on a hot-streak of killer video game titles, and their upcoming beat ‘em upMARVEL Cosmic Invasionis no exception. At this year’s Summer Game Fest Play Days, Hardcore Gamer had the chance to play the new arcade-style brawler, which is a refreshing and entertaining new take on the decades-old genre containing enough MARVEL references to please even the geekiest comic book nerd.
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The super-powered roster of characters has become something of a selling point for the game, with additions to the lineup being announced like newSuper Smash Bros.characters in exciting and stylish animated trailers. Of the fifteen total characters available at launch, nine have been announced:
The hype around these characters is well-earned; while most beat ‘em ups feature a cast of fighters that all have a roughly similar set of basic and special moves,Cosmic Invasion’sheroes have extremely distinct move sets.
Wolverine’s secondary attack is a pouncing leap, which allows him to jump across the screen and latch on to an enemy’s chest, then pummel them with high-speed slashes of his claws that are as rapid as the player can button-mash. On the other hand, Storm’s secondary attack creates a mini-tornado, which behaves as a sort of melee turret for Storm, damaging enemies at its location while she continues fighting.
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These kinds of differences are what make choosing a character such a tough choice, since all of them are a ton of fun. Storm and Nova can fly, taking care of any airborne enemies that come on screen, but Spider-Man can swing on his webs, dealing damage while moving across the upper half of the screen. Captain America can block incoming attacks, but other characters can dodge them. Factors like these make every character a unique experience to play, but thankfully you don’t have to choose just one.
A Retro Adventure with Modern Flair
Similar to their fighting-game cousin Marvel vs. Capcom,Cosmic Invasionallows players to swap between their choice of heroes at will during play, selecting two fighters at the start of the game that they can either swap to, or summon for a special attack, at any time. Each fighter has their own separate health and power bar (which allows them to activate an “ultimate” attack of sorts, such as Spider-Man’s spinning volley of webs or Wolverine’s high-damage enraged super-slash), making swapping more effective than just a change in moves and abilities. Selecting characters at the start of a session became a more strategic process because of this and brought a second level of communication to our team when deciding if we needed two flying characters, multiple ranged attacks or anyone capable of dodging.
A refreshing and entertaining new take on the decades-old genre
Boss battles require a similar level of coordination and strategy, requiring more than just button-mashing attacks as fast as possible. Our battle with Taskmaster aboard the Helicarrier required our squad to find a way to separate the supervillain from their shield, which blocked any and all attacks we threw at it while in their hands. Once we managed to knock it out of their possession, it was up to us to string together tossing and stumbling moves to ensure they couldn’t get back to their shield, a task some characters were more equipped for than others. Finally knocking the boss down to zero health let out a sigh of relief among our party of strangers, with handshakes and congratulations to follow.
With an addictive quality that most beat ‘em ups seem to lose within a few quarters-worth of time,MARVEL Cosmic Invasionwas a surprise favorite of ours at this year’s Summer Game Fest. Playing with friends (or strangers) is a blast, creating a more complex and rewarding gameplay experience (rather than a more confusing and patience-based one) with partners. Players will even be able to level up their characters as they play, unlocking new colorways and more as they progress.MARVEL Cosmic Invasionis set to be a super-fun throwback to the glory days of the arcade beat ‘em up, making brawler gameplay feel even more fun than you remembered when it arrives on PC, Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5 and Xbox later this year.
MARVEL Cosmic Invasion
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