The last few years have seen a resurgence in 2D Arcade-style “Beat ‘Em Up” games coming to consoles. The “Beat ‘Em Up” format of game is based off of arcade classics from the early 90’s like “Final Fight”, “Golden Axe” and the legendary “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time”, all of which primarily involves going through a side-scrolling level and beating up anything that crosses your path.
In recent years, we’ve seen numerous “tribute” games that are done in the retro “2D” style, games such as “Streets of Rage 4”, “River City Girls 2”, “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge”. Now, Dotemu (the company that gave us “TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge” and “Streets of Rage 4”) is back with a new game: “Marvel Cosmic Invasion”.
The game was revealed as part of the latest Nintendo Direct today. Here’s the full trailer:
Dotemu’s press release for the game reads as follows:
“In Marvel Cosmic Invasion the immortal Super Villain Annihilus has launched an unprecedented attack across the galaxy, threatening all life as we know it. Fighters both Earth-born and cosmic must now join forces in a star-spanning adventure against the deadly Annihilation Wave. Brawl through the streets of New York City all the way to the depths of the Negative Zone to foil Annihilus’ vow to spread death across the cosmos.
Choose and control your own team of two characters while tagging between them mid-fight with the innovative Cosmic Swap system, capitalizing on distinct superpowers and special attacks to create unique team-ups and dish out devastating damage. Unlock stellar powerups and rewards while experimenting with different duos and bash through a fantastic collection of locales and nemeses from the Marvel universe. Marvel Cosmic Invasion’s action includes a range of accessibility features, empowering the whole family to be Super Heroes (or villains), and supports four-player drop-in/drop-out local and online co-op with crossplay.”
With Wolverine’s 80’s costume and Storm’s 90’s costume on full display, this is clearly a tribute to the Marvel Comics of the era of classic “Beat ‘Em Ups”, though the game also features newer characters from the last couple decades, such as Phylla-Vell (who was Captain Marvel for a brief period back in the 2000’s). The Nintendo Switch trailer mentioned a total of 15 playable characters being available at launch, making this a contender for the highest player count in a “Beat ‘Em Up” game.
While this reporter might personally have preferred an art style more in line with the classic “X-Men” arcade game of the early 90’s (with more slim, taller characters), the pixel aesthetic displayed in the trailer still looks amazing, and matches what Dotemu has done previously with “TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge” and “Streets of Rage 4”.
Though the game was featured in the Nintendo Direct, the game is also listed as coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and on PC (via Steam) this year. No exact release date has been revealed yet, other than “Holiday 2025”.
Stay tuned for further updates on this and other upcoming Marvel video games!
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