Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Dec 1, 2025)

I downloaded and played the Marvel Cosmic Invasion demo. The demo is very short and has only two levels, ending with Taskmaster as the second level boss. It should only take you about 15 minutes to clear, unless you’re just goofing around.

I’m already familiar with this French video game developer, Dotemu, who remade other beat-em-up classics like Street of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, as well as remastered all the Metal Slug games. Their games are reasonably priced, and if you wait for a sale, you can get these games for about $10.

So, if you ever play these types of games, most of the fun will be playing it with your friends in co-op mode. You’re just walking around and beating up all the villains. It’s pretty mindless and sometimes you’ll be spamming certain moves once you figure out the pattern.

The full game promises 15 playable heroes, but with the demo, I only saw about half the characters. I recognized all the Marvel characters, except for the energy sword-wielding Phyla-Vell, which looks like pre-dated Carol Danvers Captain Marvel. I’m certain that the game developer will be open to adding more obscure characters in a future DLC.

I like how all the street-level characters. The flying characters takes time getting used to floating and not following the rules of gravity. I don’t know, I just don’t like the flying characters. My favorite is Wolverine; I just love his move sets. Plus, he just looks so cool.

Like all of Dotemu’s previous games, you don’t need a powerful computer to run this game. If you have a handheld, like a ROG Ally or a Steam Deck, or even the not-very-powerful original Nintendo Switch, it will run like a champ. In fact, it might look much better on a smaller screen on account of the retro-style art style. I did not experience any issues with the game lagging or stuttering during my gameplay.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion will come out on December 1, for $30. If you have friends over, or kids, I think $30 is not too much to ask for hours of fun. I’m in no hurry to buy the game, so I’ll probably just wait for a sale.