Superheroes love to punch things. Comic book characters and side-scrolling beat-em-up games are just born soulmates. The best product of this union ever was the 1991 magnum opus Turtles in Time, which inspired the 2022 banger Shredder's Revenge. Developer Tribute Games and publisher DotEmu are working together again, this time allowing our favorite Marvel superheroes to get punchy in Marvel Cosmic Invasion.
Fantastic Four big bad Annihilus has escaped the Negative Zone again, and that's never good news for the good people of Earth. Up to four players can join forces to put superhero boots to the villainous butts of Annihilus and his evil minions. Each player selects two characters, one onscreen and one that will tag in at key points of the fight. Any mighty Marvel kids that played Maximum Carnage know what I'm talking about here.
In fact, there is so much DNA from 90s Marvel comics and games all throughout this trailer. The art style reminds me of the Capcom and Marvel fighters, as well as the other titles I mentioned. Even the most repetitive of those arcade brawlers monopolized me and all my buds' time whenever a new machine showed up.
With the pedigree of Shredder's Revenge, I absolutely trust Tribute Games to live up to their name and deliver another hit. The game will feature local and online co-op, as well as crossplay. The initial cast of characters is Captain America, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Storm, Venom, Phyla-Vell, and Nova. Phyla-Vell has previously been known as Captain Marvel, Quasar, and Martyr. She and Nova are often tangling with cosmic level threats, so they get an invite anytime the Negative Zone springs a leak.
There's no official timeline beyond "later this year," but I can't wait for this one. It's coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.