Marvel Cosmic Invasion
This sits in a spot of being "comfortably mid" for me. I would not recommend this to people who really engage with the genre but for me it does enough that it triggers my almonds for one playthrough. Presentation wise I love it. I like that it imitates 90's Marvel cartoon voice acting, it's really charming they decided to make Wolverine sound more like Cal Dodd than Steve Blum and for the stylization here that's perfect. There's occassionally some oddities like how Rocket Raccoon resembles the Scottie Young design of the 10's and Phyla-Vell existing at all, but I think that adds to the novelty seeing newer stuff be incorporated into this aesthetic. Only weak spot for me presentation wise is the music which is bland "retro" slop but it's not distractingly bad.
One thing I'll also grant it is that every character feels unique. I feel some could have leaned a lot harder on their concept and a fair number have glaring overlap sometimes, but you do get new experiences playing different characters. Rocket Raccoon specifically is probably my favorite just in terms of how effectively it leans into the character's fantasy and how novel his moveset is for a beat em up.
The level design is boring. Every level is a narrow path with maybe an occassional pit or hazard showing up but the thing is there's never a threat of being thrown into a pit because you lose virtually nothing by falling into one and most enemies aren't capable of knocking you into one anyway. The way pits are placed are also random too, so there's never any setpieces where watching your foot around pits becomes a factor in how you play the game. Sometimes you might get a "bridge" but this usually works to your benefit since your moves have far more knockback than the enemies. The other hazards come in two forms - a beam that covers up an entire line of the screen and random projectiles that fall from above. But due to the way the game is designed they're rarely a threat. The tell for them is very slow which makes their threat almost trivial given how lenient the dodge and parry mechanic is or even just simply walking out of it. If you get hit by them it's because you were being extremely careless and unattentive. This is the bare minimum for beat'em'up level design and it comes off like the intent was to cover the screen with more ♥♥♥♥ than being thoughtful on how space is controlled in the moment to moment.
The way enemies are designed range from boring to obnoxious. The boring enemies are justified by the fact the game loves filling the screen with them and kinda creating this Dynasty Warrior-esque adrenaline of smacking around big numbers with your aoe. But the thing is they control so little space and due to how your defensive mechanics work it's easy to cop out of your offense if they ever come near you so positioning is often an after thought. The obnoxious are the many, MANY flying enemies that are never enjoyable to deal with. To the game's credit I think they at least provide extra dimension to space control but I think this hampered by how inconsistent the aerial control is from character to character. It's a cool idea for a beat em up to alternate between flying and grounded combat due to how enemies control space, but since the game has a ton of non-flying characters there has to be the caveat where aerial enemies can easily be grounded and/or just die in like one hit. And depending on character the process of fighting them ranges from brain dead easy to tedious. For example, the process with Wolverine is simply executing the uppercut for an easy combo. With Rocket, you have to do an awkward double jump with your only means of attacking them is a dive attack forcing you to ground them. Neither is particularly fun since your approach to these enemies will ALWAYS be the same. I feel the fact so many enemies have super armor feels like a bandaid solution to how easily trivalized they are by the defensive mechanics and I don't like this because dropping your offense for that is so much less interesting than positioning against multiple enemies.
The bosses are this weird thing where they feel more like a conventional action game boss than one you'd typically experience in a beat em up. What I mean by this is that instead of forcing you to alternate between them and various enemies on screen the focus is entirely on their attack patterns and they go through phases of how they move and act, where it's more about the pattern recognition of their attacks than controlling the arena space. But I think the bosses are boring and obnoxious because any projectile they shoot have an obvious trajectory that controls a limited amount of space which is often easy to parry or dodge. They get obnoxious because to bandaid this they typically get invincibility and teleportation that prevents you from being consistently offensive, and usually this just causes things to be a waiting game before you can slap them again... and it's just... painfully boring at times.
Mechanically the game is kinesthetically nice but the combo game is deeply uninteresting to me. It's kinda cool they sort of took MVC and put it into a beat'em'up but unlike MVC none of the assists have any real utility other than extending the combo and the unique abilities don't really allow much creativity in how combos are extended. I do think that the game is solid in giving each character gimmick that changes how they approach things but it lacking conventions such as a proximity throw and having resources be meter based narrow down how you fight enemies most of the time. You're basically just going to run up to everyone, mash attack, and then dodge/block any time they show an attack animation. Maybe use your special when the screen becomes cluttered time to time. You're not going to be thinking much about your positioning and instead be observant of attack patterns, which is usually not good for this genre. Some characters having a block instead of a dodge is a cool novelty that I do think this limits how enemies are designed since they have to function in a way where these mechanics must work in the same case scenarios and I feel this hurts so much of how the defensive play of this game works. I also feel even on hard that it's not punishing enough, getting hit by anything barely hurts and being knocked down is rarely a problem for the neutral due to how the defensive mechanics and aoe work.
In terms of features I feel the unlocking process is excessively tedious, especially if you want the arcade options. Who thought it was a good idea for unlocks to be based on a grid you have to grind for and hope you choose the thing you want to unlock? For what it's worth, the arcade options provide cool customization options that do change the game in neat ways but the way this is gated is so painfully unnecessary and I wish they'd go even further in amplifying the difficulty through these options rather than have a ton that make it easier.
I criticized this game hard but I didn't find it horribly painful to play through. For me the experience was more of a "this is shallow but decently playable" and given it's about 2-4 hours long it doesn't overstay its welcome. It has enough bombast and novelty to be superficially enjoyable. If you're like me and into Marvel then that niche will appeal to you here but I cannot earnestly recommend this on its criteria as a game.
One thing I'll also grant it is that every character feels unique. I feel some could have leaned a lot harder on their concept and a fair number have glaring overlap sometimes, but you do get new experiences playing different characters. Rocket Raccoon specifically is probably my favorite just in terms of how effectively it leans into the character's fantasy and how novel his moveset is for a beat em up.
The level design is boring. Every level is a narrow path with maybe an occassional pit or hazard showing up but the thing is there's never a threat of being thrown into a pit because you lose virtually nothing by falling into one and most enemies aren't capable of knocking you into one anyway. The way pits are placed are also random too, so there's never any setpieces where watching your foot around pits becomes a factor in how you play the game. Sometimes you might get a "bridge" but this usually works to your benefit since your moves have far more knockback than the enemies. The other hazards come in two forms - a beam that covers up an entire line of the screen and random projectiles that fall from above. But due to the way the game is designed they're rarely a threat. The tell for them is very slow which makes their threat almost trivial given how lenient the dodge and parry mechanic is or even just simply walking out of it. If you get hit by them it's because you were being extremely careless and unattentive. This is the bare minimum for beat'em'up level design and it comes off like the intent was to cover the screen with more ♥♥♥♥ than being thoughtful on how space is controlled in the moment to moment.
The way enemies are designed range from boring to obnoxious. The boring enemies are justified by the fact the game loves filling the screen with them and kinda creating this Dynasty Warrior-esque adrenaline of smacking around big numbers with your aoe. But the thing is they control so little space and due to how your defensive mechanics work it's easy to cop out of your offense if they ever come near you so positioning is often an after thought. The obnoxious are the many, MANY flying enemies that are never enjoyable to deal with. To the game's credit I think they at least provide extra dimension to space control but I think this hampered by how inconsistent the aerial control is from character to character. It's a cool idea for a beat em up to alternate between flying and grounded combat due to how enemies control space, but since the game has a ton of non-flying characters there has to be the caveat where aerial enemies can easily be grounded and/or just die in like one hit. And depending on character the process of fighting them ranges from brain dead easy to tedious. For example, the process with Wolverine is simply executing the uppercut for an easy combo. With Rocket, you have to do an awkward double jump with your only means of attacking them is a dive attack forcing you to ground them. Neither is particularly fun since your approach to these enemies will ALWAYS be the same. I feel the fact so many enemies have super armor feels like a bandaid solution to how easily trivalized they are by the defensive mechanics and I don't like this because dropping your offense for that is so much less interesting than positioning against multiple enemies.
The bosses are this weird thing where they feel more like a conventional action game boss than one you'd typically experience in a beat em up. What I mean by this is that instead of forcing you to alternate between them and various enemies on screen the focus is entirely on their attack patterns and they go through phases of how they move and act, where it's more about the pattern recognition of their attacks than controlling the arena space. But I think the bosses are boring and obnoxious because any projectile they shoot have an obvious trajectory that controls a limited amount of space which is often easy to parry or dodge. They get obnoxious because to bandaid this they typically get invincibility and teleportation that prevents you from being consistently offensive, and usually this just causes things to be a waiting game before you can slap them again... and it's just... painfully boring at times.
Mechanically the game is kinesthetically nice but the combo game is deeply uninteresting to me. It's kinda cool they sort of took MVC and put it into a beat'em'up but unlike MVC none of the assists have any real utility other than extending the combo and the unique abilities don't really allow much creativity in how combos are extended. I do think that the game is solid in giving each character gimmick that changes how they approach things but it lacking conventions such as a proximity throw and having resources be meter based narrow down how you fight enemies most of the time. You're basically just going to run up to everyone, mash attack, and then dodge/block any time they show an attack animation. Maybe use your special when the screen becomes cluttered time to time. You're not going to be thinking much about your positioning and instead be observant of attack patterns, which is usually not good for this genre. Some characters having a block instead of a dodge is a cool novelty that I do think this limits how enemies are designed since they have to function in a way where these mechanics must work in the same case scenarios and I feel this hurts so much of how the defensive play of this game works. I also feel even on hard that it's not punishing enough, getting hit by anything barely hurts and being knocked down is rarely a problem for the neutral due to how the defensive mechanics and aoe work.
In terms of features I feel the unlocking process is excessively tedious, especially if you want the arcade options. Who thought it was a good idea for unlocks to be based on a grid you have to grind for and hope you choose the thing you want to unlock? For what it's worth, the arcade options provide cool customization options that do change the game in neat ways but the way this is gated is so painfully unnecessary and I wish they'd go even further in amplifying the difficulty through these options rather than have a ton that make it easier.
I criticized this game hard but I didn't find it horribly painful to play through. For me the experience was more of a "this is shallow but decently playable" and given it's about 2-4 hours long it doesn't overstay its welcome. It has enough bombast and novelty to be superficially enjoyable. If you're like me and into Marvel then that niche will appeal to you here but I cannot earnestly recommend this on its criteria as a game.
Mini Review: This sits in a spot of being "comfortably mid" for me. I would not recommend this to people who really engage with the genre but for me it does enough that it triggers my almonds for one playthrough. Presentation wise I love it. I like that it imitates 90's Marvel cartoon voice acting, it's really charming they decided to make Wolverine sound more like Cal Dodd than Steve Blum and for the stylization here that's perfect. There's occassionally...
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