One of our favorite developer, Dotemu, responsible for genre greats like Streets of Rage 4, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and other classics inspired games like Metal Slug Tactics is taking on the Marvel universe with Marvel Cosmic Invasion.
The game is shown to the public for the first time in the March 27th Nintendo Direct. The game’s trailer shows off quite some similarities with Data East’s Captain America and The Avengers, from 1991. So much so, that the game feels like its the equivalent to what Teenage Mutant Turtles : Shredder’s Revenge was to Turtles in Time. A spiritual successor or modern day re-imagining.
Compared to the Captain America spiritual predecessor, the game that is currently in development is by named sake oriented a bit broader, although in practicality the cast does not differ that much at all but also seems to incorporate characters which were featured in Konami’s beat’em up, X-men, from 1992. Visually Marvel Cosmic Invasion seems to be leaning heavily on those to games for inspiration, too. While no statements can be found on how many players can play simultaneously and online multiplayer is available, we can safely assume that the game will follow its predecessor Shredder’s Revenge with up to 4 player online en local co-op multiplayer. As this screenshot of the trailer supports with four players on screen.
From the trailer we can make out that the following Marvel mainstays will be playable:
- Captain America, of course;
- Spider-man (featured in Cap and the Avengers)
- Venom;
- Wolverine (featured in X-Men)
- Storm (featured in X-Men)
- Nova
- Phyla-Vell
The inclusion of the Nova Corps characters Nova en Phyla-Vell might indicate some plot points involving the planet Xandar and that corner of the Marvel Universe. Apart from the game’s name, the video description also gives us an insight into the scope of the story:
After Annihilus has launched an unprecedented attack across the galaxy, all life hangs in the balance. Nova, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Phyla-Vell, Captain America, and many more heroes, both earth-born and cosmic, will join forces in a star-spanning brawling adventure against the deadly Annihilation Wave. From New York City to the depths of the Negative Zone, the future of the universe will be fought across the stars in MARVEL Cosmic Invasion!
Along these visible confirmed characters the trailer also indicates more characters will be part of the game, either playable or as part of the story.
We are certainly excited. The game should be out fairly quickly with currently a stamp of ‘2025’ and based on the legacy of Dotemu, we can’t wait.
