The worst thing about loving beat 'em ups is that most of them are stranded on arcade boards or long-defunct consoles. Marvel is no exception to this issue, with games like Captain America and the Avengers, Konami’s X-Men, and Maximum Carnage all unavailable on modern systems. But if, like me, you need a fix of sidescrolling co-op bad-guy punching more than you need a fifth Avengers movie, you may be in luck: the team behind the excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge just unveiled the newest arcade brawler from the House of Ideas.
Revealed during today's Nintendo Direct, Marvel: Cosmic Invasion certainly looks the part of an arcade classic. It’s silky smooth pixel art all the way down, with a hand-drawn animated intro straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon. The character selection is refreshingly old-school as well, balancing out heavy hitters like Wolverine and Spider-Man with deep cuts like Nova and Phyla-Vell. Whereas most 2D brawlers have as many characters as there are spots on the cabinet, give or take a couple, Cosmic Invasion will have a healthy 15 fighters to take on baddies with.
