The Beat’em Up genre is experiencing a second golden age. Over the last few years, we’ve witnessed one of the most popular genres of the 80s and 90s being reinvented with spectacular results. Several of its most significant franchises have made triumphant comebacks, such as Streets of Rage with its fourth installment, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge, and even Kunio-Kun with the River City Girls spinoffs. Now, the time has come for Marvel with its recently announced MARVEL Cosmic Invasion, and just from the trailer alone, it left us with our jaws dropped and confident that we’re looking at a masterpiece of the genre.
Who is in charge of developing MARVEL Cosmic Invasion?
The game’s distribution is handled by DotEmu, which is a good sign on its own. This French studio, founded in 2007, has been responsible for adapting and porting numerous old titles to modern platforms. Thanks to their solid work, they gained a stellar reputation over time and eventually became a publisher of indie titles, always ensuring a high standard of quality. There’s not a single bad game that comes to mind when it comes to those released under their banner.
The game is being developed by the talented team behind Tribute Games. This small Canadian studio, founded by two former Ubisoft employees, has earned its spot in the industry thanks to their excellent games, with flawless mechanics and stunning visuals. The last time these two companies collaborated was for the release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, which is considered one of the best Beat’em Ups of all time.
All the details about Marvel’s new Beat’em Up
At the moment, not much information has been revealed. The game is scheduled for release in 2025 without a specific date yet and will be available on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. The description on its Steam page teases that we will be able to choose from 15 characters and includes a hero-switching system to alternate between heroes instantly, allowing us to create devastating combos. Obviously, the game will feature support for multiplayer, both locally and remotely, and it will include cross-platform matchmaking.
The History of Marvel in Video Games
This new installment is clearly inspired by Marvel’s aesthetics from the 80s and 90s, drawn from both their comics, animated series, and video game adaptations. This is immediately clear just by looking at the character designs. Over the years, many of Marvel’s heroes and villains have been adapted into video games, with varying levels of success. But in general, most of the adaptations from the eighties can be categorized as bad, very bad, or mediocre.
It wasn’t until the following decade that the first good games based on the Marvel universe began to emerge. Notably, in 1991, SEGA released Spider-Man: The Video Game for arcades, which, while not a masterpiece, became the first decent Marvel video game. It was a solid Beat’em Up that stood out particularly for its graphics, with well-executed mechanics despite the typical coin-hungry enemies of the era, and offered co-op play for up to four players. That same year, Data East also released a Beat’em Up in a similar style but based on another franchise, Captain America and the Avengers. The title was quite good in its original arcade version that allowed up to four players, but it lost much of its charm in its console ports, none of which are worth recommending.
The debut of the X-Men in arcades came the following year, courtesy of Konami, with a Beat’em Up not only raising the bar but also earning its place as one of the greatest representations of the genre of all time. Excellent graphics with massive, detailed sprites, spectacular sprite scaling and rotation effects, incredible cinematics that made you feel like you were watching the animated series, complete with sampled dialogue. It was groundbreaking. Konami spared no effort, releasing three different versions of the arcade machine: one for two players, another for four, and the last allowing up to six players for absolute chaos and entertainment.
Capcom’s Legacy in Marvel Video Games
Marvel’s financial situation at the time was very complicated, which led the company to collaborate with various video game development studios to expand their licenses and earn some money in the process. Thankfully, one of those collaborations resulted in an agreement with Capcom that was not only very beneficial for both parties but also for the general public. It didn’t matter if you were a fan of one or the other because this partnership gave us true gems. The first of these was the arcade Beat’em Up The Punisher, launched in 1993, which again demonstrated that Capcom was the king of the genre, at least in terms of mechanics.
The following year, Capcom released X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse for the Super Nintendo, but even more important was X-Men: Children of the Atom for arcades that same year. It marked Marvel’s debut in 1 vs 1 fighting games. The creators of Street Fighter poured all their knowledge into this incredible game, even bringing a twist to the genre by introducing super jumps for the first time.
A year later, in 1995, came Marvel Super Heroes, expanding on the foundation by adding characters from various Marvel franchises and introducing air combos for the first time. The Infinity Gems were also included, which allowed players to activate different powers during matches, adding an extra layer of strategy to the fight.
In 1996, the first crossover of the two universes arrived with X-Men vs Street Fighter. This time, not only was the roster more varied, but battles were now 2 vs 2, allowing players to switch fighters at any point during fights. A new type of special attack, the “Hyper Combo,” was also added, where both fighters executed their special attack simultaneously, dealing massive damage.
The second crossover arrived in 1997 following the success of the first, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter. It further expanded the roster variety from its predecessor. The only significant gameplay addition was the ability to perform assists with your second fighter without switching them, something that wasn’t possible in X-Men vs Street Fighter.
By 1998, it was time for the unparalleled Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, the ultimate spinoff. It expanded and improved on all aspects of the previous games, adding Capcom characters outside of Street Fighter, like Megaman, Captain Commando, and Strider Hiryu, among others. This installment also introduced the “Duo Team Attack” mechanic, which allowed simultaneous control of both characters for a brief time, enabling devastating combos. An extensive list of assist characters was also included, usable not for direct combat but to provide support during battles.
The turn of the millennium brought a new spinoff of these two titans. In 2000, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes was a spectacle in every sense. It featured perfectly polished mechanics, this time in 3 vs 3 battles, the addition of the “Team Hyper Combo,” which allowed the special attacks of the entire team to execute simultaneously, and a roster of 56 characters (including unlockables). For many, it’s the best in the series, and possibly one of the greatest fighting games of all time, with a strong competitive scene even today. That said, it does have its detractors; not everyone (myself included) was a fan of replacing the beautifully pixel-arted backgrounds with 3D-rendered environments. This game marked the end of the collaboration between these two giants until the release of its sequel ten years later. However, it was created with a completely new graphics engine, fully in 3D, losing much of the originals’ charm.
As we have seen, the vast majority of games released under this alliance were fighting games. The only 100% Beat’em Up was The Punisher, as the two titles released for the Super Nintendo, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse in 1994 and Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems in 1996, would be better defined as action-platformer games. Both have brawler mechanics and even feature special moves, which was not very common at the time. However, since movement is restricted to a horizontal plane, the gameplay leans heavily on platforming, which greatly breaks from the logic of a traditional Beat’em Up.
Beyond the mechanical aspect of these adaptations, Capcom’s vision brought to life an identity and representation of Marvel’s characters in the videogame universe. Drawing inspiration from the original illustrations of Jack Kirby, John Romita Sr., and Jim Lee, among others, they transformed these into sprites that today remain a legacy for pixel art enthusiasts.
A Great Power Comes With Great Responsibility
Without a doubt, Tribute Games is drawing from this legacy. Any pixel art enthusiast or professional has to study Capcom’s work to understand how to represent these characters in video games. You can see it in the animations of the trailer. The new sprites are clearly inspired by those Capcom designed for their fighting games. Even when executing new moves, the stances, such as Storm casting her spells or the way Venom generates tentacles to attack, show this legacy. Spider-Man’s web-slinging kicks or Wolverine’s claw swipes also reflect this influence—but in a good way. It’s not a mere reproduction, let alone plagiarism. It’s, as the name of the studio itself suggests, a tribute—a tribute that promises to delight us with relentless and perfected gameplay.
Not long ago, Tribute Games set out on a similar challenge with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, drawing from the Konami classics and adapting them to the modern era by expanding and improving them, yet preserving the original essence. They achieved this goal decisively. Not only did they create a worthy version, but they crafted the definitive version. Personally, I consider Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge to be the best of all the TMNT games across all eras and, possibly, the greatest Beat’em Up of all time. That said, yes, my expectations for Marvel’s game are sky-high, but it’s inevitable when considering the love and effort these creators put into their works—and my own affection for Marvel characters, especially the ones from the 80s and 90s.
