The world of superhero video games have received a massive surge recently with the new games being reduced under the “Marvel Games” branch of the beloved company. These games have increased interest for Marvel after the Marvel Cinematic Universe fizzled in the public eye. Among these are the hero shooter “Marvel Rivals”, the classic beat-em up “Marvel: Cosmic Invasion”, and the soon to come fighting game “Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls.”
Of course the concept of Marvel video games is nothing new with the “Spider-Man” and “Marvel VS Capcom” series’, but Marvel has been kicking it into high gear with these 3 titles. Gamers, comic book fans or not, have had tons of fun with Marvel Rivals and their cast of characters to choose from. Marvel: Cosmic Invasion recently released with a very positive reaction from fans and critics alike. Marvel Tokkon hasn’t come out yet but the beta released and it seems very promising with it’s action packed fighting gameplay similar to the Marvel VS Capcom series.
Marvel Rivals technically isn’t “new”, it’s been out for about a year, but it’s constant releases of new content definitely makes it important to talk about. The game falls in the popular “Hero Shooter” genre similar to games like Overwatch and Valorant with tons of characters to choose from and an emphasis on team synergy. Rivals was developed by the Chinese studio NetEase who has worked with Marvel in the past, and overall they’ve done a pretty good job with making the game something special for both your hardcore Marvel Comics nerd or just your average Joe who’s maybe seen a few Avengers movies. It plays pretty solid as a Hero Shooter, all of the characters vary in difficulty but they’re all fun to play in their own right. The constant characters and seasons being added are pretty great, except it makes the game painfully annoying to install. Apparently the game is up to 100 gigabytes of storage, which is an unfathomable amount, I had to delete a whole bunch of stuff off my PC just to install the newest update. The matchmaking is an absolute dumpster fire with the algorithm purposefully putting you with “good” or “bad” players so you lose more and in turn play more. The people are usually jerks, but that’s to be expected for any online game.
Marvel: Cosmic Invasion seemed very promising when it was first revealed, a 90’s style beat em up based off that era of Marvel Comics. The game is very fun to play with friends and has that arcade style of repetitive, addicting gameplay. I played this game for the first time with some buddies and we spent hours ripping through the game and almost completed it. The gameplay is very simple, it’s a beat em’ up game, just punch all the enemies in the face and move on to the next level. The game is also very short, but it’s to be expected for the type of game it is. The character roster is decent, you can select two characters to play through the level with with some lesser-known characters being included like Cosmic Ghost Rider and Phyla-Vell, but they are missing classic characters like Daredevil, The Fantastic Four, and some X-Men. The game is overall very great with showcasing more obscure and niche characters, even with the villains like Beetle, Taskmaster, Sauron, and the games main villain, Annihlus. I’m very glad the game didn’t just use regular, plain, mainstream villains and gave some other characters a time to shine. A big problem in the game is how often it glitches, me and my friends often had to restart the level because a boss fight wouldn’t appear or you couldn’t move to the next screen. If you’re looking for a fun, arcade style, “turn your brain off” kinda game to play with friends, Marvel Cosmic Invasion might be for you.
Marvel Tokon technically hasn’t come out yet but the alpha released with some tight close quarters superhero combat. This game was revealed to lots of allure and speculation, we haven’t gotten a Marvel fighting game since Marvel VS Capcom Infinite, which was quite the stinker. The game is being developed by Arc System Works, which is the same studio who made Dragon Ball FighterZ, and it shows with the 4v4 fighting gameplay and anime artstyle. From what has been showcased already, it looks like a promising fighting game, which he haven’t got from Marvel in a while.
Marvel has been putting out some other great games in recent times. ‘Deadpool VR” puts you in an immersive, but-kicking experience as the Merc With a Mouth with tons of appearances from other famous Marvel characters. “Marvel VS Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics” rereleases all the classic arcade fighters for modern consoles with added concept art and fun things like that, it also finally releases the acclaimed “Marvel VS Capcom 2” and makes it readily available for a mass amount of people after the sought-after game fell into rarity, this collection will give you a fun blast from the past with a few Hadoukens and Optic Blasts thrown in there.
It seems that superhero games are back and here to stay, so grab your controller and super-suit and enjoy the ride.
