Marvel Cosmic Invasion Shows Why Beat 'Em Ups Are Perfect For Superheroes

By | November 3, 2025 | 12:00pm

Games Features marvel cosmic invasion

Marvel Cosmic Invasion Shows Why Beat 'Em Ups Are Perfect For Superheroes

I have one major tension with Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, Rocksteady Studio’s Batman Arkham series, and similar superhero games. It’s not so much a design flaw as it is a sacrifice, something that needed to go if developers ever had the hope of creating open-world games where players could swing, dive, punch, and not kill all they want. My gripe is that the Spider-Mans and Batmans of these games can get distracted from helping someone in need—the one thing I could never imagine these heroes doing.

This is a fundamental tension between superheroes and many of the games they headline: Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, or any other vigilante isn’t really the one behind the suit, the player is. It is ultimately the player’s desire that wins, and most players desire canon-blasting, web-slinging, thug-hospitalizing fun that doesn’t give much real regard to the NPCs being saved. When a game is marketed as “feel like [x hero],” what that often translates to is “make use of [x hero]’s stamina, relationships, and weapons to indulge your superhero fantasy.”

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This isn’t a bad thing, per se, or a call for strictly following a character’s “canon” story beats. I love fresh and unique takes on well-trodden characters. Even if it’s bad, I’m always in the corner of trying. Where it begins to itch is when you consider the fact that these games use all the same history, powers, and costumes of a hero, but then the overall experience feels more about acting like a superhero than being one. The purpose of many superhero games isn’t to actually feel like a superhero—to be fair, their lives suck!—but to have fun in ways only a superhero could. While this is especially highlighted in open-world games due to the dizzying amount of side quests that ache for your attention, it’s an observation that could be levied at any superhero game where gameplay contrasts with character, where saving the life in danger inevitably clashes with the puzzle guarding a collectible or the achievement locked behind a long chain of side quests. The Spider-Man of comics and screen wouldn’t blithely swing by an innocent bystander being mugged because he’s tracking down a backpack he left somewhere, but he will do exactly that, many times over, in video games. That’s what open world games are like, though.

Playing the Marvel Cosmic Invasion demo has confirmed that one genre continues to emulate the superhero experience best: side-scrolling beat ‘em ups. This is something I’ve felt since the first time I played the X-Men arcade game as a kid, but could only articulate well now. What makes superheroes and beat ‘em ups a great combo is that the latter frequently captures, by nature, significant elements of the former. For starters, beat ‘em ups have an incredible amount of urgency and focus to them. Structurally, most beat ‘em ups involve mowing down any number of enemies in between you and the other end of a linear level. There might be the odd detour here or there, but these games functionally cut any distractions in favor of players focusing on moving toward a goal. Intentionally or not, this structure is perfect for a high-stakes superhero story. Because where else should a superhero be during an alien invasion if not tackling the extraterrestrial head-on as the first line of defense? Superheroes can have fun, and I like seeing Spidey stop to snap a selfie as much as any other webhead fanatic, but when it’s time to save lives, they should be locking in.

Marvel cosmic invasion beat 'em ups

In Cosmic Invasion’s case, it not only folds back in the urgency of being a superhero, but does so while making each character still feel like themselves. I was pleasantly surprised with how different the flying Storm felt from the swinging Spider-Man, how unique She-Hulk plays with her wrestler-like throws in comparison to Rocket Raccoon’s little shit style of ranged projectiles and bombs. Plus, the tag-team system that allows for quick swapping of two characters nods to the larger team-up culture within the superhero genre that gave rise not just to some of its best stories, but also its most renowned groups like the Justice League, the Avengers, and their many variants.

A big part of superhero culture is the sheer volume of unique characters and powers there are, as well as watching those characters team up or clash with each other in any setting within the human imagination, so it’s exciting whenever there’s a game that both has a large roster and ensures that roster feels different from hero to hero. While games that mostly focus on singular characters like Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, the Batman Arkham series, or even the upcoming Wolverine allow for an interesting exploration into the scope of a character’s powers, there’s a real freshness to seeing characters who don’t usually interact have to come together to face a bigger threat. It’s another small thing that highlights the gravity and all-encompassing nature of a given enemy. Again, it’s a full-on alien invasion from the Negative Zone in Cosmic Invasion’s case—that’s kind of an all-hands on deck situation.

Plus, large roster-style games are great opportunities to rope in characters frequently overlooked for appearances outside of their original medium. Admittedly, a majority of the roster for most games will be the heavy hitters of a given series or brand, the ones many people will buy the game for, but it doesn’t make the ability to introduce some hidden gems any less relevant. A great example of this, outside of beat em ups, is fighting games. Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. entries are essentially museums of the company’s games that feature not just top talent like Link, Samus, and Mario, but also those no longer in the spotlight like Ice Climbers, Game and Watch, and R.O.B. One of the most beloved fighting game series out there, Marvel vs. Capcom, is well-regarded in part because of its diverse rosters that make beating the crap out of your opponent feel different in each unique match-up. Time has made the superhero landscape almost incomprehensibly vast, and while any game that would attempt to tackle all of it would surely never be possible, it’s nice to see a few that touch more than the tip of the iceberg. Beat ‘em ups, with their theater stage-like presentation that puts all characters front and center on equal ground, just happen to be great places for approaching the iceberg.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion doesn’t fully launch until December, but the demo already showcases much of what makes the superhero and beat ‘em up combo so magical. It’s not only an engaging time with a roster of superheroes that offer unique playstyles and sick animations: the demo hints at an experience that matches the energy I expect from a superhero story, one that encourages players to focus on the existential threat only superheroes could defeat.

Wallace Truesdale is a journalist and critic who loves games and soft cookies. He’s written for Unwinnable, Stop Caring, PopMatters, and more. You can usually find him writing at his site Exalclaw, or hanging out on Bluesky and Twitch.