With great power comes great kick ass abilities. Developed by Tribute Games, the studio behind the critical smash hit TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, is the new retro beat-’em-up extravaganza, Marvel Cosmic Invasion. The story, packed to the brim with 15 playable iconic characters, retells the events of the Marvel Comics crossover special of 2006’s Annihilation, which sees the galactic big bad Annihilus wage war amongst the cosmos through a series of mass invasions in hopes of one day ruling it all.
Since its early December launch, Cosmic Invasion has been praised for combining lesser-known Marvel characters and properties with the more popular heroes that have launched a series of IP juggernauts in the MCU and beyond, making the story both casual fan-friendly and surprising for those who worship at the altar of true Marvel fandom. The game has also managed to set itself apart from other side-scrolling brawlers in its Cosmic Swap mechanic, which sees the player choose two characters when they start the game, allowing them to make a swap out any time during a fierce battle against Annihilus’ evil honchos.
Below, game director Frederic Gemus and Narrative Designer Yannick Belzil speak to Deadline about the inspiration behind the game, character designs and what players can expect next.
DEADLINE: I enjoyed seeing nuanced animations within these level designs of Destromundo, Fort Galactus and Savage Lands. I’m curious, what was the trickiest level design in general?
FREDERIC GEMUS: The trickiest aspect was pretty much trying to figure out where we wanted to go because we’re big fans of the Marvel universe. So, figuring out which environments would be nice to visit and would also help build a story was a challenge. We tried to strike a mix of expected locales for the players and fresh, new places. And obviously, as a game director, one aspect that was important for me was making sure that all of these locations could have interesting gameplay aspects. You mentioned Destromundo, which has Lady Hellbender’s collection of critters from all across the universe. And for us, it was basically a cameo festival of what we can see in the background, but also what kind of surprises can occur from these giant creatures, like how they can interact with the players and reshuffle the battlefield.
It’s the same thing with Fort Galactus. We wanted to have this idea that we’re climbing toward liberating Galactus, but also, we wanted to have a stage in which we would have multiple encounters with the boss, in this case, the Silver Surfer. So, the whole feeling of fighting against the barricades of enemies with turrets, climbing elevators, and multiple fight sequences, all of these locations we wanted to translate into unique gameplays that would make the experience varied. That way, you get unique experiences so that Fort Galactus feels completely different from Wakanda, which is in the middle of an invasion, and there are a lot of things happening – you ride a train, you fight the claw. We wanted to maximize the gameplay we could get from each stage and then work with Yannick to ensure the adventure remained interesting.
YANNICK BELZIL: When we chose these locales, we wanted to choose environments that felt like classic Marvel Comics locales that people would recognize and could associate with certain characters as well. For example, the first level is classic New York City, which you have in a lot of the Marvel Comics, and there’s a lot of the Daily Bugle stuff tied into Spider-Man. But when you’re in Genosha, you have an X-Men team level where you can fill Sentinels with it. Then you have Wakanda for Black Panther, and you have the Helicarrier for Shield, but that’s also in the lineage of Iron Man and Captain America. Then there’s the Blue Area of the Moon, which is a human settlement and also a classic location for several characters – especially Dark Phoenix.
So, for me, it was just trying to be like, “Oh, do I recognize that setting from only one screenshot from the comics?” And it was trying to create these really colorful, fun places that our artists would also have fun reinterpreting, and to make sure the player feels like they’re really traveling across the Marvel Universe and having a great big adventure.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion
Tribute Games
DEADLINE: One of the biggest praises for the game is its educational element, which some people find in researching the deep cuts and underused locations and characters that appear. Like Phyla-Vell, Beta Ray Bill, and again, Destromundo. Can you talk a little more about how you chose these?
GEMUS: Selecting 15 playable characters was a challenging thing to do. But at the same time, this still feels like it’s not enough, because we have such a love for these superheroes that we could have done a game with 36 of them and still felt there wasn’t enough. But one thing that was important for us was not necessarily to educate, but to surprise and bring players to some unfamiliar territories in a sense that, as you mentioned, there are some characters we haven’t seen many interpretations of – especially in games – like Nova. So, for us as designers and developers, it was fun to have a chance to help define how these characters could behave in an action game.
Because if you take Iron Man, for example, people expect Iron Man to be flying and using repulsors. There are abilities and ways to play Iron Man that come with the character, but we really thought it was fun and a great opportunity for us to help further develop how some characters, like Beta Ray Bill, could behave in an action game. Same thing with Phyla-Vell. These are characters we don’t often see, so in a way, we are also introducing them to new fans while helping develop the language across all Marvel games.
DEADLINE: What was the hardest narrative challenge with all these new characters mingling in the game? Especially for those who don’t really have a connection in their own comics.
BELZIL: The game is based on the comic book storyline Annihilation, which came out in 2006. When the Civil War event was happening on Earth in the comics, Annihilation was happening in space. And it’s a really cool story, but it’s more of a Game of Thrones, mature type of story that doesn’t have as many recognizable characters. Even the Guardians of the Galaxy, who became really popular from the movie, came from this comic. So, the big challenge was in figuring out how to make a version of this that is accessible for all ages because we want our games to be played by young kids, but also with their parents or just whole families in general. Fred and I decided that what if the Annihilation storyline was adapted inside the Spider-Man or X-Men cartoon of the ’90s? Then we figured our first six levels or so could be on Earth. You would get to travel a bit across Marvel Earth and encounter recognizable characters, and then they can go off into space together for further adventures and action.
Then, the rest of the game was about how to parse out certain events from the comics, making sure they can happen in a manageable way in beat-’em-up form. At one point, Annihilus uses Galactus to destroy a planet, so the question becomes, how do we make that happen? We have to eventually build a manageable Galactus that can be in a level and do some traps and things like that. But those are more technical challenges for the rest of the staff, whereas I would go, “In level eight, Galactus should be there.”
Some other fun challenges came from writing the dialogue and one-liners. There are one-liners that happen depending on which button the player presses. So, when you have 15 characters, and they say some fighting game type of thing when they execute a move, some characters came really easily, some were trickier, but the biggest thing is you don’t want them to repeat each other’s lines too much. That’s where the rubber really met the road for me, writing-wise, because there’s only so many things you can say to express something without repetition. This was especially true when it came to [the game mechanic of] swapping characters when they have to go, “Oh, up to you, so-and-so.” It was like, “Oh man, I have to find different versions of these characters calling each other.” And some of these characters don’t have relationships. Like, I don’t know if Storm has ever shared space with Cosmic Ghost Rider, so how do they feel about each other? I have to figure things like that out and give them unique one-liners.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion
Tribute Games
DEADLINE: Fans are also responding positively to that character swap mechanic that you mentioned. Why do you think that is? And why was it important for you to build it into the game?
GEMUS: [The idea started] with having 15 playable characters, and we wanted to make sure that they didn’t play the same. We wanted to make sure that Spider-Man does Spider-Man stuff. At the same time, Wolverine does all of the raging crazy things that Wolverine does, but that also means that we didn’t want it to give all abilities to everyone because if you look at classic beat-‘em-ups, for example, grabs and throws are going to be built most of the time within every character themselves. Still, we wanted to make sure to really focus on the differences and strengths of all the superheroes; it would be better to focus on the play style of each character through the lineup. That also meant that we got a bit worried at one point that maybe it would be overwhelming for the players to actually be able to pick someone because maybe they’d be like, “Oh, I’m going to pick Storm, but what if there is a moment where I wish I had She-Hulk with me or I’m going to play Iron Man, but maybe Wolverine would be better suited for that sequence.” So, we thought that by combining two characters together, you would be able to basically build one and have the advantages of both.
Then, we thought about how to interact. At first, our system was a bit more complex, where you had to request that the other characters come in and perform specific actions. Then we realized that, since our target audience is so large, we wanted to make it a more accessible game, so we created a simple button system that lets the game infer the context of what you’re in and pick the right action. This was the funnest version of that complex system. For example, if an enemy grabs your hero and you’re stuck there, swapping means your second character will come in and free you with an attack. We thought that this was quite cool and lived up to the Marvel fantasy, because when you look at Marvel Comics, it’s always heroes teaming up. So, that system was so important to us because we wanted the player to feel like they are in a team of superheroes against Annihilus, who is basically alone and wants to remain alone in the end and destroy the whole universe so that he can just be the last one standing.
BELZIL: I think the reason why people respond is just the mere sensation of being able to play with two action figures at once, which is really useful and fun in a primal way. Like, you get your two favorite heroes, and you can use them over and over and automate moves by having them chime in. There’s something about the fun of this time-honored Marvel Comics tradition to have characters meet up for the first time and then have them team up to go against a larger villain.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion
Tribute Games
DEADLINE: I’d be remiss not to bring up the fan conversation around Silver Surfer’s butt. What say you? Apparently, the gamers are saying it is very round, fit and caked up.
BELZIL: He is. I feel like he has an accurately depicted toned surfer physique. In fact, I think we might have been asked to tone down some of the pronunciation of his butt cheeks, but they still survived in the screen images, not in the gameplay [sequences]. So, the butt remains prominent and important, where you can see it. Silver Surfer worked hard for that butt, and we’re glad people can enjoy it.
DEADLINE: What can players expect from the future? Any further additions to the game to look out for?
GEMUS: Right now, we are on the other side of launch, meaning that we’re still looking at players’ reception. We’re also fixing bugs and trying to identify what needs improvement. It’s easy when you ship a game and have a team of 20 testers, vs launching the game and now there are 100,000s of people playing it. So, there are definitely some surprises that we are working hard on, but for now, this is pretty much our focus. We are looking at, do players love the game? Do they want more? Do they have hopes for extra content? We are listening, but we don’t have anything to announce at the moment.
BELZIL: Look, we’ve seen every comment section become a suggestion box for future characters. And like they say on Pandora, “We see you.” But also, between when the game was actually done and when it came out, it’s not that long a stretch. So, it’s not like we have secret DLC in our back pocket that we’re waiting to spring on people. It’s exciting that people really want more, and they want their favorite characters as well. It’s fun to see the enthusiasm for the game and that they want more. So, we hope to deliver on that someday, but for now we’re just sitting back and enjoying it.
[This interview has been edited for length and clarity]
