Cards on the table: I am a big superhero fan and I always have been. I've read the comics, I've played the games, I've watched the movies, I've got the tattoos *gulp*. I am usually pretty adept at bending things to see the positives — heck, I can even defend Thor: The Dark World on a good day — but the last few years have been real dark for us fans of caped crusaders.
There have been some high points: Marvel TV (on the whole) has been rather solid, I've played more Marvel Snap than I care to admit, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 was far better than some folk give it credit for, Batman: Arkham Shadow got its TGA flowers, and show me one animated film in the last five years that doesn't have some Spider-Verse DNA in it. But, generally, it has been a very long time since I've been able to say "I love superheroes" without needing to have a clarifying statement in the back pocket for the inevitable, and often completely valid, comeback.
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The MCU has seen more misses than hits in the wake of Endgame, DC has had nothing magical to its name in a good decade unless its title begins with a "The", and the less said about the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters (SPUMC, yes really), the better.
But in 2025, that all changed. I started leaving the cinema feeling wholly optimistic, I stopped anticipating a fight whenever I logged a 4-star minimum MCU review on Letterboxd, and, most importantly for this site, I had a blast with Marvel Cosmic Invasion. Superheroes are super again, and I couldn't be happier.
I'll get to the Switch-relevant stuff in just a moment, but first, let's remember all of the other good meat that 2025 has served up. Animated TV has been wonderful, with Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man — the best animated Spidey since Spectacular — as a personal highlight. Live-action has been the same; Daredevil: Born Again put me right back in mind of the OG Netflix series, Peacemaker was ace, and even though I had some gripes with Ironheart and its icky presentation of the joys of AI, there's no denying that its heart (heh) was in the right place.
Movies, too, have seen a real focus on quality stories over forward-thinking multiversal set-ups. Yeah, Captain America: Brave New World was guff, but Thunderbolts* and Fantastic Four are the closest we've come to some Phase One magic in yonks. And Superman, gosh, Superman might just be the only film I've watched in 2025 that managed to make me feel positive about the world — and I watched Paddington in Peru for the first time this year, for crying out loud!
Games have taken similarly optimistic steps. Marvel Rivals might have launched last year, but it's gone from strength to strength in 2025, and it still has my attention — an achievement that precisely zero other hero shooters can boast. The mobile tactics RPG MARVEL Mystic Mayhem hasn't gobbled up quite as much of my time, but I like the little I have played of it, despite its pay-to-win trappings. And, without a VR headset on hand, I haven't checked out Deadpool VR, but hey, Geoff liked it!
All of this brings me to my beloved Marvel Cosmic Invasion, the game I knew would cap off my super 2025 and on which there was an awful lot riding. I was immensely fond of Shredder's Revenge back in 2022, so to see Tribute and Dotemu turning to Marvel for a follow-up was pretty much a dream scenario for little old Jimmy.
But do you know what brought the biggest smile to my face? The fact that this is clearly a game made by fans for fans.
Loins girded, I booted up Cosmic Invasion on launch day, and I loved it (shock, horror). The 15-hero roster contained enough deep cuts to tickle me in a special 'you don't see that in the MCU' kinda way, while still landing on my familiar favourites. I got an unbelievable kick out of using the Cosmic Swap ability to rack up crazy combos, flinging enemies into the air as Captain America before telekinetically dunking them down a pit as Phoenix.
And there are few composers working today who can capture the soundscape of the SNES quite like Tee Lopes, who smashes it out of the park once again — but after Sonic Mania, Shredder's Revenge and the Streets of Rage 4 DLC, can we really be that surprised?
I know Cosmic Invasion might not have been for everyone (heck, I can totally understand some of the gripes that our own Tom Massey had with it), but it certainly was for me.
I could wax lyrical all day about the gorgeous pixel art, the way the Challenge structure encourages you to actually use the whole roster, or how the ace Annihilation comic book storyline has been adapted to fit the new medium. But do you know what brought the biggest smile to my face? The fact that this is clearly a game made by fans for fans.
We knew about the stacked voice cast before launch, but I will never tire of hearing the cartoon VAs — the voices that defined my childhood — returning to their roles once again. Everyone will have their favourites, but, to me, Alison Sealy-Smith is Storm, Cal Dodd is Wolverine. Heck, after a rewatch of The Spectacular Spider-Man (I didn't plan to mention it twice in one feature, I promise), Josh Keaton increasingly is Spidey.
And what about all of those callbacks? The way that She-Hulk breaks the fourth wall and calls out background cameos or genre tropes. The healing food items that are shaped like mini Marvel puns (shoutout to the bejewelled ice cream on Thanos' ship that made me laugh out loud when I put 'Infinity Cone' together). How each and every character has several swap-specific voice lines depending on which hero they are subbing out for — something the game's narrative designer, Yannick Belzil, said took up a good two weeks of writing when I spoke to him last month.
On the surface, the game is a neat throwback beat 'em up, but it's packed with so much love for the source material, so many deep cuts, that I was in a perpetual state of pointing at the screen like that one Leonardo DiCaprio meme. Come on, show me a comic book fan who doesn't relish the smug kick of clocking a reference that they feel was written just for them.
2026 has quite the follow-up to pull off, and it's bringing out the big guns to do so. We've got Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Avengers: Doomsday, Supergirl and Clayface on the big screen; Lanterns, Wonder Man, VisionQuest, and more Daredevil and animated Spidey on the small. Insomniac's Wolverine and Marvel Tokon, and Dispatch on Switch will keep the gaming side of things ticking over (plus Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, hopefully), and that's just the confirmed projects.
In previous years, such a packed line-up of superhero screenings would send a shiver down my spine — that's a lot of homework — but after the joys of 2025, I'm ready to strap on my web-shooters and proudly declare myself a True Believer once again.