Depending on who you talk to, beat ‘em ups are either repetitive, button-mashy coin munchers or a deceptively simple vehicle for absolute combat mastery. Me? I’m in the latter camp. But how do you get people who aren’t sickos like myself interested? How do you lure them into taking the first steps down Sicko Road? This year’s Absolum tried by merging a mechanically excellent beat ‘em up with a middling roguelite. Marvel Cosmic Invasion developer Tribute Games – the cats behind Shredder’s Revenge, the best TMNT game since Turtles in Time– takes a different approach. It looks to the Marvel vs. Capcom fighting games of old and asks one of the boldest questions I’ve seen a beat ‘em up pose in a New York minute: what if it was a tag game where you controlled multiple heroes? The answer, as it turns it, rules, even if the actual execution of Cosmic Invasion doesn’t quite live up to that concept.

I’ll be real with y’all; I’m not a Marvel guy. My dad’s into comics, and he got me into them, but DC was always his bag (he owns every Wonder Woman comic ever published, and no, that’s not an exaggeration), so I’m a DC kid at heart with a soft spot for indie comics. But I love the weirder parts of Marvel, especially the million conflicting X-men timelines and the cosmic stuff. It’s not the most popular thing Marvel publishes (that is and always will be Spider-Man, though X-men is no slouch), but it’s the most interesting. Give me that over the MCU stuff any day.

If the title didn’t give it away, that’s what Marvel Cosmic Invasion is about. The story here is real simple, almost like it has been ripped straight from the pages of a multi-issue event series. Big Bad Annihilus’s Annihilation Wave (listen, it’s comic books, okay?) is sweeping the galaxy! All life hangs in the balance! So it’s up to a rag-tag assortment of Marvel heroes, whether Earthborn or cosmic in origin, to bring him down. That’s all you gotta know. And you know what? It works.

A lot of it comes down to the team of 15 heroes that Tribute Games has assembled. Yeah, you’ve got the icons, the regulars who absolutely, positively accept-no-substitutes gotta be there. You know the ones: Storm, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Captain America. Then you’ve got cats that were B-listers before the movies elevated them to prominence: Black Panther, Iron Man, Rocket Raccoon, She-Hulk, Nova, Phoenix, Venom. And then there are the weird and wacky inclusions. Thor isn’t here; instead, you get Beta Ray Bill. Real ones know. How do you feel about Cosmic Ghost Rider? Then there’s my girl Phyla-Vell. Oh, and because this is cosmic Marvel, the Silver Surfer is also here, and he is caked up. To the Silver Surfer degenerate at Tribute Games: I see you, and I appreciate you.

But the reality is that everyone here looks stunning because the pixel art spritework is absolutely gorgeous. Whether it’s Phyla-Vell’s hair blowing gently in the wind, how Wolverine always looks like a coiled spring, or the subtle transformations that sometimes reveal Eddie Brock beneath the symbiote as Venom, Cosmic Invasion captures the essence of these characters, right down to their voices. Go ahead and watch one the videos on this page, tell me that doesn’t sound exactly like the way Wolverine or Storm or Iron Man sound in your head. True believers, the vibe is immaculate.

Structurally, Cosmic Invasion is a pretty standard beat ‘em up. Not counting the tutorial, there are 15 stages, including old Marvel standbys like New York City, Wakanda, the Savage Land, and Genosha, as well as more exotic environs like Fort Galactus, each with a fun little sub-description (Genosha’s is Heavy Metal; the Savage Land’s is Rumble in the Jungle). Stage selection is mostly a straight line, but occasionally the path will split before reconverging and you’ll have to complete both branches before moving on.

Levels themselves are good but unremarkable beat ‘em up fare with the occasional environmental hazard. There is a collectible to find to liven things up, as well as three challenges in each stage – two are hero specific, such as defeating a certain number of enemies with a certain character’s special attack, while the final one is related to the stage itself. All of this is good: the challenges encourage you to use new characters and learn the intricacies of each arena, and stages are well-designed, snappy (each one takes around 10-15 minutes), and visually distinct in cool ways – you’d never mistake Savage Lands for Klyntar or Genosha – but nothing here is going to redefine your expectations for what a beat ‘em up can be.

What makes Cosmic Invasion special is its characters. Up to four people can play Cosmic Invasion at once, each controlling two characters, and it’s impressive how different each character is, even if they might not feel that way at first. Take Nova and Iron Man; sure, both of their unique attacks are ranged energy blasts, but Nova’s can pass through and hit multiple targets at once. Iron Man’s don’t. Nova’s special attack is an energy field that only hits foes at close range, while Iron Man’s giant, Marvel vs. Capcom 2-esque laser can hit anyone standing anywhere on-screen, but it does require you to line up your enemies and aim well.

Meanwhile, Rocket is a ranged powerhouse, but his charged heavy attack does massive damage, while Phyla-Vell’s, who is more melee focused, can stun – and no one else has anything like her sword, which she can throw and then teleport to in order to start combos and then keep them going across the screen. Beta Ray Bill and Cap can both throw their weapons, too, but Cap’s shield returns to him automatically; Bill’s will spin in place, potentially juggling anyone unlucky enough to come into contact with it until you manually call it back. Even She-Hulk and Wolverine, both up-close-and-personal bruisers, play differently. Logan is faster and all about chaining long stabby-stab combos together, while Jen is a powerhouse who focuses on short combos that launch her victims into the air for potential follow-ups. They both have grabs, but they operate in very different ways.

Some characters have dodges, while others can block and parry if they time things right, opening up more defensive options. Characters that fly have a much easier time dealing with winged foes than those who don’t, and it’s easier for them to avoid stampedes. Everyone is a little different, and that can have a massive impact on how they play.

What’s really cool, though, are the tag team elements. You only actively control one character at a time, and you can summon your tag partner for various assists to keep laying on the hurt, opening up cool new offensive possibilities – that could be a launcher, a standard combo, their unique ability, their metered “I want these guys dead” special attack, and so on. Figuring out the best combinations and how movesets interact is a lot of fun, especially since you don’t start with everyone unlocked. It’s possible to lose a character mid-level (they have separate health bars), but even then, all isn’t lost. You continue on with your remaining hero, and if you stumble upon some floor food, a time-honored beat ‘em up tradition, they’ll come back with a little health.

Characters also level up as you use them, gaining more health, passive abilities, and so on, encouraging you to experiment, especially in co-op. I played the whole game with my wife (a single run through the campaign took three hours), and while I think Cosmic Invasion is a good time solo, like basically every beat ‘em up, it’s better with friends.

If this beat ‘em up has any black eyes, it’s the lack of enemy variety. You’ll see the same core cast of baddies a lot in Cosmic Invasion, and while that’s not a huge problem (this happens in most beat ‘em ups), it can get a little old. It’s also hilariously obvious when you’re fighting a boss that will become a playable character later on because it feels like you’re fighting someone you’ll be able to play later. It can lead to some really funny moments, like when we were fighting the Silver Surfer on an elevator and kept knocking him into the abyss. Eventually, he’d levitate back up to us for more, only to get knocked down again. It wasn’t bad, but it was as goofy as Rob Liefeld-drawn feet or pouches.

If you get bored of beating on Annihilus’s minions, you can head to the Vault, where you can see each hero’s progress in the Hero Lab, learn about their history and the history of your foes in the Nova Corps Files, and listen to some of Cosmic Invasion’s excellent tracks. You can also spend Cosmic Cubes you earn to unlock nodes in the Cosmic Matrix for more color palettes, hero profiles, tunes, and Nova Corps Files. It’s a cool little system, and it even doubles as a neat way to make art if you unlock the right nodes in a way that forms a pattern. I made an adorable little bug, and I’ll miss him when I fill everything out and he’s gone.

IO Interactive is busy working on James Bond video game 007 First Light, but it has said it also has plans to release Hitman 4.

In an interview with Variety, CEO Hakan Abrak said “of course there will be more Hitman.” But it may be some time before Hitman 4 comes out. Abrak said that any talk of a Hitman 4 announcement will have to wait until Hitman co-op arrives in World of Assassination, which continues to enjoy support via DLC from the studio.

“So of course there will be more Hitman,” Abrak said. “But right now, I think we need to get to the other side of this year and next year you’ll get more news about Hitman co-op, because I think co-op is a really, really good extension to the universe, and will introduce very interesting mechanics and combinations in World of Assassination. But we will, after that, be talking about the next Hitman — because, of course, there’s going to be a next Hitman.”

The Hitman franchise kicked off in 2000 with Hitman: Codename 47. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin followed in 2002. Hitman: Blood Money came out in 2006, and served as the third game in the original Hitman trilogy. Hitman: Absolution followed in 2012, before Hitman, which acted as the first installment of the World of Assassination trilogy, came out in 2016. Hitman 2 followed in 2018, then Hitman 3 in 2021.

IOI has three main productions right now: ongoing work on Hitman: World of Assassination, 007 First Light, and a new fantasy IP appropriately codenamed Project Fantasy. “It’s not announced yet, exactly what it is, but it’s a multiplayer fantasy project, which is extremely ambitious and really cool and is something else than a gun in a suit,” Abrak teased. “So that’s also good to have something new within the creative outlook here.”

Will Hitman 4 have to wait until all three projects are wrapped up? Abrak didn’t say, but you can see why the studio would want to return to the franchise with a brand new sequel: overall, Hitman has had more than 85 million players and over 25 million copies sold. Each more, more than a million people play Hitman, Abrak added.

As for 007 First Light, that’s due out March 27, 2026 (a release date that looks all the more lucrative now GTA 6 is delayed to November). In the shorter term, the latest Elusive Target arriving in Hitman World of Assassination is rap star Eminem, who recruits Agent 47 to take down his dangerous alter ego Slim Shady. The mission is live now for free on all platforms.

Cyber Monday is your last chance to secure the best offers of the year before the holidays. If you’re on the hunt for some last minute deals, we’re actively rounding up the strongest Cyber Monday discounts, and you can all our top picks and price drops in IGN’s comprehensive Cyber Monday hub.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Grand Theft Auto 6 work-in-progress development footage appeared online over the weekend before it was scrubbed from the internet. But while Rockstar’s hotly anticipated sequel has suffered substantial and damaging leaks in the past, this latest leak is anything but.

Eagle-eyed leak hunters uncovered an animation reel uploaded to Vimeo by a developer who has worked on a number of Rockstar games. In it were three snippets of development footage apparently showing GTA 6 (they were indeed labeled as such).

As you’d expect, the video was pulled from Vimeo, but the internet noticed and so the GTA 6 clips are doing the rounds. There are three separate clips, each brief and showing animations on what looks like a test map.

The first shows a male character removing and inserting a bike into a rental bicycle rack. We see the word ‘LomBike’ on the frame of the bike, which is probably a parody of real life LimeBike rental bicycles. No big surprise there for GTA 6! And we even saw this bike rental system in an official GTA 6 screenshot released by Rockstar earlier this year.

Jennifer Hale has opened up on PlatinumGames’ controversial decision to hire her and replace original voice actor Hellena Taylor for Bayonetta 3, admitting, “I definitely got thrown under the bus by that whole thing.”

Just ahead of the third instalment of Hideki Kamiya’s stylish action game series, PlatinumGames revealed that Taylor — who voiced Bayonetta in the first two games — wouldn’t return, and would instead be portrayed by Hale.

“Various overlapping circumstances made it difficult for Hellena Taylor to reprise her role,” Platinum said at the time. “We held auditions to cast the new voice of Bayonetta and offered the role to Jennifer Hale, whom we felt was a good match for the character.”