DC’S Justice League: Cosmic Chaos (Nintendo Switch) Review

DC Comics’ Justice League dips back into video games with Cosmic Chaos, a cartoony game that sets players loose in Happy Harbor.

World’s greatest superheroes

Congratulations! You are now a proud member of the Justice League and it’s time for your first mission: to team up with your favorite DC heroes and defend the seaside town of Happy Harbor!

STORY:

When Snapper’s inauguration to become Mayor of Happy Harbor goes awry because of prankster Mister Mxyzptlk (I am so sorry but I’m unable to pronounce his name) our heroes-Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman must restore the peace of Happy Harbor. They will also soon realize that an even bigger problem is hiding away in the shadows.

GAMEPLAY:

DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos is a hilarious adventure game with RPG elements—as you fight hordes of enemies you will gain experience and collect the in-game currency that is dropped by defeated enemies or found in the many treasure chests scattered throughout its cartoony world. The experience earned will level up your heroes effectively making them stronger, while the in-game currency can be used to upgrade and strengthen their many abilities. I found that fighting groups of enemies was not only fun but terrifying at the same time which caused my adrenaline to continue pumping long after I had turned off my Nintendo Switch for an evening. 

As a side note: Want to choose the game difficulty? Well, rejoice fellow hero! You can choose your difficulty level as soon as you fire up the game, and you can change it freely if you change your mind. I picked story mode so that I wouldn’t be overwhelmed by tough battles while I was learning the ropes. 

The main story is told within four chapters, however if you need to take a breather, you can embark on side missions which can get you some sweet rewards and meet other characters. By pressing the minus button on the Nintendo Switch you will enter the menu screen where you can then select the side mission tab. By pressing the Y button, you can set the mission that you want to track. This allows a Waypoint marker to appear on your map. During my playthrough, I didn’t do all the side missions but the ones that I completed were enjoyable and added more to the story and I saw scenes that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos has a very big world to explore, and to make it easier to find your way around, a green waypoint/hotspot marker will appear on the map to guide you in the direction of where you need to head next. At first, I thought this setup would be straightforward, but as I played the game I ran into some trouble.

While the Waypoint marker is useful in some cases, it doesn’t always tell you EXACTLY where you need to go and sometimes it doesn’t even show up in some dungeons. I have two specific examples where this has happened.

➊ During the Back-to-School Bash mission I was directed to head to the school to progress the main story. What the green waypoint didn’t lead me to was the roof of the school, instead, it led me to the front door of the school which was locked! I had to search around just to find the roof. I knew I was on the right track once the heroes made a comment about finding an alternate entryway.

➋ When you have to rescue The Flash, for example, I got stuck in what seemed to be an endless maze, and nothing was marked on my map. I felt annoyed with this dungeon and if it wasn’t for a video walkthrough, I would have been stuck at this part of the game forever. So, here’s the short version: there will be times when locations are marked perfectly on the map, but sometimes you just get the general location—leaving you with the responsibility of searching the area. I wish this feature was consistent with how it works. This unfortunately applies to side missions as well as there were some, I left unfinished because of this.

Want to know something funny?  At first thought, I had to complete some side missions to progress because I got stuck in the game because of the faults of the waypoint/hotspot marker— but the side missions are completely optional.

You only get to play as Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman and you can freely switch between them by pressing either the up or down button on the D-pad. Both buttons serve as this function so don’t worry if you feel more comfortable switching characters by pressing only the down or up button!

Each of the three heroes has their own special attacks, traversing abilities and so much more. I mostly used the awesome Dark Knight during my playthrough and discovered that I enjoyed using his traversing ability more than the rest of the other heroes. With just a magical touch of the ZL button, Batman can fly, and glide across the world map—how cool is that?!

You also have the option to summon support DC heroes to aid you in battles! At one point during my playthrough, I was swarmed by enemies that I was overwhelmed by status effects, and it made it hard for my hero to defend himself so with the push of the right directional button I summoned Cyborg into battle, and it worked like a charm to reduce the number of enemies in a pinch. Support DC heroes are unlocked as the story progresses.

GRAPHICS:

Upon starting DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos I was blown away by the animated cutscenes. The graphics made me feel like I was watching a classic Saturday morning cartoon. However, when I first saw the actual in-game graphics I felt oddly disappointed, especially during the early hours of gameplay.

The in-game graphics look crisp and polished (especially during the cutscenes) and after viewing some comparison videos, I feel like they look a lot better on other consoles as well. But I must add that, as I played the game for a little longer, I did come to find that the Switch’s in-game graphics started to grow on me a little — to the point where I found them charming.   

SOUND: 

This is where things got a little weird. When I started the Back-to-School Bash mission I noticed that the sound became choppy, full of static, and crackly. It even affected some of the voiceovers as characters will randomly talk to each other while exploring, standing still, or battling enemies.

When I closed the game and reopened it on my Nintendo Switch the choppy static sound was fixed, and in hindsight, I’m wondering if it was a result of too many things happening at once on the screen? I honestly got so nervous when this happened that I nearly talked myself out of what I was hearing, even though I knew from the very depths of my intuition that I was hearing an audio issue occur.

On a more positive note, I love that the loading screen features “Mayor” Myx and he cracks some really funny jokes; it’s the first time I ever saw a loading screen in a game that features a fully-voiced character. I enjoyed that the voice acting not only brought the story to life in both the campaign and side missions, but to a town that’s chock-full of NPCs too!

REPLAY VALUE:

DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos is a short game, so it won’t take you long to beat, but it’s filled to the brim with side missions and other goodies. For example, you can collect Booster Gold’s missing comic books, and by turning them in you can earn various costumes for your Justice League heroes!

After the credits rolled, I was returned to the front of Mount Justice (the home base), and from there I could complete any side mission I wanted. So even if you don’t want to complete them during the main story, it looks like you can do side missions after the main story ends!

FINAL THOUGHTS: 

DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos is a fun game and is quick to pick up and play. I’m not sure if I will revisit this game in the future, but it is a good game for what it offers especially if you are a huge fan of superheroes.

A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.

DC’s Justice League: Cosmic Chaos
Release date: March 10th, 2023
Platforms: PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch (reviewed), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC
Publisher: Outright Games
Developer: PHL Collective
MSRP: $39.99 USD