Invincible VS review for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X

It only feels like yesterday I was made aware of a fledgling comic book series called Invincible which somehow merged the larger than life super heroes of DC with the grounded elements found in Marvel Comics. The series completed its run in 2018, but saw a resurgence of popularity when it became an animated series on Amazon’s Prime Video platform in 2021. The series featured some heavy hitters on the cast such as Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons, Sandra Oh, Walton Goggins and even series producer Seth Rogen got into the voice booth. So it would make sense that Quarter Up’s attempt at a video game adaptation would tie into the animated series that is still in production.

Invincible VS is a 3 vs 3 tag based fighting game set roughly during the back half of the third season of the animated show. The visuals evoke a very comic book feel as all the characters have a black outline bordering them. The title features a base roster of 18 characters, which one could feel is small given this is a tag based fighter. However if you look at another IP-based tag fighter Dragon Ball FighterZ, that title shipped with 21 characters and featured multiple characters which are just variants (so many Gokus!).

The title’s controls feature three levels of attack buttons, a special move button, two tag buttons, a boost button and a dash button. This might look like an overwhelming amount of buttons, but the game’s default control scheme only requires directional inputs to perform special moves, making the game extremely friendly to fighting game beginners. At the behest of players requests, the team did implement motion controls, which actually remove the boost button and special button. Specials and Supers are accomplished with quarter circle motions and an attack button (regular specials use light, boosted specials use medium and super moves use heavy). I never quite clicked with the motion controls scheme, but I assure you from some of the online fights I’ve had…it’s really just a me problem.

Since it is a tag fighter you are incentivized to bring in your partners to extend your combos, but what if you are on the receiving end of a beating, what options do you have? Thankfully the game does have mechanics that prevent a p[layer on the receiving end to at least put up their hands. The first is the assist breaker, this move forcibly tags your teammate to intervene at the the cost of high health loss (which can be recovered) and extended cooldown period, the other requires a bit more skill. The Counter Tag requires you to time your button press as your opponent’s tagged-in character is about to strike, if successful will knock them back and act to “reset the board” if you will, allowing you to hopefully go on the offensive.

One of the selling points of the title was an “Original Story Crafted by TV Show Creators”. In previous press releases it was mentioned the game’s story mode was worked on by Helen Leigh (writer and co-executive producer, Invincible), Mike Rogers (Narrative Director, Invincible VS) and features contributions from series co-creator Robert Kirkman. While I can’t go into any details, I can say the game’s story mode is possibly the weakest part of the game. It’s pretty short (on hard mode I was able to complete it in roughly 2 hours) and didn’t feel like the game’s original character Ella Mental factored much into the tale. However, who really buys a fighting game for Story?

I will give the game a lot of credit for the sheer amount of unlockables and cosmetics it has packed in. In this day and age where developers would more likely sell it to you at a cost, Quarter Up opted to reward long term play. (Writer’s Note: I did notice once the title launched it did offer up 5 cosmetic DLC packages which ranged in price from $5 to $10 dollars. So you fooled me, video game! However I still stand by the amount of content you can unlock in game.) You have a player level and you have character mastery levels. You earn experience during gameplay across both single and online modes. I did find myself flipping through all the concept art, listening to the tracks composed by Glitch Mob, although I did roll my eyes at some of the unlock requirements for the comic covers found in the game (500 online matches…really?).

Another point of appreciation is how the title doesn’t shy from the absolute violence that takes place in the universe. Fights will result in torn costumes, combatants soaked in blood and for those who perish by getting by with a special or a super move, you’re likely not going to have an open casket funeral. The overkills almost feel like a cherry on top after an easy or perhaps grueling battle. The movesets do a great job at calling back to source material and you can certainly point to certain episodes where they came from. That said with all the attention to detail I have to say the thing felt a little deflating was how bland the fighting arenas are. They are literally just empty sets which will jostle at some heavy blows, but it would’ve been nice to see some people milling about in the background (I am aware you can hand wave this oversight away if you played the story mode…). For a property which literally has this visual in its pocket, it’s a shame the stages we got were so drab and lifeless.

Invincible VS pulls together many concepts and mechanics from fighting games such as Dragon Ball FighterZ, Killer Instinct (It certainly helps that Quarter Up do have devs from Double Helix, the studio which revived KI in the 2010s) and Mortal Kombat. The end result is something that is  accessible to both casual Invincible fans as well as fighting game veterans. I guess if Quarter Up had to answer Omni-Man’s infamous query “What will you have after 500 years?!”, they can hold their heads up high and retort “One hell of a debut title”. Although I do hope they’ll have made more than just a singular game in half a millennium, nonetheless this is a great introduction.

Note: Skybound Games provided us with an Invincible VS code for review purposes.

Click Here to buy Invincible VS on Amazon