Invincible VS Review

Player(s): 1
Extra Features: Local Multiplayer (2 players), Online Multiplayer (2 players), Add-On Content

If you’ve watched the animated show of Invincible on Prime Video or read the graphic novels by Robert Kirkman, then I’m sure you already know of the excellence of the Invincible series. It’s a very bloody superhero series and has quite an interesting overall world. Invincible VS is a 3v3 fighter developed by Quarter Up and published by Skybound Games and is based on the animated series. Quarter Up is the first in-house studio under Skybound that is led by the developers of Killer Instinct (2013), so that definitely caught my attention from the get go and I had high hopes for Invincible VS. Overall, I have to say, they really impressed me with the core fighting game system for this game.

Invincible VS has a roster of 18 total characters. All are available from the start – no unlocking anybody. The character lineup is Invincible (Mark), Atom Eve, Battle Beast, Bulletproof, Rex Splode, Lucan, Anissa, Dupli-Kate, Allen the Alien, Conquest, Thula, Robot, Monster Girl, Omni-Man, Cecil, Ella Mental, Titan and Powerplex. Even though there are no unlockable characters, the game has quite a few unlockables for your profile. You get to level up your main profile and each character by playing the game and this unlocks various rewards.

The game is like a mix of many fighting games. It has the overall feel and movement of Killer Instinct. Many of its mechanics are borrowed from Marvel VS Capcom and other games. Even though it borrows many techniques, it puts its own twist on a bunch of them. The game takes advantage of current gen controller layout very well. The four face buttons are for light, medium, heavy and special attacks. The shoulder buttons are for assist 1, assist 2, boost and dashing. Unlike just about every other fighter, all fighter special attacks are done the same way. You either press in a direction along with the special attack button to perform special moves – you don’t even have to do a more complex directional input.

The overall fighting is similar to Marvel VS Capcom, but it has the movement and impact of Killer Instinct (KI). If you’re familiar with the latest KI, you can feel the impact of every blow and it has this unique impact sound while performing attacks to your opponents. Invincible VS feels just like that. You don’t just perform attacks; you feel them through the audio. The game has an auto combo button that leads to a super move (mainly for beginners) just like many current fighting games. There is a combo gauge that knocks both fighters away from each other if you keep hitting your opponent with too many of the same type of attack.

Every fighter has three special moves and three super moves (including an ultimate super). Even super moves are done with the press of two or three buttons. Below each fighter’s health gauge is a boost gauge that can be used to perform more powerful special moves (sort of like a meter burn). You can switch in and out with each fighter on your team and recover health while they are on the sideline. Fighters can be called in for assists. You can switch fighters to continue combos and there is also an assist counter for interrupting combos. The assist counter can be interrupted by a counter from the opposing team. The overall core fighter in this game is so very finely tuned! It’s really what I was hoping for from this team and they definitely delivered.

For single player, the game has a story mode and an arcade mode. The story mode gives you animated cutscenes with fights in between. The story mode has a quite a few fights and the overall cutscenes are well done, but it’s all so very short. I finished the story mode in a little over 1 hour and 30 minutes and I play very slowly. The story mode feels just like a prologue. The game has some very unique animation during cutscenes – it’s almost like the framerate is dropping during animation, but that is just the animation style. It sort of resembles an animated comic book style of movement.

The arcade mode has a total of four ladders to complete. Each ladder has a different number of opponents to fight through. You can play each ladder with Easy, Normal, Hard or Viltrumite difficulty setting. Each character has their own animated and voiced ending that you can unlock by finishing the arcade mode with them as your lead character. Training mode offers your standard practice mode (complete with the usual practice settings.

The game can be played locally (couch versus) or through online play. This is definitely the type of game that you want to take online since there isn’t too much to do outside of versus play. Online offers Ranked and Casual matches. The online seems smooth enough. As usual, you’ll run across players with bad connections, but it was overall smooth.

The sound to this game is just fantastic! Killer Instinct had great sound and Invincible VS is almost just as ultimate. The overall soundtrack is good and the sound effects keep you engaged. The voice cast is really good too. Some of the actors are from the show and some are new. I simply love Conquest’s super move where he yells out “They all fear me...” just before attacking and then finishing with “...SO WILL YOU!” Each character is oozing with personality such as this in the game. The sound has an overall engaging feel that always kept me hooked to the action taking place. The look of the game is great as well. It has the look of the animated show overall.

Even with its barebones modes, this game is really good. It would be so ultimate with a better story mode a few more single player modes. If you’re a fan of Invincible, you owe it to yourself to check out Invincible VS. Fans of fighting games, especially Killer Instinct (2013) and Marvel VS Capcom need to give this game a try. It borrows a lot from other fighters as well, so really just about any type of fighting game fan will find enjoyment in it.

The Good:
+ A very solid fighting game
+ Overall look is perfect for Invincible
+ The sound is fantastic

The Bad:
- The story mode is extremely short
- Only an 18-character roster, which is low for 3v3
- A lot of the modes are very bare bones