Invincible Vs (PS5) Review

Gameplay

Graphics

Audio

Narrative

Summary: A brutal, fast paced brawler for fans of Invincible and newcomers alike

4

Think, Mark!

You have to wonder why it’s taken so long for us to get an Invincible fighting game.

(Welcome to my essay on why Homelander and Omni Man should have been guest characters in Injustice 2, not Mortal Kombat 1. I will not be taking questions at this time.)

Robert Kirkman’s critically acclaimed comic series, which sees superheroes knocking ten bales out of each other, is the perfect basis for a fighting game. Why it has taken 20-odd years, a 144-issue comic run, and four seasons of TV for this to come to fruition is beyond me.

Anyway, we’re here now, and Quarter Up has created a 3v3 fighter that feels like the love child of Marvel Vs Capcom and Killer Instinct in the best possible way.

The Killer Instinct angle is to be expected since Quarter Up was founded by former members of Double Helix, who were responsible for the modern Xbox remake of the Rare classic. Much like KI, Invincible VS focuses on players creating big flashy combos, and you can outright murder your opponents in a similar way.

Input-wise, this is very much a modern fighter, with a simplified setup like Street Fighter 6 (though a more old-school version is also available). There are no quarter circles; instead, there’s a special button that performs one of three specials depending on which direction you push at the same time. This is augmented by the ability to boost the power of your moves by holding another button down, or unleash specials once the meter is full.

Add a combination of one-button light combos, and some fairly easy light-to-heavy combo runs, and you have everything you need to pound your foes until they’re little more than mince on your knuckles.

Where the tactics lie, though, is in the tag system, which sees you manage the health of three fighters that can tag in at any time, sure you can just use one fighter until they run out of health, then move on to the next. However, if you want to really lay the hurt on your opponent’s team, it pays to learn the best times to push the advantage and how to effectively counter.

For example, active tags let you continue combos by switching one character for another, which briefly stuns your opponent and lets you keep pummeling them.

However, these big combos can be broken if your opponent uses an Assist breaker. This is a high-risk maneuver that saps your boost meter, taps half your partners’ health, and stops you from tagging out again for 10 seconds, but it will stop a particularly harsh beatdown in its tracks and turn the tide of battle.

This creates a great sense of back-and-forth, and along with some parrying mechanics I didn’t quite get my head around, makes for deliriously frantic, fast-paced yet deep matches.

There’s also a varied selection of 18 fighters that each feel distinct to play, whether you’re unleashing barrages of rockets as the unassuming robot, physically dominating opponents with brutal blows as Omni Man, or stylishly manipulating matter as Atom Eve.

Though they may all have varied move sets and feel different to play as, they don’t all look as visually distinct as they could be. I’m mostly talking about the Viltrumites, Anissa, Conquest, Lucan, and Thulaclad in their grey body suits, that don’t really pop like the colourful costumes worn by the likes of Rex Splode or Invincible.

Overall, though, the presentation is solid, using a visual style that sits somewhere between the comics and the animated series. The characters are mostly bright and well-drawn, and balance their influences well.

The bone-cracking combat is backed by a punchy, energetic soundtrack from Californian beat scene duo The Glitch Mob.

In a nice twist, most of the voice cast from the Amazon series reprise their roles, including JK Simmons, Gillian Jacobs, and Jason Mantzoukas. Though it is a shame that Steven Yeun doesn’t reprise his role as the titular Invincible, Aleks Le does a marvelous job in his stead.

This makes the single-player story mode feel like a proper spin-off to the animated series, and even introduces a brand-new hero, Ella Mental, created specifically for the Vs by Invincible creator Robert Kirkman. Unfortunately, though, it’s not a particularly interesting tale. In fact, Spider-Man and the X-Men ended up in a similar predicament on the SNES 30-odd years ago.

Put simply, some aliens have trapped the cast of Invincible in a virtual world and are forcing them to relive their fiercest battles because the kinetic energy they release while kicking the crap out of each other is a powerful, endlessly renewable power source. (The Matrix says hi) It ends exactly as you would expect.

Though it’s a clever way to throw in some highlights from the books and series without any real consequences, and the stop-motion-style cutscenes used to string the fights together look great, part of me just wishes they had gone the anime route and just given us a retelling of the books. It would have lasted longer than an hour for a start.

Outside of this, there’s also the usual arcade ladders to climb, as well as local and online multiplayer modes, with decent rollback netcode underpinning them.

Final Thoughts

Invincible Vs is a brutal, crunchy, yet surprisingly fast-paced, 3v3 fighter that, mechanically at least, is possibly the closest thing we’ll see to a new Killer Instinct.

It’s a superbly animated, well-balanced brawler that hits that sweet spot of being easy to pick up but difficult to master.

Though the single player is a little light, there are still plenty of extras for dedicated players to unlock, and a solid online multiplayer mode replete with well-implemented rollback netcode. With 18 characters to choose from at launch and more on the way (add Battle Pope, you cowards!), fans of the source material, or just a good punch-up online, will find plenty to love about Invincible Vs.

About the Author

Gareth Newnham

Invincible Vs (PS5) Review