Invincible VS
Developer: Quarter Up
Publisher: Skybound Games
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $49.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
When it comes to creating a fighting game, there are plenty of different franchises to pull from and most of them have been tapped in one way or another already. The anime fighting scene is full of arena brawlers and some key 2D fighters while more realistic 3D fighting games remain as strong as ever, going off of their legacy to push forward even through missteps. That means that sometimes it’s time to dig a little for a new franchise to bring out to the fighting game stage and what better game than another super hero series that is about as brutal as they come and incredibly popular right now, Invincible. Assembled partially by ex-members of the Killer Instinct reboot, Quarter Up has brought out Invincible VS with the help of Skybound Games, but the question is, does all this blood and action translate to a satisfying fighting game?
Story
Invincible VS does very little to actually introduce anything related to the plot of the story, let alone who the characters are or their relationships with one another. There is a brief tutorial for the game’s mechanics but that’s it, otherwise the game offers a very straightforward set of story modes, the signature story mode that is an original one set within the universe of Invincible and written by the author of the comics Robert Kirkman, and the arcade mode that provides a unique ending for the “lead” character of the player’s team of three fighters.
The story mode drops players right into the action as Mark, Invincible, is getting beaten to a pulp by his father Nolan as well as Lucen and Thula, all wearing their Viltrumite uniforms in a strange set-up unlike anything that fans of the series will recognize despite it appearing to mimic the first battle between father and son. Things quickly start to spiral out of control as more oddities start happening around them as even though Atom Eve and Rex Splode show up to help Mark, the fighting shifts to an entirely different set of heroes battling against each other for completely unknown reasons, their appearances shifting on the fly as Mark struggles to find out what exactly is going on.
The story mode throughout Invincible VS is rather interesting in its own right and will keep players guessing a bit when it comes to the few twists that are unveiled. It also helps that it never has to come up with an excuse as to why these friends might be beating the ever loving hell out of one another for no reason. Unfortunately there are two major issues with the story mode of the game and they are impossible to ignore. While they do introduce a foe that is included in the comic books, the story mode itself ends on a cliffhanger right when it feels like things might finally start kicking off, either leaving players hoping for an eventual DLC expansion or just a cold end for no reason. Secondly, the entire story mode can be completed in a little over an hour, making it the shortest single player story in a fighting game that actually offered a story mode in recent years.
Thankfully the arcade mode, which takes place as “towers” players will fight through with their team at increasing difficulty of their choosing, does provide a bit of extra story. The first fighter players selected for their team will have their arcade ending unlocked upon winning the final battle and receive a minute or two long extra cutscene that will range from decent to completely lackluster depending on the fighter. Selecting Ella Mental, the only brand new original character in the roster who does get some central focus in the story mode, has a lackluster arcade ending that does little to explain who she is, her abilities, or anything else. It is worth noting that every character does have unique starting and ending battle dialogue depending on who they are facing, giving some characters a bit of extra detail, but there was room for quite a bit more here.
Gameplay
Invincible VS offers a 3 on 3 tag fighting format that is both surprisingly simple at the foreront but quite in-depth when it comes to “mindgames” regarding the game’s mechanics. Rather than dealing with quarter circles or rotations to perform special moves or techniques, every attack is mapped to a single face button with a light attack, medium attack, and heavy attack. Holding back, forward, down, or up can change these attacks but don’t require the complex inputs that some fighting games require. Then there is the “special” attack button that is also modified depending on the direction. Players can also call in their partner for a support attack, press and hold the assist button to tag out, and to add a bit of extra movement there is a dash button and a “boost” button that spends one of three yellow meters to super charge a special attack to deal extra damage, add armor to the attack, or modify it in another way.
This is what we mean by tip of the iceberg here as the game sounds simple, and even features an automatic combo chain of players being able to perform a string of light attacks that even finish with a single line of super meter finish to close out the combo, but has far more depth beneath this surface, especially with how players manage their meter and tag partners. Every fighter in a match will have their own health bar and when they receive damage, some of it will remain purple and this purple section can “heal” while the fighter is tagged out. This means that players who play aggressively while trying to manage their team’s health will work out for the best, especially when it comes to taking part in active tags to trigger follow-up combos that allow players to start with one fighter and finish with another, dealing some punishing damage to foes.
On the other hand, if players can time a certain block correctly, they can nullify the tag entirely and remove any purple health that character had. Of course catching someone in a tag is easier than it sounds so it does create a bit of mind games all while trying to stay alive and fight. Here players can use some defensive options such as an Assist Breaker at the expense of meter to break up an enemy attack combo or even expend further meter to perform a Heroic Strike to turn a well timed block into offense.
Of course, players can also utilize their super meter, shown at the bottom of the screen, for a variety of effects as well. The primary use is to perform a super attack that deals plenty of damage to enemies for a single charge or, at the price of three charges, trigger a character’s ultimate and dish out the pain. Though it has a few other uses as well as some of this meter can be spent to “knockback” an enemy and force them to tag out with one of their other fighters, potentially forcing a foe to use a character they’d rather have healing back into the fray. All of these mechanics add plenty of depth and a lot to master beneath what is a surprisingly simple looking control scheme at first glance.
With eighteen characters at launch there is quite a lot of variety on offer and there does seem to be some balance issues here and there, though whether this is simply a “skill issue” or not is unknown. Even for those unfamiliar with the franchise the game does explain what a character’s general playstyle is, like if they are a rushdown fighter, a technical ranged fighter, grappler, and so on. It does seem that many players online tend to lean towards at least including one character specifically in their team.
Thankfully the game’s online net-code, featuring both crossplay and rollback, is exceptional even if the online mode is just as barebones as the single player, which offers only local versus, CPU versus, and the aforementioned Story and Arcade modes alongside Training mode. There are a lot of unlockables but they tend to revolve around concept art and palette swaps of character costumes. The online mode offers only ranked, casual, and lobby matches. At the moment though there is a very significant issue with “rage-quiters” that the game does not apparently punish for any reason. This means that if players manage to eliminate one of their opponents fighters they’ll tend to quit out immediately and both players will receive a loss as a result, something that will hopefully be fixed in the future.
Audio & Visuals
One thing that Invincible VS excels at is providing great looking character models that feel like they are a perfect blend of comic-book styling and the animated series that fans have come to love. The cut-scenes are presented well, though turning on subtitles does not include subtitles in cutscenes oddly enough, but the real details shine during fights. As players fight with their team they will find that every character will start to appear bloody or beaten up depending on how much damage they are dealing or dealt. Even a full-health character can have bloodied hands from beating down an opponent. Similarly, uniforms and costumes will tear apart and shred as characters get close to being eliminated.
There is plenty of blood to spray around and “Overkills” as well but players shouldn’t expect the same level of gruesome finishers as other fighting games. Most overkills are done by hitting a heavy attack or super attack on an enemy and will either decapitate a foe, split their limbs off, or in the case of being hit with an ultimate, blow them into identical looking chunks. Some characters have special unique animations to go with finishing an enemy off in this manner while others do not, making for some inconsistent development between the eighteen character roster.
The voice work throughout the game is top-notch and it helps that most of the original voice actors are reprising their roles from the animated series here in the fighting game. As mentioned before, everything in the storyline is voiced and characters have unique callouts to every other character in the game so this is definitely a nice touch. As for the background music the game sports a fitting soundtrack for a fighting game but doesn’t really go above and beyond, though players can unlock songs to listen to on their own as they raise their player level.
Overall
Invincible VS delivers a satisfyingly brutal brawler that is as bloody as fans of the series could have hoped for with every character’s signature moves feeling just as impactful as they can imagine. With fast and engaging 3v3 combat, players will find themselves working hard to master the deceptively simple controls and find the team that fits their playstyle. Unfortunately, those looking for any kind of single player experience will be disappointed here as the story is short and other offerings are barebones at best.
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