As a fighting game, Invincible Vs takes a lot from some of the most influential fighters out there. It takes the frenetic pace of Marvel Vs Capcom, the combat system and constant two way interaction of Killer Instinct as well as the brutality of Mortal Kombat. Although the game has some rough spots, its fun mechanics and simple yet quite deep gameplay more than make up for it, as well as a strong amount of fan service.

Pros

With any fighting game, the mechanics matter first and Invincible Vs delivers in that department for sure. There’s quite a lot to unpack as the game combines the tag team assist based combat of Marvel 3 and Marvel Infinite with the freestyle combo system of Killer Instinct. The game features an active tag system where you can tag characters at any point between a combo like MVCI but you can also call assists from the characters as well. Each character has 2 assists. For example Omni-Man has one assist where he fires an air bullet at opponents while the other sees him performing an uppercut. The different assists matter as one may help one character more than another. For example, character’s with good projectile assists are necessary to help characters like Lucan and Dupli-Kate get in. On the flip side, assists that can help wall someone out would be preferable for someone like Cecil who’s a heavy zoner. The archetypes in the game are all varied and no one plays the same even if two characters are a zoner. Invincible Vs is a game where every character feels enjoyable to try out.

Assists aren’t only important for covering yourself in neutral and in block stings, they’re also important in combos as they can keep you from blowing your combos out and there by increasing your maximum damage output. Mixing assists with active tagging is the route to go to maximize your damage along with another mechanic, the boost system. Boosted attacks are enhanced versions of moves that do different things such as making Omni-Man’s air bullet cause a crumple state or adding armor to all of monster girls moves.

On top of strong offense with tons of options at your disposal, Invincible Vs also features good mobility options as well as great options on defense. As Invincible has many characters that can fly – a lot of characters have air dashes but some like Lucan can hover above characters and Bulletproof can launch attacks from the air at multiple angles. Even characters that can’t fly have good options for mobility such as Rex Splode having a wall jump and a front flip attack that moves him forward. Even sluggish characters like Monster Girl have strong options for movement such as her boosted dash granting her armor.

When playing on defense, Invincible Vs is a game where you, as well as the opponent alway have to be thinking as defense is as strong as offense, if not stronger. The game features pushblocking similar to what was seen in Marvel vs Capcom. Many characters also have armored moves and everyone has access to a universal armored move called a heroic strike. Heroic strikes cost a lot of boost bar but they can really turn the tide if used smartly in between your opponents block strings.

Even if you do find yourself getting opened up and comboed, the defensive situations don’t end there. Similar to Killer Instinct, Invincible Vs has a breaker system in the form of assist breaks and counter tags. Assist breaks are expensive as they cause both health and boost bar but they can interrupt anything and aren’t easy to stop. Counter tags are similar to combo breakers from Killer Instinct where you time two button presses to interrupt someone trying to tag within a combo. Counter tags can be baited in two ways by either feinting it or using a different attack strength to throw the timing off. This keeps the combat in a constant two way interaction which makes for a fun time when you’re fighting someone who understands the mechanics well. The game functions well online, which is no surprise given that Killer Instinct was one of the pioneers for strong netplay.

On top of the combat, presentation in Invincible Vs is also quite good. The game accurately emulates the style of the show and there’s a lot of attention to detail. For example characters damage shows as fights goes on, to the point where they’ll actually start looking exhausted when their health gets low.

While Invincible Vs doesn’t take from Mortal Kombat gameplay wise, it was definitely inspired by it presentation wise I’d say. Invincible is a brutal show and comic, with characters getting decapitated, disemboweled and obliterated regularly and the game doesn’t hold back on that.  If you kill a character with a super it’s not uncommon to see their heads pop or them just explode into pieces everywhere and honestly it just doesn’t get boring due to how well animated alot of the super moves are in the game. You can tell the team at Quarter Up are passionate about the franchise as the game feels like a love letter that the series. The game is also backed by a nice techno based soundtrack done by the glitch mob.

The game does also feature a decent story mode, with an original story from the comics writers. The story sees Invincible and some allies, as well as enemies being unknowingly forced into an experiment which makes them fight friend and foe alike without even realizing. Although the story isn’t long (most fighting game stories rarely last for more than 2 hours at most) it’s enjoyable and it does set up for more expansions in the future. Here’s hoping the game does well so we get them.

Cons

So although I commend Quarter Up for how fun they made the cast to play overall, there are a few omissions that are lamentable. Although he’s confirmed for dlc, Immortal not being base roster over say, bulletproof as he’s been a more important character (to this point) was confusing. I also think one of the Viltrumites could’ve been omitted for one of the series more interesting characters such as Angstrom Levy, Tech Jacket or the ever lovable Mauler Twins. Although there is dlc confirmed, there’s just some characters I would’ve preferred to see as base roster.

Invincible Vs also does have some bugs and broken things within its gameplay. Conquest for example has a quite easy to pull off infinite and Dupli-Kate’s clones can glitch and cause a big obstruction to the screen.

There’s also one particular gameplay mechanic I don’t like and it’s Sudden Death. Sudden Death will happen when time-out happens but no matter what, each team will only be left with one character even if one has all 3 left and in decent health at that. Eventually you start taking damage over time as well until the character dies which can heavily favor zoning heavy characters in these situations, something I myself have benefited from as I use Rex Splode in all my teams. If Sudden Death was put in as a way to discourage stalling, I’d like to see it addressed differently in the future.

Also, lastly I do have to speak on its control schemes. Invincible Vs has a simple control scheme and a more traditional one with motion inputs but the game doesn’t quite feel as intuitive on motion controls and some things feel perhaps a bit too powerful on the simple control scheme. This decision was done to try to bring non FG players in but, making powerful things easier to abuse may end up detracting casuals more than bringing them in.

Final thoughts

Although Invincible Vs has some rough spots, it overall succeeds where it needs to in a fighting game. The gameplay is fun, the netcode is good overall and the roster is a blast to play with along with solid presentation. While some character omissions are lamentable… The fact that Quarter Up made me want to try Dupli-Kate out makes up for it and thankfully we’re in the age where bugs can be fixed rather quickly.

Reviewed on Xbox Series S.

Invincible Vs was release in the 30th of April 2026. It is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC