Fighting game fans have been spoilt for choice in recent years. Anime players are enjoying a revitalized Guilty Gear Strive while still dabbling in Granblue Fantasy VS: Rising; 1v1 footsies fans are raging at Drive Rush in Street Fighter 6; and 3D fighting game enthusiasts are, well, existing (while ignoring Tekken 8's recent balance decisions).
Then, there's the tag-fighter community. SSJ4 Daima Goku dropping on Dragon Ball FighterZ, a 2XKO that, contrary to popular belief, is still going strong, Marvel Tokon on the horizon, and then there's...
Invincible VS, developer Quarter Up's first project, a team comprised of former Killer Instinct (2013) devs, is a very fun 3v3 tag fighter that has me at odds: on one hand, it's an incredibly addictive fighting game with deep defensive mechanics and an easy-to-pick-up combo system that allows for a lot of player expression, on the other hand, the overall package is disappointingly lacking in content, with a lukewarm single player offering and little to do outside the bare minimum you'd expect from a new title releasing in the year 2026.
One could argue that nailing gameplay trumps everything, and I agree (to a degree), which is why I'm happy to report that Invincible VS won't disappoint fighting game fans who are looking for a fresh tag fighter to sink their teeth into.
At a surface level, the game is super simple. Each character has a relatively small moveset comprised of basic light, medium, and heavy normals, as well as three specials, which can be done with directional or motion inputs that were luckily added after much candid player feedback. The real meat of the gameplay is figuring out how to mix and match your moves and assists to extend combos and dish out serious damage.
Responding to issues stemming from recent playtestings, Quarter Up tuned the combo system to prevent many touch of death scenarios while still giving players enough freedom to cook up extremely fun combos. Assists will be key if you want to make the most out of your offense, and while the game offers auto combos, I highly recommend you only use them if you're relatively new to the genre or if this is your first fighting game ever. Your basic combo string should be easy enough to pull off after some practice: light goes into medium, which goes into heavy; from there, you can decide to tack on a special move, hit an assist or active tag to get another character into the fray, which will decrease your combo meter limit, allowing you to get more damage in before the opponent inevitably pops out of your combo.
This mixing and matching of characters and moves is what drove me back to Invincible VS during the review period. Knowing when to add an assist extension, making use of wall and ground bounces to set up for launchers, and continuing my offense with a flashy aerial combo feels so satisfying and easy to pull off that you'll want to keep pushing yourself to go for that extra bit of optimization.
You are not entirely hopeless if you're on the receiving end of what could look like a never-ending cinematic. In fact, there are plenty of defensive mechanics to make use of while you're getting pummeled to death. There's your Killer Instinct-inspired "combo breaker," called "assist breaker" in Invincible VS, a strong yet costly mechanic that will deplete the selected assist's red health by 50% (meaning it can be recovered over time, but you are susceptible to a snapback) while also requiring two boost bars from the character getting combo'd. If you don't have access to either resource, "counter tag" is another extremely powerful defensive mechanic, as it will allow you to break a combo if you time it when your opponent is going for an active tag. The offender can mix their timing, so it's not a guaranteed get-out-of-jail card, but it's something you should hop on the tutorial and learn the basics of how it works.
Even in neutral, staples of tag fighters like pushblock, movement options like super jumps or hops, and even an EX version of your general dash make for a very compelling experience. Movement can feel a little stiff at first, I have to say, but overall, if you're one of those who believe that Invincible VS is a game where the first player to get a touch automatically wins, you'd better drop those excuses and hit the lab.
Fans of the show or the comic book, inclined to check the game out, won't be disappointed by its initial roster. While your expected cast of heroes and villains is well represented with Invincible, Omni-Man, Atom Eve, or everyone's favorite Allen The Alien, some oddball picks like Cecil add a nice variety to the character select screen. On top of that, Robert Kirkman designed a brand-new original character for the game: Ella Mental, a master of the elements who will become many people's new favorite character.
Visually, I can't say the game is a complete looker, but it does the comic-book aesthetic pretty well. Some characters are stiff in motion, but Quarter Up nails the heavy-hitting, gory action of the franchise.
So, what is there to do besides hitting the tutorial and putting what you learn into practice in versus mode? Well, as it turns out, not a whole lot. The game features a story mode, and it does not disappoint, beyond one major flaw. It's got great production, with plenty of polished cinematics that essentially act as an original episode of Invincible, with the show's creative team lending a hand in crafting the narrative and almost all the voice actors reprising their roles.
The problem? It is extremely short. Nothing can prepare you for that feeling of hitting the credits and thinking, "that's it!?" Both because you'll likely finish it faster than you'd think and because it's so damn fun. I wanted more; it feels like the story took its sweet time to set up a very self-contained premise, and as soon as it was kicking into second gear, it just cuts to credits. That said, if you don't mind the short and sweet brisk pace of what's essentially a bonus Invincible episode, you're in for a treat.
Arcade Mode offers different ladders of difficulty that will serve as good practice if you're getting the ranked jitters. Story-wise, there's not much the team could've done considering they have to work around what the characters do on the main narrative, so the endings feel a bit like a nothingburger.
You do get to level up character mastery, which is perhaps the thing that'll keep Invincible fans hooked in for the long haul. Each mastery path comes with various cosmetics related to the character you're leveling up, including some neat alternate colors. There are hundreds of collectibles, so if you're a completionist, you've got your work cut out for you.
The online offerings are fairly standard as well. You got ranked, which will offer more cosmetics rewards each season, casual matches, and a lobby system that, at least during my playtime, didn't allow me to spectate matches while sitting in queue.
Quarter Up's almost sole focus was crafting a deep, mechanically nuanced fighting game experience, which I highly appreciate as a massive fan of the genre. I think they succeeded at it as well, but some more effort on the full package would've been appreciated. Even if the price tag is a much more affordable $50 compared to your usual full-priced $70 AAAs flooding the market, I can't help but think that the addition of more casual-friendly modes could help sell the game to those inexperienced in the genre, making them stick around for longer.
Street Fighter 6 has extreme mode, City of the Wolves has two-lane battles, and the recently added ring out. 2XKO's barrier of entry is much lower, being free, and has a deep social aspect embedded into its DNA with the Duos mechanic.
Even the tutorials could use a little sprucing up. Sure, the overall flow of each character is the same, with very minimal changes to the combo structure. But a newcomer to the series who has no idea how to differentiate between how a zoner or a grappler plays might feel out of their depth and dip out immediately. It's not about having the game be played for them with auto combos, but giving these players the necessary in-game tools to make them want to keep getting better at it. The Street Fighter 6 character guides are still unmatched in this aspect and are something I wish more developers would put an effort into replicating.
Overall, I loved playing Invincible VS. It's something fans of the IP will likely get a kick out of for a few hours despite the disappointing length of story mode, and those deep in the trenches of fighting games likely trying to come up with the most degenerate strats you could conceive.
If Quarter Up can build on the early excitement shown by both the FGC and the casual Invincible audience, they might have a big hit in their hands, one I hope they aim to improve and make a more complete experience in a fighting game market that's surprisingly starting to feel a bit overcrowded.
A code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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