Invincible VS

Invincible VS was provided by Skybound Games for review. Thank you!

Invincible VS generated a lot of hype within the fighting game community when it was first announced. That comes as no surprise, given the popularity and reception of the animated show, along with the recent resurgence of interest in tag fighters. Even before playing it, it was clear that the game would feel like a lovechild of Marvel vs. Capcom and 2XKO, combined with Mortal Kombat-style brutal, bloody combat. I’m a huge fan of both the TV show and fighting games, so this felt like a dream come true. However, I was sorely disappointed with the end product.

When I first booted up the game, I was extremely disappointed by the amount of content it offered. There is a tutorial, but it’s extremely short and overly streamlined. There are no combo trials or additional fun game modes. It genuinely feels like a beta client. After both Street Fighter and Tekken have excelled at delivering rich content in recent years, even indie fighting games have started to follow in their footsteps. Seeing such an empty main menu felt like stepping into a time capsule to the early 2000s. Before talking about the content, though, I feel like we need to unpack the gameplay and fighting mechanics first.

At its core, Invincible VS is a 3v3 tag fighter that heavily leans into fast-paced, combo-driven gameplay. You build a team of three characters and can seamlessly switch between them mid combo, allowing for extended juggle routes and creative team synergy. The tag system isn’t just for offense either, defensive options like counter-tagging give players a way to break out of pressure and combos, adding an extra layer of strategy beyond pure execution.

The overall flow sits somewhere between the chaos of Marvel vs Capcom and the more structured approach of modern tag fighters like 2XKO. Even going as far as to completely copy the simplified control scheme of 2XKO, making every move, including specials, a 1-button execution.

As a long-time fighting game veteran, I can say that almost every game has something “unique” going for it, but unfortunately, that’s not really the case here. Instead of introducing new ideas, the game borrows mechanics from other fighters and tries to establish its identity through that mix.

The game's key strength is undoubtedly its movement. Similar to titles like Melty Blood or BlazBlue, it offers a wide range of mobility options: 8-way air dashes, amplified dashes, air blocking, short hops, long jumps, and more. It’s surprisingly deep, and figuring it all out is both challenging and fun. Rather than focusing on strict combo execution or complex inputs, the game shifts the skill ceiling toward movement, making it the primary deciding factor in high-level play.

One of the biggest issues with combo-based tag fighters is their defensive options. Most games in the genre feature what are known as Touch of Death combos (or TODs), which can deal 100% damage to a single character in one sequence. In some cases, developers choose to gate these TODs behind heavy resource costs, but that’s not the case here. They are surprisingly easy to execute and require minimal resources. Instead, the game introduces a defensive mechanic called Active Counter.

Active Counter isn’t a traditional combo breaker. Rather than immediately escaping a combo, it allows your tag partner to intervene mid-sequence and clash with the opponent. The twist is that the attacker can bait this response either by extending the combo in a way that punishes the counter attempt or by stopping entirely to counter it. This creates a constant rock-paper-scissors dynamic within every combo, turning both offense and defense into a mind game.

Even though I loved the movement in Invincible VS, this active counter already makes it an RNG-based fighting game. Yes, it's fun at first, but it just became tiring over time.

The most disappointing aspect of the game is definitely the design of its characters' movesets. There’s a clear lack of creativity, with most archetypes sharing very similar special moves and combo extenders. Learning a new character rarely feels like picking up something fresh; it often feels like more of the same.

For example, a large portion of the roster has some variation of a forward special that acts as a leaping shoulder attack to start or extend combos. This kind of repetition severely hurts character identity and comes across as a lazy design choice. Around 70% of the cast also shares a divekick on the same input, and archetypes like zoners and grapplers tend to follow nearly identical game plans. Overall, it feels uninspired and overly homogenized.

The story mode follows the familiar structure we’ve seen in the Mortal Kombat series (cutscene, fight, cutscene), but it’s a major disappointment here. It can be completed in under 30 minutes, and the entire plot revolves around a race in which the Technicians copy other characters from the universe. Considering the TV show's exceptional storytelling, I was at least expecting something on par with a single strong episode. Instead, it ends up being incredibly forgettable.

Arcade mode doesn’t offer anything special either. You simply pick your team, fight through a series of encounters, and unlock a basic character-specific ending cutscene. And by “cutscene,” I mean a static image with some dialogue over it. At this point, it feels like the game doesn’t shy away from cutting corners in any area.

There is also a character leveling and progression system that unlocks new titles, profile backgrounds, and various cosmetic rewards, all of which can be earned by grinding Arcade mode and online fights.

The graphics and overall visual style lean toward a low-poly, cel-shaded cartoon look that doesn’t quite land. From the environments to the character details, it lacks a distinct artistic touch and ends up feeling somewhat generic. At times, the presentation even comes across as below expectations for a full release, giving off more of a mobile-game impression than a modern fighting-game one.

The pre-rendered cutscenes in Story mode, however, look absolutely incredible. They feature one of the best cartoon styles I’ve seen, to the point where I caught myself thinking, “Imagine the TV show in this style.” I only wish the rest of the game had followed a similar artistic direction. Unfortunately, this contrast hurts the experience, as the transition from those visually stunning scenes to the lower-quality in-game models feels very off and out of place.

The music is also nothing special, relying mostly on generic, hype-inducing beats. I was really hoping for character-specific themes like in the Marvel vs. Capcom series, but that’s not the case here. There are only around five tracks in total, and all of them are fairly forgettable.

Invincible VS' voice acting is a mixed bag. While some actors from the TV show return, most notably Omni-Man’s J.K. Simmons, not all of the original cast are present. Key roles like Invincible are recast, which makes the overall experience feel somewhat inconsistent for fans of the series.

Sound effects, on the other hand, are surprisingly good. Landing hits with Battle Beast, especially with his hammer, feels incredibly satisfying, and the impact sounds across the board are distinct and enjoyable.

Online play offers ranked and casual matches, along with custom lobbies. Similar to Street Fighter 6, lobbies are divided into four separate fighting rooms that players can join. However, unlike SF6, this system feels somewhat pointless because it lacks an online training mode.

A fighting game without online training is simply unacceptable by modern standards, especially for a combo-heavy title like this. Much of the enjoyment of playing fighting games with friends comes from figuring things out together—experimenting, sharing discoveries, and even teaching each other in real time. Removing that aspect takes away a core part of what makes the genre so engaging, and it’s something I find hard to overlook.

The game uses standard rollback netcode for online play, and under the right conditions, it works well enough. When playing against opponents from your own region, matches generally feel responsive and acceptable, with only minor hiccups here and there. For a fast, movement-heavy tag fighter, that level of responsiveness is extremely important, and local-region matches are mostly playable.

However, the experience drops off sharply when playing against opponents from faraway regions. In those matches, the rollback becomes much more noticeable, with characters constantly snapping between positions, animations skipping, and the match sometimes feeling like a slideshow full of teleporting characters. It doesn’t completely ruin the online mode when matchmaking works properly, but it does make cross-region play feel extremely unreliable.

Invincible VS - Steam Deck Performance

Invincible VS defaults to the lowest graphical presets, and there’s a good reason for that. Fighting games are one of the few genres where maintaining a stable 60 FPS is absolutely essential, especially in online play. By keeping everything on the lowest settings, the game can consistently hit that target across all modes.

The downside is that it looks noticeably blurry and lacks visual clarity, but even at higher settings on my desktop PC, the game never really becomes visually impressive. Because of that, playing on lower settings feels like a reasonable trade-off for performance.

I did experiment with tweaking certain settings to improve the visuals, but nearly every adjustment came at the cost of performance. As a result, my recommendation would be to leave the settings as they are and prioritize a stable experience, even if it means accepting significant visual compromises.

That said, being able to play a fighting game this consistently on the Steam Deck still feels great and adds a lot to the overall experience.

Conclusion

Invincible VS is a game full of contradictions. It builds a genuinely engaging foundation with its deep, movement-focused gameplay and constant mind games, but almost every other aspect surrounding it feels underdeveloped or uninspired. From its lack of content and weak character design to its forgettable presentation and missing modern features, it often feels like a game that needed much more time in the oven.

There is something here for competitive players who value movement and mechanics above all else, but for most players (especially fans of the series), it falls far short of expectations. Invincible VS isn’t a terrible game, but it’s a frustrating one, constantly showing flashes of potential, but it never fully shines.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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