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Digital Trends
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Invincible Vs is like Mortal Kombat mixed with Killer Instinct
When I heard rumblings that a game based on Invincible was in the works, I had a fairly clear vision of what they would look like. I figure it would be some kind of superhero action-adventure game set somewhere in the comic book universe. I was absolutely not expecting a tag team brawler, but that's what we're getting with Invincible Vs. I'm very much okay with that after playing a few rounds for myself following the Xbox Games Showcase this past weekend. Invincible Vs aims to be a very approachable fighting game that can be as casual or hardcore as you want. Recommended Videos The idea here is simple: It's your basic 2D fighting game where players choose teams of three heroes that they can tag between on the fly. If Marvel vs. Capcom comes to mind when I say that, that's partially accurate, but there's a lot more to it than that. In fact, everything I'm about to describe will probably make a lot more sense to you when I tell you that the new studio developing it is largely made up of the devs who made Killer Instinct. The core combat has me juggling attacks and special on my four face buttons. I can perform grabs and counters by pressing different buttons together, keeping all the basics centralized to one place. I could pick up the basics of fighting very quickly, as the team built its combo system to be fairly approachable. For instance, if I just hammer my light attack, I'll perform an instant special of sorts. You don't have to memorize long combo strings to pull off something that looks cool. The complexity builds from there. On the right side of my controller, I can dash with the bumper. If I hop into the air and hold the right trigger, I can perform an even longer dash that more or less lets me fly for a moment. That movement system adds some superheroic action to the mix, as there's huge potential for sky high aerial combos and dodging here. The left side of the controller is all about weapons in partners. Holding the left trigger will tag a friend in, but pressing the bumper will send someone in for a mid-combo attack, not dissimilar to the way Mortal Kombat 1 and its Kameos work. Switching characters is important, because a fighter will essentially crash out if their combo meter gets too high. Tagging in a friend resets it, allowing them to create much longer chains. That might leave you worried that Invincible Vs is the kind of fighting game where you can get stuck in a never-ending juggle, but that's not the case. That's where the studio's Killer Instinct experience really shows. Blocking and countering are very important, as a big attack can be canceled out with the right timing. There's still some skill involved there, though, as players can get tricky with their attack timings, even hitting intentional fake outs that can cause an opponent to block too early and leave them vulnerable. There's a delicate balance between offense and defense here that leads to a lot of momentum shifts in fast-paced fights. And those brawls are brutal as hell too. Keeping in the spirit of the comic, Invincible Vs approaches Mortal Kombat levels of hyper violence. When a player hits a character that's at low health with a special attack that would kill them, it essentially turns into a fatality. I watched characters like Bulletproof get straight up beheaded by the likes of Atom Eve. Even the level I was playing on didn't make it out unscathed, as it deteriorated more and more with each round. This isn't a fighting game about friendly sparing between competitive friends; it's about people who really want to kill one another. After playing a few rounds and getting the hang of its tricks, I'm eager to get back in and see how much deeper it goes. It still feels a little more on the casual side to me, and I wonder how high its competitive ceiling will be in the long run, but I get the sense that there's more to the project. For instance, it seems like it will feature some form of story mode that features an original narrative set in the comic universe. If it can deliver that on top of strong brawling that calls both Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct to mind, Skybound Games may just have a blood-soaked hit on its hands. Invincible Vs launches in 2026 for Xbox Series X/S and PC.
CNET
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CNET
Invincible VS Is a Tag-Team Brawler Packed With Bloody Superhero Carnage
Microsoft's Xbox Games Showcase had its share of surprises, including a new game from Pokémon developer Game Freak and the ROG Xbox Ally portable handheld. Another surprise is a fighting game featuring characters from the Invincible comic and show. Invincible VS is a 3-vs.-3 tag fighting game featuring characters from the Invincible universe. The trailer showed several characters from the show, including Invincible, Omni-Man, Atom Eve, Rex Splode, Bulletproof, and two Viltrumites—the powerful alien species Omni-Man and Invincible belong to. The game itself has a comic book art style to it, but its action is more along the lines of Mortal Kombat. The fighting is very bloody—which is faithful to the comic and show—but no kind of fatalities were shown in the trailer. There are also a couple of familiar settings from the show. While only a handful of characters were shown in this first glimpse of Invincible VS, there is a wealth of heroes and villains that could be added to the game before it launches. Robert Kirkman's Invincible started as a comic in 2003 and ended its run in 2018. In 2021, an animated series based on the comic made its debut on Amazon Prime Video. The show wrapped up its third season in March and has already been renewed for a fourth season. Skybound Games is publishing Invincible VS with development handled by Quarter Up, an in-house studio led by members of the team that created 2013's Killer Instinct. Invincible VS will be released sometime in 2026 for PC and Xbox Series consoles.
Gizmodo
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
‘Invincible' is Finally Getting Its Own Fighting Game
Stand ready for the arrival of 'Invincible VS,' a bloody tag-team 3v3 fighter coming to PC and consoles in 2026. Once it became clear Prime Video's adaptation of Invincible was a hit, fans and comic co-creator Robert Kirkman started talking more. Not just more seasons, but where else the IP could go, specifically video games. After a mobile game and a visual novel for Atom Eve, the time's come for the series to really get its hands bloody. During the Xbox Games Showcase, Skybound Games and developer Quarter Up unveiled Invincible VS, the franchise's first full video game for consoles and PC. Naturally, it's a fighting game, and players will assemble three-person teams and go head-to-head against other players online. Beyond Mark and his dad Nolan, the roster includes heroes like Atom Eve, Rex Splode, and Bulletproof, plus Viltrumites Thula and Lucan. Some of the TV actors also look to be reprising their roles for the game. According to a press release from Skybound, VS will also feature a single-player story along with competitive and casual multiplayer and Training and Arcade modes. This being Invincible, characters shed a lot of blood as they beat each other into a pulp. Along with the tag-team mechanics of Marvel vs. Capcom (or more recently Marvel Tōkon), it looks like VS is taking inspiration from NetherRealm's Mortal Kombat games in that the fighters all have brutal finishers they can inflict on one another. If Mark can headbutt guys' heads off and Eve can blast them apart, everyone else's are gonna be just as gnarly. But will they top Omni-Man's gruesome train murder used in Mortal Kombat 1? Invincible VS releases in 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
