With Mortal Kombat II in theatres now and Street Fighter hot on its footsteps, old rivalries from the ‘90s have been re-ignited. Except, they are not the only kids on the block now; the genre is getting a bit crowded with 2XKO from Riot, and the very interesting looking MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls. With Invincible VS, there is a new challenger, which looks to be formidable, especially if you are a fan of the animated series. We check out if Invincible VS is worth the hype:

Invincible, is a comic written by Robert Kirkman, responsible for The Walking Dead series. The animated show follows a powerful, Superman-like hero, Omni-Man, going rogue and decimating his entire team, leaving his son, Mark Grayson, known as Invincible to protect the world against invading superbeings known as Viltrumite.

From The Boys and Invincible to Injustice 2 and The Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson, there is so much pop culture and superhero saturation, they are turning its most powerful ones into villains. This is what draws us to them — that underdog story of David vs Goliath — and it is the rock Invincible is built on.

Much like the show, VS makes everything bloody, with rampant destruction. This is what we pay the price of admission for — to play cityscape-levelling beings, something Invincible VS does extremely well and the story serves as an adequate tutorial to get you ready to rumble.

The voice actors from the show return to the game, so you get JK Simmons returning as Omni-Man, Jason Mantzoukas as Rex Splode, Jay Pharoah as Bulletproof and Gillian Jacobs as Atom Eve. While not all the show’s voice stars return, the stand-ins do a fantastic job of bringing the tone. What does matter is, they got JK Simmons, who is the whole reason the show is so good as his voice can be quite intimidating.

Now in a fighting game, the pedigree of its developers matter, and before you scoff at the relatively unknown studio Quarter Up, know that they are composed of elite fighting game vets, responsible for the Killer Instinct 2013 reboot, having worked directly and learning from Rare.

Hence, what players see is the resurrected ghost of one of the greatest fighting games of all time, in a new universe to call its home.

Ideally in a fighting game, you need to memorise a whole bunch of moves to unleash special attacks on opponents from the usual “down + forward” button presses and then, certain sequences of buttons to perform combos. This has been the standard for years, and widely replicated. With Invincible VS, you only get your series of low, medium and high punches and kicks and some very easy to pull off super moves.

All standard fare, but the magic comes in the fact that everything is chainable into combos. It is quite easy and the animation system seems to flawlessly chain them together. The trick here is to fill up the combo metre at the bottom and for the opponent is to break that combo and initiate one of their own.

This free-combo style is phenomenally fun and simple to use. Billing itself as a 3-vs-3 tag fighting game, featuring the superhero compendium from the Invincible universe, this means each round sees three of your heroes duke it out against another team.

Rather than just having one character, this format makes you think of your strengths as a team. Movement and abilities matter to optimise flow as having the right team can extend your combo system, doing more damage. Being accessible with easy combos and teammates does not mean this game lacks in depth. As you get better, you understand how timing certain special moves into a combo matters, the same way you figure out how to defend against brutal combos.

The game blends 3D characters with cell-shaded outlines and impressive backgrounds that are capable of destructive spectacles; rather than static set pieces, the stages react to the characters explosive moves. The animation is very Street Fighter 6 meets Spider-Verse’s art style, which works. Yet, it does not stand out the way Tōkon: Fighting Souls does. That said, it works, and is a great vehicle for a fighting system that should be the norm.

If you are not a fan of Invincible, but are a fighting game fan, you cannot afford to miss out on Invincible VS with its large roster of characters, and an excellent combo system that dispels the barrier of entry into the competitive arena of fighting games. Invincible VS makes this genre fun again and less of a chore just to remember countless moves, only to forget them in the heat of battle.