When Fight Club came out years ago in the late 90s, I was absolutely blown away by its theme, twist, and overall body of work. It was a quintessential love letter placed on the grave of male expectations handed down by past generations, and reset how men should perceive themselves and their emotions in life. Loved it, and the film spoke to me like no other fighting film of its type. After watching the movie, I bought the book, thinking that it would fill in some details that the movie didn’t have time to cover, maybe something magical, epic, and unhinged. Nah, the movie said all that it needed the book to say, and much better. So much better.
That little side story leads me into this review of Quarter Up’s Invincible VS. It’s a fighting game that does 3v3 tag well, carries its own interesting story with it, and isn’t much more than advertised. Well, except the animation. Why didn’t they do the show this way? It’s gorgeous, and a Fight Club-like example of how sometimes another medium can outshine the original. And Invincible VS shininess starts at the story.
The story behind Invincible VS revolves around the bitter battle between father and son, and everyone who surrounds them. You can’t have a fighting game with just two characters. That would be seriously boring, and this game is anything but. Anyway, the story puts heroes versus foes, Omni-Man and crew versus Invincible and his gritty bunch, and then decides to throw in an alien twist to make the entire world go topsy-turvy. I don’t want to give the twist away, and I am sure if you watched season 3, you could probably guess it, but it’s one of the few times that a fighting game has sprung emotional value into its mix without it feeling forced. The story hits hard, changes the entire aspect of the game, and careens off a large cliff into a brutal and epic conclusion. In other words, the story was far more impactful than I expected.
Now, that narrative impactfulness was a primer and set in motion a theme for the rest of the gameplay experience. While most people would just take the chance to buy a popular IP and exploit it, the good devs at Quarter Up somehow found a way to improve it. They captured the brutal essence of the show through script, visuals, and found a way to incorporate a fairly competent fighting game somewhere in between. Much like the story, the gameplay structure wasn’t simply built to appease fans; it was there to entertain them. I can confidently say, this is more than just a cash grab IP product.
On the fighting side of the tracks, the 3v3 tag goes along the old familiar path that was set in motion with the likes of King of Fighters and the later versions of Street Fighter. The fights are launched by plot points, which determine which characters are going to be included in specific fights. For example, at the get-go, there is a gigantic fight between Omni-Man and Invincible, which bleeds into the streets of a packed cityscape. Omni-Man’s crew shows up to help him out, while Invincible’s crew makes their debut at the same time. Rex Splode and others find their way into the story’s fight, which translates directly to the 3v3 match-up, and allows for the player to switch characters mid-fight if they want to, or call for brief help if they get stuck in a sticky situation. The integration of the story with the fighting is virtually seamless, as everything just continually rolls in, out, and then moves on to the next plot point in the narrative. It’s so smooth, and it was crafted with care. Even with its flaws, and there are a few, the game keeps the player moving at a swift pace with story and action, which helps to cover up any hiccups the gameplay might actually have along the way.
For me, the hiccups were minor. The story took center stage, and I was just fascinated with how action-driven it all was. It was just enough story mixed with the right amount of fighting, all combined, that made Invincible VS a fun experience. Coming back to those hiccups, the characters can be imbalanced at times with how powerful they are versus how fast. The tanks are tough to move around and have a hard time going up against the quicker, more powerful characters. It’s like picking Zangief in Street Fighter. He’s a great character if someone else is playing a tank, but if someone else isn’t, then the odds are rarely in the Zangief player’s favor. In Invincible VS, if Battle Beast is on your team, he isn’t as efficient or opportunistic as Invincible or Rex Splode. He is clunky but entertaining, and wicked when you can catch someone off guard, but not my first choice of fighters. He just seems like a drag at times rather than an asset. Any player who has ever played a fighting game can point out characters like this that they probably label ‘In case of emergency’.
Anyway, some character imbalance is expected, and for the most part, the game does a great job of offering up enough different personalities with various abilities that try to balance fights. Clearly, the powerful fighters are in a smaller, faster group. Players will feel that the moment they begin a fight against a tank, as they proceed to wipe the floor with them. None of this is a dealbreaker or makes the game less fun. It just makes the game a bit more challenging with some fighters, which shouldn’t be a thing.
Shifting gears, one huge plus for me during my review session with Invincible VS was its controls. A fighting game being mindful of player flaws and focusing on player enjoyment makes for a better time, in my opinion. If you need a good example of how to get it done, then take a hard look at Soul Calibur 2. That game will always stand as one of the more fun fighting experiences for me on the Sega Dreamcast, and it’s mainly because the controls were easy to use. The controls are built with this sentiment in mind, as they don’t demand accuracy for moves to be pulled off, and the controls are incredibly easy to pick up on. To put this in perspective, I jumped on this game the moment it finished downloading on my PS5. It took me about 30 minutes to understand how the button combinations worked, what powerful moves I could repeat with nearly every character, and how easy it was to pull off what would be nearly impossible in games like Mortal Kombat. The ease of use made this game simple to jump back into in the face of defeat. Finding a good rhythm and pulling off insane combinations with the slight flick of the wrist and push of multiple buttons was simple. Building up a power gauge and unleashing a cinematic move with a proper tip of the hat to the characters was fun to experience and watch.
Invincible VS avoided the mistake of new fighters, which typically mix up complicated controls with the idea that the game becomes more fun as it becomes more challenging. In my opinion, the easier the controls, the easier it is to keep playing the game. Of course, the game does allow for more complications with its difficulty setting and less give for mistakes, but the fact that the player can choose how miserable they want to be means that all players can pick the game up and go. Yes, even those insufferable competitive players. They can be insufferable together.
Anyway, getting a good story mixed with a fun fighting game that is most certainly accessible to all types of players is a treat. My only other hiccup for this game is that the story lasts about three hours max, and then it’s just local/online fighting for the rest of the experience. Don’t get me wrong, that is a typical fighting game structure that doesn’t go beyond what a fighting fan has seen before, but I am always hoping for more. Maybe next time.
As the game stands, Invincible VS has far more positives to its gameplay than negatives. It’s an entertaining fighting game that brings a great story mixed with easy and accessible fighting. In addition, it sets a new standard for the show’s potential presentation. It’s visually built in the same style as the show Arcane, and that honestly looks a helluva lot better than the original animation of the actual Invincible show. I wish the show took this route with its style because it’s cool, and it visually works. Anyhoo, it’s a solid fighting game that dances beautifully with its IP content. It’s a good example of how IP should be treated in the video game medium.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Invincible VS from developer Quarter Up is an impressive fighting game that plays it safe in some areas, but exceeds expectations in others. The mix of story content that launches into 3v3 battles is seamless as it is entertaining. The game isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s more impressive than it is not.
