Invincible is one of the most popular superhero IPs going at the moment. The Amazon show just wrapped up its fourth, and possibly best, season last week. Season 5 was also just teased for next year. Now, what exactly will fans have to hold them over until some point next year when the show returns? Luckily, there’s now a game that fans can play to their hearts’ content with Invincible VS. This 3v3 fighting game feels right at home in the Invincible universe, so let’s dive in to see if the game make players feel more “Hurm” or (cut to title card) Invincible.

As mentioned Invincible VS is a 3v3 tag fighter where players choose three fighters to have on their team to compete in matches against others. Invincible is a perfect IP to be a fighting game as the fights are the most iconic part of the show/comic. The base roster of the game features eighteen total characters featured during the first three seasons of the show. Thus, don’t go into the game expecting new characters we were introduced to in the latest season. Though Universa is confirmed as a DLC character, so there’s hope for others to appear later. Despite that, there is still a good variety to the characters and they all feel distinct enough from each other despite falling into the archetypal fighting game character types. For example, Allen, Battle Beast, and Monster Girl all are heavy, tanky characters, but none feel too similar to the others.

Obviously, the combat is where the game shines the brightest. You can play the game either locally with a friend or take your skills online to compete against players across the world. This isn’t the type of fighting game where you can just mash buttons to succeed or where you can just play your favorite character only. There is a decently steep learning curve to the game, and I highly recommend jumping into the tutorials as even the single player modes just throw you into the thick of it without teaching you how to actually play the game. However, once you do start learning how the game works and how to string combos together amongst your team, the combat starts to flow naturally and is honestly a lot of fun. With it being a 3v3 fighter, learning how to play a plethora of characters is a must as the active tag system is vital in your success against your opponent. You must learn how to quickly switch between characters to extend combos and how to counter and avoid your opponent’s tags as well. For online battles, you can have three teams ready at any time to choose from before searching for a match, and you’re able to swap characters in and out of teams from the menu so you are never locked into the same team forever.

While the multiplayer and combat is where Invincible VS is at its strongest, the single player content is where it starts to falter. For single player content, the game features a Story Mode, Arcade Mode, and a Training Mode. The Training and Arcade modes are familiar to any fighting game fan. Training is where you learn how to play characters or go through the game’s tutorials (again I highly recommend this first). Arcade Mode features four different ladders where you take on a certain number of consecutive fights, and depending on the ladder you choose, the amount of fights (ranging from 5 to 12 fights) and the difficulty of the computer player rises. Then, there is a small amount of story in the Arcade Mode for whichever character you pick as the lead for the team.

Then, there’s the Story Mode. The cutscenes are beautifully animated and remind me of the Spiderverse movies, and the story feels like an actual episode of the show.While the entire voice cast of the show doesn’t return for the game, we still get a few actors reprising their roles such as J.K. Simmons as Omni-Man and Gillian Jacobs as Atom Eve. The other actors do a good job in their roles, and it doesn’t feel jarring that they don’t sound exactly the same as they do in the show. The story takes you through a completely new narrative set after the end of Season 3 of the show and has you using every character in the game at least once. However, there is a lot of one on one encounters throughout the story. Unfortunately, the one on one fights are nowhere near as engaging or fun as the full on 3v3 fights are since you lose out on multiple mechanics the game has to offer.

However, the biggest disappointment with the Story Mode is its overall length. While we had heard the story mode would be a similar length to an episode of the show, it still feels far too short for a game’s story. My play time, which is displayed on the menu screen, clocked in at a little over an hour to complete it. We are in the modern age of fighting games which have multiple hours of content in their story modes nowadays. The worst part is the story leaves off on a cliffhanger with no real resolution to the story. This means if you are a fan of fighting games as a single player gamer, then you’ll blow this in less than an evening and only have Arcade Mode or playing against the computer over and over for the rest of the time.

Overall, Invincible VS is a strong 3v3 fighter that takes time to get into and master, but once you do it is highly engaging and rewarding in its combat. However, with a story mode that feels lacking despite feeling so true to the show, this game isn’t meant for the casual or wider audience who might just want to jump in and play something set in the Invincible universe while we’re in the wait between seasons. On the other hand, if you are a hardcore fighting game fan, then you are sure to have a great time learning all the ins and outs of the combat the game has to offer.

Score: 7 out of 10

Reviewed on PlayStation 5