On Thursday evening, after day one of NYCC 2025, I was able to attend the Invincible VS event at the OS NYC, the gaming, streamer, and content creator hub in lower Manhattan. While most of the people there were there for the usual post-con day event party scene of free food and drink tickets — Read Billy’s coverage of the event — I was focused on one thing: to get my hands on the sticks to get my first impressions of the Invincible VS, the upcoming three-on-three tag fighting game set in the Invincible universe.
In this early impressions demo on Windows-based PCs, you could play as Invincible, Atom Eve, Rex Splode, Bulletproof, Battle Beast, Omni-Man, Thula, and the newly revealed Cecil.
Battle Beast vs InvincibleSince I wasn’t there with anyone, I ended up being able to play the game solo and just face off against the computer in Versus mode. The game uses a layout similar to Bandai Namco and Arc System Works’ Dragon Ball FighterZ, which in and of itself was based upon the control scheme of Capcom’s Marvel vs Capcom 3 and its Ultimate update.
The three main attack buttons (Light, Medium, and Heavy), along with a Special button, are where all your attacks mostly come from. There are two buttons for Assists from the other two characters waiting in the wings. They also have a Boost button that I never really get a chance to understand its tactical use.
The first thing that hit me as I was getting used to this game, was that it felt like they took Dragon Ball FighterZ and mashed it together with Mortal Kombat X. While not as feverishly fast as MKX, the gameplay videos that are out there don’t convey just how fast it feels when really getting into the scraps and tying combos together with assists.
What took me back was just how, when a character is down low on health and you hit them with a strong enough attack, it will kill them violently. Those moments visually felt like Brutalities in modern Mortal Kombat games. Just out of nowhere, a good counter uppercut special attack, and someone’s head just explodes. Those moments capture the sudden hyper-violence of the Invincible comic and animated series.
Bulletproof vs Atom Eve on the MoonThe combos and moves are easy enough to pull off that a beginner could accomplish some attacks and feel like they can compete. The supers are a bit tougher to gauge and pull off. The most powerful combo, the ultimate attack, felt a little bit easier to pull off, as it’s just hitting Special + Heavy + Boost together to start this full-screen attack with bright screen effects, which will remake scenes from the show. The game has good mechanics for defense with the standard push blocking and an Assist Breaker to stop an opponent’s combo.
Most of the characters feel unique to this game, while they fit into more standard fighting game types of characters, there is no one in this beta that plays like Ryu from Street Fighter, something most other fighting games have.
Invincible has moves that work with what you expect from the character: flying punches and some quick combos, along with simple defensive maneuvers, keep him as an all-around character. I didn’t have much fun with him, though, and neither did I with Omni-Man. I did like how he didn’t feel like the version from Mortal Kombat 1, as it feels he has a lot more movement, and is a fast action tag fighter. The moveset is a hard-hitting bruiser with decent movement, but it has some nice, simple combos that do good damage. He did have one of my favorite assists to use in the quick preview.
I played best with Rex and Bulletproof. Rex is a quick, projectile-throwing character that works best by being aggressive and then using his projectiles to zone away from his opponent. With Bulletproof feeling like a more combo aggressive version of Invinicible, I had more fun with his combo potential than the title character. Battle Beast, I had the most fun with. Pretty slow but big, simple attack that deals damage. He felt good to get in and then pull out for a quicker character like Rex Splode.
Atom Eve and Cecil are too much “keep-away zoners” for my tastes. Too much use of full-screen projectile attacks or things to attack for you. It requires a lot of setup thinking, which is not good for short-term play testing. Thula wasn’t a character I could get a handle on, and then I just played more with other characters I enjoyed more.
The look of the game feels a bit different from the comic and show. The 3D-rendered characters, with bright colors and bold lines around the their features, feel like something from the comic or animated world popping into a solid reality. It works to make this game look a bit different than other fighting games right now, with a style that hasn’t been seen in this space for a bit.
Invincible taunting ThulaThe effects pop well, and the hits and animations are clearly visible. I wished it looked closer to the animated series look with a clear, flat 2D look, but maybe they felt they couldn’t pull it off as well as Arc System Works has, and didn’t want to be draw those comparisons on a graphics level. Overall, it plays faster than it looks and was fun to play.
I look forward to more character reveals, and hope Dupli-Kate makes the roster because she might be a fun type of fighter that I haven’t seen a lot of in fighting games. I look forward to a chance to play again and see how online will play in the future. Good netcode is a must for fighting games now.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more coverage from NYCC ’25.
English (US) · 