I played Invincible VS against the game's combat designer and loved every minute, despite getting my ass kicked

As Omni-Man throws fist after fist into the face of his son Mark I feel the corner of my mouth curl upward. This isn't the end of season one of the Amazon Prime series and I'm not a simple viewer – this is the fighting game Invincible VS, and I'm the one commanding the Viltrumite's deluge of bones and sinew into his offspring. After all, he can always make another kid.

Invincible VS is a one-on-one fighter where you control a team of three combatants set in Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley's superhero world. Choosing from characters like the aforementioned Invincible and Omni-Man, as well as Atom Eve, Battle Beast and more, you switch between your warriors tag-team style, with different situations dictating how you do that.

Rexsplosive combat

In addition to swapping out characters during brief moments of respite, Invincible VS encourages you to be more tactical, something combat designer Reepal 'Rip' Parbhoo is particularly keen to teach me during our preview session at Gamescom 2025.

For instance, you can call in an ally during an attack to cause more damage to your opponent, or you can swap in a teammate while on the receiving end of a heavy blow to break your foe's rhythm and go on the counteroffensive. There are plenty of reasons to think about where and when to switch things up.

Rip is a good sport and teaches me the game's commands, although we're playing a simplified control scheme. I get my head around the light and heavy strikes, as well as how to break combos and deal out special attacks, all the while being treated as a welcome guest by the combat designer. I'm painfully aware I'm a rookie going up against a grandmaster, but it takes little away from the joy of the game.

However, I soon find myself tripping over the inputs and my memory abandons me to my errors, leading to Rex Splode getting a savage beating as I powerlessly watch. Rip sees I'm struggling and asks if I need a reminder. I say yes but also add I'm not too disheartened to see Rexxy boy getting done in. I sense an error on my part.

We start a new round, and I decide on a team of Thula, Bulletproof and Battle Beast. I've remembered when to switch out my fighters for maximum impact and decided to give this fight all I've got. Rip seems to recognise this and chooses Rex as his first character. There's an air of lethality around the developer here, and I begin to see I said the wrong thing a moment ago.

Mere seconds in, I am on the ropes. Thula is dead, Bulletproof is not long for this world, and Rex Splode is the architect of my agony. The dynamic combat on screen is a sight to behold, with the young hero jamming explosives into my team member's eyes, and dropping f-bombs like they're going out of fashion. It's awe-inspiring, and I see now that Rip clearly likes Rex Splode as much as anyone else in the game.

Think, player, think!

Humbled as I am, I dive into the next match and get to grips with the game's verticality. As Atom Eve, I'm able to take to the air and unleash ranged attacks from above, buying myself vital distance from close-ranged grab attacks and counters.

All characters are able to use in-air combat to at least a basic level, usually hurling foes upwards before launching after them and pummeling their sorry butts, but some of the roster can linger longer in the sky.

The main thing I find here is knowing who is better in the air than who. Battle Beast is better on the ground and up in his opponent's face than up in the clouds, while Omni-Man feels comfortable basically anywhere. Knowing these traits helps as I get into an intense back and forth of breaking each other's guard. He's Invincible and I'm Omni-Man. He goes on the attack and I guard, breaking his combo at the ideal moment to inflict my own rampage. Rip is sitting comfortably. He has my number – or so he thinks.

As he goes to break my stride he doesn't realize I'm holding one of my attacks down ever so slightly longer, granting hyperarmor for the merest of moments, but just long enough to see his effort fail.

"What!" Rip enthusiastically calls out as I crush his resistance. Omni-Man is now in full swing and I'm no longer keeping track of anything I'm doing. I am the Viltrumite and he is me. We are one as we stun the helpless Mark Grayson and deliver a finishing move, hurtling through skyscrapers with the brutalized Invincible as our shield before dropping his sorry corpse.

The session is over, and Rip looks at me with a wholesome smile. I know he's the combat designer and I know he was taking it easy on me. But in that moment I was having too much fun living out my Omni-Man fantasy to care, and for that reason alone I can't recommend Invincible VS enough.

There's plenty of new games to play while we wait for Invincible VS to launch next year