Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls sets a new standard for tag fighters

For fighting game enthusiasts, Marvel Tokon inevitably brings Marvel Vs. Capcom to mind.

The crossover series set the standard for tag-team fighting, spanning from X-Men Vs. Street Fighter in 1996 through Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 in 2011. For those who never picked up comics as kids—myself included—these games served as the gateway to the X-Men, Avengers, and other Marvel characters battling alongside Capcom's finest.

With MvC largely inactive apart from a recent collection, Arc System Works has stepped in with Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, offering its own interpretation of the Marvel tag fighter concept. The outcome is an excellent combat system and striking visual identity that immediately carves out its own space, one deserving to stand alongside the classics—though the PC version doesn't quite match the heroics of its cast.

A fantastic four

Marvel Tokon's four-on-four structure represents its boldest departure from the tag format, but not for the reasons I initially anticipated. Based on prior experience, one might expect each player to pick four fighters, each with a separate health bar, with victory going to whoever eliminates all four opponents first. That's not how Tokon operates; instead, all four heroes share one health bar, and the first player to win three out of five rounds claims the match.

This is a fundamental and clever rethinking of how players engage with their team; one player might keep their strongest fighter on point and choose assisting heroes to complement that fighter's style, or they might learn four characters and weave tags into their approach. It lets newcomers to fighting games gradually acclimate to the tag format, while seasoned players can dive straight into the system's more sophisticated elements. For a genre that often struggles to balance accessibility and depth, Arc System Works achieved it with Tokon's combat design.

Both playstyles are shaped by another intriguing design decision. Although you select four fighters before a match, you only begin with two active: a point character and one assist character. The remaining two assists must be unlocked during the match, either by triggering a wall break (a move that slams an opponent into the boundary, "breaking" it and sending the character to another arena) and "assembling" your fighters elsewhere on the stage, or by losing a round and gaining a hero as the next round starts.

While "not having access to all selected fighters" might sound like it could hurt the experience, Tokon once again surpasses my expectations. Restricting heroes serves as a balancing mechanism for each match; Round 3 could begin with one player ahead 2-0 with only two characters and the other down 0-2 with a full team. Giving the 0-2 player access to all four assists makes them more versatile and potentially enables a comeback. Meanwhile, the player with the early lead gradually assembles their team, and if the match reaches 2-2, it becomes a full-strength showdown in the final round. Every match plays out differently yet remains equally exciting; I'm amazed at what Arc accomplished here.

Controlling each fighter is also simplified, with special moves following the Super Smash Bros. "button press and directional input" approach. There are more advanced inputs for those who want to learn them, but from the first time you pick up a controller, two buttons will let you perform a unique move.

Assists function similarly, but by holding L2 when the assist appears, you can switch to that character instantly and continue the combo. I suspect the phrase "easy to learn, hard to master" was plastered all over Arc System Works's Yokohama office, because that's the overwhelming impression I get from every aspect of Tokon's design, and it succeeds tremendously.

Choose your fighter

The initial roster includes 20 characters, which is modest by tag fighter standards—Marvel vs. Capcom 3, for instance, launched with 36 playable fighters—but this number further supports the balance mentioned earlier. New players have a more manageable set of character matchups to learn, while veterans can quickly find their favorites and focus on refining their skills.

The roster blends expected fan favorites with a few interesting picks, though I'd say very few of the selections are truly surprising. Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Magneto, and Doctor Doom are all present, while Carnage, Star-Lord, Blade, and Loki make their Marvel fighting game debut. The most obscure pick, if I had to choose, is Danger—I didn't even know the X-Men's training facility became sentient, so Marvel fighting games continue to introduce me to new characters.

Deadpool deserves his own paragraph. While his inclusion isn't surprising given his massive popularity, the way Arc System Works has woven his fourth-wall-breaking nature into the game is a master class. The character is a tribute to fighting game history in character form, and every match has me pointing at the screen like a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood meme. Some references are obvious—yes, that's Scorpion's spear from Mortal Kombat, everyone knows that—but I was astonished at just how deep the well of references goes. I doubt many newer players know what Kaiser Knuckle is, but if they see that one Deadpool pose and look it up, then mission accomplished, Arc System Works.

My personal favorite characters are Peni Parker, as I really enjoy her ability to fill the arena with drones as a distraction before moving in for big damage, and Ms. Marvel, whose Dhalsim-like stretchy appendages mean my opponent is never truly safe anywhere on screen. Black Panther (the Shuri version this time; sorry, T'Challa) has also proven fun, but the one fighter I can't figure out is Green Goblin; I know the glider is a big part of his approach, but I haven't yet unlocked the best ways to use it. I suspect I'll learn the hard way from some player online soon enough.

Rules of battle

Tokon offers plenty of ways to play, in both single-player and online multiplayer, and while mode selection initially seems somewhat limited, Arc System Works once again avoids a common fighting game pitfall by packing these modes with enough activities that they don't feel shallow. Episodes mode tells five different stories, one for each of the four teams featured in Tokon's trailers, and each one animated by a different artist. I didn't need more than an hour to complete each one, and they tell the overarching story of Tokon in entertaining ways.

The other main single-player offering is All-Star Arena, which is split into two sections: Arena and Survival. Arena is the closest Tokon gets to a traditional "arcade" experience: You'll choose a team, choose a path, and then battle against random teams before reaching the end of your chosen path. Survival is a gauntlet of up to 100 battles, with health regeneration between each match and superpowered "boss" fighters at certain milestones. Both are fine ways to sharpen your skills against CPU teams of varying difficulty, but there isn't anything here that reinvents the wheel.

Arcadia Rumble takes a different approach, mixing standard matches with a small arena-style challenge where players roam around a small area, collecting items to earn points and power up their characters for normal battles, and whoever has the most points wins. It's enjoyable enough in small bursts, and it makes for a cool party-style experience when a group wants something different from the ordinary online experience, but it didn't grab me as much as I'd hoped. I'd rather skip right to the fighting; the item-searching part just feels extraneous.

The online experience also checks the usual boxes, with ranked matches, casual matches, and custom private lobbies all on offer. There's also an Open Lobby, where you explore a chibi-style version of Tokon's world with customizable avatars and arcade machines where you challenge other players. Exploring the open lobby is neat, as there are some little minigames to find outside of the normal Tokon matches, but the real thrill is matching up with another player and throwing down on one of the open arcade machines. Technically, all of the machines could fill up, but I have yet to see that myself.

I played a handful of matches in each offering, joining up with some friends in a custom room, challenged random players in ranked and casual matches, and explored the Open Lobby. Online connections were strong thanks to the rollback netcode under the hood, and I rarely saw any technical hiccups at all while playing on PlayStation 5.

It's here where the PC version of Tokon must be mentioned, as its launch has been, to put it lightly, disastrous. Connection issues, choppy play both online and offline, and other issues have plagued PC players since the game's launch, and while patches have been released that are beginning to alleviate the issues, the troubles they experienced cannot be discounted. As mentioned, I reviewed the game on PS5, so I did not experience those problems for myself, but until those issues are fully resolved, PC players will continue to have a much different experience than I did. If Arc System Works can turn it around, the wait will have been worth it.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls feels like a homecoming. Marvel heroes and villains are once again beating each other up in tag-based battles, and I am loving the experience of jumping in and figuring out new strategies. Rather than lean on old tropes, Arc System Works elected to put its own spin on the idea, and what they've cooked up sets a new bar for future tag fighters. Once the technical issues for PC are ironed out, there's a bright future ahead. With Marvel Tokon, Arc System Works has created the next foundational title for modern fighting games.

Source: the original publisher