Just a couple of short years into the modern fighting-game renaissance that was kickstarted by titles like Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and Mortal Kombat 1, the scene is booming. Following the return of those big three, more niche franchises like Street Fighter’s sister series Fatal Fury have made waves in the tournament circuit, while compilations like Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection are bringing back arcade favorites for a new generation.
But the next phase of the genre’s rejuvenation isn’t just focused on established franchises; instead, major publishers from outside the fighting-game community are now stepping up to test the potentially lucrative waters. Last year, League of Legends publisher Riot Games entered the fray with limited test runs of 2XKO, a free-to-play 2v2 tag-team brawler that’s been undergoing updates based on audience feedback.
Now, another surprising contender has jumped in the ring with Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, due out next year. Although it’ll be published by SIE under the PlayStation banner, the title is being developed by Arc System Works — one of the best fighting games studios in the business.
Known for hardcore, anime-styled series like Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, ArcSys (as they’re called by fans) broke into the mainstream in 2018 with their Marvel vs. Capcom-inspired hit Dragon Ball FighterZ. With accessible gameplay and the weight of the Dragon Ball brand, FighterZ vastly outsold the competition, moving more than 10 million units, leaving even the biggest fighting series in the dust.
With PlayStation’s backing and the popularity of Marvel’s IP behind them, this next game could be even bigger. Rolling Stone played multiple hours of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls during its closed beta test (which ran Sept. 5 to 7) and found it to be a deceptively complex superhero smash.
What is Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls?
At first glance, Marvel Tōkon looks familiar. It’s a tag-team fighting game where players choose four Marvel characters that can be swapped in and out during a match. In the beta, users can pick from a total of six, including Captain America, Ms. Marvel, Iron Man, X-Men’s Storm, Star-Lord, and Doctor Doom. The full roster has yet to be revealed, but two other playable heroes have been shown: Ghost Rider and Spider-Man.
Editor’s picks
Each match lets players choose four characters to play.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Visually, the game is stunning. Rather than leaning in realistic Marvel Cinematic Universe portrayals, or even the classic comic roots, ArcSys has brought a more Japanese sensibility to the design of its world and characters. Aligning with the look of their previous games like Guity Gear and FighterZ, the developers have fully reimagined the cast with a more anime-like flair. Little touches like the V-shaped brow on Tony Stark’s helmet more closely resemble the artwork of Gundam mechs than the well-known western designs.
The illustrative takes on the Marvel world are also a part of the game’s overall look. Recent fighters like Fatal Fury: City of Wolves have emulated the distinctive style of comics, down to box-like panels and Ben-Day dots in their graphical texture. Marvel Tōkon goes a step further, often appearing like a sketchbook sprung to life as background environments and even the characters themselves fade from pencil shades to full virtual ink throughout the game. During battle, player characters take on bright colors, but switch to a desaturated hue as another controllable avatar tags in.
The game’s aesthetic is inspired by anime and manga, often appearing as desaturated sketches in action.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
The tag-team system is the biggest selling point of the game and will draw attention for multiple reasons. Firstly, the sheer number of selectable fighters that can appear on screen at once (eight!) is downright insane. But outside of the potentially overwhelming chaos, it also saddles Marvel Tōkon with a huge burden off the bat — being instantly compared to Marvel vs. Capcom.
Related Content
How does Marvel Tōkon play?
Unlike Marvel vs. Capcom or even ArcSys’ own Dragon Ball FighterZ, Marvel Tōkon isn’t a tag-team game in the traditional sense. Yes, you can choose four characters, each able to assist or swap in on demand, but the big differentiator is that all the player’s team members share a single life bar. In those other games, each fighter has their own health gauge that must be depleted for the match to end, and there are no additional rounds. Strategically swapping your characters can prevent their defeat, even letting them restore stamina to prolong the battle.
Removing this feature means that matches in Marvel Tōkon play out in a more classical sense like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, where besting three or five rounds is the key to winning rather than just wiping out a team in one shot. It also means that changing out a character is more about extending an attack combo or mixing up the strategy than it is about resource management and healing.
Easily executed team combos can pile on tons of attacks in rapid succession.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
But tag-ins and assists are still essential and, honestly, easier than ever. A single button press will call in a partner to attack alongside you; holding it will do a full swap. It’s a fluid way to extend a combo by pummeling an opponent and correctly timing a change to bring in the next guy to pick up in lockstep. Some combos are also extremely easy and lead to automatically bringing in all four of the fighters for a mob-style beat down. Spamming the light attack button, for instance, will chain together an automated sequence wherein every available party member jumps in for their own blow.
One strange quirk is that neither competitor starts with their entire four-person roster at the beginning. Only after making a flashy hit at the edge of the screen and launching the enemy into an entirely different part of the stage will the first ally become available. This process has to be repeated to gather the whole team, but again, it’s extremely easy to execute. Punch hard and fast enough, and the squad will be assembled in no time.
Teams must be assembled one-by-one through earthshattering multi-area strikes.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
On the surface, almost every ability in the game is designed for amateurs to pick up with little experience. There are no “quarter circle” moves (QC for short) that require precise joystick inputs to pull off attacks. Instead, the basics boil down to single button inputs combined with a direction, with more complex skills demanding holding down two or three buttons at once. Without any fighting game prowess, a player can land a cinematic ultimate move practically by accident.
The game itself is clearly built to appeal to casual players — down to the mandatory training that reminds you that jumping to the opposite side of the screen will reverse the direction you need to move. But beneath its seemingly straightforward mechanics, Marvel Tōkon has wells of depth that can be exploited by more hardcore fighting fans. It’s in the nebulous middle ground where the game will either crash or succeed with audiences.
Will Marvel Tōkon be a hit?
Look, it’s common sense to say that a multiplayer game will only be as strong as its fan base. While casual players once ate up games like Street Fighter II and the original Mortal Kombat trilogy in arcades and on home consoles, the Nineties were a different time. As the fighting game community grew more adept, it also became more insular. With the advent of online multiplayer, many casual gamers found that getting decimated online by pro-level players wasn’t quite worth the stress.
Although moves are simple for beginners, the skill ceiling will be devastatingly high against pros.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
And while tens of millions still flock to live-service games like Fortnite and Call of Duty, where it’s still very possible to have your day quickly ruined, the sheer user count of those platforms means you’re less likely to stumble across god-tier contenders like the Wazzler and end up embarrassed on a one-sided Twitch stream.
Out the gate, Marvel Tōkon will have that problem. During the closed beta, which only offered about 16 hours of total gameplay spread across the weekend’s sessions, the competition was brutal. Within the first two hours online, high-level fighting players had already seemingly mastered the game’s beginner-friendly systems and begun using the easily executable combos to dominate the scene, air juggling hapless newbies into oblivion.
The idea of an easy-to-play, difficult-to-master game sounds like boon for anyone looking to pick up Marvel Tōkon based solely on their love of the Avengers movies, but it belies the mountainous challenge that awaits. While the brawler isn’t quite as chaotic as something like Marvel vs. Capcom, it can still be overwhelming — and not in the absolute mayhem of Smash Bros. kind of way. Nintendo’s fighting game franchise became popular because its matches are so unhinged that they practically feel determined by luck. But luck won’t beat you in Marvel Tōkon, a surgical gamepad assassin will.
Trending Stories
The game’s success will depend on its player base exploding like Marvel Rivals.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
That doesn’t mean it won’t be a success. Given the popularity of the equally meaty, but casual-friendly Dragon Ball FighterZ, it’s possible that even those who just initially show up for the Marvel madness might stick around long enough to give the game legs. In fact, if the ongoing reign of multiplayer shooter Marvel Rivals is any indication, the comic book character wrapping might just be the incentive needed to get otherwise bookish gamers fully committed to the bloodsport. There’s no better spoonful of sugar than playing as Spider-Man.
Whether Marvel Tōkon has robust single-player modes to offset the anxiety of online matchmaking remains to be seen. The game doesn’t yet have a firm release date, with only a vague 2026 window teasing its launch on PlayStation 5 and PC. After Sony’s string of recent misfires when stepping outside their comfort zone, there’s a lot riding on their first self-published fighting game in years. But if they manage to strike true, we could be looking at something bigger than even Marvel vs. Capcom ever was.