The reveal of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls was a shock. We were getting a 4v4 tag team fighting game made by the Japanese studio Arc System Works, developers that I believe are one of the best in the genre. It’s a Marvel fighting game that has the potential to fill a void in the fighting game community, and based on what I played for days, it has all the right elements to do so, as this is the complete fighting game package for casual and avid fighting game enthusiasts.

Anime Marvel

It’s a fighting game that doesn’t feel all that intimidating at face value, one paired with an art style that gives us a unique anime-style look at iconic characters like Iron Man and Captain America. Marvel fans can simply show up, press some buttons, and feel like a force of nature dishing out cool moves and combinations. And if the competitive spirit in them feels eager to get better at the game, there’s room to do that, as when I was playing Tokon on a daily basis, I felt myself learning something new about Tokon’s fighting system each time I booted up the game, worked to apply the new knowledge to my preferred team composition, and felt the growth as more time was spent on the game.

Everything you need to learn about Tokon and how to get better is all packaged and ready to go at launch. After the introduction tutorial that teaches you the very basics, I hit the training mode to slowly compose my main team, and what I learned is that the training mode is so complex that you can practice for just about any kind of scenario.

The Perfect Training Ground

You can record moves, allow dummies to randomly jump, only block lows, or record your foe’s moves or combos to have them dish out on you. Players have access to the game’s frame data, you can set up to practice your anti-airs, or gain that muscle memory for that confusing mixup to open up a very defensive player. It’s a joy to be in Tokon’s training room, as the systems placed into this game mode clearly show that the game was built by developers that are well-experienced in the genre.

When you get slightly better, there are even combo challenges for each character. While the challenge is nice, I realized that the combos in each of these challenges feel like hints of what’s possible with each character. These challenges made me realize how Captain America’s shield thrown in the air can extend a juggle when done right, or how Spider-Man’s web swing can also be both a combo extender or used as a hit confirm to trigger an assist to further extend a combo. It’s a teaser of what is possible, as each of the 20 characters at launch all have unique traits and abilities that will feel different depending on the three other characters assisting them.

I started with Captain America as my first character to learn, as I thought focusing on one first then slowly learning others seems like a reasonable approach for a game like this, and I realized that many online had the same idea, because the first weekend with the game felt like a 1v1 game with assists, as barely anyone online was tagging out different characters during a match.

They were doing crazy combos, extending by calling assists, smashing them into walls, and doing so much damage that almost half of my life was deleted after one contact. It was crazy to see this many players learning so much in such little time, and I thought that the weekend would be probably all the time everyone needed to fully understand the game, but I was completely wrong.

Simplicity Molded with Complexity

As I read up online and continued to play, improving my execution in training mode, I started to realize the importance of defense, the use of assists, stage transitions, and how effective it is to switch between one character to another during a round, and mid-combo. I started to realize this game has a routine to properly execute a combo from ground, to juggling in the air, then bringing them down to continue the beatdown back on the ground, ending with a super. There’s more to Tokon’s fighting game system as the days go by, combos started looking complex online, and 1v1 matches started to feel like Marvel vs Capcom 2 bouts with so many characters on the screen at once.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has depth despite being inviting to newcomers of the genre. You can do a character’s move with the quick skill button without the need to do the motion to trigger a specific move. The only difference is that one does more damage than the other. It’s not significantly bigger in terms of damage, but enough to give room to reward players that go for the more complex route. I love this about Tokon, how one who can grip the basics has a fighting chance, while the experienced fighting game player is rewarded for more demanding executions.

The core roster is fairly balanced in terms of variety. You have straightforward characters like Captain America or Magik, and there’s more challenging characters to pilot, like Storm or Loki. But even the simplest of characters on paper have room for complexity. It’s all thanks to each character having a unique skill that makes them stand out. For example, Storm can control wind, which allows her to manipulate an object’s and your enemy’s movements, as you can pull them in, push them away, or bring them up or down. Magik can teleport and come out in different ways, giving her a confusing mix up game. Star-Lord can load different elemental weapon types, giving him different defensive or offensive options depending on what rounds are loaded to fire.

Each character has a small toolset of skills, but rightfully so, as this is still a 4v4 game. If you look at the game as a 1v1, it feels one-dimensional, but when you start mixing Ghost Rider’s abilities with Magneto’s ranged attacks, then factor in Spider-Man’s mobility, it can get crazy fast.

Story Mode for the Sake of Having One

After all the training and online battles, I finally gave the game’s story mode a try. At this point, I’d spent over 40 hours on the game, thanks to training and online matches. This section is Tokon’s weakest, and understandably so, as the game’s Episodes cover perspectives of each of the game’s main teams, as select characters are chosen to fight in teams to see who will be worthy to face The Champion (an Arc Systems Works original) threatening the planet’s existence, as he’s simply looking for a challenging fight.

Each of the six teams have their own respective Episode providing essentially the same version of the game’s story, with the only change being that each episode provides the perspective of what would happen if that particular team won the competition and fought the big bad at the end. Each episode is told in comic book panel style, each is fully voiced, and each and every one has the most awkward writing. It’s campy at best during each interaction, as the formation of each team feels forced. It’s as if the writers had to create a story as to why these specific characters banded together to join The Champion’s competition. For example, Star-

Lord joins Spider-Man as he teleports him and Ms. Marvel to him, then thanks to an issue when teleporting back, Peni Parker from another universe just shows up, and there you have it, Spidey’s team. It felt like they had to make a story for the sake of making a story as to why these characters are fighting. It's rare to have any good story mode in a fighting game, as it’s expected to have a rather lackluster game mode. But we got one, and that’s honestly a win in today’s world. I just wished it had a more entertaining story behind all of it.

A Rough Online Beginning

Online matches were relatively smooth overall. It was just that initial weekend after launch, as the PC port is notoriously not performing well both technically and in network matches. Latency issues and rollback netcode can be inaccurate at times, but I quickly discovered that network issues were mostly found when connecting to a player from a different platform. PS5 to PC online matches for some reason were unplayable, but PS5 to PS5 worked wonderfully.

This issue was short-lived, at least for me. A week later, it felt like things have improved when matching with PC players, as I started to barely see lag or random disconnects. It’s not completely fixed, but I can feel the developers are on top of it. For the most part, technical issues are non-existent on the PS5 version, but PC is reported to have a completely different story.

When online works, it’s a lot of fun. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has this player hub that allows players to roam around, sit on arcade stations, and wait for players to come and join them for either endless rounds, best-of-3, or single matches. It’s also a cute and detailed hub with the game’s launch characters and other Marvel characters, all in chibi-like form, just chilling in the area.

If the hub isn’t your thing, casual and ranked play can be done through the game’s menu screen, and players can create custom lobbies for private online sessions. Local LAN play is also working as you’d expect, so it’s a complete experience, which is good to see right out of the box.

A Marvelous package

Fighting games can be intimidating most of the time, as it’s hard for newcomers to just sit down, pick characters they like, and just press buttons and be in awe with what’s happening on the screen. Tokon can be fun without knowing frame data or how to properly do a combo. Each super is a spectacle, from Ghost Rider ramming his opponent with his car to Dr. Doom summoning his Doombots to finish the job. The screen can be busy when each player has their team fully assembled, but that’s how I want it to be as that’s what tag team fighting games are all about: finding ways to squeeze a win during all the chaos.

Arc System Works nailed Tokon and showed once again why they are one of the best in the genre. While it’s too soon to know if this game will perfectly fill the tag team Marvel void in the fighting game community, it launched with a respectable package perfect for everyone.

Verdict: 4.5 / 5 (Near Exceptional)

PROS

The full fighting game package with story, challenges, local and online multiplayer
An inviting fighting game system with deep layers for players to uncover and improve
Light-hearted art style that delivers a unique approach to iconic Marvel characters

CONS

Network connection can be spotty
Story mode felt forced, as if they crafted something based on the core roster

What I’ve Played

Completed most episodes in the story mode
Spent over 50 hours through lan, online, and training mode
Did a good number of challenges for more than five characters and completed some Arena and Survival runs

*This review is based on a PS5 review copy provided to the reviewer

About the Author - Joseph Choi

Filipino-American gamer, professional shepherd and farmer, author, and filmmaker/videographer living in Central California. First consoles were the Game Boy and Sega Genesis, and I've been gaming since then, with a focus on Nintendo and Sony consoles.

About the Author - Carlos Hernandez

Carlos Hernandez is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Much Gaming, where he writes about video games, reviews, and industry news. A lifelong gamer, he would do anything to experience Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time again and has a love/hate relationship with games that require hunting for new gear to improve your character.

Featured

August 20, 2026

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Review - Easy to Pick up, Fun to Master