We’re currently in a time when the most well-known versions of the Marvel Universe and its characters are those within the Marvel Cinematic Universe as seen in the countless entries released for the past eighteen years. However, it could be argued that the most popular iterations of Marvel’s pantheon of characters appeared thirty years ago in video games, particularly fighting games produced by Capcom, which eventually culminated in the classic genre-defining game Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. Much has changed since then not only in comics, but video games and entertainment as a whole. With fighting games in a new resurgence, Sony, Marvel, and Arc System Works have brought a new take on genre and the Marvel Universe that respects the past and hopefully brings all new fans into it with MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls.
MARVEL Tōkon is a four-character tag-team fighting game where players pick a leader character and can use the other three characters over the course of gameplay to assist or tag into the fights versus a computer-controlled team or a human opponent. The game is made to be accessible to new players, with expert fighting game players in mind as well. There’s a lot to learn and many ways to be creative with how you choose to beat up your opponents.
Arc System Works is the standard for making games with 3D models that look and feel like 2D hand-drawn animation. Marvel let them cook with the designs and infuse a Japanese anime and manga-style look into the Marvel Universe. For my tastes, they succeed with flying colors. MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls is beautiful to look at, with big, bright character models and silhouettes that simultaneously feel like the characters yet somehow completely different.
Iron Man is always a standout in stuff like this as you get to see him depicted as a mecha or super robot design. The MK 91 Sho-Gun Armor is a fantastic nod to Mobile Suit Gundam and is begging for some toys to be made. Blade, Green Goblin, Magik, and Danger are other standout characters in their design and the creative ways they are animated, particularly in regards to their various attacks.
The story is fairly simple: The Champion comes to Earth looking for a challenge. The Promoter gives five characters an invitation to put together a team of four (in reference to the Marvel’s First Family who are not in this game by the way) to compete in a tournament to ultimately face him. If they lose or cheat in any way, the Earth is doomed. The game consists of five groups – The Fighting Avengers, The Breakable X-Men, The Amazing Guardians, The Samurai Outriders (aka Midnight Sons), and The Knights of Doom. Each group has a story mode told in motion comic form.
Each is written by Kieron Gillen, with art by Hiro Mashima, Emanuela Lupacchino, Betten Court, Yusuke Osawa, and Mike Deodato. These are fun and help players learn the game and characters. The X-Men and Doctor Doom stories feel the most like normal Marvel comics, while the Spidey and the Samurai Outriders comics feel like a mix of US comics and manga. The Avengers comic is full-on manga, and it didn’t connect with me much in terms of the art style. It seemed like Gillen was attempting to write it as a Shonen story.
During the story modes, you do have a mid-boss fight with the Promoter character who is somewhat obnoxious in how it teaches you to use the big team super. But facing The Champion is when MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls can be the most fun and most nerve-wracking single-player experience. The story is clearly taking influence from SNK’s The King of Fighters games, with the heroes getting envelope invitations. Without a doubt, the Champion himself has gotten one of the best redesigns I’ve seen in years. I think Marvel should seriously think about incorporating it into the comics because the character’s classic look from Marvel Team-Up never never landed.
The Champion has three forms: the first is easy, as it’s pretty much a zoner,keep-away battle; it’s when he bulks up and takes the fight seriously and takes on a look and vibe like Broly from DBZ or a pro wrestler that things start to get intense. Full-screen attacks and instant command grabs will have vets remembering facing M.Bison in Street Fighter 2 with the cheapness, but it’s still fun. I only played on standard difficulty, but even on that mode my patience was waning on the final third form. After more practice, I plan to see just how well I can hang.
As I said, the game is fairly accessible. Each character has a start rating to show how easy they are to use, with five stars equaling the easiest and one star being the most technical and difficult. The play style entails most of the face buttons on the controller and some shoulder buttons. With light, medium, and hard attacks, and a button for assist moves being the main four. It’s similar in layout to Invincible VS. or Street Fighter VI’s modern controls . They also have a lot of simple button taps to lead into full combos and super moves that, for me personally, always throw me off if I’m trying to learn to do something more technical.
The simple way of doing moves with one button press and a direction should be easier for people who don’t play fighting games in order to learn. This control scheme is very much in the vein of the Super Smash Bros. game. MARVEL Tōkon also defaults to showing how to do everything the simple way as opposed the more complex way whereas I’m a person who likes doing directional motions and a button to performa move. Don’t go into this expecting controls like a Capcom or SNK game. Moreover, it feels somewhat different from Arc System Works’ other games like Guilty Gear Strive or even Dragon Ball FighterZ. It’s best to come into this completely open and learn new things.
The character choices are very inspired, with stalwarts you’d expect like Storm, Wolverine, and Spider-Man. But as I stated earlier, Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider, Blade, Carnage, and The Champion himself shine here. Figuring out new character combinations is very fun, but one life share being shared by all character is something I’m still getting used to. At times it rounds or even a full fight can be over quite quickly, with no incentive to change characters. The other three character basically become special moves for bigger combos. While that works for hardcore fighter game folks, fans with a love of the characters and an equal love of both these games and comics might feel little underserved or shortchanged.
Marvel Tōkon does have an interesting arcade mode called All Star Arena. There is a more standard arcade-like mode where you can take different paths and, at the end, face off against one of the main story teams that unlocks new art in the gallery. The game also has a Survival Mode where you try to see how many teams you can defeat without losing. At the end of 100 battles, you face The Champion, and from what I’ve seen, it’s not pleasant.
The Arcade Rumble/Battle Arcadia modes are party-centric, where you can play against the computer or with a group of friends locally. I didn’t get a chance to play with people in person, but the party game with the online avatars is a pretty fun little beat’em up to collect items and use cards to boost stats for the player fights. Regular online play is what you’d expect from a modern online fighter, with lobbies and rooms. The game is a lot better than the previous betas, and it’s a very fun game to play. On PlayStation 5, the version I played, I’ve had no real problems with connections or finding opponents.
Playing online might be the most fun with casual lobbies for those just starting out. Ranked is going to have a lot of people, and if you are not used to playing fighting games, it can be frustrating because so many people are already adept at the game and it’s been barely been out. People have been analyzing everything about this game, from its moves, character matchups, and possible tactics from each beta version. So go there if you really want a challenge or really play fighting games like that.
I have a few personal preferences, but overall MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls is a great game. I feel it can bring a lot of new players to the genre and bring back lapsed fans. It’s a fun and engrossing game with a lot of depth and a new dynamic style to the Marvel Universe. With some strong DLC ahead, like Phoenix, Cyclops, as well as great costumes like classic Cap and Iron Man, along with Punk Storm, there’s going to be a ton of stuff to keep you coming back to the game for a long time. This is a great addition to the PlayStation lineup.
This review is based on the PlayStation 5 version of the game with a review code provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
