When Arc System Works announced its collaboration with Marvel for a fighting game, I was elated. While I’m not a fighting game fan, Arc is well-known in the space for crafting immaculate, tightly controlled experiences. Marvel Tōkon Fighting Souls may be another glorious entry from Arc, but it stumbles at the gate in trying to reach the normie audience, which may lead to its downfall. Since its launch on PS5 and PC, it has averaged around 500 players per day the past month on the latter. For a fighting game dependent on a healthy user base, that’s not a good look. And I think I know why that’s the case, since I could’ve been one of those regular players.
Let’s start with what’s good. Marvel Tōkon is a gorgeous game with a bold art style that echoes the spirit of Marvel comics. I love the Japanese anime-inspired outfits adorned by its heroes, along with mannerisms that also reflect its makers. The big swing is the format. Tokon is a 4v4 tag fighter, which sounds like a recipe for pure chaos until you learn its trick: your entire team shares a single health bar, the Vital Gauge, instead of four separate ones. That one decision changes how you think. You’re sequencing assists, deciding who tags in for the extension, and building toward the next big swing. Trigger a Wall Break mid-match and the fight rolls into a new area of the stage, a very comic-book way of resetting the neutral.
Marvel Tōkon launched with 20 characters, all split into different camps that you’ll play through in its campaign. The offline mode includes five stories, one for each of the main teams, written by Marvel comics veteran Kieron Gillen, with the likes of the Promoter and the Champion waiting as bosses. The story kicks off with the Champion challenging Earth’s heroes to multiple bouts of duels before facing off against him. The story breaks the challenges down based on teams, often converging and diverging at various points based on which team’s story you are following. It’s impressive as much as it is confusing. Each story arc has a wildly different conclusion, rooted in the motivations and themes relating to the characters in that story. While the Avengers may emerge as heroic victors, Doctor Doom ends up killing the Champion to rule over the universe.
What gets confusing though are the covering crossovers. Heroes from each team face off against one another, but their individual journeys don’t always line up with the story being told in other chapters. It’s clear that while all of the arc start with the same setup, they eventually end up doing their own thing. It’s a what-if scenario all the way through, and it’s presented quite well with a unique flip-panel aesthetic mimicking the comic books, complete with fully voiced characters. Sure, it’s mostly fluff around the actual fights, but this is a comic book-based video game that isn’t afraid of embracing its comic book roots, literally.
The other mode, All-Star Arena, throws roguelike challenges at you, with functions well as a testbed for sharping your fighting skills. Arcadia Rumble, on the other hand, is one I can’t wrap my head around. You drop into a 3D environment running around as cute chibi avatars, slapping other characters, picking up power-ups, and then enter the traditional 2.5D fighting arena. Perhaps it could’ve won me over if it didn’t have me spending an eternity in its 3D playground playing tag with other characters. At best, it’s a nice distraction from the constant tussles the game wants to throw you in.
Online, you get rollback netcode and lobbies of up to 64 players, which is exactly what a fighting game in 2026 should come with. But I’d be lying if I said I was good enough to experience all of its goodness. Everything seems to be sounding good, so why aren’t I calling this a masterpiece?
The first reason is content. Twenty characters is respectable, but I’d have liked more stages, and the Year 1 Character and Stage Pass is already on the storefront on day one. DLC is the genre’s business model and I’m not pretending otherwise, but when a launch roster has a few notable omissions, selling the first wave of additions before the game is even out feels like a wink with a price tag.
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls PS5 Performance
A fighting game lives and dies on responsiveness. Tokon is locked to 60fps in battle, as fighting games should be, but I would have liked a 120fps mode for truly competitive feel. It loads fast, looks sharp, and there’s not much to complain about. The DualSense controller is also utilised well enough without becoming a distraction during combat.
Verdict
Marvel Tōkon Fighting Souls is the Marvel fighter fans have wanted for years, built by the studio best equipped to make it. Its shared-health 4v4 format is fresh, its presentation is gorgeous, and its modes and teaching tools make it welcoming to newcomers without shortchanging veterans. A rocky PC launch and a lean day-one offering stop it from being essential right now, but the foundation is strong enough that it can grow into the Marvel fighting game franchise Arc is clearly aiming for.
DISCLAIMER: REVIEW COPY PROVIDED BY SONY PLAYSTATION.
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is available on PC and PlayStation 5.
