I'm old enough to remember playing the golden age of Marvel fighting games when they were made by Capcom back in the '90s. Even though many people consider Marvel vs. Capcom 2 to be the best, I have always had a soft spot for Marvel vs. Street Fighter instead. I used to play that game a lot as a kid and teenager at the arcades.
Fast forward to 2026, and it seems as if Marvel ended its partnership with Capcom for the time being after the lackluster launch of Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite in 2017. Marvel has now partnered with Arc System Works, and this is a studio responsible for the Guilty Gear series and even Dragon Ball FighterZ.
As a result of this partnership, the pair has released Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls for PC and PS5. Instead of being a 3v3 game like most Marvel vs. Capcom games, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls ups the stakes with a mind-boggling 4v4 contest featuring many of Marvel's most popular characters.
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls at launch has 21 playable characters featuring many of the company's most well-known and popular characters. Some of the characters you can play as include the likes of Spider-Man, Iron Man, Wolverine, Storm, Blade, and much more.
20 of the characters are available from the start, while the game's boss, The Champion, becomes playable when you complete the story mode once. Despite having an impressive roster, there are some obvious omissions.
For starters, Thor is offworld in the game, and Deadpool hints that he will be available as DLC in the future. The game even has a storyline reason for why the more famous X-Men aren't in the game either because they're recovering from an epic fight with Apocalypse. It remains to be seen if the likes of Cyclops, Jean Grey and others will be featured as future DLC, too.
While some people can debate about the roster inclusions, most cannot deny that Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has excellent graphics. Arc System Works is arguably the best developer at making anime games look as epic as possible. I remember saying Dragon Ball FighterZ had the best anime graphics for its time, and Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is no different.
Despite having detailed graphics, the game still manages to run at 4K and 60fps, even on a base PS5. If you're lucky enough to own a PS5 Pro, you get to experience even sharper image quality while maintaining its blissful 60fps pace.
As impressive as the graphics are, I'm also happy to report that Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls caters to both beginners and experts. You don't have to remember complicated combo presses like in Tekken 8, nor perform any difficult joystick/analogue stick rotations like in most Street Fighter games.
For example, every character can do combos if you press one button multiple times. A tag-team combo can also be achieved by all team members when you press the Square button lots of times, too. Many signature moves can be done by just pressing either R2 or R1.
In terms of super moves, you need to fill up a special meter and then press R2 and R1 together to do finishers. For the best tag-team finisher, you need a completed meter and then press R2 and X together for the ultimate smackdown move.
If the simple button inputs seem too easy for you, the game offers more advanced manual inputs. You can do quarter circle inputs like a Street Fighter game, and this gives you a damage bonus if you manage to do them correctly. Playing this way also allows you to extend your combos.
Players also don't have to be daunted by the 4v4 number because every fight ends if you deplete only one life bar. You don't have to defeat every member of your team as you do in various Marvel vs. Capcom games. It plays more like the Tekken Tag Tournament games instead.
As for game modes, arguably the best single player offering in Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is its impressive story mode. The gist of the game is that The Champion challenges you to fight Earth's best fighters. If The Champion wins, the Earth is destroyed. However, if the good guys (or villains) win, then the Earth is spared.
The game has five different teams, and each story has a different perspective and ending. The teams in the game are the Fighting Avengers, the Amazing Guardians, the Samurai Outriders, the Unbreakable X-Men, and the Knights of Doom.
The coolest part of the story mode is the detailed comic-book style cutscenes with full voice acting. Dr. Doom's story is interesting because his team is full of evil villains, but Spider-Man's story is funny because he's stuck with an underdog team he didn't even get to choose his own team members.
There are other offline game modes that this game offers, too. There's a single-player challenge mode called All-Star Arena to go through as well as a more traditional Survival Mode.
One of the more unique modes in the entire game is called Arcadia Rumble. This is a funny chibi-style battle royale where you can beat up opponents in an arena and get power-ups before you fight the CPU or other online players in traditional matches.
Lastly, the game offers tons of training modes and the usual offline and online multiplayer matches. There are ranked matches for hardcore players as well as casual matches for anyone who just wants to have fun.
There aren't many negative things I can say about Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls outside of the fact that some people might be unhappy with the launch roster. Personally, I would have preferred Venom over Carnage, while a friend of mine wanted the T'Challa Black Panther instead of Shuri. That said, DLC is on the way, so we have to wait and see who else gets included.
If you love 2D style fighting games, do yourself a favour and pick up Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls as soon as you can. Not only does the game look great, but the fast-paced gameplay will put a smile on your face. The game is far superior to the disappointing Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite.