Born in the 8-bit era, raised by the 16-bit era, and perfected by the 32-bit era, Cory's roots grew from the likes Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man to the world of Resident Evil and Castlevania. Owning a PlayStation at launch allowed to witness the potential of both sports games and racing games along with opening his world to 3-D Fighting titles. Finally, after having participated in the PC gaming world of the late 1990s and early 2000s, the core for his gaming craft was set. From here, it was on to the hardware tech of the future.

If there is one thing about comic books and lore, it is that one-off stories are both incredible and fascinating. Putting the lore and characters in the hands of other talented artists provides experimentation while not being canon. Batman has quite a number of one-off movies and stories, and things can drastically change when a Japanese artist gets ahold of the content.

There was once an X-Men anime cartoon 20 years ago, and it was unique to see. In 2026, Japanese developer Arc System Works acquired the Marvel Comics license to create a 2D fighting game in Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, which looks like a very popular franchise on the surface, but ultimately is not.

Marvel Tokon is Not Marvel Vs Capcom

You may think there is a new sheriff in town for 2D Marvel fighting games as it took over the town that Marvel vs Capcom from Capcom had built. The only similarities are that you will assemble a team to fight in 1v1 battles, there are launch combos, and there are Super Moves. The similarities stop there. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is a fighting game that is very basic on the surface, but requires mastery and a completely new style to learn as you will need to adhere to what the developers want you to do in battle.

Marvel Tokon is a difficult game to grasp and process. Moves are simply mapped to low, medium and high on the face buttons, but there are no directional combinations needed to pull off moves. Combos can be utilized and the ability to upper cut an opponent and launch them in the air is utilized quite a bit in battle, so you can then use combos and introduce other characters to attack the opponents. Special attacks are mapped to simply choosing a direction and using R1 or R2 for more enhanced moves. There are different styles of characters: Leader, Shooter, Vertical and Assault. However, this is just what can be assigned when choosing four characters, as the characters offer more offensive moves, defensive, grapplers or projectiles.

Characters are swapped in and out with the Left Trigger on the controller and a corresponding direction on the D-Pad. Combat can be best described as overwhelming, meaning the goal is to overwhelm the opponent. This almost feels completed by cornering an opponent, and while the AI has a variable number of difficulty levels, it loves to perma block when down in the corner. It can be very difficult to get out of a corner, and while there is a dash, some characters are more difficult to get out than others. Players can also dash in the air while others can float. Iron Man, for example, can play at a distance just by launching projectiles.

Match flow can feel inconsistent at times as it really comes down to who is swinging momentum. Learning the game and how it plays is a very slow burn, and it is difficult to judge if there is a payoff. Minimal damage is done in fights, which can allow more time to utilize more characters. However, if you are able to punish an opponent and chain something together with other characters, you can dish out quite a bit of damage. While each character has Supers, they can unleash an Assemble attack with all four characters if the attack meter is maxed out. This works the same in other fighting games, but pulling off expanded regular special moves will drain this meter. There is also a limit on how many assists can be used.

The fighting in Marvel Tokon can be fun. It comes down to learning 20 characters and, while you're not learning move sets directly, you're learning what works for you and what doesn't. There will be more characters down the road, along with the final boss of the Episodes that can be unlocked (Champion). This design feels more like how Marvel Rivals works in its core setup, but in a fighting game where the characters need a semblance of balance. The balance is solid between the characters, but this may come down to preference. The aerial characters are cool to use and feel better to control than other games that offer them. Green Goblin can literally call his platform he rides on and use it as a weapon, as well.

The Marvel Anime Universe Everyone Wanted

Marvel Tokon is one of the best character-designed animes in general. These character designs are fantastic, and the artwork is on another level. This is where the one-off idea comes into play. There is a story here, albeit simple. Players do get to play Episodes and watch both an anime and progress through comic strips to tell each team's individual story about their involvement. The goal behind the character design in Tokon was specifically the team aspect. There are four members that make up an individual team and while someone can choose whoever they want in battle, the teams were handpicked for the game.

There are some given characters selected here and some that are not, and that is a really good thing. There needs to be something different out there outside the expected. As mentioned, Green Goblin is here along with Carnage, Loki, Storm, Magik and Danger. Arc System Works is looking at more recent comic book storylines to incorporate those characters. Hence, the announcement of Phoenix Cyclops to come at some point. These aren't going to be the traditional characters, but the designs stay in that original concept bubble.

The final boss, Champion, is pulled from Marvel Canon as his name is Tryco Slatterus, Champion of the Universe. This story involves hosting a tournament to see which team survives each other and has to go on and beat three different versions of The Champion, who is unrelenting. Players have the option to drop difficulty in battle, so that's a nice perk as the Champion will punish you heavily. At first, he didn't seem like a good choice for the antagonist of the story until the end.

There are tons of easter eggs and costume colors to boot. Some have alternate costumes that can be acquired outside the game, but aligning the likes of Wolverine, Deadpool, Storm and Magneto with the yellow and blue X-Men attire is really cool. While Iron Man does have a Gundam-inspired default costume, he also has his very old school-designed costume. The character designs are 100% Japanese-inspired and are awesome. The only personal one that isn't great is Ghost Rider, but pulling designs like the Savage Land Hulk gives comic book fans something different to experience. This is the aspect that keeps engagement in the game.

Some Surprising Ways to Play

Credit is given to Arc System Works for providing some different ways to play Marvel Tokon. There are a lot of outside-the-box concepts that went into this game, but time will tell if this sticks. The Episodes are great and last about 30–45 minutes a piece. The video is shared across all five, but this isn't some short arcade more if you're here for the lore. Each team will progress and fight off the other team. This is also the best way to experience all the characters in the game and see what they can do before hopping into a Training Mode to work on mastering them. Players can also just skip the battle and watch the cinematics if they desire, but there are unlocks, so playing is important.

The All-Star Arena offers two ways to play: Survival and Arena. Arena will have players choosing a path to progress against different teams, kind of like a board game. There is a high score associated with beating the map. There is also a high score based on survival, so there are a few different ways to do single player and further learn characters before jumping online. Players can choose to do Character Lessons and further learn tendencies.

Arcadia Rumble is the most unique mode to come in Marvel Tokon. Picture the avatar mode in Tekken 8 but with a purpose, and that is Arcadia Rumble. This takes avatars as players go around a small world and collect Souls Cards, which are modifiers for matches. There are three to choose from, which are based on the characters in the game and improve their effectiveness. You are in a world with eight other players and can attack them and take points away, as the goal at the end of this is to have the most points.

There are five stages to this, with two involving jumping into matches against other people. This can be done in single player, as well, but playing this with people is pretty fun. This all culminates with a rumble at the end for Soul Stones that will maximize points. The matches also last for 99 seconds, so the goal is to get as many knockouts in 99 seconds. When someone gets knocked out, the health meters don't reset. This feels like a mix of the concepts of Smash Bros and Mario Kart, but with the world of Modnation Racers mixed.

Online Gameplay Experience in Tokon

Things are not perfect on the PlayStation 5 side of connectivity, and while there's the option to disable cross-platform matchmaking, there are still some instances of slow down during matches. Matchmaking isn't great either. Competing in casual matches, albeit the system requires the player to do this before doing ranked matches, seems to have more experienced players.

Lobbies are broken down by region, but you can jump into the open world from Arcadia Rumble and interact with other players, much like the Tekken 8 avatar mode. Other ways to battle include actual lobbies that are warped into where a small group of people can speak. Strangely, no voice chat is available across any of these modes. It would be very beneficial to have one specifically for Arcadia Rumble. The online experience can be frustrating and players really need to get a team of characters down to learn before jumping in. Players love to corner and overwhelm.

The Best Looking Version of the Marvel Universe

The Marvel Universe has never looked better in a video game. While it's no LJN Nintendo game, it holds up with its style, design and bright colors. There isn't a bad looking character model in the game, and utilizing stages like the X-Men school and the Savage Land are fantastic choices and well done. The Japanese influence is there, down to the audio dubbing when characters speak. Marvel Tokon runs buttery smooth, but things can get cluttered when both teams have everyone assisting at once.

The effects, the transitions between stages after knocking a character into another area, all of this looks fantastic and is a major selling point to Marvel Tokon. The opening scene with the chosen song is perfect for providing the best description of this game. It's purely an anime opening. The soundtrack includes metal and electronic music, everything expected in a Japanese game. The voice acting is a mixed bag, however. Iron Man is perfect, as is Dr. Doom. Wolverine could be better and Ghost Rider is the biggest miss, but this is the dev's interpretation of the product. The audio quality across the board is fantastic and adds to the experience.

Closing Comments:

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is a different animal. The fighting design allows for spamming in battle, but there is room for mastery and cohesion. While not complicated, the flow of the matches will take some time to learn and establish a direction of attack on how to play the game. The variety of game modes provides the opportunity for different exposure to different characters while eliminating the idea of anything stagnant. The art design of the characters is beautiful, and the soundtrack is fantastic for battle. At first, it was difficult to determine what Marvel Tokon was trying to be. However, spending more time in the Episodes allowed Marvel Tokon to grab some traction and provide an idea of how the game needs to be played.