10 Reasons Marvel Tōkon Fighting Souls Is a MUST PLAY Fighting Game

The Roster

“Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls” has one of the most impressive and appealing rosters we’ve seen in any fighting game based on superheroes. Sure, we have a lot of obvious picks here like Spider-Man, Captain America, Hulk, and Wolverine, and yet we also have some oddballs or not-so-obvious picks like Danger, Deadpool, and Ms. Marvel. But what really brings the entire base roster together are the villains. Villain picks are something many crossover fighting games, like “Super Smash Bros.”, forget about way too often. So, seeing Green Goblin and Carnage be a part of “Marvel Tokon” alongside Loki, Doctor Doom, and Magneto, it really shows that the roster is going to be pretty balanced for fans of heroes and villains.

The Art Direction

We really need to talk about the art direction here because holy crap - everything about this game is visually striking to an incredible degree! I think the one thing that has me most attracted to “Marvel Tokon” is just how it blends comic book character design of the old days with extreme, exaggerated designs you would expect in a fighting game, especially one developed by Arc System Works. The menus themselves follow a similar motif where the menus and icons you select pop out more in color while everything around it looks more like rough drafts of a comic book.

Character Animation

Sorry to go on another entry about visuals and art, but I’m someone who used to study character animation. So, can you really blame me? “Marvel Tokon” boasts some of the coolest character animation out of the entirety of Marvel Games history. From the poses to the dash and running animations to even the ways characters block, Arc System Works put a ton of expression behind every character’s movement that perfectly conveys their personality. Heck, even the most basic of Supers have some fantastic animation work between the movements and the final shot.

Gameplay Pacing

Okay, now, let’s talk about gameplay itself. My apologies for taking so long. In case you don’t already know, “Marvel Tokon” is a tag-fighter that has you assemble a team of four fighters. This may sound chaotic on paper, and in some ways, it can be. However, you don’t have to worry about juggling four different health bars. Your team shares one health bar, and while this sounds like a bad thing, it actually helps with the pacing of the battle. Instead of playing best two out of three like most fighting games, “Marvel Tokon” is set in a best three out of five format. So, you have plenty of opportunity to turn things around if you’re struggling in a fight, and fights feel about as long as standard 1v1 fighting games.

The Obvious Inspiration

Now, some players may look at “Marvel Tokon” and think “well, this is just ‘Marvel vs. Capcom’ with one extra character on the team”. Those folks are not entirely wrong. There are elements of “Marvel Tokon” that feel partially inspired by the “Marvel vs. Capcom” games, and not just from simply being a tag-fighter. Just the visuals and frenetic energy alone feel very reminiscent of MvC2 and “Clash of Super Heroes”. But the most noticeable element here is how the game is so easy to just pick up and play. The menus are neatly organized to help you get into fighting ASAP, and the controls are easy enough to understand that no one should feel the need to button-mash mindlessly. Speaking of…

Easy Controls

Upon booting up “Marvel Tokon”, we highly recommend you do the tutorial not because the controls are complicated, but because they are so easy to understand once you’ve done the tutorial. Yes, you do have light, medium, and heavy attacks, but when you understand how to pull off assists, how the meter works, how to launch and air juggle, that’s when you can start doing some cool stuff. And pulling off some of the cool stuff ends up being way easier than you may think. So, don’t skip out even if you think you know the basic tools of fighting games.

Labbing Options

So, of course, there is a training mode where you can try stuff out to your heart’s content. Experiment with combos, see every character’s Supers, practice against AI - whatever you want to do. But “Marvel Tokon” has another way for you to learn how your favorite fighters work in the form of character tutorials. This will allow you to study the different quirks of each character, what they can do to gain the advantage, and how their abilities may blend with other characters. That said, even if you know which characters you want to play as and even if you’ve played the betas, it might be in your best interest to go through these tutorials in case you do learn something new.

Kickass Music

One of the most interesting aspects of “Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls” is how Arc System Works is approaching the music, and it is a very old-school approach. Many classic arcade fighting games of yore would have soundtracks where every song was the theme for a single character. Most modern fighting games keep development more traditional and just give every stage its own song. “Marvel Tokon” is bringing back the character-specific music, and every track slaps insanely hard! Of all the tracks, my personal favorites have been Magik, Green Goblin, and Ghost Rider’s theme. If you’re a “Guilty Gear” fan, you need to hear Ghost Rider’s theme because it is “Guilty Gear” as hell! ...Which makes sense because it was composed by Norichika Sato, the composer of “Guilty Gear Strive” and “Guilty Gear Xrd”.

Living Online

If the hype is indeed real, the online scene for “Marvel Tokon” is going to be alive and well for a long time. Well, the game will offer enough for you to want to hop in and out of the servers at your leisure. Sure, you can just jump into matches and bounce between every fight. But if you want to chat, hang out, and play with other players a bit more casually, there is an interactive lobby. Choose your avatar, wander around the city, and have fun with your fellow fans! It’s a super chill setting, so even if you just want to relax and enjoy the atmosphere, you can do that.

It’s an Arc System Works Game

Really, the main reason why you should play “Marvel Tokon” isn’t because its a game with Marvel characters. You should play it because Arc System Works is one of the best fighting game developers around. This studio has been in the business since 1988, and they have a rather spotless track record when it comes to fighting games between “Guilty Gear”, “Blazblue”, “Granblue Fantasy”, “Dragon Ball FighterZ”, and so many more. Arc System Works goes all out on every title they put out, and “Marvel Tokon” might launch them into the mainstream space. So, if you’re into Marvel, if you’re into fighting games, and especially if you’re into Arc System Works, you need to grab “Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls”.

Are you planning to pick up “Marvel Tokon” at launch? Let us know down in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe to MojoPlays.