Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls

It’s rare when a fighting game manages to tick virtually every box, from excellent fighting mechanics to fantastic teaching tools to a worthwhile story mode and beyond, but Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls comes about as close as a game has gotten since Street Fighter 6.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls feels like a homecoming. Marvel heroes and villains are once again beating each other up in tag-based battles, and I am loving the experience of jumping in and figuring out new strategies. Rather than lean on old tropes, Arc System Works elected to put its own spin on the idea, and what they’ve cooked up sets a new bar for future tag fighters.

Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is a smart marriage of classic tag fighter staples and modern design, creating an excellent fighter anyone can enjoy.

Innovating on the tag fighter formula, Marvel Tōkon has a little something for everyone. If only the PC version was up to par with console.

Fresh gameplay paired with unprecedented production values make for an all-star pairing in Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls. An accessible gameplay loop paves the way for impressive depth, hopefully securing this tag fighter's place in the FGC scene for years to come.The dodgy PC port is affecting the crossplay experience at launch, but the PS5 version is flawless and comes highly recommended – with excellent DualSense integration.Meanwhile, the offline experience isn't quite up to the same level as genre frontrunners like Street Fighter 6, but its various comic book storylines are beautifully illustrated and excellently voiced, with writer Keiron Gillen doing a great job with the scripts.This title is a triumph on the PS5, and a reminder that Sony is capable of greenlighting compelling live service games when it puts its mind to it.

This is not how any of us expected Marvel fighting games to come back, but I sure am glad it happened this way.

Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls impresses due to its unique 4v4 tag mechanics that are easy to learn but difficult to master. Combine that with spectacular graphics, an incredible roster, and mighty gameplay modes, and you have a truly uncanny fighting game. $59.99 at Amazon $59.99 at Best Buy $59.99 at PlayStation Direct US

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls features exceptional core gameplay and is a blast in multiplayer, but the solo experience drops the ball.

It should be clear that 'Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls' is a successful tag team fighter. Casuals can hold spectacular battles perfectly well with auto combos, and the Tony Starks can go wild with all the bizarrely named mechanics. The game looks great, sounds good, feels good, and plays wonderfully. Fortunately, developer Arc System Works is not averse to supporting games for a long time, so there will likely be enough unique characters to make the current roster of “only” 21 even stronger.

I often struggle to keep up with games due to being an adult and doing adult things, but MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls has unlocked something in me that has me very eager to get back into the competitive circuit and continue to improve.