Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Review

It seems that 2026 is a year full of redemption arcs for fighting mechanics I never vibed with.

Openly saying that you don’t like tag team mechanics would get you tarred and feathered in many seedy fighting game establishments, but my rehabilitation into an enjoyer of them could not have come at a better time. Where Invincible Vs. gently eased me back into the saddle of combining multiple men into a barrage of fighty fun, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has seemingly slapped the horse’s backside and got me galloping full steam ahead.

To address the comic book-styled elephant in the room, Tokon is clearly a long awaited answer to the endless questions of when will we ever see Marvel vs. Capcom again. The short answer is perhaps never, while the slightly longer answer is more akin to there may be no Capcom here, but boy howdy do we have some Marvel for ya. With a veritable who’s who of spandex-wearing studs and strumpets on hand, all duking it out at a breakneck pace, you’d be quick to forget about Ryu just from seeing it in action. In fact, I avoided most of the trailers for Tokon, if only to try and relax my eyeballs before the main event.

With Tokon finally in my hands, and long before I had nary pressed a button or taken a punch to the face, I was quick to see that this game is hotter than a fresh roast chook from Coles. Every aspect of its visual design is dazzlingly crisp – a hallmark of developer Arc System Works incredible pedigree – with the comic book art style feeling right at home throughout the UI, cutscenes and flashier gameplay elements. If the first bite of any dish is taken with the eyes, you’ll find it hard to get up from this meal.

It helps that each character is stunningly represented in a familiar, but absolutely fresh-just-for-this-game kind of way – with all their core elements carefully observed and presented clearly to keep even the most rabid fan at bay. I might question the odder Gundam stylings of Iron-Man, but I can’t in good faith say they don’t work. It’s actually a great deal of fun simply seeing all the quirks afforded to characters to really hammer home their core identity, something that should be richly celebrated by all.

Narratively, the game manages to pull double duty on the ‘Comic Book Schlock’ and ‘Fighting Game Narrative’ turbo-tropes, and I say this with full positivity and enjoyment. You see, the Champion of the Universe is seeking all challengers to come and properly ring his bell, going so far as to recruit the immortal cosmic being known as The Promoter to round up suitable opponents for him. Those who fail to impress the Champion have their planet snapped out of existence, and the two of them move on to whatever celestial body is next able to offer up a fight. Reaching Earth, the Promoter makes it clear that only one team of four will be able to face him – meaning a motley crew of classic teams will battle through the brackets to save their world. Neato.

The storytelling hits that perfect middle-of-the-road presentation and feel, with full voice acting bringing motion-comic styled panels to life. Sure, it isn’t the cinematic majesty of something like Mortal Kombat, but given the subject matter it tickets all the right boxes. It helps that the story for each team was penned by long-time comics legend Kieron Gillen, giving known characters the authenticity they deserve while also uplifting some lesser faces that probably deserved better treatment in the comics (I am looking at you, Danger).

Each squad of super-dorks has their own journey and foibles on their path to beat the Champion’s mug, satisfying to experience and full of fun panels and quotable lines. It was enough to make me track down the real-life Tokon comic that was produced, if only to see if the fun continued there – and you know what? It did.

The game is quite firm with the onboarding experience – and for good reason. The tag-fighting on hand within Tokon is not your usual fare, where you take X blokes and pit their healthbars against your opponents. Instead, your team is wholly represented by a single block of health, with each hit taken by any member of your team depleting it. I grasped this newbie-friendly tidbit with both hands, grateful that I could entirely let go of the usual panic at ‘tagging out a character to heal them mid-battle garbage’ that I have never really vibed with. It meant that my 4v4 team more reflected a pool of potential offensives that I could employ, working beautifully in tandem with the unique opt-in tag system – where you can call in a teammate’s attack and then press a further button to actually swap to them.

At first my withered fingers struggled with this confirm-tag methodology, as every tag fighter I had experienced to this point was far more blunt with character swaps. I’d often see my team mate pause for a moment on screen, waiting for a button press that never came, before flying back out of harm’s way – only for me to awkwardly call them back for the actual hot tag right away. But as my comfort level with the game’s intuitive move patterns started to increase, so too did the number of team-up takedowns on display. It felt a great deal more like a collaborative team of arse-kickers on the screen, and I was grooving with it hard.

It helps that characters all have incredibly simplistic move inputs, with several bread-and-butter combo strings that you can fall back on. The real artistry within the game comes from a far higher level of player choice, with call-ins and combo-ending supers being used in a sequence that turns your one-button dial-a-combo attacks into a relentless set of 20 or more hits – juggling your opponent into the air or frenetically assaulting them with every member on your team at once. It’s a fighter that makes you feel powerful immediately, while leaving a yawning maw of depth to explore at your leisure.

One thing I appreciate is the slavish care given to make sure each character has their signature traits – be it web-swinging or shield-flinging – without glossing over them as simpler moves or bogging them down in irritating sub-systems. Every character that touts a trademark doohickey has it front and centre, often tied to a simple UI element that can be glanced and monitored throughout your biffo. You then just make use of the ‘Unique Action’ button to perform your character-specific abilities, personifying your spandex-wearing doofus to your heart’s content. It’s magnificent.

This is echoed within the flashy super-moves within the game, as each do-gooder or dastardly dickhead pulls something right off the comic book page – often with some targeted dialogue to make the violence extra personal and catered. You want to see Black Panther summon a giant jungle cat-cum-mecha and run through Dr. Doom with a spear? Go for it. Want to see Deadpool summon his Deadpool Corps buds and comment on how your opponent is lucky the game isn’t rated for gore? Sure, why not. It was one of my most motivating factors in running through the entire roster, getting good enough with each to see what on Earth they might do.

Final Thoughts

It’s a heavy cross to bear, spiritually succeeding the Marvel vs. Capcom series – but somehow Tokon takes that burden effortlessly. It lays a phenomenal foundation for what comic-book beatdowns can be in the modern age, with a blisteringly high level of care and attention given to the subject matter within. To newcomers, it represents a quick-to-grasp set of systems to have you feeling like a fighting game god within moments – but to long-standing stick jockeys, it’s a brilliant web of potential that isn’t afraid to shrug off some long-standing features that might have been holding tag-fighters back.