When Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls had its closed beta, my impressions of it was that it’s easy to pick and play, press buttons, and see cool stuff. Maybe too easy, and maybe too much cool stuff.
Look, tag fighters usually tops at 3v3 and here with Marvel Tōkon, Sony XDEV and Arc System Works are saying “screw it, we ballin'” with a 4v4 setup. Eight different characters being on screen is sensory overload. It’s fun! But too much of the fun stuff feels more accidental than it is intentional.
As a novice fighting game player that just dabbled in them at a cursory, casual level, it’s fun! But things have to change to ensure it feels more in line with the expectations of the fighting game community, the core target audience that will sustain this once all the hype at launch eventually dies down.
As it is now, Marvel Tokon has a higher skill floor than before, just a smidge, but the result is all the chaos that its many mechanics would have wreck havoc previously can now be tamed, controlled, and take advantage of.
Some Practice Required
The preview build we had featured 13 characters, so all the previous 8 characters seen the first reveal and ensuing closed beta, plus a few more. The full roster of the Unbreakable X-Men (Magik, Wolverine, Danger), the full roster of the Amazing Guardians (Peni Parker), and one character from the Avengers (Black Panther) and the Knights Of Doom (Magneto). So it should be in line with what folks experienced at Evo 2026, where Marvel Tokon had a playable build, and just about any content creator there were showing of Magneto.
I came into the preview session, where I got to play about an hour’s worth just fighting the AI. I intentionally had not done any refreshers since the closed beta. Marvel Tōkon had a long tutorial in that beta that walked you through its many systems, but were any of them memorable enough or easy enough to discover/rediscover simply by playing some sets?
The results of me rawdogging it, as they say, is interesting. I genuinely was lost in the first few sets, unable to make use of all the tools available. All I knew was blocking and hammering those autocombos. But it wasn’t before long that some crucial features come back to the memory bank naturally, like assists and tagging, the way team members are unlocked as the match progresses, doing special moves that includes simple inputs that involve press the special button plus a tilt instead of doing quarter circles, DP input or hit down-down. The engine starts running at optimal temperatures and all my innate fighting game instincts are awaken again eventually and I become capable enough to take rounds and later sets against a moderate level AI team.
That said, some of the mechanics I remember learning I can’t effectively recall and replicate again. What was the meter up top used for again? How do I do ultimates? Surely there’s a combo-breaker mechanic and parries but how do you do those again? Expect to learn and relearn the game to even be adequate if you don’t play fighting games consistently. Otherwise, you’d be stuck in loop upon loops of combos not knowing how to force your way to get your turn to hit the opponent.
Chaos, Controlled
The general feel and flow of a Marvel Tōkon match has also changed. The matches before felt chaotic, loose, too many variables beyond your control are out there making things feel complicated. I ever so often mistakenly and unintentionally changed control of my point character, assists just come out of the wazoo doing some random bullshit I cannot parse when multiple of them are all activated. You can do too many things all by mashing buttons relentlessly and randomly. It’s cool! But how do you get good at it?
In its current form, Marvel Tōkon requires you to play more intentful. All the systems and mechanics are all available as before. But you just can’t simply mash buttons to trigger them. Assists require real know how of the system or else every time you press the button it just won’t call in your homie. Raw tagging, as in not having it done via a combo, is a sin that will be punished hard if your opponent has that higher understanding how risky that is.
As a result, you don’t really feel like playing a wild 4v4 tag fighter where the point character changes just about every other combo string. At the low skill level, you’re maining one character with access to three assist characters. This was an acceptable way of playing Marvel Tōkon, a possibility. Now, it is what everyone will start out playing like until they can master the art of seamlessly, and safely, passing that baton to turn a 1V1 game with character assists into a quasi-4V4 tag fighter.
You Gotta Learn
As such, I feel like mashing buttons willy-nilly is not as fun as before. You must figure out the fundamentals of playing a 2D anime fighter (not necessarily because of its aesthetic, which is indeed carrying that Japanese animation stylings, but that it has air dashes). In the wise words of Justin Wong, who should be remembered more as the 8-time Evo champion that he is rather than the guy on the receiving end of Evo Moment #37, you gotta learn.
And learn you shall, as the CPU AI for solo fights can be really feisty. At my skill level (a novice who only dabbles in fighting games when a new one is released and never stick around past the first month), I can handle CPU level 3, maybe 4 on a good set. But toughest at CPU level 5 ain’t playing around.
Again, it’s all about the fundamentals. Can’t just mash buttons and hope it hits. The moment the CPU gets a whiff of that attack whiffing, it starts its mandatory whiff punishing hazing ritual, a 15+ hit combo that corner carries and then followed up with a universal dragon punch into the air and air juggled. Whiff again and the same thing happens. They can block your projectile spams and creep through your one-note zoning. They can tech your throws if you think that’s the big play as other CPU levels fail this simple check. They don’t have a neutral game, they’ll march ever so more to the corner to corner you and hit that 15+ combo when they get the chance. There is no mercy. As it should.
Casuals Still Welcome
I maybe painting a grim picture that may scare off potential new fighting game players that would check out Marvel Tōkon, but look, it’s the highest CPU AI level for a reason. If you dare to venture online, you better get a hazing by the AI just to prepare yourself on what to expect.
But at CPU level 3 and 4? It’s just nice. They’re aggressive, but with a simple-minded game plan. And little tricks that exploits ones’ lack of fundamental fighting game skills will shut them down good. But with enough good plays of their own so that novices can pick up a trick or two from them.
In the closed beta, I ended up with Star-Lord as my point character. Despite his supposedly more advanced play style, I managed to make him work simply by using the autocombos and spamming his unique moves with not much thought. In this preview build, I just couldn’t get him to do anything. Everything feels unsafe to spam, as it should. I should be learning properly how to make use of his kit, not just press buttons without much thought and win.
In contrast, Iron Man remains noob-friendly. His straightforward kit won’t appeal the more technical players who wants to be more expressive when fighting, but Tony Stark’s Gundam-influenced suit is very intuitive to pick up I find him very consistent to do the things I need him doing, pressure enemies from afar and catch them off-guard by immediately changing from long-range laser spams to rush-down kicks and blasts.
The newer casts beyond the closed beta eight are fun additions, as expected. Peni Parker’s unique kit of having pure RNG stuff thrown to the ground probably won’t win you tournaments, but it’s silly fun. Magik’s teleport unique attack is something that novice players better just not touch until they know how it works in full, but her sword swings are satisfying despite it being unsafe from faster light attacks that can beat her to the swing. The much-touted Magneto is a force to be reckoned with.
If you’re just here to experience a Marvel game and see the Marvel characters do.. marvellous things and not much of a fighting game fan, you still can get a good kick out of it. The autocombos and simple special move inputs allows anyone access to every character’s kit at any skill level. But if you want to the cool schmoovin’ combos like in that Iron Man character guide, like any good fighting game, you need to put some time labbing and practicing.
Closing Thoughts
All of this to say, that I think despite the significant tweaks to Marvel Tōkon’s balance and philosophy, the mechanics and systems in place continues to create fun and hype moments as you and your opponent battle it out. The changes encourage one to master one character rather than cycle through all four during the set, unless you know what you’re doing. And you really need to know what you’re doing, the skill floor has been heightened and you can’t just feel fun from mashing buttons mindlessly. There is incentives and a requirement to experience Marvel Token by engaging with it’s systems and mechanics. And thanks, engaging in those systems is rewarding.
While the changes marvel tokon has made personally less like it now that I need to put more effort to really get its juice out, it is for the better. A fighting game should reward mastery and prowess. And if it means filtering people who refuse to engage with it more than mere animalistic button mashing, so it shall be. If all of these changes is what will keep its core fanbase happy and playing for the years to come, than this is certainly the right play.
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls releases on August 6 for the PS5 and PC (Steam).
Played on base PS5 at a press preview event invited by PlayStation.