Arriving at the turn of the millennium and the twilight of the video arcade, Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes has long been a high-water mark for fighting games, with no heir apparent; its massive, colourful roster and frenetic, spectacular combos have lured newcomers and elite competitors alike. Developer Arc System Works, a fan-favourite studio famous for its hyper-fluid and extremely technical anime-style fighting games, has been on a long journey to usurp Capcom’s throne. With Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, it may have finally achieved this difficult task.
Marvel Tōkon is less an attempt to recreate a Marvel vs Capcom-esque phenomenon out of whole cloth, and more a thoughtful evolution of the developer’s previous riffs on the formula such as 2018’s BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle and Dragon Ball FighterZ, building on its low-floor, high-ceiling approach. Simplified inputs allow players to execute combos and finishers with a single button, which gives novices the confidence to keep playing and inspires them to study and improve – because when anyone can pull off a flashy ultimate skill or EX attack, strategy and mastery take on a premium. And Marvel Tōkon has great depths to plumb.
Matches are 4v4 affairs, with each player fielding a squad that – in a departure from similar games – shares a single health bar. The first character is the leader, taking the stage at the start of a match. The three others can either perform designated assists (a ranged attack, an aerial counter and an “assault” skill), extend combos or swap places with the leader.
However – in another twist – they have to be unlocked in-match by filling an assemble gauge. These team mechanics are key to Marvel Tōkon’s complexity. It can feel like a traditional 1v1 fighter at times, but judicious and careful deployment of your team is what separates good players from great.
It feels amazing to flip the momentum of a match: to recover from a seemingly endless combo chain and subject your opponent to one of your own, using your team as a single organic unit. But doing so takes practice. And self-improvement is the goal.
Marvel Tōkon offers very little to those who aren’t interested in fighting for fighting’s sake: the lightweight story mode is comprised of five “episodes”, each a breezy introduction to a team of heroes such as the Avengers or X-Men, and mostly useful as tutorials. Beyond that, there is a bizarre party mode called Arcadia Rumble, where avatars scramble to improve their stats in between matches, and there are a handful of arcade ladders (a single-player sequence of opponents) to tackle. Otherwise, you’re running sets: against the CPU or other players locally or online, in casual matches, ranked matches and open lobbies.
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