Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, the Arc System Works fighting game starring all your favorite Marvel heroes, isn’t coming out until next year. You might be wondering, then, why the studio put out a lengthy beginner’s guide for the game when no one’s playing it. That’s because the game is playable this weekend at EVO in Vegas, and while the lucky FGC die-hards in attendance are getting some hands-on time with it, the rest of us are at least getting some crumbs, seeing the game in action with a breakdown of its mechanics. If you want to watch the full guide, you can do so below. For everyone who just wants the bullet points, read on.
You won’t have access to all four of your characters at the start of a match
Fighting Souls is a 4v4 game, which sounds incredibly overwhelming. It still might be, but unlike Marvel vs. Capcom, you won’t be able to switch freely between your characters right off the bat. Matches will start as 2v2 fights, with you gradually gaining access to the other two fighters when you throw an opponent and trigger a stage transition, slam an enemy into a stage corner, or lose a round. Unlike in Marvel vs. Capcom, your characters don’t have separate health bars but instead share one, and building your team across a match increases the values of your Vital (aka health) and Skill Gauges, allowing you to use more special moves and assist maneuvers. This means there’s a lot of incentive to try and send your opponent flying through the stage quickly so you can build up your team as fast as possible.
Each fighter has a “unique” move alongside the standards
The video runs through the control scheme, and a lot of it is the kind of stuff you’d expect. You move back to block, and every character has light, medium, and heavy attacks. That’s all fighting game fundamentals. However, each character also has a “unique” move that gives them a more distinct playstyle.
Here are the unique moves revealed thus far:
- Captain America: He throws his shield, and it ricochets off the corners of the screen
- Iron Man: Uses long-range repulsor blasts
- Ms. Marvel: Pulls herself across the stage using her stretchy arms
- Storm: Throws a gust of wind toward her foe
- Star-Lord: Changes the element of his gun between a flamethrower and cryobeam
- Doctor Doom: Create a shield that nullifies projectiles
The video didn’t show Ghost Rider or Spider-Man’s unique moves, but I imagine we’ll hear what those are when people play Fighting Souls at EVO.
While the Unique moves are special moves that are specific to each hero, they’re not the only distinguishing attacks in a character’s move pool. Each character has Skills you can activate that lean into their personalities and fighting styles. Captain America can do more precise shield throws, and Star-Lord can throw grenades that stun his enemies. You can use your Skill Gauge to increase their power, and if you’ve got 100 points in that gauge, you can use a Super skill. The game does a pretty sick comic-style cut-in when you use those, so Fighting Souls is definitely leaning into the idea of these characters as comic-book heroes first and foremost.
Juggling your allies might require some technical practice
The prospect of playing as four characters at once sounds pretty daunting, and Arc System Works’ breakdown of how you can utilize a full team makes it seem a lot more complex than just swapping between them at will. There are assist abilities that you can use and then swap right into the character who’s helping you out, for instance, or you can use multiple assists at once and, depending on the order in which you summon those allies, you can swap to the latest teammate you called in, and the attack they’ll use depends on which of the three slots they’re in. On top of this, there are several more powerful maneuvers your allies can help you with, such as juggling an opponent and throwing them around the screen. These attacks drain your Assemble Gauge, but help you break through enemy defenses or counter an incoming strike. You can even stack several Super Skills on top of each other if you’ve got the full gauge to do so. The “Crossover” counter mechanic feels reminiscent of Street Fighter 6’s Drive Impact in that it can call in an ally to defend your primary character and stun your opponent. Getting the timing down for all of these mechanics will require some practice. The sheer number of options at your disposal is pretty staggering, but I know the best in the FGC are going to perform some mindblowing combos and plays with this tech.
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is coming to PS5 and PC in 2026 as part of a publishing deal with Sony. The PlayStation company also owns EVO now, so it seems like it’s trying to get as many footholds in the fighting game community as it can, including funding a fighting game based on one of the biggest entertainment properties in the world.
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