While Arc System Works’ upcoming Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is the first major fighting game featuring Marvel’s characters since Capcom’s Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite, general manager of Marvel Games Haluk Mentes has spoken about wanting to “reinstate Marvel as a pillar of the fighting game community.” In an interview with GameInformer, Mentes spoke about Marvel’s long history in fighting games, and how Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls plays into the company’s plans moving forward.
When asked about working with Arc System Works for Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, Mentes noted that Marvel Games wanted to work with the developer in order to tap into its “unmistakable identity”, from the anime-inspired art style to tag-team fighting game mechanics.
“Working with ArcSys and PlayStation has been a dream,” said Mentes. “From inception, the goal was to reinstate Marvel as a pillar of the fighting game community, and to do it with a unique, anime-inspired art-style and some of the best tag-team fighting mechanics out there. From the get-go, we collectively started pushing the envelope in terms of design to bring out that unmistakable ArcSys identity. I particularly love how Iron Man looks in the game – super unique but instantly recognizable. We’re incredibly proud of Marvel Tōkon and I think players are in for a real treat when it comes out next year.”
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls was first unveiled back in June, and is currently being developed for PC and PS5. The title was announced with a trailer, which also revealed that it will be a 4-on-4 tag-team fighter featuring characters from across Marvel’s various comics, including Star Lord, Ghost Rider, Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Captain America, Storm, and Dr. Doom.
More details about the fighting game were revealed through a beginner’s guide trailer that was released back in August. The trailer revealed that fights start off in a 2v2 format, with things escalating over time. A player throwing their opponent or pulling off specific special moves on certain spots in the arena can trigger stage transition, which also brings with it new fighters joining the fray.
The core mechanics of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls revolve around a number of gauges that players have to keep track of – the Vital Gauge, the Assemble Gauge, and the Skill Gauge. These gauges track health, tag-team abilities, and the ability to pull off stronger versions of standard attacks respectively.
Arc System Works has also confirmed that it has big plans for Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, including the fact that it has plans to continue supporting the fighting game and making it “the best experience ever” for the next ten years.
The last Marvel-themed fighting game – Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite – was released all the way back in 2017. The title was unfortunately seen as a bit of a downgrade over its predecessor – Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 – thanks in large part to its much smaller roster of characters that, at launch, didn’t include several iconic characters like the X-Men. Along with this, the title also featured an uninteresting narrative in its single-player combat, while the combat was also considered quite a bit more simplistic when compared to other tag-team fighters.
