LAS VEGAS—Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, the upcoming Arc System Works-developed fighting game, is far from a Marvel vs. Capcom clone. And it’s not only due to moving to a 4v4 format instead of adhering to the popular 3v3 team format. At Evo 2025, I got my mitts on the upcoming PC and PlayStation 5 game during a 30-minute demo to see what the Sony-published fighter has in store when it debuts in 2026.
Characters and Assists-Focused Gameplay
The demo build I played featured six playable characters: Captain America, Dr. Doom, Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, Star-Lord, and Storm, a good mix of Avengers, mutants, space heroes, and Marvel’s ultimate human villain. Matches are best-of-five affairs, but the combat sessions move at a brisk pace due to teams sharing a single health bar.
That shared life meter means you must battle with welcome aggression. You can’t swap out a valuable, low-energy character to heal as you would in some other tag games. So, you’re encouraged to frequently use your teammates, either by using them as Assists or swapping them in for your main. The Assists options let you play the game in a true team format or as a single, main character who can leverage superpowered help.
(Credit: Arc System Works)
Marvel Tokon differs from squad-based fighting games, such as Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and The King of Fighters XV, by starting you off with a restricted roster. When a match starts, you can only control your point character and one Assist teammate. To unlock the other Assist slots, you must lose a round, knock an opponent into a different area via a stage transition, or throw an opponent.
There are a total of three Assist slots. The first is Shooter, which fires off a projectile or projectile-like attack (like Ms. Marvel’s elongated fist). The second is Vertical, which performs an anti-air, like Star-Lord’s flip kick. The final Assist type is Assault, which leverages a character’s unique ability, such as Star-Lord’s grenade attack.
Each Assist increases your Vital and Skill Gauges, so assembling your team before your opponent grants a big combat advantage. This gives Marvel Tokon its own identity and makes you consider team composition and strategy more than your typical tag fighter.
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On the topic of tagging, you have two options for calling in Assist to help you wreck foes. Tapping the Assist button outside of a combo lets you call in, say, Dr. Doom to attack, and it won’t cost you any Assemble Gauge meter. Should you call in an Assist mid-combo, you must pay a portion of your Assemble Gauge. This is an appreciated freedom that helps with meter management.
New and Classic Fighting Mechanics
(Credit: Arc System Works)
Marvel Tokon also has the expected fighting game mechanics, such as launchers, super jumps, energetic aerial attacks, EX moves, specials, supers, and stylish counters. In a nice touch, an opponent can counter your counter, which breaks up potential fighting tedium and sets up new bait opportunities. It also has a secondary function: the counter to a counter locks out the opponent’s Assists for a short period. In addition, Marvell Tokon has a Combo Gauge that fills as you rack up hits on an opponent. When it fills, the combo ends. This prevents players from getting stuck in infinites.
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The game utilizes Light, Medium, and Heavy attacks, with Unique Attacks (a character-specific gimmick button) and Assists rounding out the offensive capabilities. In my demo session, I noticed a few cool moves that warranted callouts:
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Captain America’s Unique Attack lets him throw his mighty shield, causing it to ricochet around the environment. However, as it boomerangs back to Cap, you can perform a well-timed button tap to kick the shield at the opponent for an extra hit. It plays up Roger’s super-soldier reflexes and potentially keeps an opponent on their toes, as they won’t know how that attack sequence ends.
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By pressing down-down-attack with Storm, the mutant goddess generates a gust of wind (complete with four stocks). Performing it in the air lets you create an iceball and blow it toward a foe, freezing the character.
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Dr. Doom’s Unique Attack lets him generate an energy shield that absorbs incoming projectiles on the defensive end and acts as a slow-moving attack on the offensive end. What’s particularly cool about it is that you can place it either in front of or behind an opponent, creating some potentially nasty setups.
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Character-specific movement, unlike Dragon Ball FighterZ. For example, Captain America has a super-fast air dash that’s much faster than his ground version. Storm and Iron Man can hover. Ms. Marvel uses her long limbs to grab an off-screen object and quickly pull herself across the stage.
Besides these, Marvel Tokon leans heavily into auto-combos. You can mash Light, Medium, and Heavy to different results, sometimes resulting in a super attack like Dragon Ball FighterZ.
Coming In 2026
If, like me, you were concerned that Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls would play too similarly to other ARC System Works games, rest easy knowing that the game has its own flavor, while building off titles that came before it. There’s a lot to take in, but the systems seem rewarding based on my limited time with them. You’ll be able to play it on PC and PlayStation 5 sometime in 2026.
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About Jeffrey L. Wilson
Managing Editor, Apps and Gaming
