First revealed in State of Play, and recently playable at Evo Las Vegas 2025, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, brings a fundamental shift to the tag-fighting genre. Arc System Works, Marvel Games, and PlayStation Studios have assembled to create a vibrant, stylized world, and after an intense 30-minute play session this past weekend, I’m counting down the days until I’m a Tōkon fighter again.
Building a 4v4 team
“The reason we went with 4v4 is actually because it’s something that’s never been done before in fighting games where players can switch characters,” says Kazuto Sekine, Game Director and Lead Battle Designer, Arc System Works. “We wanted to challenge ourselves to create a new tag fighter.”
During my session, I had access to a set of all-star Heroes to create my team of four:
● Doctor Doom is slow but hits hard with magical and tricky range attacks.
● Ms. Marvel is quick with high-risk, high-reward attacks.
● Storm is an aerial threat with deadly crossovers.,
● Iron Man keeps enemies at bay with anti-air and other punishing moves.
● Star-Lord was the most technical with his ability to switch between firearms and insane juggles.
● Captain America is a versatile all-rounder and a great entry point for new players.
After some experimentation, I prioritized playing Storm and Star-Lord. I loved how their combos, personality, and flair were true to their characters (at one point, Storm sternly refers to Star-Lord as “Quill” when he’s goofing off, which I adored). Storm’s light and medium attacks are beginner-friendly and combo well into her Quick Skill, which is a character’s unique attack you activate by pressing R2. I also found success rushing in with Star-Lord, using quick blaster and melee combos right into his Ultimate, activated simply by pressing R1.
The control scheme is pretty straightforward. Square, Triangle, and Circle are your light, medium, and heavy attacks, respectively, while X is the assemble button. All of your special attacks and skills are reserved for the triggers. L1 enables a quick dash, L2 is a quick Assemble ability, and R1 an