In recent years, fighting games have seen a massive resurgence. It’s been wonderful seeing the comeback firsthand, too. Each major franchise has received a positive reception (we’re not talking about post-launch inconsistencies like Street Fighter 6‘s incestuous storyline). So, having yet another new entry point via Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is huge.
Revealed last year, the newest fighting game from Arc System Works is nearly upon us. Earlier this week, PlayStation invited me to check out what the team behind the Guilty Gear series has been working on post Dragon Ball FighterZ. After an hour of hands-on matches with my pal Steve Monday, I’m excited to take it on the general public.
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls Plays Great
While Steve beat me in overall matches, the results were fairly split between us in Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls. The thing is, I went in blind despite trying the beta. That meant I had no time to really learn all the controls — a bad idea on all accounts.
Like most fighting games, Fighting Souls is highly technical and requires some patience and experience. In my case, I’ve been an avid Street Fighter player for a long time. That matters here because, going forward, I need to rewire my brain and my playstyle, since I’m so used to Capcom’s series and know those controls well.
To be upfront: despite spending only a few hours with Fighting Souls, I can already see myself digging in for the long haul next month.
The build we played was the same build shown and played at EVO 2026, we were told. So that means we had access to most characters except the final batch shown. In total, we had 14 characters available to us, and most of them we played with are pretty damn good to use. Some outlier characters, like Doctor Doom and Peni Parker, are bulky and slow, hit hard, and are also among the most challenging to play.
Extensive Roster
Like many fighters, you pick your stage, then the characters you’ll want to use in teams of four. The characters available to us in our demo included fan favourites like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Star-Lord, Wolverine, and Storm. We also had Magik, Peni Parker, Danger, Ms. Marvel, Magneto, Ghost Rider, and Doctor Doom.
Each character has a star next to their name, denoting how difficult they are to use in battle. Some, like Magik, are far easier to learn than Doctor Doom. However, I found a lot of success with Magik, Magneto, Wolverine, and Spider-Man as my team. Each round, Steven and I would rotate through characters before picking a new stage (we had access to New York, Savage Land, Wakanda, Knowhere, and X-Mansion).
From there, over the next hour, Steve and I went at it, watching our characters interact and react to each other. Every time you select your four characters, they’re given a team name like the Unbreakable X-Men, when I chose Storm, Magik, Wolverine, and Danger or Amazing Guardians when choosing Spider-Man, Peni Parker, Star-Lord, and Ms. Marvel.
In some rounds, Magneto and Wolverine have unique dialogue exchanges, making those matches feel a bit more personal, given the characters’ backstories and history together. And it’s even cooler to watch the two brawl at the X-Mansion while destroying the school grounds.
This 4v4 Fighter Gets Chaotic
If there’s one thing I’m not sold on yet, it’s that Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls has a 4v4 fighting structure and quickly becomes chaotic. This is a tag-team fighter with many team combinations, but once a match begins, the chaos can get destructively obtuse. Some levels are multi-stage, so you might begin in Times Square in the New York level, but with the right combination, you’re sent flying through scaffolding into Hell’s Kitchen.
On PlayStation, Square, Triangle, R1, and L1 are the core buttons you’ll use to create space, combos, and ultimates. The face buttons are your heavy and light attacks, while the shoulder buttons are heavy and a dash to create space.
Similarly, the X, Circle, R2, and L2 are where your abilities are situated. This means you’ll use the X button to Assemble to extend a combo, while O unleashes a unique attack from your character; lastly, R2 and L2 are shortcuts for delivering your most powerful skills.
But when the controls click, the magic of a 4v4 fighter really comes together. I tried one of the previous rounds of the closed beta earlier this year, but I’ve already forgotten the controls. There are characters like Magik and Danger who cater to newcomers, and I gravitated toward them early on because of their ease of use and how quickly I could chain slick-looking combos and air juggles.
Choose Your Fighters
Every fight begins with your main fighter, with the other three fighters joining incrementally as the fight unfolds. You gain additional characters by losing a round or throwing an opponent. You’re given a visual cue when each one is available to switch out, so it’s important to keep an eye on your health to know when you can swap characters. Additionally, your team shares a single health bar, unlike in Marvel vs. Capcom or Dragon Ball FighterZ, where each character has their own.
I feel like the decision to have a single health bar might prove controversial, but given how matches play out, you’re in and out pretty quickly, and I like how snappy matches feel.
Your skill gauge is important to everything, and to unleash supers and EX moves, you’ll want to build up the meter as often as you can.
There’s also the Assemble meter, three green bars that are essentially assists. You can choose them by pressing X and a directional button to call in the corresponding character. It’s a maneuver that helps when you’re in a pinch or against a wall.
Normally, Capcom would be in control of a Marvel fighting game. Arc System Works takes over for this entry and decidedly goes with a more vibrant, anime-driven art style. The studio won me over with its Iron Man and Spider-Man designs, but really sold me when we got a glimpse of Magneto and Black Panther. Capcom may have set the tempo, but Arc System Works now controls the game, and its bold character designs look incredible in motion. It helps that Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls isn’t inherently tied to any existing universe, so fans can consider it one of the infinite realities.
The characters are immersed in and shaped by Japanese culture, and, love it or hate it, the decision clearly paid off: they’re dripping in style and look incredible.
As the hour wound down, I felt good about next month’s Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls. Obviously, it is far too soon to know how long a game like this will last, but people are still playing Dragon Ball FighterZ eight years later, with ongoing support and a decent player base holding the game up.
Despite having just an hour with the latest build, everything I played in Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls feels deliberate. Not one mechanic feels like it’s overkill or unnecessary, and each gauge has multiple instances where, if you’re good, you can turn the tide against your opponent. Newcomers might be overwhelmed at first, but the more you play and understand the concepts, the better you’ll fare.
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls launches on PlayStation 5 and PC on August 6, 2026. An Open Beta runs from July 24 to July 26 with 15 playable characters.
