You know, if anybody was going to make a Marvel themed arcade fighting game in 2026, I’m glad Arc System Works (of Guilty Gear fame) were the ones that Sony Interactive Entertainment approached for the job. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls comes bundled with a solid roster of 20 Marvel heroes and villains, a fighting system that welcomes both experienced players and newcomers alike with open arms, a seriously stylish art direction – and I gotta say, I was hooked right from round one.

If you’ve spent any amount of time with a fighting game in the past, you should be right at home with Tokon’s basic movement and combat setup. And if you’re new to the whole genre, have no fear! You’ll be chucked straight into a surprisingly lengthy tutorial sequence immediately following the initial game setup process (complete with bonus enabled-by-default text-to-speech jumpscare). Understanding the distinction between Unique hero abilities, Skills, and their respective button combination variants can seem a tad intimidating or even confusing at first, but the more you actually play the game, the more these concepts will sink in.



Aside from the standard square, triangle and circle attacks on PlayStation 5 (light, medium, and heavy, respectively), every single included Marvel hero comes bundled with a Unique ability (activated with the R1 button and usually tied to a resource gauge). These aren’t always purely offensive and extend to utility/mobility actions as well. Black Panther’s Bast Blessing Unique ability, for example, mainly serves as a means for quickly getting up close and personal with your opponent (or getting behind them). Storm’s Unique ability, on the other hand, pumps out powerful bursts of wind that affect player movement and can even send her ranged attacks straight into the opponent.

Understanding the distinction between Unique hero abilities, Skills, and their respective button combination variants can seem a tad intimidating or even confusing at first, but the more you actually play the game, the more these concepts will sink in.

Combining these Unique abilities with character Skills is where the real action lies, however. Skills are pulled off by hitting R2 or by combining the trigger button with a directional input from the d-pad and can come in slightly different forms when paired with a face button - typically the basic attacks of square, triangle, and circle, with the circle version taking a small chunk out of your Skill Gauge in exchange for packing more of a punch (refilling the Skill Gauge is as easy as dealing/taking damage or blocking incoming offense). Pairing Magik’s R2+down Demon Flame Skill with the circle button, for instance, adds an additional pillar of fire to the attack. Circling back to the weaving in of Unique abilities in conjunction with Skills, throwing down her Dark Portal ability beforehand teleports the attack right into the opponent’s face for good measure.



Get that Skill Gauge high enough and you’ll open up the possibility of both Super (R1+R2) and Ultimate Skill (right+R1+R2) activation. Both of these attacks do exactly what you think they do: deal massive amounts of damage to the opponent in spectacularly stylish and over-the-top fashion. While there’s plenty of smaller, more subtle and complex elements to Tokon’s fighting system I can’t dive into here for the sake of time, I will say it’s worth noting that spamming one of the primary attack face buttons (assuming the player has enough gauge-related resources saved up or the specific criteria is met) acts as a shortcut for unleashing these more powerful Skills (although traditional, more complex button combinations may also be utilized). Mash triangle and you’ll activate your Super Skill. Do the same for the circle button and you’ll be waist deep in your Ultimate Skill before you know it. Repeated square button usage, meanwhile, can trigger a Tokon Assemble, which we’ll get to in a moment here.



The sheer variety and individuality on display for every fighter is easily one of my favourite aspects of Tokon, and there’s no shortage of personality here either – whether we’re talking about the magnificent anime-style coat of paint the heroes have received, mid-fight dialogue or the excellent series of animations (Storm’s slow backwards retreat slide is fantastic). It’s absolutely also worth spending some time checking out the included character lesson section, where you can quickly progress from basic moves to mastering useful combo attacks in no time at all. Mastering as many heroes as possible can only do you well in the long run, especially when taking into account the four-hero lineup you get to play around with every fight.

The sheer variety and individuality on display for every fighter is easily one of my favourite aspects of Tokon, and there’s no shortage of personality here either.

You don’t start with all your allies at your disposal, however. Unlocking the rest of your selected hero roster requires either a round loss or initiating a Break, Tokon’s fancy name for knocking an opponent at the edge of the screen into the next area of the map. Allies that you’ve already recruited can be either called upon for mid-fight assistance in numerous ways (with every d-pad directional button corresponding to a fighter) or outright swapped to with L2. In addition to permanently increasing your Skill Gauge capacity for every hero added to the party, rounding up the entire team unlocks the insanely powerful Tokon Assemble ability – a team-up strike that can turn the tide of battle. Additionally, Tokon Assemble can only be triggered if losing the current round would result in an outright loss, and requires substantial Skill Gauge consumption (it’s also limited to one activation per round).



You still with me? Good. Like I said earlier on, and as with most games of this kind, this all might sound rather complicated - especially if you’ve never picked up a fighting game in your life. But once it all comes together and clicks, it’s a wonderful feeling. Thankfully, Tokon’s controls are snappy and responsive, and every single executed combo feels smooth as silk. Performance is rock solid to boot, and both the soundtrack and background stage animations/designs are as good as they could reasonably be – packed with plenty of cameos and references for Marvel fans to get distracted by.

Outside of the expected local/online matchups (either ranked or casual) and the already-mentioned training/character lesson modes, Tokon offers some side arcade options for extra variety – including Arcadia Rumble, a strange hybrid of resource collection and traditional battles, where players control adorable chibi representations of the hero roster during the pre-battle exploration phase. A story or Episode mode is also included, complete with dramatic anime opening, animated cutscenes, motion comic-esque story panels, and various unlockables attached (mostly gallery artwork, hero costume colours, and a character I won’t spoil here) if you fancy some basic plotline with your fighting games.



With an ultra-vibrant presentation, relentlessly satisfying combat, and an impressive degree of depth for those willing to put in the time and effort, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is a title I wholeheartedly recommend – even if your interest was solely piqued by the Marvel branding and you’ve never so much as even glanced in the general direction of an arcade fighter before. I have to admit, with all the background character references and easter eggs, I’m quietly hoping they never stop adding heroes to the roster for the foreseeable future. I suppose time will tell.

PS5 Review code provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment | Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is available to purchase for R1,099