MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls is a 4v4 tag-team fighting game developed for the PlayStation 5 and PC. But this fighting game comes with some twists you might not be expecting.
The most readily noticeable of those is the game’s sparkling graphics that blend American Marvel characters with a distinctive Japanese anime-inspired aesthetic. The game is simply cool to just look at.
Fighting Souls offers gamers a fairly extensive story adventure—called “Episode Mode”—that includes campaigns that introduce the game’s initial 20-character battle roster. (Gamemakers have promise additional DLC characters later.)
The current roster is made up of five teams of heroes, antiheroes and villains: Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk and Black Panther make up the “Fighting Avengers;” Storm, Magik, Wolverine and Danger comprise the “Unbreakable X-Men;” you have Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Star-Lord and Peni Parker of the “Amazing Guardians;” Ghost Rider, Blade, Deadpool and Loki in the “Samurai Outriders;” and then the “Knights of Doom” are made up of Doctor Doom, Magneto, Green Goblin and Carnage.
Of course, all of those characters can face off against each other in other single player and multiplayer modes, but in Episode Mode, they play as Earth’s representatives against a cosmic threat.
The anime-like stories—written entirely by Marvel comic writer Kieron Gillen—take about 10 hours to complete and center around an “elder of the universe and supreme master of martial arts” named the “Champion.”
The impossibly powered Champion has been challenging planets to send their best and bravest to face him in battle. And if those warriors lose, their world is destroyed. The aforementioned teams all take on this powerful foe in beat-‘em-up battles through five separate story arcs.
The stories are each fun and rewarding, and the battles give players experience in tag-team skirmishes. And that’s another area in which MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls changes things up a bit, as compared to other fighting titles of this stripe.
Most fighting games stick to a 2v2 or 3v3 team setup, because you must learn the differing movesets of the characters you battle with. Fighting Souls ups that clash to 4v4. And that can be challenging. But to help with that, the game gives players both a regular control scheme and a simplified one.
In other words, it allows players to begin with controls and moves that are far more approachable from the get-go. And then the game gradually unlocks the number of teammates that you can tag in. Performing specific actions—like wall breaks, stage transitions or getting knocked down in later rounds—allows your third and fourth team members to jump onto the battlefield.
It all plays out as a graduating system that can almost feel like cheating, at first, but it gives players a fun way to improve their button-crunching, muscle-memory skills and then add in more difficult special moves when they feel ready.
In the various competitive modes, the game sports a variety of linear fighting battlefields, such as the New York City streets in front of the Avengers’ building and the grounds near Professor X’s mansion. And each of those battlefield settings are packed with visual Marvel Easter eggs and vibrant colors.
MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls can be played offline in single player modes or with a friend for local battles. Up to a whopping 64 players can join an online lobby that offers things such as ranked matches, casual battles and something called an “Arcadia Rumble”—chaotic online battles against worldwide players to earn special rewards. Gamers can also set up private, custom rooms for online competitions with friends.
(It should be noted that MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls requires a purchased PlayStation Network account for online play for both the PS5 and PC play.)
MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls is fast and colorful, and it gives players a chance to play as their favorite Marvel hero or villain. Each character has a varied set of personal attacks and defenses. And these characters are also presented with their own unique personalities, sporting voice-overs reminiscent of the movie versions.
The game’s tag-in process offers players a wider variety of moves, and it gives outmatched players a chance to disrupt an attacker’s rhythm.
Fighting games also tend to sport battle intros where players growl out threats against one another. But some of the characters in Fighting Souls are quite nice to one another. When Ms. Marvel and Peni Parker meet, for instance, Ms. Marvel gushes over Peni’s robotic helper: “Totally awesome robot!” Peni replies, “Arigato, Ms. Marvel-san. Your scarf’s cool, too.”
MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls is, above all else, a fighting game. And while this T-rated title doesn’t sport a lot of messiness, there are some light splashes of blood amidst the game’s bright contact flashes, explosions, lightning strikes, various weapon slashes and slow-motion effects. Some of the Episode cutscenes also show some battered characters with torn costumes and bloody wounds.
As is common with superhero comics, you’ll see female characters in tight, form-fitting costumes that are sometimes very low cut and bare cleavage.
This game is rated T, but it still sports a bit of rough language from time to time. Characters may call out: “I’m gonna kick your a–!” or “Aw, h— no!” Other crudities include the s-word and “a–hole.”
(It should also be noted that the “Fighting Souls” of the title doesn’t refer to anything spiritual within the game itself. Some of the characters have magical or supernatural-like abilities while in battle, but the title is a translation of the Japanese word tōkon, which translates to “fighting spirit” or “fighting soul.”)
MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls has some excellent visuals and some new fighting mechanics that make the battling more easily accessible for beginners. Hey, even people who don’t like fighting games can enjoy the anime-like splash of Fighting Souls.
However, this is still a fighting game at its heart, and some rough language can further push it out of the family-friendly zone.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
