Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls hands-on experience at Evo 2025 shows promise

Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls has been getting a lot of buzz at Evo 2025 and beyond, Arc System Work’s latest title that brings Marvel heroes and villains into a 2D style fighter.

Esports Insider got to play the highly anticipated game at Evo 2025, learning a bit more about the mechanics and visuals that make the game stand out.

At Evo 2025, I was given the opportunity to play a few matches of Marvel Tōkon against Reed Baird, Senior Producer at XDev at PlayStation Studios. He was much better at me than the game but held back to give me time to learn some of the mechanics and experience its various elements.

While Marvel Tōkon is partially inspired by Arc System Works many fighting game titles, Baird said they wanted to offer something completely different to the fighting game community.

What I noticed right away is that Marvel Tōkon is a much more team-focused game than other tag-team fighters, even including Marvel vs. Capcom 3. That’s because Marvel Tōkon includes one single health bar for all four of the heroes you play. This really emphasises the team dynamics as you swap out fighters or pull one out for a powerful combo, part of the Assemble system.

As previously revealed in a beginner’s guide, you start with just two of your four characters, but additional heroes are unlocked when you break walls. You are notified when they become available with a dramatic, quick cutscene.

While I didn’t really learn anything new about the gameplay during my time at Evo 2025, I got a hands-on feel for the game that left a pretty big impression. The game felt satisfying, with powerful, visually stunning moves and punishing combos that had the opponent tumbling through the streets of New York. It felt much less stiff than Street Fighter 6 and Marvel vs. Capcom and a lot more approachable for beginners.

There are simplified controls for new players, but I didn’t even have to use them. The movesets felt very intuitive if you’ve ever played a fighting game before, similar to Soul Calibur but not as free-flowing and with shorter combos. It definitely didn’t feel as discouraging as 2XKO and you can pull off Ultimates and other powerful specials. Plus it’s easy to read all of the bars on the screen and know what’s ready to use.

What stood out to me immediately while playing Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls was the visuals. Managing the menus felt intuitive and each screen felt very clean, bold, and stylish. That’s because the game takes inspiration from comics, with Baird telling me that the goal was to blend Japanese manga aesthetics with America’s superhero obsession.

To bring that comic theme to the forefront, each fighter doesn’t only have attacks inspired by their comic book counterpart but lines of dialogue between one another that show their relationships and personality. There are also plenty of Marvel easter eggs hidden throughout each level, which have three stages each to choose from.

I asked Baird if there would also be a story or game lore that explains why the Marvel characters have all assembled in the game, and was told that he couldn’t speak on this aspect. To me, it seems very likely that this is going to be revealed in the future but it can’t be confirmed.

What is for certain, however, is that more heroes and villains will be added to the roster. The demo only included six, which isn’t much for a 4v4 game. This is something the devs are well aware of and Baird noted that there will be plenty more characters joining the roster.

When it comes to choosing characters, every developer has their own favourites they hope to bring into the game, but the team has to ensure that every character that’s added is very different from the existing roster. This is vital in a game with four characters per team.

This is an issue in Marvel Rivals, a hero shooter where a few of the characters heavily overlap in moveset and style.

There is currently no official timeline for characters coming to the roster — and no set release date. For now, the FGC will have to wait until 2026 for a full release. However, there may be gameplay opportunities before then if others want to experience the game for themselves.