Marvel, Arc System WorksArc System Works, the studio behind games like Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ, has joined forces with Marvel to release a new fighting game featuring the franchise’s top heroes and villains.
While fans might be wondering about the future of the Marvel vs Capcom franchise, Arc System Works has picked up slack in the interim with a new 2D fighting game featuring characters from the beloved comic brand.
Here’s everything we know about the game so far, including its release date, platforms and character roster as revealed at the June 2025 PlayStation State of Play.
When is MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls coming out?
Marvel’s forthcoming fighting game is set to release in 2026, but no specific date has been revealed at the time of publication.
It isn’t yet clear if the upcoming Evo showcase will give us a real release date beyond that, although it’ll surely include some more information about the game.
What platforms is MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls available on?
MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls is coming to the PlayStation 5 and PC.
YouTube: PlayStationEvo Gameplay Showcase
It’s been confirmed that Marvel TOKON: Fighting Souls will be playable first at Evo 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. An early build of the game will be on the show floor, with people getting to try the game out for themselves.
This build will only have 6 characters on it, so it’ll be a fairly basic representation of the final product. However, a lot about the game’s mechanics can be weaned from the few early screenshots we have.
MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls mechanics
This particular MARVEL fighting game is a 4v4 fighting game, meaning you can call in assists during combat. However, it’s not a typical tag fighter.
Marvel fighting games have historically used tag-team mechanics, as seen in the Marvel vs Capcom series. In Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, players duked it out in teams of three.
In Tokon, you’ve got 4 fighters on your team tied to one health bar. You only start the match controlling your lead fighter, and the rest of your roster must be unlocked mid-match by winning a round, landing a throw, or knocking your opponent into a new stage section. This adds a layer of strategy to who you put in your first backup slot.
The game is designed so you only need to master one character to have fun, but you can still enjoy stylish assists and swaps from the rest of your team. When you swap during an assist, unique animations and character interactions trigger, which includes everything from high-fives to banter like Storm calling Star-Lord “Quill.”
Each assist has to be unlocked by going through a stage transition, giving you an extra charge on the gauge and allowing you to gradually unlock your roster as the round goes on.
Here’s a breakdown of the unique tag gameplay mechanics.
- Link Attack: Pressing light attack 4 times will summon every assist character you have on your roster for a finisher. You can also pull this off by doing 3 hits of a different attack type and ending with a light.
- Assist 1: Assist button + forward
- Assist 2: Assist button + down
- Assist 3: Assist button + back
- Note: Assists can be used in the air, and assists have the following properties regardless of the character in the slot:
- Assist 1 is a projectile
- Assist 2 is an anti air
- Assist 3 is a character’s special attack
- For example, Dr. Doom’s would be his forward-facing projectile shield
- Note: Assists can be used in the air, and assists have the following properties regardless of the character in the slot:
- Swapping: Holding assist will allow you to swap places with an ally instantly. Alternatively, you can wait for them to deploy their assist and then swap in during a small window after their attack.
- Assemble Rush: Pressing assist when an attack hits will use 1 bar of the assist gauge, but it’ll allow you to extend ground combos or create opportunities to catch your opponent’s timings
- Quick Assemble: This is an overhead that’s great for mixing people who are sitting in crouch. You can dump your assist gauge on this attack to send in more and more allies to follow up, giving you potential for up to 3 additional attacks once you land the first hit. Alternatively, you can force a stage transition at any point to get some assist gauge back.
- You can also use this move midair, and it will go through projectiles
- Assemble Counter: You can use this when getting hit and it essentially acts as a parry. It’s a hard callout with a ton of recovery frames and also costs 1 bar of your assist gauge. High risk, high reward.
- Super Assemble: Allows you to call in allies to use their supers once you land the first one. The last character to do their super will remain as the main fighter.
- Crossover: You can call in an ally to interrupt the opponent’s combo while you’re blocking. However, the opponent can do a counter crossover and do one of their own.
Controls are straightforward: Square, Triangle, and Circle handle light, medium, and heavy attacks. X is the Assemble button, L1 is a quick dash, L2 triggers Quick Assemble, and R1/R2 activate your unique attack and Quick Skills. The Assemble button adapts assists to the situation.
That just covers the tag mechanics and doesn’t even get into the unique kits for each fighter. You can watch ArcSys’ full breakdown below to get the gist of everything that you’ll have to learn in order to get a full grasp on Tokon’s combat.
MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls characters
While we only know who will be in the game based on the trailer, the characters shown off so far include:
- Captain America
- Ms. Marvel
- Ghost Rider
- Iron Man
- Starlord
- Doctor Doom
- Spider-Man
- Storm
That’s everything we know about Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls so far. However, we’re sure to get more information about the title from Evo this year.
