I attended a preview event for PlayStation and Arc System Works’ upcoming fighting game, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, and let me tell you, there was no shortage of trepidation and anxiety on my end. While the game did catch my eye when it was first announced back in 2025, all that flashiness and pretty art weren’t enough to stop me in my tracks. Would I really be able to enjoy this game as someone whose only fighting game experience is limited to Tekken 2 on the PS1, where I won against my cousins by repeatedly spin kicking them to death as Jin?
Well, if you’re reading this, obviously the answer is yes. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is touted as a beginner-friendly game that’s easy to pick up, hard to master. You know the drill. The fighting game genre is already as niche as they come; with the simple controls and beautiful art style, this has quickly become one of the most accessible and widely appealing fighting games I’ve played.
In the new build that I played, I got to go hands-on with Magneto and also check out the brand new New York – Night stage. Just like the other levels that have already been shown off in Marvel Tokon, the New York stage is highly interactive, and you have the ability to grab and slam opponents through walls, unlocking an entirely different part of the stage.
Magneto himself proved to be a great character for beginners to start with as well. While he may feel a little slow and tankier compared with other faces on the roster, Magneto more than makes up for that with his ranged abilities. As I would soon find out, ranged characters can be extremely annoying to deal with in Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls. While Magneto is able to get up close and personal to physically beat the crap out of you, his abilities include being able to summon a magnetic storm from across the screen, and also conjure up random pieces of metallic junk to hurl at you.
The beauty of Marvel Tokon is that the controls are extremely easy to learn. There’s a dedicated face button for light, medium, and heavy attacks, and pressing any one of them in succession will allow you to perform a quick combo. With Magneto, it didn’t take long at all before I realized I could cheese my way through a lot of the fights against the bots by simply stun-locking them with some combination of ranged attacks.
Of course, the real fun begins when you start utilizing your entire team. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is a 4v4 fighting game that, despite what it might sound like on the surface, doesn’t feel overwhelming at all. At the start of each fight, you can choose up to four characters on your team, but you’ll only have access to two of them in the first round. For each round you lose, another member becomes available, making your assist attacks more powerful, while also giving you more options in terms of playable characters in a match.
You’ll only be able to hit the Assemble button to get your whole team together if you’re on the verge of losing, and I found this design decision to be uncharacteristically beginner-friendly, which I really appreciated. While it won’t completely tip the scales in your favor, it’s clear that Arc System Works wanted matches to feel a bit more balanced. Because of this little change, it’s rare that you’ll ever have one player get completely thrashed, unless of course there’s a massive gap in skill level.
I realize that I’m making this game sound incredibly easy, but it’s worth pointing out that while the controls may be simple, you really need to nail down the timing of your moves to master everything Marvel Tokon has to offer. Simply button-mashing will only get you so far; you certainly won’t get away with it when playing against real opponents, as I quickly found out when I went up against a fellow journalist during the play session.
There are Crossovers, Crossover Reflects, Assemble Counters, and so much more to play around with during a match. It all requires you to watch your Assist gauge carefully, and timing them properly in order to get your team members in to help and turn the tide. Again, I’m no fighting game expert, but from what I saw in the demo, it’s obvious that even hardcore genre fans will find a lot to sink their teeth into.
I will say that the pure melee characters do feel quite a bit weaker in my experience, though it’s entirely possible that I’m simply not skilled enough to get the most out of them. In particular, I’m a big fan of Magik as a character, but even trying to learn her move set proved to be quite the challenge in my hour and a half of playtime. Magik primarily deals damage by swinging around a giant sword, but she’s also able to create portals to jump in and out of to surprise her opponents. In my experience, opening those portals felt just a little bit too sluggish and I never quite felt like I had the opportunity to use her at her fullest potential. If I’m being honest, it’s probably a skill issue on my part, but even from a beginner’s perspective, it’s clear that ranged characters will likely have an advantage.
At the end of the day, though, this has really just made me that much more excited to check out Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls when it releases in August. I love what Arc System Works has done with the graphical style, and with a story mode to look forward to in a brand new Marvel timeline, Marvel Tokon has everything I could possibly want from a fighting game as a beginner.
