It has been a minute since we had a fighting game that Marvel fans could get excited about. Sorry, Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite! Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls appeared during Summer Game Fest and the hype is real.
Its trailer is brimming with the frenetic energy of past Marvel fighters, but will evolve under the capable eye of Arc System Works, best known for games such as Guilty Gear and BlazBlue. One of their first decisions was how many fighters to include.
Game Director and Lead Battle Designer Kazuto Sekine told the PlayStation Blog after careful consideration, 4v4 was the way to go.
"Team VS fighting games have a long tradition of 2v2 or 3v3 team formats, so this is something we discussed in-depth within the development team," Sekine said. "We went back and forth many times, from thinking we might be better off making a 1v1 game or sticking to the established 3v3 format.
"At its core, we felt that the appeal of team VS fighting games is the intensity of battles with multiple characters on screen at once. Additionally, one of the appeals of Marvel comics is seeing the vast cast of characters coming together to create all kinds of unique team-ups.”
“With these two ideas in mind, we concluded that creating a 4v4 team VS system would be the best way to not only create those over-the-top moments, but to further evolve the tag fighting genre.”
While there may be four characters on your team, the game is designed for you to feel like you're only maining one character. Players can perform a variety of actions with simple inputs, or more traditional fighting inputs. Arc System Works envisions Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls as a game anyone can pick up and play, yet it will still offer enough meat for high-level competitors.
Confirmed characters so far include Captain America, (You better not make a Marvel fighter without him!) Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Doom, Storm, Ms. Marvel, Star-Lord, and Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes).
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is slated for a 2026 release.