It was recently revealed that Arc System Works is involved with the development of a new Marvel fighting game known as Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls. Uniquely, it’s established to be a 4v4 team fighting game whereas the Marvel vs. Capcom series and other games like it (such as Dragon Ball FighterZ) are known to be 3v3 fighters.
Of course, we can’t help but think that PlayStation and Arc System Works are swooping in to snatch Capcom’s metaphorical pie that is the Marvel vs. Capcom series with this big announcement. It also feels like that may be also be a theme with Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls’ roster selection.
The characters revealed thus far are Captain America, Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, Star-Lord, Ghost Rider, Doctor Doom and Storm. In other words, the only characters that don’t also have a connection to the Marvel vs. Capcom series right now are Star-Lord and Ms. Marvel (not to be confused with Captain Marvel from Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite).
Characters like Captain America, Iron Man and Spider-Man are far too iconic to not include in a crossover Marvel game, so it makes sense why they were included. While Dr. Doom has proven to be an integral part of Marvel vs. Capcom’s identity as well, he’s about to become especially important anyhow due to the upcoming film, Avengers: Doomsday.
Ghost Rider feels like a bit of an oddball pick in general, but he certainly does offer something unique for the roster of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls. Thanks to his chain, he’s expected to have some of the longest-ranged pokes in the entire game.
However, it’s Storm that feels like the most interesting addition. While she is iconic in her own right, it feels like, as a representative of the X-Men, there probably could’ve been more recognizable characters that could’ve been chosen to be revealed first such as Wolverine or Cyclops.
Storm’s iconic status mostly hails from the Marvel vs. Capcom series itself. Her securing a top tier placement in the meta within Marvel vs. Capcom 2 feels like an especially relevant factor with regards to this.
As such, it seems like Arc System Works may have deliberately chose Storm in hopes of attracting fans of the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise. Honestly, this occurs as a smart and subtle advertising strategy.
It’s possible that we may see other characters that are iconic especially within Marvel vs. Capcom. With that in mind, it’s likely that we may see characters like Magneto and Sentinel also show up.
Again, this would be a subtle business strategy on the part of the developers to include these sort of characters. Without directly saying anything themselves, it would get the fighting game community chattering about their inclusions.
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is slated to be released on the PlayStation 5 and PC sometime in 2026. We’ll just have to see if these kind of characters end up making their way into the game along the way.