Arc System Works and PlayStation just announced a brand new 4v4 tag-team assist-based fighting game called MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls. “How is this happening?” I kept asking myself every second that passed. I was staring at the Japanese-inspired design of Captain America and Iron Man (complete with Gundam eye-wings) duking it out in a fully realized, gorgeous art style. Seriously… how is this happening?
With the recent releases of Capcom’s fighting game collections, I was sure that they were hinting at a Marvel Vs. Capcom 4. I mean… isn’t that an obvious thing to think? They finally freed Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, as well as all the previous MVC titles… so how is this happening? I can’t stop asking myself that question.
This time, Arc System Works is taking the reins, and PlayStation has stepped in to publish it. That means this game is going to have an immense budget, and it’s going to be ridiculously Japanese, which is precisely how I like my fighting games.
Okay, let’s talk characters – we’ve got:
Captain America
Iron Man
Spider-Man
Doctor Doom
Ms. Marvel
Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes)
Star-Lord
Storm
That’s a pretty spectacular starting eight. We’ve got Avengers, we’ve got X-Men, we’ve got Fantastic Four, we’ve got Guardians of the Galaxy. That is such a crazy amount of inclusion! If we take a look back at Marvel Vs Capcom Infinite, we didn’t have any X-Men reps, and Doctor Doom was missing entirely. If you’ve played any of the previous MVC games, you know that characters like Wolverine, Storm, Magneto, Sentinel, etc., have always been a core part of those games. Doctor Doom has also been such a ginormous part of the MVC legacy, as he has always been a top-tier character and seen as a must-include character. The fact that we will finally be able to have these characters back in our hands makes me feel giddy beyond belief.
I had over a couple of thousand hours in Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, and the feeling I got watching the trailer for MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls filled me with a joy I haven’t felt in a fighting game since 2011 when UMVC3 dropped.
Arc System’s producer, Takeshi Yamanaka, had a great deal to say about character inclusion. “First and foremost, we wanted to include characters who we feel to be the ‘face’ of Marvel. At the same time, we also needed to select characters that would give us a balance of battle types and styles. Lastly, we wanted to sprinkle in a few surprises and leave room for characters who have never been playable in a fighting game before.” It’s that last sentence that really excites me. I have always dreamed about seeing characters like Loki, Doctor Octopus, Baron Zemo, Scarlet Witch and Hela in a Marvel fighting game. Now, given movies, meme culture, and television, you could argue that each of those characters could be the current (and future) faces of Marvel. The fact that I currently live in a world where I could get some of my dream characters in a game like this blows my mind. Maybe we could also get Ant-Man as a “how did they make that work?” Maybe Howard The Duck? I’m probably asking for too much, but oh my god, I wish.
The team over at Arc System Works have also acknowledged that learning four characters to play the game could be a daunting task, but they are assuring players that you only need to learn how to play one. Apparently, there is a way to be a lab-monster and learn every character, and there’s also a way to be a one-trick pony with any character of your choice. Personally, I will be learning every character I can, because I love experimentation with team compositions. Learning how to implement assists into your combos to maximize damage is the most fun part of tag-team fighting games for me. The trailer also shows multiple assists happening at once, which is not typical in these games. I can’t wait to see what professional fighting game players do when they get their hands on this game.
So what does this mean for the future of the Marvel Vs. Capcom series? There’s absolutely no chance this game could exist in the same world as Marvel Vs. Capcom 4. Just with licensing alone, it doesn’t make any logical sense to expect another MVC title any time soon. We can assume that this Tōkon will have several years of support, especially if it does well. Which, let’s be honest, fighting game fans have been clamouring for a new Marvel fighting game. This has the potential to be Arc System’s biggest game ever. Given how big Marvel and Arc System Works are right now, there is no chance that this game doesn’t go gangbusters. But does that mean that the future of that series is dead? They usually say, “Nothing ever stays dead.” This likely pushed MVC4 back another decade. But if this game is as good as it looks, then I just might be okay with moving on.
