Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls Declares Fighting Game War With Capcom

Arc System Works just dropped the most hyped fighting game-related announcement of the year. Arc System Works, the maker of anime-style fighting games like Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball Fighter Z, has officially thrown its hat into the Marvel fighting game arena. In an unexpected trailer drop, the developer released a trailer for Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls, a 4v4 team fighter. This is sure to spark a competitive rivalry with Capcom, which has historically blazed trails with its Marvel vs Capcom series. Is Arc System Works trying to challenge Capcom for the fighting game crown with this move?

Capcom’s Most Recent Marvel Titles Fell Flat

Marvel fighting games have a long and rich history. The characters from the Marvel comics are both recognisable and easily adaptable into fighting game movesets. The character selection screen becomes an effective “what if” scenario generator as players can mix and match their favorite heroes into any combination of battles and have rivals, allies, and enemies face off to their heart’s content. There is possibly no fighting game more significant in the history of the genre than Marvel vs Capcom 2: A New Age of Heroes. Truly, the apex of the franchise, as things would go downhill from there.

The Marvel vs Capcom series as a whole, however, has needed a revival for many years, though. The third entry in the series is infamous for its unfair and one-sided competitive level play. The latest official entry in the series, Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite, is a well-known flop.

Not only was Infinite still horribly balanced, but fans also found it hard to get on board with the way they made characters look in the game. Fans have heavily modded Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite, making it an almost entirely different game, especially from a visual perspective. Those same fans have also been clamoring for a Marvel vs Capcom 4 for close to a decade now, and this announcement makes it seem like Arc System Works is going to beat them to it.

Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls Trailer Highlights Artistic Direction

The trailer starts with two of the most iconic Marvel characters, Iron Man and Captain America, redesigned for this game in an awesome anime style. The two fighters begin to face off in a blazing spectacle of flashing lights and signature moves inside the Tokon Fighting Souls game. As more of the cast are teased and join the fight, you notice that artistic liberties were taken in some very cool ways for this game.

Many of the characters look like they have been strapped with high-tech armor similar to something out of a mech fighting anime. Other characters like Spider-Man just got an updated look with a modern urban direction. The Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls exclusive designs stay true to the themes of the characters and pay homage to the comic books that made them household names without trying to match them point for point.

This artistic direction is a calculated gamble, I think. People love the iconic costumes and looks from past decades. However, trying to mix the styles of the 80s and 90s, and sometimes earlier, into a fighting game that is supposed to be on the cutting edge of gaming technology doesn’t translate well to the audience. This possibly was the case with Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite,  where the graphics weren’t sloppy, fans just felt like they didn’t “look right”.

Final Thoughts

Maybe I’m speaking too soon on this one. Maybe I have the veiled perspective of rose colored glasses. I really believe this is a monumental and historic announcement for fighting game history. My hope for Marvel Tokon is that it can create a competitive economy between the top developers as opposed to one company forming an effective monopoly, like they have seemed to do in other genres like sports games.

I am still hopeful for Marvel vs Capcom 4. I hope that Capcom and Arc System Works will have to fight for audience attention, and the result will be some great games for us to play. Hopefully, Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls will be the first of these games because the trailer was honestly mind-blowing.