How Marvel Tokon’s Iron Man Design Compares to Marvel Rivals’

The recent State of Play announced Arc System Works’ collaboration with Marvel Games for the new fighting game Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls. Arc System Works is known for its stylish anime fighters, and from the reveal trailer, it’s clear that Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is not being left out in this regard.

Along with this refreshing new style for Marvel’s heroes, they have all been redesigned to fit the developer’s past projects. Like another Marvel game that was released recently, Marvel Rivals’ character designs have become a point of comparison. Iron Man was one of the first characters revealed in Marvel Tokon, and his appearance differs drastically from his Marvel Rivals counterpart.

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The Unique Influences of Marvel Tokon’s Iron Man

Marvel Tokon’s design sensibilities feel distinct from Arc System Works’ previous titles, feeling at home alongside Guilty Gear and BlazBlue. It’s easy to compare Marvel Tokon with Dragon Ball FighterZ, but where they differ is the latter’s dedication to the source material, frequently making references to the anime and often replicating panels from the manga exactly. Instead, Marvel Tokon takes a unique approach, offering a fresh look for the characters without losing their identity.

Iron Man’s appearance in Marvel Tokon is striking. The suit is familiar and still recognizable as Tony Stark, though it strays away from its comic counterpart in an interesting way. In particular, the suit’s design seems to take inspiration from Japanese superhero shows like Kamen Rider and Tiger & Bunny, as well as mecha anime series like Gundam. This gives Iron Man a distinct look for Marvel Tokon without straying too far from its roots.

Most Iron Man suits stick to a red and gold color scheme – Marvel Rivals included – but Marvel Tokon strays away from this, adding silver accents. While less common, this is still a color scheme used in some Iron Man armor. Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies might draw similarities between Marvel Tokon’s design and the Mark XLVI armor from Captain America: Civil War. Since the trailer opened up with Iron Man facing off against Captain America, it’s possible that Civil War’s Mark XLVI was an influence.

Marvel Rivals Evolved Iron Man’s Classic Design

Marvel Rivals instead takes a different design approach, keeping very faithful to the existing designs fans are familiar with while still pushing the characters’ looks further. Some of the characters feature bold changes to their looks to emphasize their unique traits. This makes Marvel Rival’s character designs very appealing without losing the sense of the character.

In comparison to Marvel Tokon, Marvel Rivals’ take on Iron Man stays very true to his movie and comic counterparts, but exaggerates his recognizable features. Specifically, the arc reactor, which has become an iconic part of Iron Man’s design, is much larger in Marvel Rivals, giving this aspect of the character much more focus. This also lends itself well to how Iron Man plays in Marvel Rivals, as it makes his Unibeam much more imposing, as well as making the ability more readable from a gameplay standpoint. This is in contrast to the arc reactor used by Marvel Tokon’s Iron Man, which is much smaller and resembles the v-fins found on many Gundam mobile suits.

Marvel Rivals’ Iron Man continues a trend popularized by the MCU, which is the use of nanotech. Using this tech, Tony Stark is able to materialize weapons for use in combat, as can be seen in his Maximum Pulse ultimate ability. The connection to his Marvel Cinematic Universe iteration is emphasized by Marvel Rivals’ Avengers: Endgame skin, which similarly uses nanotech. This is in stark contrast to Marvel Tokon which uses a much more mechanical design akin to some of Iron Man’s earlier suits.

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How Iron Man’s Look in Marvel Tokon Differs From Rivals

The main point of contrast between the designs is their influence. From the Marvel Tokon gameplay shown at State of Play, the original comic book looks are not forgotten, but built upon to fit the style of the game. In the background of one stage, a statue of the silver age Avengers designs can be seen, proving that the past is not forgotten. However, its tokusatsu and anime inspirations are very apparent, and fitting of what players would expect of an Arc System Works Marvel title. Marvel Rivals takes an alternative approach, aiming to stay true to the iconic established designs while still injecting a unique flair to fit the style of the game.

Marvel Rivals’ Timestream Entanglement also gives reason for the variety of its character designs. Many of its cast are from different universes and timelines that have collided, explaining why many have opposing aesthetics, as well as giving a canon reason for the game’s many skins. While the storyline of Marvel Tokon remains unknown, it seems as though its characters belong to the same universe, judging by their complimentary designs. With the style used by Arc System Works in the previous games and from the initial Marvel Tokon trailer, Iron Man’s design fits with the style of the rest of the current roster, whereas Marvel Rivals’ take is purposely unique.

Despite their differences, Marvel Tokon and Marvel Rivals share similarities too, and this extends into their character designs. Even though both of the titles aim to take a different approach to creating distinctive variants of their characters to fit their respective games, they both ensure that their interpretations remain faithful to the versions that fans know and love. This extends to Iron Man; side-by-side, it is clear that the design philosophies and cultural influences of both iterations are complete opposites, and yet, they both manage to capture the essence of the character.

Fighting game fans can look forward to the release of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls in 2026, and in the meantime, they can enjoy the team-based combat of Marvel Rivals. With Insomniac’s Spider-Man design appearing in Marvel Rivals as a skin for the character, there is a chance that players could expect Iron Man’s Marvel Tokon design to also appear in the future.