Fighting Souls is the Fighting Game Revival Nobody Expected

After a long and fruitful State of Play on June 4, 2025, Sony ended its Summer Game Fest conference with a game that came out of left field. Created by the team of Sony, Marvel Games, and Arc System Works, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is a new Marvel fighting game coming to PlayStation 5 and PC in 2026. Although the developer interview afterward noted that the game was still in production, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls already looks like a promising merger of Arc System Works’ signature anime fighter stylings with Marvel’s roster of famed superheroes.

It looks like a merger of other things too, as Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls seems positioned as the direct successor to the Marvel vs. Capcom series, which recently returned via one of Capcom’s arcade game collections. This game expands the tag-team gameplay that Capcom’s Marvel crossovers pioneered into competing teams of four fighters, something no other tag fighter has attempted before. Even if promises of simply playing as a lead character with three assists hold true, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is breaking new ground in the Marvel fighting game space, and that makes its existence all the more shocking.

Marvel Rivals Marvel Tokon Two Sides Same Coin

How Marvel Rivals and Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls are Two Sides of the Same Coin

Aside from their shared IP, Marvel Rivals and the recently announced game, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, are clearly two complementary halves.

The State of Marvel Fighting Games Before Marvel Tokon

Those unaware of the history that created Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls may be confused about why it got top billing in the State of Play, especially right after Ghost of Yotei teased a gameplay reveal in July. For lack of a better word, this game’s existence feels impossible, to the point where its premise has been joked about for years. Marvel fighting game fans form some of the most passionate communities in the wider FGC, but they’re also just now emerging from a decade where Capcom-made Marvel games felt like they had come to multiple tragic ends.

Marvel vs. Capcom Was Marvel’s Best, But Couldn’t Last

In contrast to their widespread love today, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 suffered a rough reception at launch. MvC2 was just because of how different its new 3v3 format and unusual presentation were, but the launch of the expanded Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, less than a year after vanilla MvC3, really soured some players. Relatively low sales quickly cut off the game’s support, and that would repeat a few years later with the even more controversial launch of Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite. Opinions have risen since, but outlooks on official sequels remain grim.

How Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Brought Marvel Fighting Games Back

Arc System Works Was Perfectly Positioned To Work On Marvel

However, the other side of this tale belongs to Arc System Works, a Japanese fighting game developer that’s smaller than Capcom, but rising in fame with each licensed and original hit it lands. While pushing ahead with its Guilty Gear series, ASW partnered with Bandai Namco to create Dragon Ball FighterZ, a tag fighter directly inspired by UMvC3. It wasn’t the first or the last imitator, but it’s currently the most successful, and is partially responsible for the FGC rejecting Marvel Infinite when they ended up advertising side-by-side. Since DBFZ ended its support, fans expected either a sequel or another Shonen Jump fighter to come from ASW next.

What no one expected was Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, a spiritual successor to not only FighterZ and UMvC3, but Marvel Infinite as well. Capcom fighting game fans have long theorized about the company partnering with Arc System Works to make a new Darkstalkers, reasoning that its medium-pushing 3D animation would be perfect for the cartoonish fighting franchise. Marvel opting to contact ASW about an MvC equivalent through Sony was out of the question, especially with rumors of a NetherRealm Studios Marvel game on one side, and Capcom’s MvC Collection hinting about future plans on the other. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls caught everyone by surprise, but Marvel fighting game fans couldn’t be happier.