The Marvel brand and fighting games are no strangers to one another. From the classic Capcom fighters to the bizarre Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, there's something about Marvel's cast of characters that makes them a natural fit for the genre. It should come as no surprise, then, that Marvel's characters and ArcSys's impressive fighting game pedigree go together like peanut butter and jelly. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls isn't Marvel vs. Capcom 4. It's a new game with new mechanics, and it's an absolute blast to play.

Marvel Tokon one-ups Marvel vs. Capcom by being a 4v4 fighter. Players create a team of four different heroes, with one character taking the field while the others fill the roles of shooter, vertical, and assault assists. The main character fights on the battlefield and can summon allies at the touch of a button, and players can also quickly swap out the character they're controlling. Thankfully, the basic controls are very simple, sticking to fairly standard light, medium, and heavy attack buttons, along with a "unique" button for character-specific moves and an assemble button for the aforementioned assists. Special moves can be performed with traditional motion inputs or one-button modern controls.

At first blush, Marvel Tokon looks overwhelming. It's a lot to manage eight different characters, each with different moves depending on their position. The tagging mechanics add another layer of complexity, though. Each character has different assist moves, and depending on their position on the battlefield, they can perform super-armored charge attacks or counterattacks in addition to old-fashioned super moves. On top of that, players "unlock" assists during a match that increase their total health and super meters, so you don't start out at full power. It's very easy to get overwhelmed, but the game's mechanics encourage you to take things slowly and learn each element before diving into the more complex systems. You don't need to master every mechanic right away.

While Marvel Tokon is a 4-v-4 fighter, an important part of the game is that you're controlling the entire team rather than four individual characters. Your health bar is shared across the party, and it's perfectly viable to stick with a single character and use the other three as assists rather than trying to master everyone on your team. That said, it's worth learning at least one or two of your other characters, since swapping characters can offer some major advantages in a fight. Having trouble getting zoned out while playing a slow, bulky character like The Hulk? Swap to someone like Spider-Man or Blade, who can more reliably close the distance. I usually stuck with one character and their assists, so it's not necessary to swap characters, but players who master the game will want to know every character plays.

The characters feel tremendously well designed, with each one featuring distinct gimmicks that help them stand out. For example, Storm can manipulate the weather, using powerful gusts of wind to move herself or enemies around the battlefield for tricky combos and sudden gap closers. Magik can create portals that let her teleport around the map, while Danger can send out floating drones that change the properties of her moves when hit. Deadpool, one of the game's shining stars, has a mechanic built around damaging and healing himself, with taking damage changing the properties of some of his (absurdly numerous) moves.

The result is a roster where every character feels distinct and, perhaps most importantly, true to their comic-book counterparts while still carrying some anime-style flavor. I mentioned Deadpool earlier because he's an absolute delight. He stays true to his fourth-wall-breaking nature by incorporating a mishmash of moves and references to fighting games ranging from Mortal Kombat to Street Fighter: The Movie. It makes him an absolute joy to watch. Danger, meanwhile, is quite different from her comic counterpart, but that's because her moves are packed with references to various mecha shows and anime. Every character feels thoughtfully designed, with their individual quirks coming through loud and clear.

In a nice rarity for fighting games, Marvel Tokon's single-player mode is a lot of fun. It follows five teams: the Avengers, X-Men, The Amazing Guardians (Spider-Man and his pals), Samurai Outriders (a mishmash of the leftovers), and the Knights of Doom (the villains). Each team has its own comic-style storyline, presented in the semi-animated style of a motion comic, written by comic author Kieron Gillen and illustrated by a variety of famous artists, including My Hero Academia: Vigilantes artist Betten Court. The story modes follow these teams as they compete in a multiversal fighting tournament held by the somewhat obscure Marvel villain, the Champion of the Universe. Win the contest, and they get whatever their hearts desire.

It's a whole lot of fun, and I can easily see someone picking up Tokon and having a great time with its single-player campaign. It's not overly complex, but it perfectly captures the spirit of a big, goofy Marvel-style "event" comic. The variety in tone and art style across each of the main storylines does wonders for keeping them fun to play through. There's also a pretty fun Survival mode, where you can try to win 100 matches in a row, as well as an "Arcadia Rumble" mode. In it, you play a minigame using chibi versions of the cast to power up your characters before pitting those powered-up versions against one another, similar to Smash Run or City Trial.

Of course, the main draw of the game is multiplayer, and Tokon does its best to make the experience appealing to everyone. There are some incredibly in-depth tutorials featuring playable lessons and challenges that ask players to figure out how they should respond to specific situations. It's far more helpful than the canned combo instructions that typically accompany fighting games. You can even save online multiplayer replays and "take over" at specific moments to see if you can figure out how to escape a situation that otherwise bothered you. It's a fantastic experience whether you're playing solo or online.

As of this writing, the biggest problem is that the multiplayer can be inconsistent. Bad connections are probably more damaging to this game than any fighting game I can think of, with extremely awkward and sometimes buggy rollback, particularly during cross-platform play. ArcSys recently pushed out a patch that alleviated some of the worst issues, and it has helped, but I still encountered a few awkward matches. Playing on anything less than a top-notch connection can feel like a crapshoot. Hopefully, this is something that continues to improve, but it's a pretty glaring mark on an otherwise polished presentation.

Of course, a major part of that presentation is the graphics, and Tokon looks gorgeous. Its anime-inspired aesthetic works wonderfully, with each character fluidly animated, packed with vivid detail, and an absolute delight to watch in motion. The voice work is fantastic, with a combination of new actors and returning favorites (including the long-awaited return of Nolan North as Deadpool) bringing each character to life. Likewise, the music is a lot of fun, with each character getting their own song in true Guilty Gear fashion. Not every track is a hit, but some are absolutely fantastic, and I had a ton of fun hearing each character's theme.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is a top-notch fighting game. Easy to learn, complex to master, and gorgeous in action, it's pretty much everything I could have expected from a combination of Marvel and ArcSys. A surprisingly robust single-player campaign and comprehensive tutorials also help it shine, even if you're not interested in multiplayer. The game's notable online crossplay issues are the biggest thing holding it back, but patches have already started to address some of those problems. If you're a fighting game fan, Tokon is well worth checking out. For newcomers, it could be one of the best introductions to fighting games available.

Score: 8.5/10