PLATFORM: PC, PS5 (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Developed by Arc System Works (the people behind beloved fighting games like BlazBlue, Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ), Marvel Tokon is a 4v4 tag fighter that shakes up the familiar tag formula popularised by games like Capcom vs Marvel in an attempt to make the notoriously complex genre more accessible to casual players.
Rather than relying on complicated control schemes with hundreds of different button inputs for each of the game’s 20 fighters, each of Tokon‘s characters are controlled in exactly the same way (although they do all perform different attacks and specials). Moving and blocking sticks with the tried and tested D-pad inputs, but your standard and special moves are performed by pressing single directions on the D-pad or thumbstick in conjunction with various face buttons. While this simplifies things massively, the tutorial alone gives an almost overwhelming amount of tips and tricks that casual players are likely to be overwhelmed by, and that’s before we even get into the more specific Battle Guides and Character Lessons that delve deeper into the fighting mechanics both in general and for each individual playable character.
Diverting from the accepted tag fighting formula even further, Tokon‘s battles begin as 2v2 fights and your team expands when you perform “Breaks” (attacks that launch your opponent into another area of the stage) during each match until you reach a full team of four fighters. While your main character is in action, your team mates are available to provide quick backup attacks, and you can also tag each one into (or out of) the fight any time. There are further opportunities for adding a touch of strategy by placing your squad members into specific leader, shooter, vertical and assault roles, although randomly selecting your favourites and button mashing your way to victory is still a perfectly viable option. Between the deceptively simple control scheme and the vast amount of possibilities for assembling your perfect team, Tokon manages to be perfectly accessible for those less au fait with fighting games but also contains more than enough nuances to keep veterans of the genre occupied.
Single-player matches can be fought against either the CPU or a second local player in the game’s Versus mode, or you can head online to fight other players in casual or ranked battles. A five-episode single-player campaign follows the characters as they face off against a new threat to earth, and the unusual Arcadia Rumble party mode challenges you to take control of a cute little chibi version of your favourite fighter and compete against either the CPU or up to 8 online players in a 3D environment filled with all manner of hazards, power ups and other gimmicks. During these matches, you’ll also enter standard 2D fights where each bout lasts for 60 seconds and your stats are based on your performance within the current Rumble match, with the winner being whoever earns the most knockouts. After three rounds of exploration and two battles, the Rumble ends and the player with the most points in total is declared the overall victor. A bit like an insane comic book cross between Smash Bros and Call of Duty, it makes for a fun diversion from the 2D brawling. Elsewhere, in the All-Star Arena, you can challenge a series of opponents through multiple courses, each containing different branching paths and opponents within them, or take on a Survival mode where you face a series of opponents with your health bar carrying over between fights. Tricky against just standard foes, it’s made even more difficult by the appearance of Enhanced bosses, but you can at least save your progress after each defeated boss to make it slightly easier to work your way through to the end.
At launch, 20 characters (including most of the main eventers as well as a handful of the lesser-utilised names) and 8 stage locations are included, with more to be added over the coming months as paid DLC. Of the currently available content, everything is beautifully animated from the characters themselves and their flashy attacks to the stunningly detailed stage backgrounds that take us from NYC to the X-Mansion, Savage Land, Asgard, Wakanda, Knowhere. Some issues have been raised with the game’s PC performance, so Steam users might want to check for updates to see how things are progressing there, but the PS5 version showed no problems at all during this review, with everything working exactly as intended. An excellent package that welcomes both newcomers and fighting game veterans, Marvel Tokon is well worth adding to any fighting game fan’s collection.
