Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls Could be More Niche Than You Think

Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls Could Be More Niche Than You Think

Only true fans know who the heck Danger is.

“Who was this game made for?” This question generally shakes out one of two ways. There’s the “we hope that literally everyone on Earth likes this game enough to buy it” direction, and then there’s the “we hope that a smaller, more passionate group of people absolutely love this thing enough to both financially support it and champion it to others” pole. But no one ultimately can control who their audience is, or how broad their appeal may be. Just look at this summer’s box office returns. No one would have expected the latest Star Wars movie to have more niche appeal than a low-budget horror film, but that’s 2026 for you. These days, anything goes.

Even the Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t been immune to this paradigm shift. The last few MCU films have performed about half as well as their direct predecessors did. Even Spider-Man, who has been one of Sony/Disney’s most consistently successful movie stars, is expected to make about $50 million less in the opening weekend with his next movie than he did the last one. But don’t think that means that the Spider-train will stop chugging—especially in the video game space, where the ol’ web-head has become one of PlayStation’s key console exclusives. And that goes a long way toward explaining why Sony and Arc Systems Works’ upcoming fighter, Marvel Tōkon Souls, includes a whopping five representatives of the Spider-side of Marvel on its roster.

It’s hard to say if bolstering the Spider-brand by tilting the game’s playable characters in that direction will help or backfire, especially when you see who the specific reps from Peter Parker’s camp are. Spider-Man’s there, of course, but instead of Miles Morales or Ben “Spider-Noir” Reilly as the co-lead for the Spider-team, Tōkon Souls gives us Penny Parker, a girl who commands a mech with Spider-Man powers. Then there’s Venom (who is basically a big, wet, muscular Spider-Man with a black “suit” and sharp teeth) and Carnage (basically Venom but smaller and redder). Finally, to cap it off, you have Green Goblin, Spider-Man’s arc nemesis, who doesn’t register on most folks’ radar outside the context of Willem Dafoe and/or intense widow’s-peak hairlines.

Giving an outsized number of slots to the Spider-gang may be narrowing the game’s target audience to tightly onto Spider-fans, but it’s actually one of the less alienating choices made around the game so far. Tōkon is a 2D fighting game, which has become more and more of an “enthusiasts-only” genre as years have gone by. It’s also a game that, due to its Marvel theming, will beg comparisons to Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, two titles that are yet to be dethroned as the top superhero fighting games in their respective weight classes (bitmap- and polygon-based graphics, respectively). To confuse matters more, anyone expecting Tōkon to be a potential successor to the Marvel Vs. Capcom franchise is bound to be disappointed, as it plays more like Arc’s own Guilty Gear. Oh, and it won’t initially be available on PC in 132 countries. That’s a tough Spider-nut to swallow for a lot of people, especially those who like having a global pool of competitors to play against.

In short, unless you have a PS5, really love Guilty Gear, and also really love Marvel, then at this point, you might not be sure that this game is for you. And even if you do really love Marvel, to feel confident that the game with give you the style of Marvel you want, you’re probably going to have to love Loki (who is no longer an active player in the MCU) more than his leading-man-brother Thor (who is not on the roster, despite remaining hugely popular in both comics and films). You’re also going to have to like Danger (the living embodiment of the X-Men’s Danger Room, not yet seen in any MCU movie) more than Cyclops (who is not on the roster, despite being one of the leading X-Men reps in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday film). And you’ll also have to stop caring about what these characters usually represent and just hold your nose at the idea that Doctor Doom (an anti-American, authoritarian dictator), Magento (an anti-authoritarian, mutant freedom fighter), Carnage (a chaos-loving serial killer) and Green Goblin (a U.S. presidential candidate?!) all fighting on the “Knights of Doom” team, aka “the bad guys.”.

When you have a roster that leaves even diehard Marvel fans wondering what’s going on, you run the risk of burning your core audience of potential Tōkon evangelists before they even play the game. And sure, people who don’t really care about Marvel aren’t likely to think about the fact that Magento and Doctor Doom wouldn’t be caught dead hanging out with Carnage in the comics. But if that’s the case, then you probably aren’t a big enough fan of Marvel comics to recognize the game’s primary antagonist, a guy called The Champion of the Universe. Why indulge in deep cuts if you aren’t going to include a few regular-sized cuts, too?

That said, if Sony decides to invest in Tōkon for the long haul, and make it all logical and inclusive in the long run, this is all totally OK. Most fighting games, from classics like Tekken 3 to recent hits like Street Fighter 6, usually start with a small roster, sometimes with a head-scratcher or two, before expanding their lineups over time. In fact, these expansions are often key to keeping people from moving on to other games. So, if Gon from the classic dinosaur comedy manga can eventually join the Tekken family, and Tifa from Final Fantasy VII can jump into the Street Fighter world, there’s no reason why Tōkon couldn’t become a larger “Marvel Vs. PlayStation All-Stars” title down the line, before pivoting to a multi-million selling “Mavel Vs. Nintendo” offshoot when it’s ported to Switch 2.

OK, there are actually many reasons why that probably won’t happen. No matter. The point is that, as it stands, Tōkon looks like an extremely fun fighter with seemingly narrow marketing appeal. As such, it may struggle to rope in its largest potential audience. We’re hoping that over time, the game expands to other platforms and expands its roster, so that it can do more to expand its appeal. By all appearances, it deserves it.