Marvel Tkon: Fighting Souls: Preview of Arc System Works' Return

We played the closed beta of Marvel Tkon: Fighting Souls all weekend, and here's what it offered us. 

The Brawling of Marvel Tkon: Fighting Souls

Back to the Arcade

From the outset, the title offers a comprehensive tutorial that introduces the basics of the combat system, explaining team mechanics and the new dynamics of the evolved tag team. In the first two days, it was possible to face offline challenges against the CPU, a choice that allows players to familiarize themselves with the characters and experiment with combinations without the pressure of online matchmaking. This mode, however, is temporary and is deactivated before the test closes, indicating that the main objective is to evaluate netcode stability and balancing in real competitive contexts.
The heart of the beta is represented by online matches, with dedicated lobbies that allow players to create private rooms or join public sessions, and a spectator mode designed for those who want to observe matches and study strategies. The 4-on-4 combat system is the core of the experience: each player manages a team of four characters, alternating them in real-time to exploit synergies and special moves. This structure introduces an unprecedented level of strategic depth for the genre, pushing players to think not only about the individual fighter but about the entire team composition.
The available arenas, such as Savage Land and X-Mansion, are not just backgrounds but interactive spaces that influence the pace of the match, adding tactical variables that make every encounter unpredictable. 

Marvel Tkon: Fighting Souls: Between Doubts and Certainties    

Only when you get hands-on with something do you truly understand what it is, and I must say that with the controller in hand, I now have more doubts than certainties. Among the latter, one cannot help but highlight the freshness of the gameplay: solid, immediate, with combos that flow from the player almost naturally once the initial gestures are ingrained and you learn to counter the opponent's "dialogue," and with a truly remarkable overall quality, both aesthetically and technically. The doubts, however, are about the very concept of a true "tag team" and less about what was perhaps in the developers' minds, and I'll explain better. Having a single shared health bar among the four chosen heroes, with combos that remove two-thirds of it in a few moments, as well as fights that are absurdly fast (if you're good), raises the dilemma of the utility of such a large and unjustified active roster.

Certainly, they are fundamental for chaining hits in sequence to help you in absurd situations – as happens in the latest Mortal Kombat – but you practically don't have the time or the logic to bring in a second fighter because the fights end immediately – in fact, the fights are best of three and not two, as generally happens, I believe, precisely for this reason. The scenarios are a bit subdued from an artistic point of view, but more than anything, they stand out little from the coloring of the main characters, and this at a glance bothers the hyper-concentration that one should instead have on the scene. Not only that, when you fight with four characters, because maybe when you call for support, your opponent does too, the scene is so chaotic that at some point on screen you don't know where you and your hero have ended up, and this is frankly a bit disorienting. A final criticism, if it is one, is that while the input of commands from the controller is fast, immediate, and practical, without a thousand button combinations, some of these are not at all immediate, as an arcade stick (or a keyboard) would be, and for this reason, it will be necessary to understand if they will remain this way or what kind of skills players will develop for button combinations (which are editable anyway).

Attention, I say it and I repeat it, the quality of the gameplay is amazing and super fresh, I had as much fun as I haven't had since Tekken 8, to name one of the latest that are less-exaggeratedly-technical, or like the beginner mode of Street Fighter 6, so it really appeals to everyone and in a short time makes you feel good even if you're not, but if you are, you'll stand out a lot, but it will be tough to smooth out the rough edges reported before release, coupled with the fact that at the moment we know eight characters, but in a game where four at a time, it's reasonable to expect at least thirty, and some are already quite subdued (see Ghost Rider), but leveling will take time, feedback, and I'm sure everything will be done properly, Arc System is a guarantee of quality.