First impressions: MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls debuts at Evo 2025

Evo Las Vegas 2025 enters Day 3 as the competition ramps up and more champions prepare to make history. Away from the tournament areas, however, are booths that are just as exciting. The MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls one, for example, continues to draw in crowds. Attendees lined up on Day 1 for a chance to play the game, and the line only grew longer on Days 2 and 3. Esports.gg received an invite to test out the game.

Our first impression of MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls was that it looked polished and visually striking. Each of the available characters stood out, and their moves were easy to follow. The controls felt intuitive, making the game accessible to both newcomers and veterans. In addition to traditional arcade-style inputs, the game featured quick skills that simplified flashy combos. It was also possible to string light, medium, and heavy attacks to create satisfying moves.

Before each match, both players assembled a four-character team. We chose Captain America, Star-Lord, Iron Man, and Storm. Our opponent showed off the power of Ms. Marvel and Doctor Doom, pairing them with Star-Lord and Iron Man as well.

Switching between characters was easy, and their attacks and flourish made sense in terms of their story within the Marvel universe. Iron Man hovered and blasted his opponent from the air, Captain America attacked with his shield and caught it, and Ms. Marvel had a stretching move. Star-Lord even did finger guns when we switched to him.

There were Easter eggs in the different maps as well. We particularly enjoyed the one that featured a statue of avengers Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. Although the God of Thunder wasn't a playable character at Evo Las Vegas 2025, that could’ve been a hint at future additions to the MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls roster.

Each selected character was able to assist players during a match, too, and we were able to easily swap to them by pressing a dedicated switch button. The game allowed for unique button mapping, so everyone's experience varied on this front.

In terms of other customization options, we were able to choose a costume for each character while assembling our team. A spokesperson from Arc System Works there told us that more character skins are to be expected.

As for special moves, we triggered different skills based via the energy gauge located in the lower-left corner of the screen. A super skill cost 50 skill gauge while an ultimate skill required 100.

That's all for now. Are you excited about duking it out in MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls? Stick around on esports.gg for more news, interviews, and updates from across the fighting game community (FGC)!