Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls brings plenty of excitement to the table, boasting fast-paced 4v4 tag battles and an engaging story mode featuring motion comics. Following some early launch hiccups that made the PC port tough to get running smoothly, technical issues seem to have been largely resolved. Even so, the game falls short in one major area fans have come to expect from superhero properties: wardrobe variety.
Developed by Arc System Works, the game adopts a striking, anime-infused art style that immediately grabbed attention when it was first unveiled. Seeing beloved heroes reimagined with this aesthetic—like Iron Man rocking a suit that feels like a full-sized Gundam—gives the roster a distinct, refreshing identity that stands worlds apart from past, more grounded interpretations like the now-defunct Marvel’s Avengers.
The drawback is that these signature anime-inspired designs are essentially the only options available. Instead of letting players swap between distinct outfits—such as trading Ms. Marvel’s default look for her classic comic appearance or her modern threads from Saladin Ahmed’s run—the game relies heavily on color palette swaps. Her uniform can shift between purple, yellow, or white, but none of these simple re-tints quite capture the essence of different eras.
To be fair, certain palette shifts manage to pay homage to classic looks. Mutants get traditional yellow-and-blue spandex hues, Wolverine can sport brown-and-tan or black-and-white motifs to channel his older fits or X-Force days, and a Green Goblin swap essentially transforms him into the Hobgoblin. However, if you are hoping for Spider-Man’s iconic symbiote suit, Magneto’s white Krakoa-era attire, or Magik’s New Mutants gear, you are currently out of luck.
While a handful of heroes do feature true alternate costumes, acquiring them comes with a catch. Right now, alternate skins for characters like Captain America, Iron Man, Storm, Spider-Man, and Doctor Doom are locked behind the Digital Deluxe ($84.99) and Ultimate ($99.99) editions. Players sticking with the $59.99 standard release have to make do with basic color adjustments.
Marvel Tokon isn’t alone in sidelining comprehensive costume selections. Other tag fighters, such as Invincible VS, launched with minimal wardrobe diversity—though that’s somewhat understandable given the source material, even if locking specific items behind microtransactions feels a bit rough. Similarly, Dragon Ball FighterZ limited Goku to color variations of his standard gi rather than entirely different outfits.
Frustration over missing visual variety in fighting games goes back years, notably to NetherRealm Studios’ Injustice 2. Rather than offering traditional skins for DC icons, that game relied heavily on a randomized gear and shader system. Trying to piece together an accurate comic look meant leaving your progress up to RNG; as a dedicated Green Arrow main, for instance, finding a proper hooded piece proved nearly impossible.
At least past NetherRealm titles included premiere skins that transformed fighters into entirely different characters, like turning the Flash into Reverse-Flash or giving Green Arrow a live-action TV-inspired look voiced by Stephen Amell. Fortunately, NetherRealm has since pivoted away from heavy RNG gear systems, delivering a robust selection of direct costumes in Mortal Kombat 1.
Diving into Marvel Tokon leaves plenty of room for daydreaming about what could have been. Giving Spider-Man a cinematic suit inspired by recent films—complete with unique voice lines—would have been an incredible touch, especially given how vast the web-slinger’s comic and cinematic wardrobe truly is.
Of course, designing entirely new models with precise hitboxes is undeniably harder in a 2D fighting game than in 3D arena fighters like Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. Even so, it would be easier to overlook if the game’s few legitimate alternate costumes weren’t locked behind expensive premium editions.