During last night’s PlayStation State of Play, the show concluded with Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls. A superhero tag-team fighter from Arc System Works, the community of die-hard fighting game lovers celebrated the announcement, with some making comparisons to Riot Games’ upcoming release: 2XKO
2XKO, itself a tag fighter that has been in development since Radiant Entertainment was acquired by Riot back in 2016 had largely had the tag-fighter space to itself for the foreseeable future, with the exception of the endearing but budget title HunterxHunter NenxImpact.
However, with this announcement, it looks like Riot Games has a real Marvel rival to contend with. Social media was abuzz with excitement for Marvel Hokon. Justin Wong, perhaps North America’s most prominent Marvel vs Capcom player, wrote: “Holy shit MARVEL FIGHTING GAME IS BACK?!”.
Yipes, himself a beloved figure in the professional fighting game scene and a legendary Marvel vs Capcom 2 player, was lost for words. He posted, “!??!?!?!??!?!?!”, an apt measure of the overall feeling following the State of Play.
This reveal brought with it immediate comparisons to 2XKO, due to the unavoidable rivalry between the two games. Former pro player Alioune summed it up with “If « fuck you 2xko » was a game”, whereas one fighting game fan on Twitter reacted by stating: “Game already has a bigger roster than 2xko”.
Indeed in the run up to 2XKO’s release later this year the game has been seen through a more critical lens following recent announcements and play tests. Game director on 2XKO Shaun Rivera revealed in a Discord Q&A earlier this year that 2XKO will have 10 champions at launch, a relatively small number for a tag fighter. That game currently has seven announced fighters, whereas Marvel Hokon blasted out the gate with eight on display.
However rather gritting their teeth or keeping thoughts close to their chest, several members of the 2XKO development team praised the new game. Unsurprising, as the team is composed of several former professional fighting game players. Rivera congratulated the Marvel Hokon team on the reveal: “Congrats to Marvel, ArcSys and Playstation on the Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls reveal. The game looks amazing and I can’t wait to play it.”
Ben Forbes, 2XKO’s editor-in-chief, shot out an initial “oh fuck”, before following up with: “sorry i was in meetings and had to pay attention MARVELLLLLLLLLLLLLL I’M THERE DAY ONE IRON MAN LOOKS SO SICK AAAAAAAAAA also star lord is dante???? LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOOO”.
All in all it appears to be a “two cakes” situation, with two somewhat similar games clashing in the future resulting in more options for those who love diving deep into 2D brawls. As Wong puts it: “Too many fighting games what a time to be a fighting game fan”.
If there are any companies catching strays right now, it’s actually Capcom. The developer responsible for the Marvel vs Capcom series up until the poorly received Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite. Folks reacted to Marvel taking the IP to another company with the sort of humour you’d imagine. Take Evo champion Sonicfox, who posted the following image:
Ultimately Marvel Hokon: Fighting Souls has made the next year or so dead interesting. Whether Riot Games can capture the hearts and minds with a live service approach, or Marvel Hokon: Fighting Souls can cut itself a slice of the pie with some of its own boundary-pushing twists on the genre, is something the two will have to fight over.
