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Part of the fun for new fighting games is figuring out who’s in it, doubly so for superheroes.
Sony’s recent State of Play has got every fighting game and comic book fan abuzz as Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is set to drop in later this August. It’s also been confirmed that the stylish 4v4 fighter from Arc System Works will have 20 playable characters at launch.
20 is a rather lean number when you consider that up to eight different characters can be in a match. And when you consider the ocean of heroes and villains in Marvel’s catalogue, the discourse on who’s gonna make it heats up really fast. Everyone wants their favorites to make the cut so the speculations, and the cope, are running wild.
We already know of one batch of characters, the Unbreakable X-Men, as seen in the State of Play trailer. Together with the initial seven that were revealed long ago, that leaves with only 10 remaining slots.
Fortunately, the Marvel Tokon trailer gave us a small hint towards the end. If we’re to believe this, that means that there’s five ‘teams’ of four that’ll make up the 20 man roster and each will have a team leader. That makes everything nice and neat but there’s still a lot of guess work to be had.
So, we’re throwing our hat in the ring and giving our predictions of the remaining members of Marvel Tokon’s starting roster.
The Avengers – Leader: Captain America
At first this seems like a no-brainer. If you see Captain America, then the Avengers are not far behind. Now the question becomes which members of the Avengers are coming since practically every hero in Marvel has been part of the Avengers at some point.
Iron Man is already confirmed so he’s likely partnering with Cap. There was also a statue featuring the Captain, Iron Man, and Thor in the background of one of the revealed stages, making it a strong possibility that the god of thunder will be part of the crew.
That leaves the fourth and we have to give it Ms. Marvel, aka Kamala Khan. She was one of the first characters revealed in Marvel Tokon and while it would’ve been nice if she was part of the X-Men, their group’s already full. She’s not a bad fit though, as she can bring some charm and levity to the OG Avengers trio.
The Spider-Gang – Leader: Spider-Man
It may sound funny but there’s really no good name that refers to all of the web slinger’s friends. As one of the most popular heroes in the world, Spider-Man has gone through multiple adventures, dimensions, timelines, and has collected a number of spider-related allies along the way.
Top of the list for this team is Venom, Spider-Man’s eternal symbiote frenemy. Next that we’d like to see is Miles Morales. While it seems like he’d be too similar to the original, we think that there’s big potential for Arcsys to give miles his own flair. The recent Spider-Man games have played up his electric powers a lot and they can push that even more here.
Finally, since every team seems to have an odd-ball pick, we think Peni Parker should make the cut. On top of her being a highschooler piloting a large mechanical battlesuit, she can fill in the ‘big body’ archetype that’s still missing in Marvel Tokon. Plus, mechas are just cool and we’d love to see this one animated in Arcsys’ signature style.
Marvel Cosmic and Mystic – Leader: Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider doesn’t really have a superhero team that he’s regularly a part of but he does represent an interesting angle for Marvel Tokon. While everyone’s familiar with Marvel’s more terrestrial heroes, their more mystical and cosmic side is mostly unexplored.
So, with Robbie Reyes drawing his powers from Hell itself, it allows more fantastical heroes to drop in the roster. We can see Dr. Strange making an appearance with this team along with Adam Warlock for the cosmic side.
Star-Lord, another character initially revealed, will have to be placed here. While he may seem out of place, Peter Quill has worked with a version of Ghost Rider before and even recruited him into the Guardians of the Galaxy. As for the rest of the Guardians, we’ll have to wait and see if they make it in future updates.
The Masters of Evil – Leader: Dr. Doom
So first things first, we don’t think the Fantastic Four are making it into Marvel Tokon, at least initially. While that may seem sacrilegious in a game with teams of four, remember that their nemesis, Dr. Doom, is already in the game. Would Marvel’s first superhero family really give up one of their own for Doom? We think not.
Instead, this is where Doom can flex his might by leading an all villains team. While the Masters of Evil is a group in the comics, we feel that the game shouldn’t be limited with just their members. Let’s have Doom’s team be composed of powerful villains who’ve opposed each other team’s leaders.
That means we should have Magneto facing the X-Men and maybe Red Skull against the Avengers. Doctor Octopus would be a classic showdown against Spider-Man while Dr. Doom shows off his mastery of both science and sorcery against Ghost Rider. How did Doom get all these villains to cooperate? Who knows, but I’m sure every one of them has a bone to pick with these heroes.
Banner images from Marvel Entertainment.