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Marvel Tokon tutorial overwhelms newcomers with mechanics
Developed over time first seen 3 months ago
Polygon columnist Ethan Gach argues that Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, a new fighter from Arc System Works featuring characters such as Spider-Man and Blade, undermines its own appeal with a poorly designed tutorial. Despite praising the game's stylish art, varied movesets and dramatic matches, he says its onboarding overwhelms newcomers by cramming every mechanic into one long tutorial, leaving players unable to retain what they've learned once they move into actual matches. This matters because it echoes a long-standing weakness across the fighting game genre, where dense tutorials continue to deter casual or mainstream players from a genre that could otherwise appeal beyond its dedicated fanbase.
The tutorial teaches every mechanic, including blocking, Link Attacks and Assemble Assists, within roughly the first half hour, but the writer found much of it faded from memory once he moved into the single-player story, leaving him unsure how to counter attacks or execute certain combos. He draws a similar comparison to Invincible VS, another fighter with a bare-bones tutorial, and contrasts both with Street Fighter 6's World Tour mode, which he holds up as a stronger model for gradually teaching techniques through practice. Despite the criticism, he says he intends to keep playing Marvel Tokon regardless.
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In short
- Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has strong visuals but a weak tutorial
- Writer struggled to retain moves taught all at once early on
- Street Fighter 6's gradual World Tour mode held up as a better model
How this story developed
- 3 months ago The critique was refined to specify that retention problems centred particularly on finer points such as executing counters, to attribute Street Fighter 6's teaching advantage to its side-missions that let players practise moves before new ones are introduced, and to reveal that Gach's continued interest in the game stems specifically from its accessible combo system encouraging deeper play over time.
- 3 months ago Polygon columnist Ethan Gach published a critique of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, praising its visuals and combat variety while faulting its overstuffed single tutorial for failing to help players retain mechanics such as blocking, Link Attacks and Assemble Assists once they reach the story mode, drawing comparisons to Invincible VS and Street Fighter 6's more gradual World Tour teaching approach, though he still plans to keep playing.
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The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Human working memory has clear limits, and frontloading every fighting game mechanic into a single session overwhelms newcomers' capacity to retain information, exactly as the columnist experienced. A graduated approach, teaching mechanics through actual gameplay and practice as Street Fighter 6 does, leverages spacing and context to improve retention. Since fighting games struggle to reach mainstream audiences partly due to perceived complexity, tutorials designed around cognitive learning principles could expand accessibility without sacrificing depth.
The case against
Fighting game mechanics are deeply interdependent—understanding one requires knowing its relationship to others—so presenting them in isolation during piecemeal tutorials risks leaving newcomers confused rather than comprehending. A comprehensive tutorial respects both the game's actual complexity and players' time by giving complete information upfront, with no obligation to engage; mastery comes through practice and repetition regardless of presentation. The columnist's forgetfulness reflects the universal requirement for active engagement after instruction, not a design flaw in explaining mechanics thoroughly.
Explained simply
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is a new fighting game from Arc System Works, the studio behind titles like Guilty Gear, featuring Marvel characters such as Spider-Man and Blade. Fighting games are a video game genre built around one-on-one battles using combo moves, blocks and special techniques, and they have a reputation for being difficult for newcomers to learn.
Ethan Gach is a columnist at the gaming site Polygon who has been writing about his experience playing Marvel Tokon, particularly how the game teaches new players its mechanics through its tutorial. Tutorials are a recurring point of discussion in the fighting game genre, since how well a game explains itself can determine whether casual players stick around or give up early.
Comparisons are often drawn with other recent fighting games, including Invincible Vs and Street Fighter 6, to illustrate different approaches studios have taken to onboarding new players. This context matters because it speaks to a broader, ongoing conversation among players and critics about whether fighting games can grow beyond their dedicated fanbase.
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Originally published by Polygon as “Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Commits a Cardinal Video Game Sin”.