The drip-feed of reveals for the spiritual successor to Marvel vs. Capcom continued this weekend at EVO Japan. Sony and developer Arc Systems took the opportunity to announce two new additions to the roster for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, and they probably won’t be surprising anyone.
Savage Hulk and Shuri as Black Panther will be rounding out the Avengers side of the fighting game’s initial 20-character roster. It’s Savage Hulk because in Tokon, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Captain America have “exiled” Hulk to the Savage Land because of his “overwhelming power and instability.” Hence, the dinosaur bone armor. Hulk will have a Gamma Gauge that players build up during the course of a match to enter Gamma Rage mode and deploy extra powerful one-shot attacks.
Shuri’s backstory, meanwhile, has her only recently having taken on the mantle of Black Panther and become queen of Wakanda. Unlike Hulk, she’ll be fast and agile, with long range thanks to moves utilizing the Spear of Bashenga. She’ll also utilize a Bast’s Blessing mode to deash in multiple directions across the map to close the distance. I’m not sold on either character’s costume, but swappable skins, and potentially paid ones, will no doubt be part of the mix.
Joining Captain America and Iron Man, the Avengers side of the roster for Marvel Tokon is now complete. The Guardians and X-Men squads are too, leaving a number of villains on the table that could still be confirmed for the last six characters to be revealed. While Doctor Doom has been confirmed, Big bads like Thanos, Apocalypse, and Carnage are all still on the table. The end of the teaser trailer above certainly has fans hoping the Cletus Kasady/Symbiote duo is part of the mix.
Marvel Tokon is also getting four extra characters via DLC. Set to release on August 6, right after Spider-Man: Brand New Day and before Avengers: Doomsday, we’ll see if the remaining reveals end up tying into either of those tentpoles.