Despite all the memes, yes, some people actually DID manage to enter Arc System Works’ Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls beta this weekend. Enough to cobble together an entire tournament with a few selected players, even. Enjoy this three hour marathon from Tampa Never Sleeps of Tōkon’s first tournament from pools to grand finals.

Those who keep up with fighting games may recognize some of the names present there such as Punk, Flux, and Diaphone. Some strong names who have success across multiple fighting games, and will give a good impression of the game moving forward.

You know who else is a bit of a prodigy when it comes to playing newly released fighting games? The Wazzler himself, Justin Wong, who also has a video out on the beta state of Tōkon.

As always, social media like Twitter is a good place to start if you want to see whatever tech players have Frankenstein’d together from the limited information and setups they have.

Captain America https://t.co/7LHV6qfTeW pic.twitter.com/JGK77Bi4ap

— RD-Sierokarte (Bonz) 💭 (@DaShogi) September 6, 2025

Storm instant overhead mix

🎥: @cloud805 pic.twitter.com/w6Z6v2S5SJ

— MARVEL Tōkon Intel (@TokonFighters) September 7, 2025

Had a cool Iron Man moment on the go in the Tokon beta but chat ruined it pic.twitter.com/iHl3bmXaIM

— Mustard (@PNDMustard) September 6, 2025

These Doctor Doom combos are so clean 👌

🎥: @uhhSaturn pic.twitter.com/zgJsIhFzp2

— MARVEL Tōkon Intel (@TokonFighters) September 7, 2025

We’re at one of the most magical stages of a fighting game, where everyone is experiencing something new for the first time and everything is un-optimized. At some point gameplay tends to become a bit homogeneous because there’s a clear optimal route for combos and approach in neutral and oki, and with crackheads (people who crack betas like these to play and practice them for months before release) these optimized strategies can take over a game even faster than usual.

But for now, we just have good old fashioned fighting game cheese and combo drops. Captain America kicking his shield like a soccer ball probably isn’t going to be a great strategy moving forward, but it’s still hilarious for now. There are also some gameplay details that are coming out that people have drawn attention to, such as the inability to call assists in neutral from whiffed buttons, which is a staple of Capcom’s Marvel vs. Capcom series. While comparisons to that series are inevitable and expected, I feel like this was an intentional design decision to differentiate Tōkon from Marvel vs. Capcom.

We’ll be seeing more of Tōkon in the coming months, there should be another beta sometime in the future. Until then, please enjoy the vintage ArcSys soundtrack that’s been mined from the beta.