So, how are the single player offerings in Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls?

I've been playing video games for as long as I’ve been making memories, and I’ve learned to love something about most genres out there.

That said, I don’t really play sports games, or racing games, or ... fighting games.

Now, there are exceptions to these exceptions – notably arcade racers like Mario Kart, arena fighters like Smash Bros., and fighting game stories, like Mortal Kombat.

As a big fighting game story guy who has net zero interest in getting my ass absolutely handed to me online, I was pretty excited to check out Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls once I discovered it had a story mode, as I’m still a big Marvel enjoyer.

But buying a fighting game for the story mode can be really tricky, as some games' offerings are a lot more impressive than others.

The story in Fighting Souls is very "Dragon Ball Z tournament arc." A mysterious villain named The Champion (basically Frieza + Galactus) is traveling from world to world, battling teams of that world's strongest heroes. Most worlds fight him with armies, because that is their strongest form of team. But when Earth is selected to battle The Champion, they only get a team of four because of the precedent set by Marvel's First Family, the Fantastic Four (this bit is honestly great, especially since the Fantastic Four aren't even in the game).

You can experience this story via the game's various episodes, each of which focus on a different team of four, and causes a variation in the story. You can play as the basic-ass Avengers, with Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, and Black Panther, or the X-Men, which features Storm, Wolverine, Magik, and ... Danger (?), the living personification of the Danger Room beneath X-Mansion. Then some teams feature characters like Spider-Man and Star-Lord, or Deadpool and Blade. And finally, there's the villain squad, which features characters like Dr. Doom, Magneto, and Green Goblin.

The thing you'll immediately notice about these episodes is that the art and the anime that surround them are gorgeous. The designs for all the Marvel heroes are, generally, pretty damn cool as well. But seeing them in the comic art stills that play between fights is really stunning.