While we didn’t get pre-release access to the full version of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, I did play many hours of online matches during its recent open beta, and can already confidently say that its fighting is a lot of fun. ArcSystem Works’ latest is a very mechanics-driven game that’s not always the most intuitive, so it took me some time to find my footing – but once I did, I got sucked right in. Its gorgeous action, its fantastic roster of characters, and especially its unique take on tag fighting allow for some flexibility in how many characters you actually need to learn to be competitive. I need to spend some more time in the arena and check out all the trimmings before my final review but Tokon seems primed to live up to the legacy of Marvel fighting games.

Let’s start with the fundamentals: Tokon is a 4v4 tag fighter with a bunch of unique rules that attempt to control the inherent chaos of having eight swappable characters in a single match. For example, all characters on a team share the same lifebar, removing one of the core elements of traditional tag fighting games, which typically let you swap in a fresh fighter and let the damaged one restore health while they sit on the sidelines. It’s a smart adjustment that allows for a much cleaner UI, avoids the pitfall of 4v4 matches that would otherwise run too long, and removes one of the big barriers of entry to any traditional tag fighter: the need to learn multiple characters in order to have a competitive team.

But what’s especially cool is that while you can be a very strong player by knowing how to play just one character, there’s still a ton of value in crafting a well-synergized team and swapping between them. For instance, if you know that your main struggles in a particular match up, like maybe your opponent plays Magneto and you would have trouble against his strong zoning, you could have a better option waiting in the wings. Or maybe you have a character that you really like but have trouble opening opponents up with, like in my case, Blade – you could lead with a more mix-up-heavy character, and once you land the hit, swap to continue the combo and get more damage than the mix-up character might have been able to get on their own.

What I really love about this system is that you can add new elements to your gameplan piece-by-piece rather than feeling like you need to have everything on lock right from the start. When I first started playing, all I needed to do was get competent with Spider-Man. I learned some high/low mix-up options, some bread and butter combos, got a basic understanding of how to use his web-zip to maneuver around the screen, and I felt ready to start playing against other people online. When I started to feel like I hit the ceiling of what I could do with just Spider-Man, I went back into training mode to learn more about Blade, and was able to add new layers to my gameplan. This process of being able to start with a small foundation and build upon it is the ideal way to learn a fighting game, and Tokon feels designed specifically for it.

Where things start to get a little strange is when you add assists into the mix. You see, Tokon doesn’t begin as a 4v4 fighter. Instead, every match starts with just two of the characters on each team available, with the remaining fighters needing to be unlocked by either landing a light auto-combo, hitting the opponent with a move near the corner that causes a stage transition or wallsplat, connecting with a throw, or losing a round. Unlocking these characters is important, because each one adds another bar to your Assemble meter, which governs the ability to call assists during specific moments.

Tokon has a lot of hyper specific rules surrounding its assists, which leads to a system that can be fairly overwhelming for newcomers – it was certainly a lot to take in for me, even as someone who’s played lots of tag fighters like Marvel vs Capcom, Dragon Ball FighterZ, 2XKO, and many more. Before a match begins, you place your four characters into various positions: Leader, Shooter, Vertical, and Assault. These placements determine what kind of assist is used when you call them out in neutral (meaning when you’re just standing still or walking without pressing a button or blocking). Leader is whoever the current point character is, Shooters will use a projectile, Verticals predictably cover a vertical hit box, and the Assault spot is generally reserved for each character’s most powerful assist.

These neutral assists don’t cost any meter, but if you try to call an assist after landing an attack to pick up a combo or to cover your recovery after a blocked move, you’ll instead get a universal dash-attack assist that costs one bar of the Assemble meter. What’s finicky about this system is that you have to be very precise with your assist call, because if it happens too early (or too late) the assist won’t come out. This extends to the active tag system, which allows you to switch control to your assist character for a brief period while they’re on the screen. It’s very similar to 2XKO, but here it feels much more restrained. In 2XKO, you can basically swap to the assist character at any point, enabling some really tricky mix-up opportunities. Tokon, on the other hand, seems to be much more hesitant to allow these kinds of unrestrained mix-ups. While that’s understandable considering how crazy it could be with three assist characters, it does lead to an active tag system that feels awkward, unintuitive, and less fun on the offensive side of things.

However, the nerfed strength of active tag in no way means that Tokon doesn’t have depth or flair. Every character oozes style; Spidey is able to zip all across the stage, baiting anti-airs by hanging and then jumping off his webs; Storm can manipulate the weather to push and pull objects and enemies (or even snatch her opponent in a command grab from half-a-screen away with a gust of wind that pushes her forward); Magneto fills the screen with literal metallic garbage that he can utilize as a weapon. We’re no stranger to seeing a lot of these characters in fighting games before, but ArcSystem Works has gone above and beyond in terms of making them feel authentic to their comic book counterparts, while also ensuring they are each a blast to play in their own particular way.

There’s still a ton left to cover, from the story mode that promises a 10+ hour original story that follows the various teams that make up Tokon’s roster, to the teaching and training tools, to the gigantic online lobby that I only briefly got a glimpse of. I also plan to test the PC performance on live servers thoroughly given the issues that plagued the platform during the most recent open beta. Check back for all of that and more in my full review early next week.

Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit

K-pop star Asa of BABYMONSTER fame is getting compared to Resident Evil’s Ada Wong after posting selfies sporting an outfit and hairstyle that makes her look strikingly similar to the iconic double-agent.

Ada Wong has a certain style; she’s a badass spy, after all, so she’s gotta look chic. We never catch our girl lacking, either — whether it’s the sultry bodycon dress from Resident Evil 2 or the turtleneck from Resident Evil 4, she knows how to work an outfit.

She’s nothing if not consistent, though, always boasting a short bob with side bangs and wearing some shade of deep red. That’s why, when Asa — the main rapper of K-pop group BABYMONSTER — posted photos with a similar look, fans instantly started comparing the two.

She uploaded the selfies to the official BABYMONSTER community on Weverse, a social media hub for K-pop fans created by HYBE, the parent company of BTS' record label. It didn’t take long for fans of both the band and the Resident Evil games to spot the similarities between them, sparking a wave of comments like, “Asa Wong,” in a clever portmanteau of their names.

“Asa, you are so much like Ada Wong, it’s insane. If you have a PS4 or PS5, go play Resident Evil 4 Remake!” one fan remarked.

“Are you Ada Wong?” another commented.

These are just a few of the oodles of comments Asa has received since posting the vampy pics, and they aren’t the first ones to spark comparisons to Ada. Back in March, photos of the rapper surfaced showing her with a short bob and a black choker necklace, prompting fans to create endless side-by-side graphics with screenshots of Ada wearing her dress in Resident Evil 2 Remake.

Thus far, Asa has not publicly remarked on her resemblance to the beloved Resident Evil character, though that hasn’t stopped fans from begging her to do a cosplay or even portray Ada Wong in a live-action film.

Unfortunately for Ada stans, it doesn’t look like she’ll be making an appearance in the upcoming Resident Evil movie directed by Zach Cregger, which comes to theaters this September. Cregger has made it abundantly clear that his film tells a different story rather than creating a 1:1 adaptation of the games; there will be no major cameos from beloved characters (at least, not that we know of), with the movie instead following an average joe as he navigates the chaos that befalls Raccoon City in a more modern setting.

Cregger told us as much in an interview at San Diego Comic-Con 2026. "I am not trying to adapt a video game. I'm not using the characters from the games. I'm not telling a story that the games tell because I'm not going to be able to do it better than the games. The games are so well executed, and to me, Leon and Claire and these characters, they exist so perfectly in the games that anyone I cast and any difference that I do with them would be, probably, to the detriment of what I was trying to do."

Image Credits: ASA, BABYMONSTER - WEVERSE / CAPCOM

Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.

Bad news for Pokemon TCG players outside of Japan; you’ll need to be a Japanese citizen in order to buy certain decks and expansion packs from its official online store.

In an apparent effort to discourage scalpers, The Pokemon Company is implementing its first-ever ID-guarded protections for specific items on its online store. Those items are listed below:

To snag these packs, you’ll have to be a Japanese citizen with an ID card issued by the Japanese government. If you don’t have one, you’re simply outta luck.

First announced in July, buyers will need to use the Digital Identification App to make these purchases, which is a free, secure online tool that allows citizens to sign documents and verify their identities online. It’s used alongside the My Number Card, a plastic IC-chip card for residents that acts both as an official photo ID and a digital tool to more easily access government services.

It’s a super secure, citizens-only process that severely limits who’s able to get these card packs, but given the sheer amount of scalping that’s taken place within the Pokemon space specifically, it makes sense that these protections are being implemented.

This is the latest measure the Pokemon Company has taken to discourage TCG scalpers after enacting facial recognition scans at select card stores within Japan, affecting adults and children above elementary school age to “provide a safe and secure shopping environment for all customers, to prevent crime, and to ensure compliance with appropriate entry and purchase rules.”

These policies aren’t a total surprise; Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa announced that My Number IDs would be necessary for certain purchases in order to combat scalping in the Pokemon TCG space in early July.

“Nintendo also communicates with The Pokémon Company as needed to discuss appropriate ways to deliver products to consumers," Furukawa said. "We believe that The Pokémon Company will continue to take measures to respond to this issue."

It doesn’t seem like scalping as a practice within the trading card community has shown any signs of stopping, though. Recently, Disney theme parks and stores in both the United States and Europe were overwhelmed after customers lined up in droves to purchase new Princess-themed Lorcana packs, forcing one location to temporarily close its doors to prevent chaos that had started unfolding outside among overeager players and scalpers.

It’s not just cards that are suffering from this treatment; merchandise for high-profile IPs in general are suffering from the scalping epidemic, with the One Piece x Popeye’s exclusive bento boxes getting resold on eBay for hundreds, while limited-edition Pokemon Pop-Tarts were also listed online for as high as $50.

Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.