Deadpool’s character guide for Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls revealed a remarkable number of fighting-game references before the game’s release. Wade Wilson’s fourth-wall-breaking personality makes pop-culture jokes expected, but his red suit is packed with tributes to Marvel, classic fighters and the history of the fighting-game community.
YouTuber Dan Allen Gaming has catalogued the references across two videos. Deadpool’s moveset draws from Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ, among other games. These are seven of the most entertaining discoveries for fans who follow the arcade and fighting-game scene.
A falling arcade cabinet and a famous EVO celebration
One of Liu Kang’s Mortal Kombat fatalities involves dropping an entire arcade cabinet onto an opponent. Deadpool borrows the gag in Tōkon, although the falling cabinet merely knocks defeated enemies aside rather than reducing them to the bloody mess seen in Mortal Kombat.
The same sequence also recreates Woshige’s infamous 2015 EVO mistake. After winning a round of Guilty Gear Xrd Sign, the player celebrated before noticing that the match was not over. Deadpool copies the premature pop-off, then rushes towards the falling cabinet in a second nod to the incident. The moment was documented on pic.twitter.com/Uc6oXwPS04 and dated August 5, 2026.
Deadpool takes a dramatic fall
When Deadpool is defeated in mid-air, he does not tumble like most of the game’s fighters. Instead, he performs an exaggerated descent inspired by Geese Howard’s defeat scene in Fatal Fury, where the villain falls from a tower into a chasm. The striking animation became a recurring reference in later fighting games, and Deadpool now joins that long-running tradition.
Cell’s entrance, rebuilt with a firework
Deadpool’s entrance when he leads a battle is a playful recreation of Cell’s introduction in Dragon Ball FighterZ. Cell powers up inside a dramatic aura; Deadpool produces a similar visual effect by setting off a firework behind himself before striking a pose. It is a suitably low-tech interpretation of a super-powered entrance.
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls (2026) pic.twitter.com/Uc6oXwPS04
— Perfect Fighting Game Shots, August 5, 2026
Polygon Man becomes projectile ammunition
One of the stranger jokes involves Polygon Man, the purple, spiky floating head that Sony briefly considered as a PlayStation mascot during the 1990s. Sony instead moved towards more marketable characters such as Crash and Spyro, while Polygon Man later returned as the final boss of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale and appeared occasionally in Sony marketing and online rewards.
Because Sony publishes Tōkon, Polygon Man’s appearance as ammunition for one of Deadpool’s projectile attacks feels like an especially deep company in-joke. Fans captured the reference in this clip, shared on June 29, 2026.
Deadpool throws a Falcon Punch
Deadpool also borrows Captain Falcon’s signature “Falcon Punch” from Super Smash Bros. The attack does not appear to launch opponents off the stage as it can in Nintendo’s crossover fighter, but the pose and name make the reference unmistakable. The reveal prompted this fan reaction on August 6, 2026.
A fighting-game community “friend zone”
In one scene, Deadpool poses for photographs with other characters while making half of a heart shape with his hand. The characters beside him do not complete it, and the image carries the caption “Friend zone”. This recreates a 2017 photograph of fighting-game competitor Justin Wong and a Chun-Li cosplayer, which circulated with the same caption. The original social post can be seen via July 16, 2017.
“Let’s go, Wade”
When Deadpool activates his super, he shouts “Let’s go, Wade!” The line references EVO Moment 37, the legendary Street Fighter III: Third Strike sequence in which Daigo Umehara parried Justin Wong’s Super Art 15 times before punishing him and turning the match around.
Just before Daigo’s counterattack, a voice from the crowd can be heard yelling “Let’s go, Justin!” Deadpool’s version replaces Justin with Wade—and, assuming the super connects, gives him a considerably happier ending.
These references help position Deadpool as more than another Marvel fighter. His moves and animations turn Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls into a compact celebration of arcade fighters, crossover brawlers and the moments that shaped the competitive community. For readers planning a home setup, RETROCADE’s arcade machines and arcade parts are a useful place to explore the wider cabinet hobby.
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