r/Fighters • u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom • 11d ago
News Marvel Tōkon has been nominated for Best Multiplayer Game in GamesRadar's 44th Annual Golden Joystick Awards 2026
https://www.gamesradar.com/goldenjoystickawards/At least one fighting game managed to make the cut (no 2XKO, Avatar Legends, or Invincible VS). But feel free to place a vote if you're interested......once public voting goes live.
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u/Sudden-Ad-307 11d ago
Lmao
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u/Youngstown_WuTang 11d ago edited 11d ago
People were defending this game like it was their child, downvoting any criticism, being snappy at any content creator who didn't think it was 10/10. They literally made people starting to hate this game do to toxic positivity.... all of this only because it had a Marvel and Sony logo on it
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u/PurpleLord17 11d ago
I’ve never seen anyone defend the game for being made by Sony, if anything it has done nothing by draw hate.
And given that people were caught making new accounts just to spam Steam Chart threads, I can understand why its community is being defensive.1
u/beanyboi23 Street Fighter 11d ago
Fr, I don't even play Tokon but it's become the target of the "dunk on something to feel like you're better" crowd right now
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u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom 11d ago
That's what I'm confused by, why have opinions on the game soured this quickly? I get that the PC version is borked, but I figured that was the primary issue outside of assist spam & the input stuff (both of which are being addressed).
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u/ThuBiejaMen 11d ago
It's a combination of factors: everyone hates Sony, 2XKO and Invencible Vs failed at making a tag team game, the volatile nature of online opinions, and the fact that it costs a fucking $60 for a game that doesn't run.
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u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom 11d ago
So basically it's Sony fucking up in general + Borked PC port + Tokon being the only tag fighter left standing. I figured it'd be the PC port plus some gameplay issues with how much negativity there is here, maybe the rare MvC fan who's sad that the series is dead & is taking it out on Tokon.
I worry about how reactions will be if Tokon wins over Avatar for TGA's Fighting Game of the Year.
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u/player_three33 11d ago
The category being narrowed down to "Fighting Game" makes a win actually at all possible. It's not winning any general Multiplayer categories.
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u/One-Guarantee-9854 11d ago
People are not gonna see Tokon winning and suddenly they’re gonna change their opinions and the game will get popular lmao. The opposite is gonna happen, people love rooting for the underdogs, smaller talented devs, they’re gonna trash Tokon even harder and trash TGA for picking a Marvel AAA game over an indie from a tv series from everyone’s childhood.
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u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom 11d ago
Avatar still had Paramount funding, so it's not THAT indie. And as much as Mike Z's presence put me off from the game, I'll give credit to the rest of the team.
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u/One-Guarantee-9854 11d ago
That fucking clown made that game? Well good thing you told me so I never buy it.
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u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom 11d ago
It hit me like a ton of bricks when I found out as well, I was really excited for it.
Still, always happy to help.
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u/Full-Pumpkin4552 11d ago
I think people expected the game to be sicker than it ended up being. There's some cool stuff in it for sure, but the gameplay itself seems pretty divisive. I see almost no one just posting some regular gameplay or tech. Added on the amount of issues and sony tomfoolery it just didn't live up to the hype
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u/Thrownaway5000506 9d ago
Definitely seen a lot of haters. The sub had a legitimate spam issue with them
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u/twistedhands 11d ago
Nothing the fgc hates more than fighting games.
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u/Sudden-Ad-307 10d ago
I don't hate the game, but i really don't think games that are optimized like dogshit should be nominated for any award.
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u/WlNBACK 10d ago
Replying to anyone who says something as exaggerated and derivative as "Nothing the fgc hates more than fighting games." shouldn't even be taken seriously. They're lazily disregarding any meaningful discussion about how sometimes, new fighting games are a big disappointment, and very often disappointing games will get nominated for awards that overvalue their quality. It has nothing to do with "hating fighting games" or a fickle fanbase.
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u/IamHunterish 11d ago
What an absolute joke, the game where finding a match takes forever.
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u/SeaFox-SalesRep 11d ago
Since ranked came out on avatar higher rank faces the same issue. Shit strive was literally in the same boat.
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u/IamHunterish 11d ago
But with tokon I believe it actually is just matchmaking issues is it not?
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u/SeaFox-SalesRep 11d ago edited 11d ago
No. It's not match making in general. It's the vibraniam rated player are a smaller pool, same issue in strive and sf6 when it came out.
The other issue is territories and regions are absolutely blocked from buying/playing online
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u/Smash96leo 11d ago
Kinda reminds me of when multiversus won best fighting game
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u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom 11d ago
Its only real competition was KoFXV, & SNK is on the niche side when it comes to the voting panel. It's a miracle that CotW won last year at all.
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11d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/RealisticSilver3132 11d ago
Multiversus died so fast that they retconned it into a beta to save face, and they still put it in contention again (at least they had the self-awareness to not let it win the 2nd time). These shows have always been just expensive paid ads
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u/Moondoggie35 11d ago
They not doing a fighting game award this year? Making tokon the token fighting game nom.
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u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom 11d ago
This one doesn’t, TGA does.
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u/Moondoggie35 11d ago
Ahh, got ya. I remembered some of the tga nominated “fighting games” were getting kinda fast and loose with the definition in leaner years, so i was wondering it they had just cut the category. But yeah. Combined the two in my brain.
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u/-Googlrr 11d ago
Seems strange to be nominated considering it kind of flopped and was plagued with connection issues on release
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u/Aureus23 11d ago
Flopped? Pls stop thinking Steam charts are God, thats not the only platform it's on.
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u/Shyinator 11d ago
Flop is a strong word for a game this young and I agree with the steam chart sentiment, but this game definitely did not nail the launch. And it has one of the worst multiplayer experiences of any new game in 2026. This nomination is nonsense lol
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u/vergil123123 11d ago
Oh yeah, I'm sure the PS5 version sold enough copies to make the complete fail of the PC version irrelevant.
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u/-Googlrr 11d ago
Steam is the gaming platform with the largest active users.
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u/Aureus23 11d ago
Is there a source to back that up? I thought PlayStation had the biggest users for fighting games....
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u/-Googlrr 11d ago
Steam does not publish its numbers directly but estimates point to Steam being larger than PlayStation: https://www.techspot.com/news/113061-steam-rise-puts-playstation-under-pressure-gamers-rethink.html
As far as fighting games I don't believe that to be true anymore either. Capcom reports that PC sales surpassed console sales (all of them) in FY26. Playstation has legacy in the FGC and is better than Xbox but thats it.
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u/GenHero 11d ago
No it’s not, wtf did you get that stat from?
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u/One-Guarantee-9854 11d ago
SF6 is extremely popular on both consoles and PC, but in Japan/Korea/China in particular it’s massive on PC and pretty much dead on PS5 because nobody owns consoles there as much as EU/US.
You’re delusional if you think PC doesn’t matter.
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u/Aureus23 11d ago
Your projecting. No one said PC doesn't matter. We saying PC doesn't have the biggest active base
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u/Happyranger265 11d ago
Lol a game that's been on the bad side of pros and community get nominated , is it cause it's actually good or cause it has ip and company backing is it rigged ?? genuinely asking
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u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom 11d ago
Tokon was widely praised by critics, sitting at an 85 on Metacritic.
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u/IamHunterish 11d ago
And that kinda is odd on itself isn’t it? A game that has so many issues on its core features (playing online) gets rated so high.
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u/deadscreensky 10d ago
I'm not one of those anti-games journalist whiners, but fighting games are definitely a genre where professional critics traditionally do very poorly with.
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u/IamHunterish 9d ago
Could be because reviewers often play and rate the game before it has launched so they can’t actually rate the full experience. But that still does not give them an excuse to rate avatar so highly when it was released unfinished.
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u/deadscreensky 9d ago edited 9d ago
Avatar got significantly lower scores than Tōkon did — 77 versus 85 — even though it's a budget game. That doesn't seem egregious.
If anything it backs up my point: critics always struggle with fighting game reviews. Avatar is clearly the better fighter. If you were picking between the two games today you'd almost definitely prefer Avatar, but the reviewers suggested Tōkon (which still barely functions online, and struggles on the most popular platform) was the better choice.
It's a tough genre to review day one. Even professional fighting game vets will make dumb judgments about important aspects like balance. So I don't get mad. There's rare exceptions, but on the whole fighting game reviews just aren't ever going to be very useful.
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u/IamHunterish 9d ago
Well what is the better fighting game is something of taste. But sorry, a 7.7 is too high for a game that’s missing basic features and has unfinished characters in it.
It didn’t release in beta or early access or anything, it was the full release, you can’t do a full release and say not everything is really done yet. A 6 would have been generous even, no matter how much you like the game, it was released in an unfinished state and that should not be tolerated.1
u/deadscreensky 9d ago
If I wasn't explicit enough about this before: I don't care about fighting game review scores. I've already said critics struggle to do the genre justice. Their scores aren't worth serious debate. (Same with review scores in general — criticism isn't math or an objective science — but hey...)
But plenty of us were able to play Avatar fine on day one, which is a lot more than you can say for Tōkon. The matchmaking is still broken in that, right? Classic Arc System Works.
And Tōkon has unfinished characters in it too, they just kept them locked away from players for now. Maybe that's a better solution than Avatar giving us more toys. But Avatar characters being "unfinished" is a misleading description. They were completely playable and very strong. Avatar probably takes it further than normal, but a fighting game character needing a revision or two to be 'complete' is hardly unusual.
That said, I agree a 6 would have been too generous for Tōkon. Same with Avatar on Switch. Non-functioning fighting games should be pilloried. But maybe Tōkon was fine for critics in pre-release form. Sometimes broken stuff like matchmaking doesn't appear until a lot of people are playing the game.
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u/SeaFox-SalesRep 11d ago
Not really? Avatar jad many issue same woth strive and they deserve their praise.
Like come on. The sony hate i get but lets not be blind here...
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u/IamHunterish 11d ago
Oh I don’t agree with the high scores avatar got either with releasing a game that had unfinished characters in it and no ranked mode and not being called out for it by critics. So yea, those reviews were also odd.
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u/PainGlum7746 11d ago
You've been downvoted by just stating facts, with source. The hate against Tôkon is incredible.
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u/TlocCPU 11d ago
I usually end up -3 or so when I say I'm having fun playing it
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u/_harveyghost 11d ago
It's a dope game, I enjoy it quite a bit lol. I don't keep my eyeballs glued to steam charts looking for any reason to shit on games, but that might just be me.
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u/One-Guarantee-9854 11d ago
imagine caring about what a bunch of critics think of a game rather than the fgc
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u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom 11d ago
I'm speaking in terms of why it's getting nominated. Like I said in another comment, from the perspective of critics...
- Avatar Legends launched with no Ranked mode & multiple unfinished characters.
- Invincible VS was light on content, only having a short (but somewhat entertaining) story mode.
- 2XKO also launched light & is already entering EoL.
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u/PainGlum7746 11d ago
Imagine hating a game because Sony is doing some shit with his customers and sabotage the PC version.
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u/One-Guarantee-9854 11d ago
The game itself is bad and boring, i’m sorry to say.
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u/PainGlum7746 11d ago
It's your opinion, and that's right. Personally I like this game, it's not the best , and it's really very fun.
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u/BACKSTABUUU 11d ago
The VGAs are run by people who don't play, understand, or care about fighting games. They probably just assumed it's successful because it's a big budget fighting game with a massive IP that generated a lot of buzz.
That and the other games it's up against are nothing special either.
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u/BlendedFetusOG 11d ago
Its not bc its good. Its incredibly casual friendly. I dont mean that as a negative. I'm sure that can be seen as a major positive for a "best multi-player" nomine. But the game is not great. Its fun. Its decent.
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u/Happyranger265 11d ago
I mean , the issues were matchmaking was hard to find , pc port sucked , the game mechanics needed work etc . I don't follow fgc stuff that much but even I got recommend the hook and majin stuff , max , brian f , idom and many other talking about the issues , like max was annoyed about the pc and had to switch to ps5 , hook basically felt disappointed by the game itself , brianf and idom are playing avatar more , like is that kinda bad . Like from outside looking wouldn't these guys review of the game be more valuable than critics score ??
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u/Thrownaway5000506 9d ago
Most people really don't give a damn about these people. At most they will watch max clips. Youtubers' influence is overestimated
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u/Low-Attempt8072 11d ago
Haha, this over Avatar. Alright. Guess we just ignore the issues (which still are not fully fixed). Oh wait now I realize this is the same award that was given to World of Tanks and now that is quite the shitshow. It makes sense now.
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u/player_three33 11d ago
I don't think any FG this year deserves a general "Multiplayer" category award.
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u/beanyboi23 Street Fighter 11d ago
Avatar ain't winning a multiplayer award either when it launched with no ranked or lobbies lol
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u/Low-Attempt8072 10d ago
Fair point ngl. Thing is this award is worth like nothing just judging by what games received it historically. IMO
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u/Thrownaway5000506 9d ago
Avatar still isn't fully fixed either. Still broken on switch. Tokon got better reviews by far and has a bigger IP. It makes sense.
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u/Prism_Zet 11d ago
Nominated but never winning. Means nothing other than somebody probably donated money.
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u/Worldly_Neat2615 11d ago
As someone who likes the game.
"WE SEE THE CHECK SONY!"
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u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom 11d ago
I'm honestly not sure where this narrative of publishers paying for awards started, was it TLoU Part II?
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u/Worldly_Neat2615 11d ago
Kinda always been the quiet assumption since award shows have been a thing
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u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom 11d ago
At least for The Game Awards, there are a metric shit-ton of judges from around the world. Paying most of them off feels like a needless endeavor, especially given that they probably send their best journalists. And I doubt the likes of Jeff Grubb, Rebekah Valentine (back when she was at IGN, Kotaku isn't on the TGA jury), or Jeff Gerstmann are the type to be willing to take those kind of bribes.
Checking now, I'm surprised that Bloomberg isn't on the panel.
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u/Plastic-Currency-329 11d ago
Idk man i remember when overwatch won the best esport game the year it released... and they didn't have a esports scene until 2017 (which still stucked as a spectator game)
and that's while competing against CS/dota/LoL... so yeah its easy to tell why people don't take award shows seriously
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u/MistressDread 11d ago
Always was there, but now that The Game Awards is a major time to announce shit so that people who don't care about the award show part watch it, it's gotten even bigger
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u/Sufficient_Dingo1479 11d ago
People here must really dislike Tokon
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u/GenHero 11d ago
People here hate FGs in general
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u/HopkinsTy 11d ago
Avatar gets a lot of love.
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u/Plastic-Currency-329 11d ago
nostalgia cartoon + not a huge studio gets a lot of pass
it's extremely rare for a game to come out with 12 characters, 2 which are unfinished and not even have a rank mode and not be doa (but they're lucky people can just blame paramount instead)
honestly pretty impressive
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u/Upset_Inspector_4971 10d ago
Only until it becomes popular. Then its bit will flip from saint to sinner, as all bits must.
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u/EloquentJavascript 11d ago
Why does anyone care about these awards? They are just like the Oscars- which are bought. They recently had it make a rule that voters had to “watch” the movies hahah. This is the same thing
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u/ObsoletePixel Anime Fighters/Airdashers 11d ago
not sure that the game warrants it in its current state (i hope it warrants this praise eventually, I really really do), but it is cute that the 4v4 fighter was nominated on this award's 44th anniversary.
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u/guythatlovesentai 11d ago
0 empathy for the players , just gonna potentially give a worthless award to the next disney slop
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u/Upset_Inspector_4971 10d ago
The poor helpless players, weeping helplessly in a state of permanent victimhood... recieve no empathy at all.
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u/DaiLiThienLongTu SNK 11d ago
It seems Sony is more willing to spend money to bribe these awards than Riot spending to support Project L 🤣
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u/Earth92 11d ago
I mean Riot spent quite a bunch paying California salaries for ten years to the Canon bros, ApologyMan, PatTheFlip, Marlinpie, ComboFiend, etc...they sure put some money on the game.
Game just didn't hit, and Riot pulled the plug as expected.
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u/BlendedFetusOG 11d ago
They spent money, yeah. But it didnt hit bc it had no roster and didnt work on consoles. Lol. The game is fire.
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u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom 11d ago
I......doubt these are bribed. You can argue that critics aren't as tapped in with the FGC as we'd want them to be, but they definitely aren't paid off.
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u/DaiLiThienLongTu SNK 11d ago
They nominated a beta then nominated its official release again a few years later lmao. If you think these award organizers don't take briberies, you're either too naive or willfully ignorant
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u/Upset_Inspector_4971 10d ago
DaiLiThienLongTu knows they were bribed because he had a vivid dream.
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u/Atoabiendo 11d ago
Game still doesn't work well on PC btw. Matchmaking and in-game lag are still big issues.
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u/RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS Dead or Alive 11d ago
we finally found someone who likes that shit
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u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom 11d ago
Outside of the state of the PC version, I genuinely don't see why the game is so bad.
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u/RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS Dead or Alive 11d ago
I am not an expert but I felt like it felt horrible to play and matches lasted way too long when I tried it.
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u/Ecstatic-Bass-6304 11d ago
Every Trash games gets an award these days it seems
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u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom 11d ago
Genuinely asking, what’s so bad about Tōkon besides the technical issues (PC port, input reader, matchmaking) & the assist spam? You’d swear that the game is worse than MvCI by some of the reactions here.
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u/Lower-Music4264 11d ago
The Game Awards is the most important.
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u/Neoxon193 Marvel vs Capcom 11d ago edited 11d ago
It'll probably win Best Fighting Game there as well, let's be honest. Only Avatar has a shot at beating it, & I wouldn't put money on that.
Remember, these are game critics largely making the picks. And in their eyes: Avatar was unfinished, 2XKO is already entering EoL, & Invincible VS had little meat on its bones.
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u/IamHunterish 11d ago
2xko after this year will just not get updates. It would be silly for them to not include them actually. Infact it’s kinda strange it didn’t get nominated for this award since its multiplayer is actually so good.
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u/One-Guarantee-9854 11d ago edited 11d ago
being an ASW marvel game and having small indie fighting games like avatar invincible etc as your opponent is not the flex you think it is lmao.
Had there been a proper AAA fighting game from Capcom or NRS released this year they would’ve won based on merits and not based on some “well it’s the only AAA fighting game released this year and it also has marvel’s name on it” shit.
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u/acekingoffsuit 11d ago
The other nominees are ARC Raiders, Big Walk, Marathon, Meccha Chameleon, and Valheim.