I saw someone mentioning marvel 3 when talking about tokon. Saying that people hated mvc3 as well when it first launched. So, it got me thinking.
I did not like mvc3 when it first dropped. I thought it was easy and wack. That opinion lasted like 3 days, if that. We argued 24 7 in the EMP house about how stupid mvc3 was, games now vs back then, etc etc. The difference tho?
How the game felt when you played it.
Movement felt good. Buttons felt responsive. Combos and situations were fun. Assists all had different uses. Pushblock was awesome. Neutral was awesome. The game worked when you turned it on (crazy thought i know). And to top it off, it was fun to watch. The people who made the game did a good job giving us a familiar feeling in something new. It scratched the itch. It made us the right type of salty. Winning felt good, and losing made you want to keep going.
Imo tokon just doesnt match that at all. Movement is ehhh. Buttons and inputs, oooof. Combos are cool I guess, but most situations suck. Theres just broken assists and everything else is useless. Scrambles on top of scrambles. Neutral after the first round is wayyyyy to chaotic. The defensive mechanics are easily the worst ive ever seen in a fighting game of all time (not even kidding). The game working when you turn it on? Yea not for alot of people. And it just isnt fun to watch. It doesnt really scratch the itch. The feeling feels tainted. 9 out of 10 times, I feel like im fighting the game instead of my opponent. Winning and losing doesnt feel any different sometimes. And dont get me started on -ACTIVE TAG-.
Its ok to not like something when it comes out. Its ok calling something trash 24 7, while still playing it. You can learn to change ur opinion and accept things as time moves on. Or you can quit, which is completely fine too. You spent the money? You say and do what you want.
I give every game a shot. From oldschool to newschool. Ive been playing fighting games since 4 years old, and ive been in the scene since around 06. With tokon tho (and even 2xko), half the problems shouldve been fixed before the game came out. Now it can still be fixed, but honestly, the community is just tired of the current state of the fgc. Its 2026. Bad releases, stupid decision making, confusing marketing, game not working when you turn it on, bad online, etc. Sony, riot, snk, etc. And to the people arguing against these facts, defending these companies, you are...... yea im not gonna say it.
We are just tired...... the fgc deserves better.
Politely, I agree.
Having a critique about a player's inability to personalize the way they play (both within the character and within the sandbox they are put in) is absolutely not lazy. Saying that in and of itself is a lazy critique that simply ignores (or fails to see) the meaning behind the words.
If the game is solved in a binary fashion, then there's nothing interesting left to it. It's just Xs and Os. Yet, we know that not to be the case in (most) FGs.
Think about action combat games where people say, "the combat is repetitive". They want more opportunities to personalize the experience. The fewer combined tools, opportunities, and methods to employ them (it's not always about JUST more tools), the more tedious the minute to minute becomes.
When those elements exist in strong combination, those games are often perceived as more interesting, both as a player, and a spectator.
People are known for the way they play, or the way they drive, or the way they wrestle, or the way they rap, or the way they hoop, or the way they sing. If the medium allows creativity, then individual expression can exist, right?
We know it existed in OG fighting games that some might call "basic" or "simple" in this day and age; Choi's fireballs, Valle's RTSD, Daigo's fearless Ume Shoryus. The way Yipes plays Magneto is different from the way Justin plays Magneto. It can exist in most things that aren't purely "solved". The degree is what matters.
When you put too many rules and/or barriers into things, it becomes "who can do the one thing the best" like the 100m dash, or the javelin throw. Who can get to the other side the faster, or who can throw the thing farther. The "personalization" comes before and after the actual play, because in 99% of scenarios, that's the only place it can exist... outside of the medium.
That isn't FGs though.
In FGs, while "more" doesn't automatically mean better... it does mean it's more likely for an obvious separation to exist within the same sandbox. Even without an abundance of tools, there should ideally be interesting applications and unique scenarios that result based on individual player interaction.
Thus, player expression.
Wanting that sort of thing is absolutely not lazy. It's a valid desire, and thus a valid criticism if a game lacks or even feels that way to the person making the critique. They could be wrong. They could also be right.
Old games had way less mechanics and still had player expression, so we know it can exist within a smaller box... but we now live in an age of 750 mechanics in every game (for better or for worse) and when a game has every mechanic ever, and the gameplay ends up feeling stale to play and to watch, the "lack of player expression" comments appear.
This is what I took from the original critique from Singh.
"emulating sf6" should mean "launching as a stable complete package on day 1 with plenty of single player content, good netcode, in depth training mode and good tutorials" but for some reason devs keep interpreting it as "add a drive impact function for some reason"
I’m convinced 70-80% of the reason SF6 is as big as it is because it stuck the landing on release.
Gameplay is subjective, but at least on launch it was a well made game with
- Netplay
- Lobbies
- It worked when you turned it on
That shit goes a long way clearly 😂
welcome to fighting games in 2026, we got:
-basically arcade perfect emulation via fpga emulation
-rollback netcode as the standard
-fightcade 2
-tournament support from developers
-more dedication to hardware and set ups than ever before
Stop blackpilling and focusing on the new game cycle, no one is forcing you to play these shitty new games. There's some some old games that are getting more support now than when they were released over 20 years ago.
Beat a guy today in pools and he looks at me and say what do I play for i say myself and he goes “you should be playing for jesus” mind you this guy name was jesus_is_god idk why people at tournaments just can’t be normal im trying to play SF not bible study.