At EVO 2025, Maximilian Dood praised Marvel Tokon’s style but questioned its tag mechanics, saying it plays more like a “spicy 1v1″.
FGC content creator Maximilian Dood has shared his first impressions of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls after playing it at EVO 2025.
Borrowing a phrase from a Sajam stream chatter, he described the upcoming 4v4 fighter as a “spicy 1v1”, a tag game in name, but in practice leaning heavily toward single-character play. EVO 2025 marked the first public debut of the yet-to-be-released Marvel 4 vs 4 fighting game.
Marvel Tokon "a 1v1 game with features" says Maximilian Dood
The seeming arrival of a brand new tag game in Marvel Tokon was massive news for the FGC community, with the format especially beloved due to the success of the Marvel vs Capcom series in the past.
Maximilian Dood, in particular, was incredibly animated when the first trailer dropped in early June. However, after having hands on time with the game the FGC creator shared his early reservations about the tagging system.
"It’s not really a tag game, and I get it," said Maximilian Dood. "It says 4v4 all over the place, but in a bit of criticism, it’s more of like a 1v1 game with features.
"Somebody described it in Sajam’s chat as a spicy 1v1, and I love it 100%. The best way you could describe it."
"You start off with 2v2 characters, but it’s mostly one character and their assist. And you can tag, there are all these things you can do, but it really felt like the game wanted to be played, at least in first impression, as a 1v1 game."
Maximilian Dood went on to argue that Tokon's tag system appears to suffer from a lack of real incentives. Due to the game offering almost no grey health recovery, there is little benefit to switch characters mid-match as you simply lose health outright.
"There could be a bonus of meter, a bonus of resources, including your health, that would allow tagging to be more incentivized. They have to make that choice, do they want to make tagging good or do they not?," said Maximilian Dood.
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"I kind of wish it would dedicate to being a 1v1"
Overall, while the beloved streamer said he was excited for the Marvel Tokon's release, he hoped they could commit to it being a 1v1 game or a 4v4 game instead of trying to "have their cake and eat it" by doing both.
"From what we played, I kind of wish it would dedicate to being a 1v1 and kind of a crazy Guilty Gear Xrd sort of 1v1 like BlazBlue X Guilty Gear," said Maximilian Dood. "I think that would be badass if it was just like straight 1v1. But right now, the way the game is sort of like a hybrid tag game, which is genuinely unique."
Single character focus part of design says ArcSystem Works
Interestingly, Arc System Works did touch upon this topic independently in their Marvel Tokon EVO 2025 panel, stating the game was actually designed so players can enjoy focusing one main character first.
"One of the major challenges that encounter is that for a tag fighter very hard to get into multiple characters is quite challenging," said Kazuto Sekine, Game Director of Arc System Works. "So we felt that we wanted it to be a tag fighter but be something where you only have learn to play as one character still enjoy the game."
Marvel Tokon has yet to release but there is closed beta currently running. - How to join Marvel Tokon closed beta.
