The 25 Most BROKEN Fighting Game Characters EVER

The 25 Most Broken Fighting Game Characters Ever

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at the 25 most busted characters to ever plague the fighting game scene. Balance be damned!

Sagat

“Street Fighter” (1987)

Is this the first ever instance of a broken fighting game character? Well, unless “Urban Champion” is hiding some nonsense, it may very well be! Those who suffered through the first “Street Fighter” game found a title that was constantly tipping the scales against you in ludicrous ways, and Sagat was the most excessive. He’s faster, stronger, and suffers practically no damage from blocking. There are even times where it straight up looks like he completely ignores your attacks and immediately retaliates with no consequences. Basically, Sagat is the reason why no one ever talks about the first “Street Fighter” and why no one is ever itching to play it.

Eddy Gordo

“Tekken 3” (1998)

Ever since his debut in “Tekken 3”, Eddy Gordo has been among the most contentious characters in the entire franchise’s history. Most folks are welcome to his appearances and fighting against those who main him. Others rage quit and cry on the internet about how he should be banned. The reason? It’s because he is incredibly hard to read and anticipate which attacks he’s going to do. Thing is that is kind of the point of capoeira. It’s a martial art - a form of “dance fighting” meant to keep your opponent guessing and force them to be as defensive as possible because you’re moving around so much. Though, we can understand the frustration in “Tekken 3” because Eddy players could very easily win just by mashing a couple of combos. His moveset is very lenient and very forgiving to noobs.

Scorpion

“Injustice: Gods Among Us” (2013)

As many “Injustice” veterans will tell you, Scorpion pretty much killed the online scene for this first installment. Whereas most of the game’s heroes and villains specialized in brute force, zoning, countering, or what have you, Scorpion brought in so much B-S from the “Mortal Kombat” games that it made him the Swiss Army knife of “Injustice”. He had ranged attacks, teleport attacks, command grabs - he was basically an all-round fighter that could take on any and every character in the game and still perform spectacularly. In other words, he was a typical “final DLC character who suddenly breaks the entire game and becomes the meta”.

Itachi Uchiha

Various “Naruto” Games

Whether any of the “Naruto” fighting games are balanced is kind of in the eye of the beholder, but Itachi is the one character who seems to constantly be the most powerful across several titles. Choose any “Naruto” game you want. If Itachi is in it, just play him for a few minutes, and he wipes the floor with any other fighter in that game, be it “Naruto Storm Connections”, “Ultimate Ninja Storm 2” - literally any “Naruto” fighting game out there. In a way, he’s at least lore accurate. So, it makes sense why he’d be broken, but Itachi alone is likely the reason why you don’t see a lot of anime fighting games sprouting in the competitive scene.

Cinder

“Killer Instinct” (1994)

For as crazy and frenetic as “Killer Instinct” can get, some may find it impossible to find a fighter in the game that could be considered overpowered. On the contrary, Cinder was absurdly busted in the original “Killer Instinct”, specifically the arcade version. Players were finding and exploiting different infinites so much that it turned the game into a joke at arcades. All Cinder had to do was catch his opponent against a wall, launch them, and then keep juggling them with a backflip kick. It got so bad that Nintendo actually got involved and began sending technicians to arcades to install patches that nerfed Cinder’s ability to do this. In 1994, there were roughly seventeen thousand “Killer Instinct” cabinets across the globe. And yes, you can do this in the 1.4 version of “Killer Instinct Classic”, but the 1.5D version will not allow you to do so.

Kokonoe

“BlazBlue” series (2008-)

Much like Eddy Gordo, Kokonoe has been a topic of very heated discussion. As many “BlazBlue” players may tell you, the games are relatively balanced for the most part, but Kokonoe is where some players question that notion. The cat girl just gets so much control over the stage between her decent melee attacks, wealth of ranged attacks, and her ability to set up her Graviton to bait opponents into compromising situations. Admittedly, she has been nerfed and tweaked since the days of “Chrono Phantasma”, but regardless, some still hold hostility against her.

General Skarr

“The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy” (2006)

This “Power Stone” clone based on the Cartoon Network show already has some pretty strong characters. Grim, Mandy, Fred Fredburger… Okay, maybe not him, but General Skarr boasts just enough power to be considered the most broken character in the game. Skarr wields a much higher attack speed than the rest of the roster AND deals way more damage simultaneously. Even just a basic string of light attacks can take off a massive chunk of your health. Your only means of counterplay is really to just exploit as many items as possible and grab Mojo Balls the second you see them. He can’t do anything against an insta-kill!

Guile

“Street Fighter II: The World Warrior” (1991)

We owe a lot to “Street Fighter II” for birthing what would become the competitive fighting game scene. However, age has done the game rather dirty mainly because of Guile. Unless you’re playing a mirror match, Guile manages to give every character a run for their money because of his reach and quick ability to counter whiffs. And if you found Hadouken-spamming Ryus annoying to play against, wait until you get a load of Sonic Boom-spamming Guiles. They are ten times worse!

Phoenix

“Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds” & “Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3” (2011)

No matter which version of MvC3 you’re playing, Phoenix is the fighter everyone will judge you for using and for good reason. At first, she seems weak as she takes more damage than most characters. But that weakness is instantly remedied by the fact that she has a second chance mechanic where she can resurrect as Dark Phoenix. In this form, she gets a massive boost in speed and damage, and that power can be further boosted by X Factor. Oh, and did we mention her normals now shoot out projectiles? Even with her health being slowly drained, it’s next to impossible to beat her.

Ned Flanders

“The Simpsons Wrestling” (2001)

Look, don’t expect too many awful fighting games to crop up here, but it’s really hard to ignore the notoriety of “The Simpsons Wrestling”. This game has so many issues with its movement and game balance. Yet if you’re someone who is a glutton for punishment and wants to beat this game, Ned Flanders is going to save you the headache or shatter whatever friends you may have. For starters, Flanders can spam plenty of moves and can call down God to smite you without warning. Not only that, but he can restore all of his health upon death! Y’all thought Phoenix was bad? Not when Flanders exist!

Bayonetta

“Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U” (2014)

Oh, we’ll get to HIM later on, but man, the animosity towards Bayonetta was something else. At first, the haters were mainly gunning for Bayonetta for “stealing” the Smash ballot from supposedly more worthy contenders. Just another case of “wah, my character didn’t make it and the new one sucks”. But once she was making the rounds in tournaments, all hell broke loose. The Umbra Witch made mincemeat out of every fighter in “Smash 4” thanks to her aerial mobility and how she could string attacks together effortlessly. The Grand Finals of EVO 2018 was the final straw for folks, and since then, almost no one looks at “Smash 4” fondly anymore.

Gill

“Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact” (1997) & “Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike” (1999)

We’re trying to refrain from putting too many bosses on this list, but to leave off Gill would be a crime against humanity. Even though there are plenty of strong characters making up “Street Fighter III’s” roster, the game gets unbearably in “2nd Impact” and “3rd Strike” all because of Gill. The angry blonde half-Smurf is just way too oppressive with his speed and damage output not to mention the one Super that allows him to recover a crap ton of health. We know fighting game bosses are supposed to be the ultimate test in strength, but Gill goes overboard. Although, it’s not as egregious as our next entry.

God Rugal

“Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millenium” (2001)

In the world of tag fighters, no boss has been as infuriating as God Rugal. No matter what team you’ve assembled, no matter which moves you spam, God Rugal is simply a tyrant fueled by pure rage and adrenaline. He’ll punish you instantly on even the smallest block or whiff. He’ll utilize moves that are borderline unstoppable. He will practically ignore all fundamentals CvS2 has instilled in you. You want to talk about input-reading buttmunch bosses? God Rugal is the living embodiment of that trope.

Lab Coat Android 21

“Dragon Ball FighterZ” (2018)

On the surface, Lab Coat Android 21 looks like she should just be a simple costume, right? Well, far from it. This iteration of “FighterZ’s” antagonist plays much more differently from her true form, and she’s an absolute menace. Her neutrals and mix-ups can put the rest of the roster in the danger zone relatively easily. She even has a Super that functions as a command grab and can inflict a major debuff on opponents that is stackable with other debuffing moves. Who would have thought a simple change of clothes would make “FighterZ” so one-sided?

Kratos

“PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale” (2012)

To their credit, players have found ways to make Raiden, Sackboy, and PaRappa worthy brawlers in Sony’s platform fighter. But even after all of the patches, all of the balance adjustments, all the minor tweaks, Kratos is still the most busted fighter in “PlayStation All-Stars”. The Ghost of Sparta just leans way too heavily into his own game’s combat mechanics as he can attack fast, rack up a ton of damage with just a few inputs, and build a full meter within seconds. His Level 3 Super can even rack up seven or eight KOs if you manage to wipe out rivals at a perfect pace. Really, not even Zeus can match Kratos’s potential, and he was one of the last two DLC characters!

Karai

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters” (1993)

There’s really no strategy to beat Karai in “Tournament Fighters”. What you have here is a character that excels in every possible facet of combat while everyone else is good in one thing and horrible in another. Karai moves fast, hits hard, and can even grab you from an obscene distance. Suppose you do manage to block her attacks, you’ll still have no time to effectively counter. She is THAT busted. And no, spamming Jason’s grenades is not a super reliable way to cheese her. It’s possible, but we wouldn’t recommend it.

Sailor Uranus

“Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon S: Jōgai Rentō!? Shuyaku Sōdatsusen” (1994)

We’d be all in on a “Sailor Moon” fighting game if only this one wasn’t so unbalanced. To be fair, most of the roster is fine, but that’s only if you’re ignoring Sailor Uranus. Uranus will have your anus regardless of who you’re playing as! The big reason for this is that her dash ability can be canceled into other moves whereas the rest of the roster has nothing close to that level of utility. Just Uranus’s piledriver can put you at Death’s door because of how much damage it deals! These two abilities alone have led to many tournament organizations banning her from play.

Akuma

“Super Street Fighter II Turbo”

Are you really surprised at all to see Akuma pop up on here? It took a hot minute, but here he is, and we all know why he deserves to be on here. Take it from an autistic person, it takes a high level of autism to keep up with this game in general. To be on par with Akuma, though? You have to transcend autism and become a demigod or something. His speed is so ridiculous that the average player is unlikely to properly register and react to what he’s doing. Essentially, you’re going to have to spend a lot of time adjusting to the game’s speed on top of reading and anticipating his next move.

Yoda

“Soulcalibur IV” (2008)

We’re not quite sure why we were still incorporating small characters in fighting games in 2008. (Seriously, did we learn nothing from Gon in “Tekken 3” ten years prior?) Regardless, Bandai Namco Entertainment decided that we absolutely needed Yoda to join Darth Vader in “Soulcalibur IV”. No, it does not matter if most characters can’t hit him regularly like they can against the rest of the cast. No, it does not matter if we make Yoda obscenely faster than the entire roster. No, it does not matter if we allow him for online play and potentially kill the playerbase. It’s Yoda! And Yoda is cool. Wait…why is nobody playing online anymore? Where’d everyone go?

Kabal

“Mortal Kombat” (2011)

Speaking of characters with absurd speed, Kabal has traumatized many MK9 players, more than Cyrax ever did. And we all know the B-S Cyrax was capable of. Kabal, on the other hand, was spam incarnate. For the longest time, Kabal players could launch you, dash and stun you mid-air, launch you back up, dash and stun you mid-air, rinse and repeat until Flawless Victory. This was “Mortal Kombat’s” worst nightmare since Noob Saibot became a playable character and a series regular. Enter a game after choosing Kabal, nine times out of ten you were gonna be met with “Player disconnected”.

Storm

“Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes” (2000)

Sentinel, Cable, and Magneto are vicious in their own ways, but of the Four Horsemen of MvC2, Storm is the ruler of the group. There is simply no downside to playing as her! You can intentionally whiff attacks just to build up meter, and you can build it up insanely quick. And once you do have a Level One meter, you gain access to Hailstorm, which is the best Hyper Combo in the game thanks to it being screenwide and giving almost no time to block. And do we even need to mention how easy it is to spam Typhoons?

Pet Shop

“JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future”

There is no escape from the ridiculously-named Pet Shop. This guy is so oppressive that both casual and hardcore fans will judge you harshly for picking him. The reason for this is because Pet Shop excels in so many ways that the rest of the roster cannot match him on. He’s got the fast mobility. He’s got absurd damage output. He’s got the mix-ups. He’s got the weird movements. He’s got the zoning potential. He literally has EVERYTHING you could want in a fighter! And god help you if he starts spamming those unblockable icicles!

Parace L’Sia

“Arcana Heart 3” (2011)

Have you ever wanted to see a fighting game suddenly get turned into a bullet hell game? Well, that’s the story with Parace L’Sia. This woman does not know the meaning of the word “chill” as she will begin assaulting you with projectiles the second the announcer says “FIGHT”. Get too close? Command grab without warning. Get too far? Prepare for total obliteration from every direction. Oh, and she regenerates health. Yeah, even watching someone fight her will give you secondhand rage.

Meta Knight

“Super Smash Bros. Brawl” (2008)

Ah, here’s our boy. For the longest time, Meta Knight has served as the poster child of broken fighting game characters. Understandable because his inclusion in “Brawl” was tumultuous the second the game was out. Meta Knight can easily inflict a ton of damage with a few swings of Galaxia. Even if you launch him pretty far, he can quickly recover using Drill Rush, Shuttle Loop, or even Dimensional Cape. He has no downsides, and he made matches so one-sided that any tournaments still running with “Brawl” have made a conscious effort to ban him from play. And somehow, he is not THE most broken character we’ve seen in a fighting game. That title actually belongs to…

Ivan Ooze

“Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition” (1995)

When looking at the history of fighting games and the competitive fighting game scene, no other character has come close to the level of infamy Ivan Ooze has had for so long. Normally, boss characters like Ivan Ooze get nerfed when unlocked as a playable character, and they’re usually nerfed by making certain moves inaccessible or severely lowering stats in health, damage, and speed. Well, that isn’t the case here! Ivan Ooze retains just about every trait he has as a final boss, even that B-S Invulnerable Strike move which he can use even when affected by hitstun! And yes, he can fly for a ludicrously long time, forcing rivals to resort to aerial attacks. To call Ivan Ooze “unfair” is putting this entire predicament under an extremely infantile lens. You have to see it for yourself, folks.

What do you think is the most busted fighting game character ever made? Did they make our list? Let us know down in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos everyday!