The Most Broken Fighting Game Character Ever Made

Every fighting game community has a name it still says through gritted teeth. This bracket collects sixty-four of them, from early-nineties arcade cabinets to games still getting patches. Each card plays footage of that character in the specific release where they were at their worst, because balance lives in versions, not franchises. The Akuma here is the Super Turbo one, and Luke shows up twice, once for each game that could not handle him.

Nobody got in on reputation alone. A character had to appear on at least one published list of the most broken or overpowered fighters, from a games outlet or from a tier list built by players, including one where a hundred people at a Tampa tournament ranked the most unfair picks in history. Where a list only named a series, the character needed a clear version; if nobody could say which game made them a problem, they stayed out.

The other rule is that you had to be able to pick them against a friend. Anyone who only existed as a computer opponent is gone, however miserable the arcade ladder got. Bosses the game lets you select in versus play, sometimes behind a code, are fair game, which is how a purple wizard from a Power Rangers cartridge ends up in the same bracket as the cast of Street Fighter.

Official trailers are used where the publisher cut one for that character in that game. Everywhere else, the card shows gameplay from the right release. Some entries are here for tournament history, some for what they did to living-room matches, and one is a neighbor from Springfield. You decide which kind of broken counts most.