History Main / ComebackMechanic

* All MarioKart games will bestow more powerful items the further behind a racer is. This was at its most potent in ''Mario Kart Double Dash!!'', where characters have powerful special items.

* ''SuperSmashBros. Brawl'' has the Pity Smash, which is given to someone who has been knocked out multiple times without inflicting a knockout. It allows a free use of a powerful Final Smash.
** For another example in ''SuperSmashBros. Brawl'', Lucario has this as a unique character mechanic. The more damage Lucario has, the more damage his Aura based attacks will deal, with his power capping when his damage meter hits 170%. Lucario's current standing in a match also affects how powerful his attacks are; if he's one stock (or one point in Time matches) behind his opponent, his attacks will be 20% more powerful, and if he's two or more stocks/points behind, his attacks will be 40% more powerful. On the contrary, if he's one stock/point ahead, he'll be at 90% of his usual power, while being two or more stocks/points ahead will leave his attacks with 80% of their usual power. For one more bonus, the size of his neutral special, Aura Sphere, directly correlates with Lucario's current power standing.
* In MarioParty, Bowser will normally take Coins or Stars from players. If a player reaches Bowser with no Coins or Stars, however, Bowser will give the player 40 Coins.

* In the ''CallOfDuty: Modern Warfare'' series, they added ''Deathstreaks''; much like it sounds, it's a bonus given to players who're doing particularly bad. If they die multiple times in a row without ever getting a kill, the game will give them a buff of some sort (such as increased health or dropping a grenade upon death) to help them out.

* In ''DissidiaFinalFantasy'' and its sequel, the summon Magic Pot changes your Bravery (attack power, which is extremely highly variable in this game) into that of your opponent's. If your opponent is able to land a finishing blow on you, odds are you can do the same to your opponent with Magic Pot.

* ''LeagueOfLegends'' has a minor example. Players who die without killing enemy champions decrease the amount of gold awarded for killing them, while players who kill without dying are worth increasing amounts with each kill. This doesn't counteract the game's UnstableEquilibrium, but mitigates it to a degree.
* In the ''AdvanceWars'' series, each time a unit is damaged, the defending team gets twice the CO Power charge from the attack as the attacking team.
* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' reintroduced world [=PvP=] in ''Wrath of the Lich King'' but soon face the issue that on realms with large population disparities, the more populous side would always win. "Tenacity" was a scaling buff introduced by Blizzard to balance this. Unfortunately, sheer numbers could still carry the day with ease.

* ''{{Tekken}} 6'' has "Rage Mode", which activates when a character is low on life and does more damage the lower their life gets.

** S-Groove's meter is based on ''TheKingOfFighters'''s original gauge (which eventually got turned into "Extra" mode for'' '97'' and'' '98''), which has the same property near death (which is partly why super moves in ''[=KoF=]'' are called "Desperation Moves").
* ''[[BloodyRoar Bloody Roar: Primal Fury]]'' aids losing players by expiditing the rate at which their beast gauge fills, regardless whether inflicting or receiving damage. Meaning, the lower their health, the greater the gain per hit.

* In [[SoulSeries ''Soul Calibur V'']], a player that is one round away from losing the match gets one free soul gauge stock in the next round. This only happens once though- they'll have to carry themselves the rest of the way.

* Some of the events in GalacticCivilizations II are designed to help a player who is behind or hinder a player who is ahead.

Video games can be cruel sometimes. After all, TheComputerIsACheatingBastard. However, some games feel sorry for a player who might need a positive shove. When done well, this creates a motive for less experienced players to keep playing and a deeper layer of strategy for more experienced players. When done shoddily, it will needlessly drag out a match longer than it should. In general though, the purpose of such mechanics is to keep the game close so that less experienced players aren't left in the dust, which can have disastrous results in the game's popularity.

* Lucario in ''SuperSmashBros. Brawl'' does more damage and receives larger hitboxes (areas that inflict damage if an opponent touches it) the more damage he takes without getting [=KOed=].

** In MarioParty9, most possible outcomes of landing on a Bowser space will benefit the player in last, and one outcome is an ''extremely high-stakes minigame''. We're talking "whoever wins this wins the board" stakes, so it can cause comebacks.

* The ''{{Pokemon}}'' moves Reversal and Flail do more damage the less HP the user has, and Endeavor reduces the opponent's HP to be the same amount as the user's.

* In ''{{Pokemon}}'', the move Pain Split adds the HP of the user and the target, averages it, and changes both monsters' HP to that amount. Logically, this means that the less HP the user has than the target, the more effective it becomes - although since some Pokemon have naturally low HP, they don't really have to be losing to take advantage of the move.

** When Tenacity failed, Blizzard implemented a different CombackMechanism. Player entry into battles was limited at a one-to-one ratio. The smaller faction would face a group of the same size, evening the battlefield.

* [[Videogame/TheKingOfFighters The King of Fighters XIII]] has a more subtle mechanic- with its 3 vs. 3 fights, later fighters will be able to store one more super bar. Therefore, the first character in a team can stock up to three bars, the second stock up to four, and the last up to five. It allows for more damaging combos or escape attempts, but it won't single-handedly turn the tide of battle.

* ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' has the Revenge Meter, which fills the more damage one takes. Once it's filled halfway, an Ultra Move becomes possible and when filled all the way, the Ultra does more damage. Like Super Moves in ''StreetFighterII'', Ultra only lasts one round.

* ''StreetFighterIV'' has the Revenge Meter, which fills the more damage one takes. Once it's filled halfway, an Ultra Move becomes possible and when filled all the way, the Ultra does more damage. Like Super Moves in ''StreetFighterII'', Ultra only lasts one round.

-->--'''Mark Rosewater''', lead designer of MagicTheGathering, '''''[[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/166 Ten Things Every Game Needs]]'''''

* ''MarvelVsCapcom3'' has the X-Factor mechanic, which boosts the speed and attack power of the current player character. The fewer characters the player has remaining on his or her team, the stronger X-Factor becomes.
* ''StreetFighterXTekken'' has Pandora. This allows a player 7 seconds of infinite super meter (and changes the character to black with glowing purple, including the clothes), at the cost of disabling the partner character and losing the match once Pandora wears off.

* Baroque in ''TatsunokoVsCapcom'' allows you to deal more damage in a combo--how much more depends on how much red health the player's current character has. As red health increases with damage taken, the more damage the character has taken, the stronger Baroque becomes.

* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' reintroduced world [=PvP=] in ''Wrath of the Lich King'' but soon face the issue that on realms with large population disparities, the more populous side would always win. "Tenacity" was a scaling buff introduced by Blizzard to balance this. When this failed, Blizzard took the simple route and limited people allowed into the battles at a one-to-one ratio.

* ''MortalKombat9'''s super meter seems to work more on the side of damage intake rather than output. Beating up your opponent won't earn near as much super energy as simply getting smacked around yourself. Charge it all the way up and retaliate with a big combo full of EX moves or one powerful X-Ray shot.

* In ''{{Pokemon}}'', the move Pain Split adds the HP of the user and the target, averages it, and changes both monsters' HP to that amount. Logically, this means that the less HP the user has than the target, the more effective it becomes.

* The ''{{Pokemon}}'' moves Reversal and Flail do more damage the less HP the user has.

* A similar case occurs in ''SuperPuzzleFighterIITurbo'', where each time a player drops a piece, all the Counter Gems (garbage blocks) on their side count down by 1, and turn into regular gems when they hit 0, turning them into fuel for counterattacks. Additionally, clearing gems higher up on the screen generates more Counter Gems sent to the opponent. Thus the definitive strategy is to send one giant attack that [=KOs=] your opponent in one hit - but that's easier said than done.

* In the ''AdvanceWars'' series, each time a unit is damaged, the defending team gets twice the CO Power charge from the attack as the attacking team.

* ''Persona4TheUltimateInMayonakaArena'' has Awakening mode, which kicks in at the back end of your character's life bar. In this state, you take less damage, gain 50 more points of super meter (which means one extra super can be executed in the same bar), and have access to an "Awakening" move.

* ''MortalKombat9'''s super meter seems to work more on the side of damage intake rather than output. Beating up your opponent won't earn near as much super energy as simply getting smacked around yourself. Charge it all the way up and retaliate with a big combo full of EX moves or one powerful X-Ray shot.

* ''PunchOut'' on the Wii has this a mechanic for the player. If the player is about to go down from a KO or TKO, mashing 1 and 2 can help bring Little Mac back into the action and not lose, coming back with about 1/4 of his energy. However, the mechanic has a great chance of failing if said mechanic is relied on too much in a single round.

** Also, in the ''Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution'' series, there are Latent Ninja Powers, an additional bunch of moves for each character triggered by being below a certain HP.

* The "Second Wind" feature in ''{{Borderlands}}'', whereby if you manage to kill an enemy as you're in the throes of death yourself, you gain a small amount of health back, and can continue.