History AwesomeButImpractical / FightingGames

** Want to get a ''massive'' boost to R. Mika's command throw damage in ''Street Fighter V'', enough to end a round with one shot? Use her V-Skill and let her cut a live wrestling promo. For ''twenty'' seconds straight. If your opponent is patient enough not to interrupt you, you don't end it early, ''and'' you don't whiff, you get that obscene damage.

* General Grievous is a playable character in the duel mode of ''VideoGame/StarWarsEpisodeIIIRevengeOfTheSith'' game where he can wield four lightsabers, uses a blaster as a charged special attack and has an impressive grappling move where he {{neck lift}}s the opponent and proceeds to [[WrestlerInAllOfUs breaks their body wrestling style]]. Unfortunately, he lacks the ability to use the Force unlike other playable characters and can't use special powers like [[HealThyself Force Heal to regenerate health]].

* Counters: which are any special move that requires the opponent to hit you to trigger them, can have legitimate uses as reversals or hard reads on the opponent. However, when connected to cinematic moves such as supers, they suddenly become tactical suicide. A key strength of most counters is how minimally they’re telegraphed, which goes out the window when a mini cutscene or flash makes very clear they’ve been triggered. And if it fails, you wasted your meter completely, while having the standard counter downside of a severe punish if it fails and they’re ready for it. They are thus only going to succeed in countering newbies who don't yet know it's a counter stance, or fighters who are already in the middle of their attack animation. Infamous cases include Remy’s Blue Nocturne super in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'', Fei Long's Gekirinken Ultra and Cammy’s CQC in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV''.

* Counters: which are any special move that requires the opponent to hit you to trigger them, can have legitimate uses as reversals or hard reads on the opponent. However, when connected to cinematic moves such as supers, they suddenly become tactical suicide. A key strength of most counters is how minimally they’re telegraphed, which goes out the window when a mini cutscene or flash makes very clear they’ve been triggered. And if it fails, you wasted your meter completely, while having the standard counter downside of a severe punish if it fails and they’re ready for it. They are thus only going to succeed in countering newbies who don't yet know it's a counter stance, or fighters who are already in the middle of their attack animation. Infamous cases include Remy’s Blue Nocturne super in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'', Fei Long's Gekirinken Ultra in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'', and Cammy’s CQC in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV''.

* ''Franchise/StreetFighter'':
** In almost every ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'' game, Akuma's Raging Demon is this. A devastatingly powerful super that eats away half of your opponent's health bar, leaves them in a knockdown state, and provides you with a [[https://78.media.tumblr.com/f3b5f40951e9a84a5ee83990f6ea0280/tumblr_ngpgqaTASb1qd0br1o1_500.gif badass win pose]] if you win with it... too bad it requires a strict, awkward sequence of button presses to make it happen. And not only that, but it's nigh-impossible to set up appropriately if you aren't incredibly tight with your execution. In order for it to land, the opponent has to be on the ground and Akuma can get hit out of it by projectiles. Interestingly, starting with ''Street Fighter III'', the Raging Demon can be cancelled into from other attacks (inputting the commands for one attack while another hits, thus cancelling the recovery animation of the attack in progress into the startup animation of the next attack, leaving the opponent unable to react), thus being able to consistently and quickly cancel into it out of a handful of moves is required at high level play. With the correct setup, it's actually a really viable choice.
** Balrog (Boxer) has the Turn Punch, which is a charge move charged by holding all the punch or kick buttons. It's actually a great move in normal usage (it can let him dodge projectiles and melee attacks if timed right), but becomes this trope when charged for a long time. At full charge in ''Street Fighter IV'', it can do a staggering '''''560''''' in one blow, making it the most powerful single attack in the game (even more than any Ultras). Of course, charging it for an extended period requires sacrificing half his moveset just for the chance at landing a rather predictable move. Especially since getting hit once will remove all the charge, and a smart opponent will notice if you're going for it. And it has increased endlag the longer it goes, ensuring a vicious punish on block.
** Want to get a ''massive'' boost to R. Mika's command throw damage in ''Street Fighter V'', enough to end a round with one shot? Use her V-Skill and let her cut a live wrestling promo. For ''twenty'' seconds straight. If your opponent is patient enough not to interrupt you, you don't end it early, ''and'' you don't whiff, you get that obscene damage.
** Vega's jump from the fence looks spectacular but once the opponent figures out how to counter it, it becomes useless as they get plenty of warning for the attack.
** Ibuki's ultra grab Yoroitoshi is the only grab in the series to have a projectile if it whiffs that still damages the opponent if they are in range. The issue is that it doesn't do much damage and many characters have projectile immune attacks which could bypass the projectile in question.
** Ibuki also gets the semi exclusive Super Jump Cancel ability in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' that lets her do a complex motion to let her cancel any normal attack into one of her [[ThatOneAttack ultras]]. The issue here is that with either of them the harsh 2 point scaling applies from the previous hit and Ibuki can't do much after either of her ultras making her special attacks or linking into sweep superior in most instances.
* In many ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' fighting games, Soi Fon has an attack in which she can use her Suzumebachi to, as in the anime, get a two hit KO - if she hits an opponent with the attack twice in one round, they instantly die. The impractical part comes from the fact that the attack is usually slow and hard to hit with, uses up a ton of spirit pressure, or both; and that the first hit usually does no damage. At best, using this attack can serve as a sort of alternate fighting style, as using it can be an [[DeathOrGloryAttack all-or-nothing strategy.]]

* ''Guilty Gear'''s spiritual successor ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' has this in [[LimitBreak Astral Heats]]; gigantic finishing moves that guarantee victory if they connect. Unfortunately, in order to do one, all of the following conditions have to be met: it has to be used during the absolute last round of a match, with the opponent's health at 20% or less, and you must have enough "MP" saved up for two regular specials. Since you only get one shot and your opponent has to be near dead anyway, it's usually much wiser to just use the two specials. ''Continuum Shift'' made it a bit more usable by making several Astrals more comboable, needing only the match point round and only 35% health, but it also now requires a Burst stock. In high-level play Burst stocks are absolutely necessary for character-specific combos as well as getting out of very long combos from characters like Litchi, Noel, Taokaka, and Jin. This can, like ''Guilty Gear'', end up majorly biting you in the ass and costing you the match if you try to end it on a big finale.
** Ragna's 'Devoured By Darkness' Distortion Drive is this so much. It's one of the most powerful moves in the series ''and'' regenerates a massive amount of his health. However, to even use it you need to first burn 50% Heat to activate the health-draining [[DeadlyUpgrade Blood Kain]], before burning another 50% to use the move itself. A Ragna player not using his other Distortion Drives is already a big warning flag, and with Blood Kain's obvious [[PowerGlows aura]], never mind the activation animation, it serves as a big HarbingerOfAsskicking that tells sensible players to stay the hell away until it runs out. It does not help either that Devoured By Darkness is a grab, with the poor range that implies, and Ragna does not have a YouWillNotEvadeMe move to drag the enemy into reach. All these combine to ensure that it almost never shows up in serious play, and someone actually getting hit by it is both awesome to watch and embarrassing for the victim.
* Counters: which are any special move that requires the opponent to hit you to trigger them, can have legitimate uses as reversals or hard reads on the opponent. However, when connected to cinematic moves such as supers, they suddenly become tactical suicide. A key strength of most counters is how minimally they’re telegraphed, which goes out the window when a mini cutscene or flash makes very clear they’ve been triggered. And if it fails, you wasted your meter completely, while having the standard counter downside of a severe punish if it fails and they’re ready for it. They are thus only going to succeed in countering newbies who don't yet know it's a counter stance, or fighters who are already in the middle of their attack animation. Infamous cases include Remy’s Blue Nocturne super in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'', Fei Long's Gekirinken Ultra in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'', and Cammy’s CQC in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV''.

* Projectile attacks in many 3D fighters tend to be this way. It's hard to carry the legacy of the [[Franchise/StreetFighter Hadoken]] when the opponent can sidestep.
* Unblockable attacks almost always tend to be this. These attacks are powerful and, well... unblockable, but are so painfully slow that even new players can easily sidestep or dodge them, and counterattack with impunity. Starting and then canceling these to psych out the enemy when possible is usually the only real use for them.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'', for an especially extreme example, look to Kuma. He has a {{Fartillery}} attack that can ''[[OneHitKO immediately knock out ANY character]]''. Too bad he takes forever to perform it, and its range is so small that it can be avoided as long as the target is ''standing still''. In 5, the commentator will say [[StealthInsult "Oops"]] if it does connect.
** A rare few unblockables have some use by having unexpected properties, like in the ''VideoGame/SoulSeries''. One good example is Raphael's surprisingly long-ranged unblockable lunge. Of course, once an opponent knows what to watch for, [[ItOnlyWorksOnce they're worthless]].
** Also from that series, [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Zombie pirate]] Cervantes has the unblockable projectile where he shoots the enemy, but he flourishes the gun for so long that only the most idiotic of opponents won't either evade or duck it.

* In ''{{VideoGame/Skullgirls}}'', a few characters have a level 5 [[LimitBreak Blockbuster]], which is usually worthless:
** Valentine's "[[MagicalDefibrillator Forbidden Procedure: Rebirth Ex Machina]]" can revive an ally or damage an enemy, but the damage is not that much better than her level 1 Blockbusters, and the meter would generally be better used towards finishing your enemy since by the time you gain 5 bars and have a dead character, the fight should be nearing its end.
** Double's "Megalith Array" has her turn into a BulletHell spewing [[EenieMeenieMinyMoai Moai statue]] which can potentially deal insane damage, but she turns back if she takes even a single hit, potentially wasting your entire stock of meter if timed improperly or if your enemy is skilled enough, which makes the move DifficultButAwesome.
** Big Band's level 5 is confusing to pull off, requiring you to play the game's opening {{Leitmotif}} on his trumpet, which leaves you wide open to attack since only the first 5 honks will hit an enemy. And to make matter worse, Big Band's level 5 itself doesn't do any damage, but rather stops time for the sake of giving you time to play without being attacked, or use to unleash [[RapidFireFisticuffs Satchmo Deathblow]], which can be used much easier (but in turn dealing much less damage) by taunting the enemy and then hitting with his ground level 1.
*** A much more ridiculous one is the "Happy Birthday Combo", which involves pulling off a very specific combo that gets Big Band's Blockbuster Meter to full in a single go, enough so to play every note of "Happy Birthday" and finishing with a Satchmo Deathblow. This is an unstoppable instant-kill on the opponent, and comes with a popup emulating Mortal Kombat's "Toasty!" to signify accomplishing it... but even pulling it off on a practice dummy is nigh-impossible, and anyone who can do it in a live match deserves to be immortalized, especially since ''Skullgirls'' has [[ComboBreaker a burst mechanic]] to stop excessively long combos.
* In the third installment of the ''{{VideoGame/Final Fight}}'' franchise, the enemy named Hunter has an extremely powerful overhead strike using the baseball bat strapped to his back that takes out 80% of your health in a single hit. Impressive for a garden variety {{mook}}. However, the attack has a long delay before he unleashes it, so it's easily avoided or interrupted merely by hitting him.
** The obscure fighting game spinoff ''{{VideoGame/Final Fight Revenge}}'' gives Haggar a counter super combo (which already makes it a pain to use). Not only that, your opponent has to be jumping in towards you and attacking with a kick (and ''only'' a kick) for it to activate. The only thing that even makes this move worth attempting? Seeing the animation of Haggar piledriving his foe through the earth and then spiraling off into space.
* Deathblows in ''Mutation Nation''. Basically a screen-filling SmartBomb that severely damages all enemies and knocks down the ones that manage to survive, which come in four flavors of varying power (with the most powerful one actually being able to hit some enemies twice.) However, it requires the player to stand still for almost 2 seconds to charge it, and the charge is interrupted when you're hit. And while you can hold the charge after you've finished and even move around while doing it, it doesn't last long before you'll lose it and have to charge up again. Effective against bosses and mid-bosses, but when you're dealing with large groups of enemies it's too difficult to pull it off for it to be worth it (and the lower damage ones like the Spirit Attack just aren't worth it, period.)
* Some {{Creator/SNK}} fighting games have Super Moves (or Desperation Moves, whatever it calls) that requires the user to input additional commands ''in the Super Move''. Super Moves are already hard to pull off, but adding those additional commands just make them more impractical. However, the damage and [[RuleOfCool visual effect]] is awesome though.
** Athena Asamiya's ''Psychic 9'' in ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' is a good example. It requires 2 special bars and you need to input a series of commands at a certain pace as she's attacking. Fail at the inputs and she'll be left wide open, but doing it right will make a long, flashy combo. It's made worse in that her other 2-bars super move, ''Shining Crystal Bit SDM'', does not require additional inputs and does almost the same damage as Psychic 9 '''in one single hit'''.
* ''{{VideoGame/Killer Instinct}}'' newcomer Omen possesses a 100% potential damage command grab called Demonic Despair whenever he has all of his Shadow Meter filled, and not only does it do ludicrous damage, it also looks really badass. However, it is plagued with so many problems that almost no Omen players use it. To start, Omen needs his Shadow Meter to perform the mixups essential to his offense, so using all three of his bars in one go is already a risky proposition. Also, the move has 24 frames of startup,[[note]]For reference; Jago's light Tiger Fury, one of the most punishable moves in the game, has 27 frames of recovery. [[/note]] and the animation doesn't resemble any normal of his, so the attack is incredibly telegraphed. Another problem; if the opponent Combo Breaks Omen's attempt to cash out the damage and finish his opponent, then they get all of that health back, since Demonic Despair deals potential damage. And to top it all off, even if you ''do'' land it, it sends the opponent flying across the screen and leaves Omen taunting in place for several seconds; more than enough time for an opponent to take a breather and assess their options. On the plus side it can be cancelled into from blocked normals, so it has its place catching opponents who like to block.
* [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure Road Roller]] hyper combos are as bad as they are in ''VideoGame/JojosBizarreAdventureHeritageForTheFuture''. All of them require that the user have enough time to jump out of the screen to start and then actually score a hit (which can be dodged or blocked). Team S.M.R.T.'s [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Homer]] has "Road Roller D'oh!" which has its own problems: he needs to be in "Beer Riot" mode (which shaves of half of his current health), lacks his Hell Candy Bar to stun opponents, and has more reliable moves such as "Touch of Death" (Homer turns into the Grim Reaper and pokes them) that require less effort to set up.
* General Grievous is a playable character in the duel mode of ''VideoGame/StarWarsEpisodeIIIRevengeOfTheSith'' game where he can wield four lightsabers, uses a blaster as a charged special attack and has an impressive grappling move where he {{neck lift}}s the opponent and proceeds to [[WrestlerInAllOfUs breaks their body wrestling style]]. Unfortunately, he lacks the ability to use the Force unlike other playable characters and can't use special powers like [[HealThyself Force Heal to regenerate health]].
* Shenron in ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterZ'' provides some hefty benefits when activated: significantly strengthening the character's attacks, giving them RegeneratingHealth, restoring their health to full, or resurrecting a downed fighter with 40% health, all of which can pretty much decide a match. But actually getting him to trigger requires the two players to collectively make seven autocombos or combos of specific hit counts (so a 10-19 hit combo gets the one-star ball, a 20-29 hit combo gets the two-star ball, and so on), and then one of the players to have seven full bars of super meter and make an autocombo. Needless to say, by the time seven combos with up to 70+ hits have been performed, chances are the opponent is on their last legs, and those seven bars of meter could probably just be used to kill them with regular super moves. It might be tempting to just gun for the autocombos to get to Shenron as quickly as possible, but that requires sacrificing major damage opportunities and risks giving the opponent a chance to use it instead. For these reasons, most experienced players [[SkillGateCharacters tend to avoid autocombos]] unless they know that Shenron will be summoned due to their inherent predictability and blatantly suboptimal damage.
** This is subverted with the introduction of [=SS4=] Gogeta as a DLC character, since one of his special moves grants you a ball every time you use it. You can also set it as Gogeta's assist.

* Any special move that requires the opponent to hit you to trigger it, as it requires nigh-meticulous timing to pull off. A prime offender is Fei Long's Gekirinken from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV''. One of the most awesome special sequences you'll ever see in fighting games, but the opponent has to hit you to activate it. And if it fails, you lose your Ultra gauge completely. Not to mention, like all Ultras, it begins with a long flashy ultra move animation where Fei yells "Come at me from whatever direction you like!", ensuring that you'll only succeed in countering newbies who don't yet know it's a counter stance, or fighters who are already in the middle of their attack animation.

** The obscure fighting game spinoff ''{{VideoGame/Final Fight Revenge}}'' gives Haggar a counter super combo (already not good). Not only that, your opponent has to be jumping in towards you and attacking with a kick (and ''only'' a kick) for it to activate. The only thing that even makes it worth attempting? Seeing the animation of Haggar piledriving his foe through the earth and then spinning off into space.

* Shenron in ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterZ'' provides some hefty benefits when activated: significantly strengthening the character's attacks, giving them RegeneratingHealth, restoring their health to full, or resurrecting a downed fighter with 40% health, all of which can pretty much decide a match. But actually getting him to trigger requires the two players to collectively make seven autocombos or combos of specific hit counts (so a 10-19 hit combo gets the one-star ball, a 20-29 hit combo gets the two-star ball, and so on), and then one of the players to have seven full bars of super meter and make an autocombo. Needless to say, by the time seven combos with up to 70+ hits have been performed, chances are the opponent is on their last legs, and those seven bars of meter could probably just be used to kill them with regular super moves. It might be tempting to just gun for the autocombos to get to Shenron as quickly as possible, but that requires sacrificing major damage opportunities and risks giving the opponent a chance to use it instead. For these reasons, most experienced players [[SkillGateCharacters tend to avoid autocombos]] unless they know that Shenron will be summoned due to their inherent predictability and blatantly suboptimal damage.

* Shenron in ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterZ'' provides some hefty benefits when activated: significantly strengthening the character's attacks, giving them RegeneratingHealth, restoring their health to full, or resurrecting a downed fighter with 40% health, all of which can pretty much decide a match. But actually getting him to trigger requires the two players to collectively make seven autocombos of specific hit counts (so a 10-19 hit combo gets the one-star ball, a 20-29 hit combo gets the two-star ball, and so on), and then one of the players to have seven full bars of super meter and make an autocombo. Needless to say, by the time seven autocombos with up to 70 hits have been performed, chances are the opponent is on their last legs, and those seven bars of meter could probably just be used to kill them with regular super moves. And that's before mentioning that most experienced players [[SkillGateCharacters tend to avoid autocombos]] due to their inherent predictability.

* General Grievous is a playable character in the duel mode of ''VideoGame/StarWarsEpisodeIIIRevengeOfTheSith'' game where he can wield four lightsabers, uses a blaster as a charged special attack and has an impressive grappling move where he {{neck lift}}s the opponent and proceeds to [[WrestlerInAllOfUs breaks their body wrestling style]]. Unfortunately, he lacks the ability to use the Force unlike other playable characters and can't use special powers like [[HealThyself Force Heal to regenerate health]].

** In almost every ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'' game, Akuma's Raging Demon is this. A devastatingly powerful super that eats away half of your opponent's health bar, leaves them in a knockdown state, and provides you with a [[https://78.media.tumblr.com/f3b5f40951e9a84a5ee83990f6ea0280/tumblr_ngpgqaTASb1qd0br1o1_500.gif badass win pose]] if you win with it... too bad it requires a strict, awkward sequence of button presses to make it happen. And not only that, but it's nigh-impossible to set up appropriately if you aren't incredibly tight with your execution. In order for it to land, the opponent has to be on the ground and Akuma can get hit out of it by projectiles. Interestingly, starting with Street Fighter III, the Raging Demon can be cancelled into from other attacks (inputting the commands for one attack while another hits, thus cancelling the recovery animation of the attack in progress into the startup animation of the next attack, leaving the opponent unable to react), thus being able to consistently and quickly cancel into it out of a handful of moves is required at high level play. With the correct setup, it's actually a really viable choice.
** Balrog (Boxer) has the turn punch, which is a charge move charged by holding all the punch or kick buttons. It's actually a great move in normal usage, but becomes this trope when charged for a long time. At full charge in ''Street Fighter IV'', it can do a staggering '''''560''''' in one blow, making it the most powerful single attack in the game (even more than any Ultras). Of course, charging it for an extended period requires sacrificing half his moveset just for the chance at landing a rather and predictable move. Especially since a smart opponent will notice if you're going for it. And it has increased endlag the longer it goes, ensuring a vicious punish on block.
** Want to get a ''massive'' boost to R. Mika's command throw damage, enough to end a round with one shot? Use her V-Skill and let her cut a live wrestling promo. For ''twenty'' seconds. If your opponent is patient enough not to interrupt you, you don't end it early, ''and'' you don't whiff, you get that obscene damage.

** The biggest offender as far as ''VideoGame/GodHand'' is concerned is definitely Yes Man Kablaam, a ridiculously slow and uneffective punch that leaves Gene completely defenseless as he turns his head and smiles to the invisible crowd after the attack. Its only major advantage is that if the punch connects, it raises your Tension bar by a lot, but it's generally not worth it... unless you learn to [[DifficultButAwesome dodge-cancel out of the recovery]], whereupon it becomes the most effective way to recover Tension.

* ''Guilty Gear'''s spiritual successor ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' has this in [[LimitBreak Astral Heats]]; gigantic finishing moves that guarantee victory if they connect. Unfortunately, in order to do one, all of the following conditions have to be met: it has to be used during the absolute last round of a match, with the opponent's health at 20% or less, and you must have enough "MP" saved up for two regular specials. Since you only get one shot, it's usually much wiser to just use the two specials. ''Continuum Shift'' made it a bit more usable by making several Astrals more comboable, needing only the match point round and only 35% health, but it also now requires a Burst stock. In high-level play Burst stocks are absolutely necessary for character-specific combos as well as getting out of very long combos from characters like Litchi, Noel, Taokaka, and Jin. This can, like ''Guilty Gear'', end up majorly biting you in the ass and costing you the match if you try to end it on a big finale.

* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' brutalities. Flashy, incredibly nasty ways to finish your foes. Also nearly impossible to pull off. They require a sequence of button presses that's near impossible to actually do. It's awe inspiring to see it pulled off though.

* In almost every ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'' game, Akuma's Raging Demon is this. A devastatingly powerful super that eats away half of your opponent's health bar, leaves them in a knockdown state, and provides you with a [[https://78.media.tumblr.com/f3b5f40951e9a84a5ee83990f6ea0280/tumblr_ngpgqaTASb1qd0br1o1_500.gif badass win pose]] if you win with it... too bad it requires a strict, awkward sequence of button presses to make it happen. And not only that, but it's nigh-impossible to set up appropriately if you aren't incredibly tight with your execution. In order for it to land, the opponent has to be on the ground and Akuma can get hit out of it by projectiles.
** Ironically enough, starting with Street Fighter III, the Raging Demon can be cancelled into from other attacks (inputting the commands for one attack while another hits, thus cancelling the recovery animation of the attack in progress into the startup animation of the next attack, leaving the opponent unable to react), thus being able to consistently and quickly cancel into it out of a handful of moves is required at high level play. With the correct setup, it's actually a really viable choice.
** Want to get a ''massive'' boost to R. Mika's command throw damage, enough to end a round with one shot? Use her V-Skill and let her cut a live wrestling promo. For ''twenty'' seconds. If your opponent is patient enough not to interrupt you, you don't end it early, ''and'' you don't whiff, you get that obscene damage.

** Ragna's 'Devoured By Darkness' Distortion Drive is this so much. It's one of the most powerful moves in the series ''and'' regenerates a massive amount of his health. However, to even use it you need to first burn 50% heat to activate the health-draining [[DeadlyUpgrade Blood Kain]], before burning another 50% to use the move itself. With Blood Kain's obvious [[PowerGlows aura]], never mind the activation animation, it serves as a big HarbingerOfAsskicking that tells sensible players to stay the hell away. It does not help either that Devoured By Darkness is a grab, with the poor range that implies, and Ragna does not have a YouWillNotEvadeMe move to drag the enemy into reach. All these combine to ensure that it almost never shows up in serious play.

** The [=IKs=] in the original ''Guilty Gear'' was a game breaker in that a successful hit not only won that round, it outright won the match entirely and were easy to do, so [=IKs=] got {{nerf}}ed HARD.
* ''Guilty Gear'''s spiritual successor ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' has this in [[LimitBreak Astral Heats]]; gigantic finishing moves that guarantee victory if they connect. Unfortunately, in order to do one, the following conditions have to be met: it has to be used during the absolute last round of a match, with the opponent's health at 20% or less, and enough "MP" saved up for two regular specials. Since you only get one shot, it's usually much wiser to just use the two specials. ''Continuum Shift'' made it a bit more usable by making several Astrals more comboable, needing only the match point round and only 35% health, but it also now requires a Burst stock. In high-level play Burst stocks are absolutely necessary for character-specific combos as well as getting out of very long combos from characters like Litchi, Noel, Taokaka, and Jin. This can, like ''Guilty Gear'', end up majorly biting you in the ass and costing you the match if you try to end it on a big finale.

* Some hyper combos in ''VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom'' are Awesome, But Impractical. ''[[Anime/TimeBokan Ippatsuman]]'' has it the worst, though. His Level 3 Hyper Combo has him summon his signature robot for the player to control. However, all of its attacks are slow, don't do much damage, and can't combo past two hits. He does have 3 unblockable moves in the mode, two of them being telegraphed sword attacks and a humongous unavoidable flash that kills the opponent if it connects. The problem with the flash, however is that it takes ''ten seconds even hit with the move, [[UpToEleven the most time of any non-boss character in]] VideoGame/CapcomVsWhatever history'' and can be interrupted by attacking the robot's head during the charging sequence. Finally, in the international release, the time the robot stays on the field decreased by a large margin and ate every bit of meter when used.

** Ironically enough, starting with Street Fighter III, the Raging Demon can be cancelled into (inputting the commands for one attack while another hits, thus cancelling the recovery animation of the attack in progress into the startup animation of the next attack, leaving the opponent unable to react), being able to quickly cancel into it out of a handful of moves is required at high level play. With the correct setup, it's actually a really viable choice.

** Ironically enough, since starting with Street Fighter III, the Raging Demon can be cancelled into (inputting the commands for one attack while another hits, thus cancelling the recovery animation of the attack in progress into the startup animation of the next attack, leaving the opponent unable to react), being able to quickly cancel into it out of a handful of moves is required at high level play. With the correct setup, it's actually a really viable choice.

* ''VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse'' has a number of abilities and attacks that fit this trope perfectly.
** The Kaioken, Kaioken x3 and Kaioken x20. Each of these attacks boost up your stats, but they will eat away at your Stamina and prevent you from building up Ki, thus you won't be able to slap your opponents around with constant Super attacks. As well, the higher up you go in levels, the faster the Stamina drops like a rock. Saiyans have it easier as you can pick up Super Saiyan and Super Vegeta relatively early on and they're easier to maintain than the Kaioken. However, the other races have to make due with Kaioken and if you have to, just use the basic Kaioken unless you've built your character around having a plethora of Stamina.
** Charge up Supers like the Spirit Bomb can easily be short circuited by moving listly to the left or just decking that person in the schnozz.

* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Vampire Savior]]'', the mummy, Anakaris, has a flashy super where he casts a slew of magic spells on the opponent and then crushes him with a gigantic sarcophagus. Definitely his flashiest super, but it's also one of the hardest to execute, and requires you to hit your opponents with an extremely slow, heavily telegraphed, blockable projectile.

** The biggest offender as far as ''VideoGame/GodHand'' is concerned is definitely Yes Man Kablaam, a ridiculously slow and uneffective punch that leaves Gene completely defenseless as he turns his head and smiles to the invisible crowd after the attack. Its only major advantage is that if the punch connects, it raises your Tension bar by a lot, but it's generally not worth it... unless you learn to [[DifficultButAwesome dodge-cancel out of the recovery]].

** The [=IKs=] in the original Guilty Gear was a game breaker in that a successful hit not only won that round, it won the match and were easy to do, so [=IKs=] got {{nerf}}ed HARD.
* ''Guilty Gear'''s spiritual successor ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' has this in [[LimitBreak Astral Heats]]: gigantic finishing moves that guarantee victory if they connect. Unfortunately, in order to do one it has to be the absolute last round of a match, with the opponent's health at 20% or less, and enough "MP" saved up for two regular specials. Since you only get one shot, it's usually much wiser to just use the two specials. ''Continuum Shift'' made it a bit more usable by making several Astrals more comboable, needing only the match point round and only 35% health, but it also now requires a Burst stock. In high-level play Burst stocks are absolutely necessary for character specific combos as well as getting out of very long combos from characters like Litchi, Noel, Taokaka, and Jin. This can, like ''Guilty Gear'', end up majorly biting you in the ass and costing you the match.
** Ragna's Devoured By Darkness Distortion Drive is this so much. It's one of the most powerful moves ''and'' regenerates a massive amount of health. However, to even use it you need to first burn 50% heat to activate [[DeadlyUpgrade Blood Kain]], before burning another 50% to use the move itself. With Blood Kain's [[PowerGlows aura]], never mind the activation animation, it serves as a big HarbingerOfAsskicking that tells sensible players to stay away. It does not help either that Devoured By Darkness is a grab, with the poor range that implies, and Ragna does not have a YouWillNotEvadeMe move to drag the enemy into reach. All these combine to ensure that it almost never shows up in serious play.

** X-Ray attacks in VideoGame/MortalKombat9 are insanely gruesome, showing your opponent's bones breaking and organs rupturing in slow-mo from the brutal strikes. They also require 3 bars of meter, which is also used for the extremely important and useful [[ComboBreaker breaker]] move. On top of that, many of them are slow and easily blocked or dodged, meaning that the only way to reliably land them was to use them mid-combo, where damage scaling severely reduces their damage.
** VideoGame/MortalKombatX brings back Brutalities, although they're [[InNameOnly completely different from their MK3 predecessors]]. This time, they are performed by using a specific move to take off your opponent's last bit of health. Many also require additional conditions, such as having a certain amount of health left. Since a move which can become a Brutality may not always be the best way to KO your opponent, and even if it is useful you may not meet the additional conditions, they can be almost impossible to intentionally pull off outside of low-level play... but it's SO satisfying when you DO get one off!
* The Special or Ultimate attacks from Naruto Clash of Ninja are like this. Especially in the first game the attacks generally did a fair bit of damage but cost all of your charge bar. They're also pathetically easy to dodge, making them all but useless against human opponents.
* Many fighting games have super moves that do insane amounts of damage and are awesome to watch, but often require button combinations that only [[Franchise/FantasticFour Mr. Fantastic]] can pull off. One example is Ivy from ''Soulcalibur'', whose telekinetic attack Summon Suffering is absolutely amazing, but the human players who can pull it off can probably be counted on one hand. Not that you won't see it often, but [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard it won't be against a human]].

** In ''Tekken'', for an especially extreme example, look to Kuma. He has a {{Fartillery}} attack that can ''[[OneHitKO immediately knock out ANY character]]''. Too bad he takes forever to perform it, and its range is so small that it can be avoided as long as the target is ''standing still''. In 5, the commentator will say [[StealthInsult "Oops"]] if it does connect.
** A rare few unblockables have some use by having unexpected properties, like in the ''Soul Series'' Raphael's surprisingly long-ranged unblockable lunge. Of course, once an opponent knows what to watch for, [[ItOnlyWorksOnce they're worthless]].

* In {{VideoGame/Skullgirls}}, a few characters have a level 5 [[LimitBreak Blockbuster]], which is usually worthless:

*** A much more ridiculous one is the "Happy Birthday Combo", which involves pulling off a very specific combo that gets Big Band's Blockbuster Meter to full in a single go, enough so to play every note of "Happy Birthday" and finishing with a Satchmo Deathblow. This is an unstoppable instant-kill on the opponent, and comes with a popup emulating Mortal Kombat's "Toasty!" to signify accomplishing it... but pulling it off on a practice dummy is nigh-impossible, and anyone who can do it in a live match deserves to be immortalized, especially since Skullgirls has [[ComboBreaker a burst mechanic]].
* In the third installment of the {{VideoGame/Final Fight}} franchise, the enemy named Hunter has an extremely powerful overhead strike using the baseball bat strapped to his back that takes out 80% of your health in a single hit. Impressive for a garden variety {{mook}}. However, the attack has a long delay before he unleashes it, so it's easily avoided or interrupted merely by hitting him.
** The obscure fighting game spinoff {{VideoGame/Final Fight Revenge}} gives Haggar a counter super combo (already not good). Not only that, your opponent has to be jumping in towards you and attacking with a kick (and ''only'' a kick) for it to activate. The only thing that even makes it worth attempting? Seeing the animation of Haggar piledriving his foe through the earth and then spinning off into space.

** [[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters Athena Asamiya's]] ''Psychic 9'' is a good example. It requires 2 special bars and you need to input a series of commands in a certain pace as she's attacking. Fail at the inputs and she'll be left wide open, but doing it right will make a long, flashy combo. It's made worse in that her other 2-bars super move, ''Shining Crystal Bit SDM'', does not require additional inputs and does almost the same damage as Psychic 9 '''in one single hit'''.
* {{VideoGame/Killer Instinct}} newcomer Omen possesses a 100% potential damage command grab called Demonic Despair whenever he has all of his Shadow Meter filled, and not only does it do ludicrous damage, it also looks really badass. However, it is plagued with so many problems that almost no Omen players use it. To start, Omen needs his Shadow Meter to perform the mixups essential to his offense, so using all three of his bars in one go is already a risky proposition. Also, the move has 24 frames of startup,[[note]]For reference; Jago's light Tiger Fury, one of the most punishable moves in the game, has 27 frames of recovery. [[/note]] and the animation doesn't resemble any normal of his, so the attack is incredibly telegraphed. Another problem; if the opponent Combo Breaks Omen's attempt to cash out the damage and finish his opponent, then they get all of that health back, since Demonic Despair deals potential damage. And to top it all off, even if you ''do'' land it, it sends the opponent flying across the screen and leaves Omen taunting in place for several seconds; more than enough time for an opponent to take a breather and assess their options. On the plus side it can be cancelled into from blocked normals, so it has its place catching opponents who like to block.

* In almost every [[VideoGame/StreetFighter Street Fighter]] game, Akuma's Raging Demon is this. A devastatingly powerful super that eats away half of your opponent's health bar, leaves them in a knockdown state, and provides you with a [[https://78.media.tumblr.com/f3b5f40951e9a84a5ee83990f6ea0280/tumblr_ngpgqaTASb1qd0br1o1_500.gif badass win pose]] if you win with it... Too bad it requires a strict, awkward sequence of button presses to make it happen. And not only that, but it's nigh-impossible to set up appropriately if you aren't incredibly tight with your execution.
** Want to get a ''massive'' boost to R. Mika's command throw damage, enough to end a round with one shot? Use her V-Skill and let her cut a promo. For twenty seconds. If your opponent is patient enough not to interrupt you, you don't end it early, ''and'' you don't whiff, you get that obscene damage.

** Luigi's secret taunt trick: If he does his kick taunt while an opponent is hanging on a ledge, [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower it's a down diagonal meteor smash (usually an instant kill unless the opponent knows how to meteor cancel]]. (''Melee'' requires getting a KO using a taunt for OneHundredPercentCompletion, and Luigi's taunt is among the few, if not the only, taunt in the game that does damage, even if it isn't much compared to an actual attack.)

*** Hatchet Man is a very powerful move that either does 45% damage and/or kill at very low percents or an instant shield break if it connects. The downside, is that it's very slow and has limited range, when using Command Selection takes enough time as it is, so Hero players will be very hard pressed to actually land it in a actual match.

* VideoGame/SuperSmashBros:
** Several of the [[LimitBreak Final Smash]] attacks in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros. Brawl'' and onwards qualify for this trope. For example, any one that requires a player to catch an opponent will often do large amounts of damage and kill at low percentages to those unfortunate enough to get caught in one and are often very flashy. But, they usually have very short range, making it easy for zoning characters to try and hit the smash ball out of you, and will go to waste if dodged, which is often easy given that the short range most of them have often forces predictable usage of them.

** Lucario's Final Smash in the fourth game. In ''Brawl'' and ''Ultimate'', he got an aimable WaveMotionGun; in ''4'', he used his Mega Evolution. He gains a huge boost in power and knockback and his neutral B Aura Spheres are now much bigger and stronger. The problem is that unlike all other Final Smashes of this sort, Lucario gains no other real benefits. He doesn't gain the speed boost Wario gets with his or the size and range increase Bowser gains with his, meaning Mega Lucario is basically just regular Lucario with more knockback, and is normally pretty easy to just avoid entirely.

** The Hero's Command Selection in is a zig-zagged example. It gives the Heroes access to a wide plethora of different spells that can be used in a multitude of situations. However, you can only select from four at a time, and they're always random. Plus, you can't do anything except shield or jump when you're selecting the spell you want to use. Because of this, it's quite a gamble to actually get the proper spell for the proper situation, but it's certainly a lot of fun to use with some very potent spells to make it worth the trouble. However, there are some that are too useless or risky to worth it in most situations:

** The Command Selection in ''Ultimate'' gives the Hero access to a wide plethora of different spells that can be used in a multitude of situations. However, you can only select from four at a time, and they're always random. Plus, you can't do anything except shield or jump when you're selecting the spell you want to use. Because of this, it's more of quite a gamble getting to actually get the proper spell for the proper situation, but it's certainly a lot of fun to use.

** Lucario's Final Smash in the fourth game. In ''Brawl'', he got an aimable WaveMotionGun; in ''4'', he now uses his Mega Evolution. He gains a huge boost in power and knockback and his neutral B Aura Spheres are now much bigger and stronger. The problem is that unlike all other Final Smashes of this sort, Lucario gains no other real benefits. He doesn't gain the speed boost Wario gets with his or the size and range increase Bowser gains with his, meaning Mega Lucario is basically just regular Lucario with more knockback, and is normally pretty easy to just avoid entirely.