History GameBreaker / FightingGames

** No love for ''Infinite World''? Yes, the same Game Breaker of Budokai 3, Gogeta (both Super Saiyan 2 and 4 versions) and Vegito are there, as is Omega Shenron, but these guys pale in comparison to Baby Vegeta. How great is he? You know Vegeta's super moves, Final Flash (once only usable as a Dragon Rush ender in 3) and Big Bang Attack? Baby Vegeta can keep using those as ''regular'' moves! Even GT Vegeta only had the former! On top of that, he has a super on par with other fighter's super moves. The only characters that really stand a chance against him are Super 17 and Janemba, and even then, you have to get lucky.

* ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'' has Gill. Like Akuma, he's a former SNKBoss with all the trappings that implies, and he got buffed over the course of three games until ''Third Strike'' made him pretty much unstoppable. Most notably, he can use all three of his Super Arts in one battle without needing to choose between them, and on top of that, all three of them are insanely busted in their own right. Meteor Strike does absurd damage, has a ton of hits, and comes out very quickly, Seraphic Wing covers the entire screen and is impossible to block or parry, and Resurrection simply causes him to regain his health (albeit unable to access his other two supers) if he gets KO'd with a full bar. And it's not just his supers, his ''normal'' attacks have ridiculous damage and a ton of stun, such that he actually does pretty solid damage ''through a block'' and can shred his way through opponents with basic punches and kicks. He is banned in every single tournament and even the online ranked play of the rerelease, and even a few seconds of watching him in action makes it clear why.

* ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'' has Gill. Like Akuma, he's a former SNKBoss with all the trappings that implies, and he got buffed over the course of three games until ''Third Strike'' made him pretty much unstoppable. Most notably, he can use all three of his Super Arts in one battle without needing to choose between them, and on top of that, all three of them are insanely busted in their own right. Meteor Strike does insane damage, has a ton of hits, and comes out very quickly, Seraphic Wing covers the entire screen and is impossible to block or parry, and Resurrection simply causes him to regain his health (albeit unable to access his other two supers) if he gets KO'd with a full bar. And it's not just his supers, his ''normal'' attacks have ridiculous damage and a ton of stun, such that he actually does pretty solid damage ''through a block'' and can shred his way through opponents with basic punches and kicks. He is banned in every single tournament and even the online ranked play of the rerelease, and even a few seconds of watching him in action makes it clear why.

** The use of Akuma in ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' tournaments is banned. Up close, he is a character with ''absurdly'' fast attacks that have high priority
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, allowing him to rush in and combo characters to death in seconds. At a distance, he boasts multiple strong projectiles and can lock down and trap opponents with absurd ease through fireball spam. Add in a bunch of other crazy benefits, such as being impossible to dizzy, a HurricaneKick with a ton of invincibility frames, and a teleport move that comes out on the first frame and makes him invincible, and you have a character who is ''very'' evidently a former SNKBoss. Akuma isn't just the best character in the game, he's a character that ''no'' character can reliably beat when he's played by someone who understands how he works. Subsequent games he appeared in have {{Nerf}}ed him to the point of being a GlassCannon, becoming a balanced character whose presence is welcomed quite emphatically at ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' tournaments.

* The use of Akuma in ''Super VideoGame/StreetFighter II Turbo'' tournaments is banned, thanks to his immense damage and combos he has in that game. Subsequent games he appeared in have {{Nerf}}ed him to the point of being a GlassCannon, and he has now become a balanced character whose presence is welcomed quite emphatically at ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' tournaments.
** In the ''[[UpdatedRerelease Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix]]'', he was toned down so that he could be another playable character, but the end result of these changes was that he ended up gaining several overpowering juggles, as well as an unblockable air fireball trap which can lead to a loop. Yes, he turned out even ''more'' proficient than he already was. Thus, Akuma remains banned.

** In the original version of ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'', you had Guile. His defense is virtually unbreakable, his overhead kick is something that few characters can answer, he can spam out Sonic Booms that other characters have a hard time getting through, he's very mobile, his Flash Kick has good reach, hits enemies above him, and can either knock opponents away for further distance or rip them apart, he has a combo that can knock 60% off an opponent, and overall, he doesn't have any significant weaknesses. And that's not even getting into his ability to exploit GoodBadBugs, which can enable him to pull off nonsense like throwing an opponent while on the other side of the screen or making himself invincible. If you can name a strategy in ''II'', chances are Guile was best at it. It's been said a few times that Guile's stayed essentially unchanged over the years, because all he really needs is his original moves to stay competitive.

** One of Link's basic throws in the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube GameCube]] version of SCII. For games versus actual people, not terribly useful, but for the Weapon Master mode, a complete gamebreaker, since most games in that mode can be won by ringouts, which are easily accomplished using this move, since you can ringout your opponent with your back to the stage edge.

** [[MightyGlacier Chaos Gamma.]] [[BreadEggsMilkSquick Slow, easy to block 1st attack, very bad areal mobility, owner of the game's hugest game breaking infinite loop combo.]] [[note]] Chain his 3rd attack with his Upper attack. Repeat until all opponents are dead.[[/note]] Now if you equip Emerl with a very fast 1st attack with a a faster 2nd attack, followed by both of those moves, [[CurbStompBattle he becomes the single most devastating force in the game.]] This makes most of the you vs. any character challenge battles a cakewalk.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' has its resident RobotGirl, Nu-13. When played in melee (as in the 2009 Arcade Infinity finals) she's balanced (somewhat - the reach and priority on her C-attacks is far better than they should be). However an expert Nu player will use her knockback and teleport moves to avoid melee at all costs. Staying at range lets her play defensively, and abuse her absurd projectile combos. While VideoGame/BlazBlue's system does penalize excessive defensive play, Nu is allowed to stay defensive longer than any other character before being penalized. Longer even than Hakumen, who's meant to play a defensive/counterattack game.

** Continuum Shift Extend gives you Platinum the Trinity. Platinum's projectiles are very ''very'' annoying if you cannot properly counter and predict her attacks... wait, it's both he and she. That cat face missile is huge. And by the time you recover from blocking or from being hit by the missile, she/he has another set of three ready to fire. You don't really need MoreDakka when those projectiles are about one-third the height of the entire stage.

** If you just type in "lf2.net" when the game is loading, all of the characters will be unlocked, including the final boss Julian. He has a three-burst homing attack, an energy ball attack that plows through dozens of enemies and is unblockable, and an explosion centered on himself that sends enemies sky high while dealing incredible damage. The best part? Each of these special attacks cost so little energy that spamming them is incredibly easy. Oh, and his normal punches do about as much damage as the sword blows of one of the other main characters. One can easily wipe the floor with the above LouisEX with Julian.
** One of the first alternate versions, ''R-LF2'', is practically MADE of this trope. See, every character in the game (yes, even those Mooks you could kill with ease) are given new attacks, and have their old combos re-vamped. For example, remember that crappy fire-breath move Firen had? Well, now instead of occupying 2-3 spaces it stretches about 2/3 of the whole screen. Not game breaking enough for you? Ok, how about the fact that every character also has a hidden "Hell" move, that pretty much ends the fight once you use it? "Hidden" it requires a unique multi-key combo to pull off, and under a set amount of time as well. Although this sounds like it evens things out, some of said combos are so ridiculously easy to pull off it's almost laughable. Case-in-point: those purple explosions Julian's Soul Bomb causes when they hit something? Well, Julian's Hell move consists of just that one explosion. That multiplies. As a whole ''wave'' of explosions. That start from his position and move ''both ways, enveloping the entire screen''. Now imagine your character caught in that maelstrom of explosions. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Yeah.]]
** AND if you thought that the FinalBoss [[GameBreaker Julian]] in ''Reinforced LF2'' was cheap enough, then you ''haven't'' seen the secret character Conrad yet. Remember those deadly columns that Julian could create? This guy creates an entire wave of them, on BOTH SIDES. He also has many other moves, especially the [[LimitBreak Hell Moves]]- one of which summons a purple dragon that charges the crap out of enemies multiple times, another makes him ''[[RetGone delete one victim from the game (works on the FinalBoss, by the way)]]'', and another makes him trap enemies with homing columns of dark energy until they die... after which said columns do not disappear, instead moving on to seek out ''more enemies'' and repeat the process. As for defensive abilities, Conrad regenerates health faster than anybody else (over 10x the normal speed), and to top it all off, he gets '''''MercyInvincibility''' every time he gets hit''. In short, Conrad makes Julian look like a complete joke, and that's saying something.

** [=Firce777=] is probably the most effective mod character. He shoots a wave of fireballs and wave of iceballs in front of and behind him, respectively, ''while standing''. He shoots a wave of arrows, [[MadeOfExplodium explodes]] and spawns tornadoes ''when walking''. He can also spawn five Firzens as well as five energy discs ''and increase his mana'' by a little bit (the creator names this move "Five Loaves Two Fish"). And for the worst part? He can turn invisible ''for free'' and cause his Firzens to turn invisible as well.
* ''VideoGame/EternalFighterZero'' features two [[SNKBoss SNK Bosses]], but only one was de-powered for the playable version. The other, [[VisualNovel/{{Air}} Kanna]], retains all of her insane range and priority attacks, and is thus usually banned from tournament play.

** The speeding dash into your guard, that leaves them open to a special jutsu. Hurray for AI lag. Oh, and Tenten and Kurenai are insanely formidable. Tenten can fling anything out and has some heavy items and an array of dakka enough to bring even [[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Sakuya]] to shame. Kurenai, however, has some attacks that make her disappear, keep her opponent at range while she stays stationary, has a bomb attack that just EXPLOES in your face, and some drill lock speed combos. Also of note is Ino, who has insane drill lock combinations and speed. She can also poison you, and places herself in some positions where it'll be a miracle to hit her.

* In the Wrestling/{{WWE}} Smackdown vs Raw series, as the games evolved and improved things like blocking and countering mechanics and collision detection, some moves that had been present in the first game were never updated, and still played the old sloppy way. When Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth introduced online play to the series, players discovered that a lot of the older moves couldn't be blocked. The "women's toe kick" and "diving headbutt" being two of the most notable and abused. While most players refrained from using them, some went the other way and sought out every single glitchy or unblockable move and called anyone who complained about this a {{scrub}}.
** And every year there's a new version, Website/{{Gamefaqs}} are inundated by [[{{Noob}} Noobs]], [[{{Scrub}} Scrubs]] and StopHavingFunGuys requesting unblockable move sets. Yeah, they're actively trying to break the game.
* Tangentially related to the above: in the old, old, '''old''' WWE game ''WWF Wrestling/WrestleMania Challenge'' for the NES there was Andre the Giant. Andre was fine enough to face with the computer controlling him in "Championship Mode", but when playing two player versus, one of Andre's moves was the bear hug, executed simply with the B button, the bear hug had no maximum time it could be applied, it was uncounterable, and there was no way to escape it. The player playing Andre could slap it on, hold it until the other player's stamina was depleted, then pin the guy. Oddly enough, the computer wasn't cheap enough to employ this tactic, even thought Championship Mode's Ultimate Warrior was an SNKBoss.

* WWF Attitude had the Crucifix running pin move. If the opponent's health bar is down to yellow, which is easily achievable, it's an instant win. Most Pin moves are only effective when the opponent's bar is red.

* VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'s Immaterial and Missing Power spin off grants us Patchouli Knowledge, probably the easiest character to win the game with due to how in-game bosses react to one of her attacks. Sun Sign "Royal Flare", one of her second signs in the game, hits all around the screen for an obscene amount of damage. Due to the way Spell Cards are declared, you can build up 9 cards on your first life and then spam Royal Flare on your second; note here that you have to die twice in order to lose a life (they have to beat both of your spell cards), so losing once per fight is practically meaningless. Even if the enemy survives those 9 Royal Flares, the Spell Card System allows you to farm for more in the same life. Player spell cards cannot be canceled once initiated, leaving the opponent with the little time between cards to counter. Even if bosses could block during their spell cards, both grazing and blocking have a finite duration, so they would eventually fall prey on Royal Flare due to guard breaking or them just plain stop grazing out the damage. Patchouli still has Royal Flare as her spell card on subsequent fighting spin-offs for the same effect, but the new system restricts it to a maximum of 4 declarations, once per card equipped, at the highest casting cost.

* In general, [[SNKBoss SNK Bosses]] are this if unlockable since they were never really made with balance in mind.

** Raiden in arcade versions of King of XIII. His dropkick combos pretty much kill any other character. And they destroy 75% of your guard meter on block!

* ''Franchise/MightyMorphinPowerRangers: The Fighting Edition '' made Ivan Ooze, the villain of the movie, into its main SNKBoss. Unsurprisingly, his unlockable version is this in the hands of a player. His most notorious attack is one that makes him invincible, throws out a mess of homing projectiles, and can be used ''while in hitstun'', meaning that any attempt to combo him just results in him doing that move. Oh, and all his other moves are projectiles that do about as much damage as some super moves, and some of them also beat out every other projectile in the game. And he can fly. Needless to say, simply flying to the top corner and shooting off projectiles counters every single character in the game. Even fellow overtuned boss character Lord Zedd, who can teleport out of an enemy combo, struggles to get more than one or two hits on him.

** Old Sagat (O. Sagat) in ''[=SSF2T=]'' (the ''Super Street Fighter II'' version of Sagat who can be unlocked in ''Super Turbo'') is an example that sits on the edge. He's not outright banned (meaning you won't be stopped from picking him) but is still a potential game breaker. Much like the Jin Kazama example above, O. Sagat's outrageous projectile recovery enables him to lock his enemies down with ease. Because of this, and in the interest of tournament diversity, he's "soft banned" in Japanese events (meaning that the players collectively agree to not pick him) as otherwise, the game would be so heavily skewed towards his usage and would likely monopolize the character selections for all participants.

* The top tier characters in VideoGame/PlayStationAllStarsBattleRoyale can be seen as game breakers to some extent.

** [[VideoGame/GodOfWar Kratos]], ignoring [[VideoGame/DMCDevilMayCry Reboot Dante]]'s crazily long combos and execution, has the most versatility in combos of the 3 combo oriented characters(Kratos, Raiden and Dante), mainly due to the fact that his Square moves(sans the grapple) are safe, have long range, and cancel into each other(sans grapple), and generally allow for easy bursts.Add that to the fact that he has [[RunningGag great mobility]], bar none the best counter in the game(gains 20 AP and has 2 variants: a crumpling projectile and a launching melee counter, for, you guessed it, projectiles and melee attacks), and many, ''many ways'' to cancel, Kratos is either this or a LightningBruiser.

* In the original ''VideoGame/FightersHistory'', Samchay has a tremendous advantage due to how the game's dizzy system works. The series main gimmick is that each character has a [[AttackItsWeakPoint weak point]] that will cause them to be stunned if hit enough times. The issues is that in the first game, every hits in a multi-hit will count toward this and Samchay has two "mash" grabs that strike different parts of the opponent's body, giving him an easy dizzy over most of the cast. And the mash do great damage on their own, enough that following up your dizzy with another grab is a perfectly viable tactic.

* Pet Shop in ''VideoGame/JojosBizarreAdventureHeritageForTheFuture'' is one of the most infamous {{Game Breaker}}s in fighting game history. He's a bird, so he can fly infinitely. This makes him completely immune to any attack that hits low. He has a small hitbox which makes him hard to hit. His icicle attack is a big reason for his brokenness: it's used by holding down a button, causing an icicle to form on the top of the screen, which falls when the button is released. This attack must be blocked while standing, but Pet Shop has other moves which must be blocked while crouching, so by dropping an icicle and hitting low at the same time, he can create an easy unblockable setup. Once the opponent is hit, Pet Shop can follow up with an infinite combo, guaranteeing victory. He is universally banned from tournament play, and picking him in casual settings will probably piss off everyone else.
* King Crimson, Diavolo's stand, as expected is a game breaker in ''VideoGame/JojosBizarreAdventureAllStarBattle''. He can cancel the priority of your moves and attacks even while you're comboing him, resulting in you doing nothing to him and him negating the damage you did.

* ''[[VideoGame/CapcomVs Marvel vs. Capcom 2]]'' has Comicbook/{{Storm}}, Comicbook/{{Cable}}, Comicbook/{{Magneto}}, and Sentinel, who are so powerful that fans refer to them as the "four gods". These fight have a high amount of infinite combos and exploits that completely destroy the rest of the cast. To make it even worse, there are over 48 characters in the game, most of whom are either nearly useless in comparison or effective only as assist characters.
** As far as Cable goes, four words: "AIR HYPER VIPER BEAM!!!"
** They are also projectile specialists who excel in long-range, which was how to own that game. Many an expert player call up a team of Cable, Comicbook/{{Gambit}}, and Cyclops, then beat the story mode ''without ever having to leave the left side of the screen'' until Abyss.
*** Which brings us to Comicbook/{{Iceman}}, a.k.a. Mr. "[[ScratchDamage Chipping Damage]], what's that?"
** There are also the characters that tend to never show up except as assist characters, but kill the fun for new players just as much: Comicbook/{{Cyclops}}, Captain Commando, and Comicbook/{{Psylocke}}, whose dominating assist attacks make up for their mediocrity as point characters.
** VideoGame/{{Strider}} is also seen paired with Comicbook/DoctorDoom as an assist to execute a devilish trap which can keep the opponent in perpetual blockstun, rendering them unable to move while they take chip damage. As an added bonus, unlike many characters who have dominating assist attacks, Doom is considered a High Tier character in his own right.
** Comicbook/IronMan has all sorts of nasty tricks, in addition to being Magneto Jr. There's a good reason why he's High Tier folks. Blackheart does some nasty shit as well.
** Tron Bonne's projectile assist is glitched as well and does more damage than the programmers intended. Because of this her assist sees some tourny play.
** By obtaining all the character colors and artwork you could play as three of the same character. Yeah, [[GodModeSue three Cables]]. [[OhCrap The Xbox/PS3 release allowed this from the start]].
* Sentinel looked to be one again in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'', due to his high health, high damage, high range, high amount of super-armor frames, fast dash/wavedash, good air maneuverability, amazing projectiles, assist moves, and easy combos. Luckily, there are a few anti-Sentinel strategies being created to exploit his weakness to rushdown ([[AchillesHeel His slow attack startup makes him weak at extremely close ranges]]), but Sentinel was a massive threat until...
** ... A patch that decreased Sentinel's health by almost a third, giving him around the same HP as VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe. This, combined with more people taking advantage of his massive size and very slow attack speed, has made him much more of a tolerable threat. The game's game breakers at the moment are now considered to be [[ComicBook/JeanGrey Phoenix]] and ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} (the latter arguably qualified as a game breaker in every other Marvel vs. Capcom game ''except'' [=MvC2=]). Phoenix is extremely fast, has an amazing teleport, has fire balls that ''home in on you'' and prevent almost any significant forward movement all at the cost of [[GlassCannon laughable health]]... until you do land that hit and make her transform into Dark Phoenix, where she gains even more power, chips life away very easily and boasts the same extreme mobility of her normal self. Wolverine is extremely fast, very powerful, has one of the most useful pressure moves in the game with his dive kick, can use his Berserker Slash for easy mix-ups and destruction of any zoning attempts, can use his Berserker Charge to make himself even faster, and can even create hyper combo loops with his Tornado Claw to kill [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPbWQdWXfr8 characters from 100% life.]]
** And then there's the [[GoodBadBugs DHC Glitch]]. When a character puts their opponent in a "grabbed" state, then cancels their [[LimitBreak Hyper Combo]] into one of their teammate's (referred to as a Delayed Hyper Combo or "DHC"), and ''that'' hyper utterly fails to hit the opponent, the damage scaling[[note]]As you chain more hits together in a combo, each succesive hit does less damage. This is in place to prevent combos that easily kill every character, and is common in fighting games.[[/note]] and most of the hitstun scaling for the combo is reset. May sound difficult to do, but most characters have cinematic hypers, which count as a grabbed state, and can be cancelled into other hypers as normal. This means you can start a combo that ends in a cinematic hyper and does at least half of your opponents health, then cancel it into a teammate's hyper that doesn't hit (such as, say, a ''power-up hyper''), then while the opponent is recovering[[note]]When you cancel a cinematic hyper, the opponent is launched a bit into the air for long enough for a hyper to fail and the one who used it to regain control of their character[[/note]] have that character do a combo to finish them off. Tournaments are basically first one hit loses that character. Thankfully this has been fixed in ''Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3''.
** ''Ultimate'', however, has brought in something Phoenix, Wolverine and the DHC glitch wish they had the power of. Meet [[Franchise/ResidentEvil Albert Wesker]], who was already a very powerful character in the original ''[=MvC3=]''. The character has a very fast teleport attack that gives him a fierce mix-up game, and he can cancel into this teleport off a shot from his gun. When a mix-up lands, his very high damage output will shave into your character's life bar very quickly. His normal attacks have gigantic hitboxes on them and are incredibly safe and easy to hit-confirm. He himself has slightly above average health, so it isn't that easy to kill him fast. He also has several counter moves at his disposal and has one of the best assists in the game in the aforementioned gun. What sets Wesker so far apart from the other powerful characters is that when his sunglasses come off (by taking damage... or, just ''landing his Phantom Dance hyper'') he becomes faster and stronger than before, allowing him to easily kill characters from 100% life. He's very fast, very strong, difficult to defend against, difficult to keep out, difficult to kill, a very easy character to make huge comebacks with and outclasses a ridiculous amount of cast members (although not ''quite'' to the extent of the four gods... ish). Thankfully, tactics have been developed to counter Wesker's many shenanigans, though he's still considered high tier at worst.
** Nearly ''half the cast'' has infinites thanks to a team aerial combo glitch that causes the game to not reset hitstun scaling, allowing characters that have at least decent aerial mobility to keep attacking the opponent until they get KO'd. However, this is [[AwesomeButImpractical less practical than it sounds]], as the timing needed to be able to pull off these infinite combos is so tight that you'd need to be like a robot to actually pull this off in a tournament or online.
** Wesker has been relieved (to an extent) of his GameBreaker status...only to be replaced by [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Morrigan]]. At first, she seems like a fairly average character, until you figure out her Soul Fist fly[=/=]unfly cancel. This tactic, combined with her Astral Vision super and Dr. Doom's Hidden Missiles assist, can fill the screen with projectiles and make it extremely difficult to advance towards her.
** Currently occupying the top of the roost is [[VideoGame/{{MegamanX}} Zero]]. Not only is he a small, fast and highly maneuverable target he can combo off almost anything he's got even at a distance, has brutal mix-ups, a powerful instant fireball and worst of all can 1 touch kill any member of the cast with 1 or 2 super meters (trivial since Zero builds meter fast) without X-Factor or even assists to extend the combo at times which is something almost no one else can do. Entire teams have been sliced appart by a good Zero player with Zero only needing to touch the opposing team once per character. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL55OIfkcZQ Here's a demonstration of how nasty a combo from Zero is]]
* ''[[VideoGame/CapcomVsSNK2MarkOfTheMillennium Capcom vs. SNK 2]]'' contained a glitch somewhat infamous in the tournament scene - by quickly cancelling a roll's opening frames of animation with a special move, the character was rendered invincible for most of the move. America's reaction was to ban it in tournaments, but it was not banned in Japan, leading to a rather sad display in the major international tournament when Japan walked all over America. Now, "roll cancelling" is generally required to play the arcade game competitively, although the glitch was fixed in the Xbox and Gamecube {{Updated Rerelease}}s.
** ''[[UpdatedRerelease CvS2 EO]]'' solved the roll cancel glitch, but introduced a GameBreaker of its own -- Easy Operation mode, or EO-ism (GC-ism on the [=GameCube=]). This move system was meant to allow novice players to play by assigning a special move to each direction on the right stick. Sounds fine at first, until you realize that this was done in such a way that it makes charge characters massively overwhelming. For example, a player using Blanka with EO-ism can have him continually do his forward roll attack, 6 times per second, without any charge penalties, and with little opportunity for the other player to respond, simply by holding the right stick in position.
* The first ''[[VideoGame/CapcomVsSNKMillenniumFight2000 Capcom vs. SNK]]'' had a ration system that totally broke some characters in the game. Nakoruru in particular is considered to be one of the most formidable characters in any fighting game ever.
* From ''VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom'': [[VideoGame/OnimushaDawnOfDreams Soki]]. Sure he doesn't seem cheap, but once he goes into his little transformation, he throws all of the rules out the window. He can heal, doesn't flinch unless he is hit by the strongest attack (one that takes 3 bars of energy to execute), and worst of all, his aura suggests that everything he is doing is fair.
** His standing L is also another reason why people consider him to be cheap: it's a ridiculously quick sword poke with tons of range that can also cancel into itself and used to start his combos and thus any character without projectiles has great difficulty approaching him.
** Also Tekkaman, considering his super moves are incredibly easy to accumulate, very powerful, can be done from a distance, and extremely hard to completely dodge, which means that even if they're blocked, the chip damage alone is sufficient.
** Yatterman-1 has super attacks that automatically put him on this list considering how fast and powerful they are. His Yatterman Charge is so useful and powerful that it can take down the FinalBoss [[spoiler: [[MarathonBoss Yami, in all three of his forms]]]] without even breaking a sweat.
** By far the most formidable character in the original release of ''[=TvC=]'', ''Cross Generation of Heroes'', is Karas. His pressure game combined with his speed created nearly inescapable corner traps. If on defense, you had to do everything you could to get out of the corner when fighting him or it was a doomed game. Thankfully, his speed has been significantly reduced for the update ''Ultimate All Stars'' and thus has been brought down to a more reasonable level.

* ''GameBreaker/{{Tekken}}

* To a ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' beginner, a lot of characters can feel like they're a GameBreaker, from Eddy (and Christie in later games), to Xiaoyu's stances making most of their moves whiff, Law and Hwoarang's endless stance-based pressure, King's plethora of (almost 100!) throws and multi-grabs, Bryan's Snake Edge and Devil Jin's Spinning Demon repeatedly launching them over and over, to the sheer ConfusionFu capabilities of Yoshimitsu and Lei. While most of them can be alleviated once you've learned how their stances and strings work, the entries below are ones that are still game-breaking even if you've already learned how to deal with them (some of which ''have'' no solution to them at all):
** For a game filled to the brim with game-breakers, King in the first ''Tekken'' stands out the most solely because of one move, his Elbow Sting (df+1). Not only is it a very quick mid attack, if the opponent ever blocks it their guard is broken for so long that King could hit them with any launcher he pleases. To counteract this they could deliberately try to get hit by it so you wouldn't be guard broken, except if it hits them King recovers fast enough that nothing can interrupt him from just doing another Elbow Sting, which then loops the situation over and over.
** While they fixed King's Elbow Sting in ''Tekken 2'', in its place were a plethora of throws that cannot be broken, the most lethal of which was Wang's Waning Moon, which is unique among all the throws in ''Tekken 2'' in that in exchange for doing almost no damage by itself it stunned the opponent for so long that Wang gets to hit the opponent's back with any launcher he pleases.... except the resulting combo could very easily OneHitKill them.
** Not only does Ogre in ''Tekken 3'' have the widest sidestep in the entire game despite his size, he also inherited Wang's Waning Moon from ''Tekken 2'' whole-sale. While his movelist doesn't allow him to OHKO the opponent, the resulting Skyscraper Kick is still enough to remove almost 50% of a health-bar.
*** Honorable mention to Forest Law, whose mid-low-mid Junkyard string (b+2,3,4) caused Namco to add a universal low parry to later entries (from ''Tekken 6'' onwards), as in ''Tekken 3'' unless your character had their own low parry it was impossible to deal with as after the low it always ends in a safe mid launcher, and if the low kick connected with the mid on [[CounterAttack counter hit]], then you may as well kiss the round goodbye.
** Two families were a game-breaker above everyone else in ''Tekken Tag Tournament'':
*** Even though they fixed both Ancient and True Ogre's Waning Moon, in it's place were a plethora of quick unreactable unduckable unblockables, with True Ogre having a very long fire breath (d+1+2) that can even hit the opponent as they're tagging out in addition to a horn attack (df+1+2) that reliably hits opponents while they're floored.
*** Simply changing the Mishima family's trademark Electric Wind God Fist (f,N,d,df+2) from a high like in the other games to a special mid turned it into a game-breaker par excellence, because unlike in the other games it can no longer be ducked to avoid it, which means your only option is to block it, which gives them advantage over you. Trying to sidestep it is no longer an option either, because it had the widest lateral hitbox out of all the Electric Wind God Fists in the entire series (though ''Tekken 7's'' iteration in Season 2 comes fairly close, but not by much.)
*** While Devil doesn't have an Electric Wind God Fist, his Twin Pistons string is arguably even scarier, as it was not only a proper mid which means if you try to duck under it it would hit you and launch you, it was also even faster than the Electric Wind God Fist (13 frames compared to the Electric being 14) and had a much easier input (df+1,2), and although it didn't give advantage unlike Electric Wind God Fist, it was still safe on block.
** Due to the dominance of the game-breakers in ''Tekken Tag Tournament'', people would resort to continuously LagCancel backdashes in order to avoid being in contact with them, and with the fact that every stage in ''Tekken Tag Tournament'' had infinite width there weren't much incentive to not repeatedly backdash away from the opponent resulting in a very stale game where people would run away from each other's game-breakers the entire match. ''Tekken 4'' would try to stop this sort of playstyle by not only introducing walled stages, but also disabling backdash cancelling altogether once both players are at a certain distance between each other, but by doing so it inadvertently compounded the strength of its own game-breakers:
*** Jin with his brand-new Kyokushin Karate movelist was the absolute posterboy of GameBreaker ''Tekken ''characters - not only did he have a parry that can never be punished, he also had, among other things, a high-mid (2,1) jab string that gave him advantage if blocked, his L.L.R.K (f,N,d,df+4) was an unreactable low knockdown sweep that had an extremely skewered risk-to-reward ratio (if it hits, Jin gets 40 damage and a knockdown; if it's blocked, most characters can only hit him with a 15 damage WS+4 that doesn't knock down), and the infamous Just Frame Laser Scraper (b,f+2,1,df+2), where by very slightly delaying the last hit of his Laser Scraper string it will turn into an unblockable launcher. Even if you blocked the first two hits of the string you only had a 3 frame window to sidestep the last hit.
*** Steve benefitted the most from the nerfed movement in ''Tekken 4'', as now it was much much harder for the opponent to escape his barrage of safe pokes, the fastest jabs in the entire series, multiple high strings that somehow cannot be ducked even when blocked and gives him advantage, and his dreaded [[CounterAttack Quick Hook]] (d+1 in ''Tekken 4'', b+1 in ''Tekken 5'' onwards.)
*** Lee's Left Right when canceled into his Mist Step (1,2,f,N) enabled him to perform the juggle combos ''Tekken'' is known for in a game with a heavily reduced emphasis on them, and the most noteworthy of all of his moves that could cancel into his Mist Step was his Rear Cross Punch (SS+2 in ''Tekken 4'' and ''5'', b+2 from ''Tekken 6'' onwards), which is plus on block high[[note]]Only if cancelled from Mist Step, where it's +2 on block. Otherwise, it's safe at -5.[[/note]] done from a sidestep that could combo into his Left Right Mid Kick (1,2,4) string if it's canceled into a Mist Step, which would take out 50% of an opponent's lifebar in one go.
** Due to the all of the [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks complaints]] for ''Tekken 4'', Namco decided to make ''Tekken 5's'' gameplay closer to that of ''Tekken 3'', and as a result all of the moves that would've been a game-breaker in the previous games if they weren't overshadowed by the true game-breakers on their respective games would start to rear their ugly heads:
*** Heihachi had a jab combo that would take out 50% of an opponent's life bar in one go, and it was completely safe on block. See 1:09 of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXw4s3DV3uE this video]].
*** Feng's Stunning Palm (df+1) and Rising Heel Kick (WS+4) would force the opponent into an extremely tight QuickTimeEvent in order to not be launched if they hit a crouching opponent, and they're both very fast safe mids (Stunning Palm was plus on block even - it is now neutral as of ''Tekken 7'') which meant that Feng could just use them as super-charged little pokes. His Sweep Kick (db+4) also had a skewered risk-to-reward ratio (if it hits, Feng gets a juggle combo that could take out 50% of the opponent's health bar; if it's blocked, only few characters could retaliate with their own juggle combos).
*** Bryan showed how faulty the series's tech rolling was, since due to the fact in ''Tekken 5'' and before for some reason you weren't allowed to block low after tech rolling, it gave Bryan lots of opportunities at the end of his juggle combos especially near a wall to force a MortonsFork on the opponent - either tech roll and be launched by his Snake Edge (df+3) low sweep that they cannot block, or stay down and end up getting hit by the Snake Edge on the ground anyways. His iconic Taunt Jet Upper (1+3+4 into f,b+2) was also much easier to perform in this game than it is in later entries because of said Taunt being +16 as opposed to +14 on Hit.
*** Similar to Steve in ''Tekken 4'', Nina in ''Tekken 5'' had a plethora of multiple high strings that cannot be ducked for some reason and gave her advantage on block, but her most notorious game-breaker was her Skull Splitter (uf+1) - when used at the end of her juggle combos it would force the opponent to the floor and glue her right next to the opponent, letting her choose from the multitude of options she has to deal with every single thing the opponent could do, some of which could give her another juggle combo which allows her to go through the entire guessing game again.
*** Steve was THE game-breaker of ''Tekken 5'' and is considered by a majority of veterans to this day to be the '''most overpowered character in the entire series''' (bosses aside), having essentially everything that made him a game-breaker in ''Tekken 4'' carried over including his infinite (which was less highlighted because of the sheer dominance of Jin). All Steve needs to do to perform this infinite is dodge an opponent's attack with his Double Stinger string (3,1,1) - if it hit the opponent's side or back the entire string would combo, and the opponent is staggered from the last hit of the string for so long that Steve has the time to drink a cup of tea before doing it again.[[note]]It was so bad that, according to [=YouTuber=] and longtime ''Tekken'' veteran [=MainManSWE=], several tournament organizers banned anyone from doing the move in an actual match, and even then, Steve was still absurdly strong if one takes away the stun from Double Stinger out of the equation. [[/note]] Steve's entire dominance almost single-handedly caused the creation of ''[[UpdatedRerelease Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection]]'' in order to take down him a peg.
** While Steve and the rest of the game-breakers from original ''Tekken 5'' did get rebalanced, the characters that were right below them before now ended up ruling the roost in ''Dark Resurrection'':
*** Heihachi's design in ''Tekken'' is that he's supposed to be an aggresive pit-bull with very high-quality high and mid attacks but with nearly non-existent low attacks in return, except in ''Dark Ressurection'' they gave him a damaging unreactable low sweep in the form of Acheron's Plight (df+2+3,2), almost completely mitigating his intended weakness.
*** Both of Devil Jin's dash [[LagCancel lag-cancelable]] moves caused issues - Parting Wave (b+1~df) allowed him to force a wavedash mixup on the opponent even if it's blocked, while the dash cancel at the end of his Twin Lancer string not only makes it safer, but when used at the end of combos it glued Devil Jin right next to the opponent the same way Nina's Skull Splitter did in original ''Tekken 5''. His Obliteration command grab (hcb,F+1+2) also gave him some ridiculous okizeme on top of doing a sizeable amount of damage.
*** ''Dark Ressurection'' would be the last game with 8-frame jabs, as characters with them like Julia (whom of which can outright launch you on [[CounterAttack counter hit]]) and Steve could out-speed characters who had 10-frame jabs, completely changing how the frame data of certain characters worked as moves that was supposed to be safe now could be punished by 8-frame jabs and moves that were supposed to give a mild advantage became disadvantegeous in the face of the risk of being interrupted by the 8-frame jabs.
** In ''Tekken 6'', Bandai Namco for the most part has stamped away all the game-breakers and would-be game-breakers from the previous games, but the newcomers added to ''Tekken 6'' would end up becoming game-breakers of their own:
*** Bob was very frequently derided as the "perfect character" during ''Tekken 6''s prime - he had nearly everything a ''Tekken'' character could hope for from high combo damage, a deadly mix-up game with his Cutting Coppa (f,N,d,df+4) sweep, and plethora of safe low and mid pokes, the most infamous of which was his Coupe Chop (d+1), a decently quick mid chop that was neutral on block, floored the opponent if it was a CounterAttack (which guaranteed a follow-up in his Whopping Kick [b+3] for even more damage), and could hit opponents trying to sidestep to his weak side. Nevermind that it also hit grounded opponents reliably and consistently, either.
*** While not on the same league as Bob and Lars, Bruce would also be a runner-up because of his ease of use combined with his excellent (and very easy) wall carry, and very high (and again, easy) combo damage. For perspective, from his fastest Launcher (df+2) Bruce can carry the opponent from one end of the stage to another with a combo as simple as this - df+2 > 3,2~f+1 > 3,2~f+1 > 3,2~f+1... - and so on. And that's ''without'' using Bound moves, mind you.
*** Lars was a very slippery character to deal with, as a lot of his moves even down to his basic Alert L mid poke (df+1) has him inexplicably duck or jump during certain frames of their start-up, causing the opponent to feel like none of their moves could ever hit him out of his moves.
** As of ''Tekken Tag Tournament 2'', there is no top tier. There is only "Mishima Tier", because every single Mishima (Kazuya, Heihachi, and Devil Jin, in that order) dominate the top tiers due to their insane juggles, tag combos, and damage output. Jinpachi, despite his original status as an SNKBoss, has been completely rebalanced and is not considered a {{Game Breaker}} because he is not a "traditional" Mishima (he does not possess his son' wavedashes and has a different variation of the Wind God Fist).
** While ''Tekken 7'' is considered by a majority of the competitive fanbase to be one of the most balanced installments in the series, even this one isn't safe from a few (if minor at best and downright infuriating at worst) game-breakers of its own.
*** Akuma was quite overpowered in his initial ''Fated Retribution'' debut despite being [[DifficultButAwesome balanced]] by his steep execution requirements - his signature Demon Flip was able to be linked in combos, giving him meterless combos that can take 50% of your health in one go. His Crouching Jab (d+2) also recovrered significantly faster on hit and on whiff (the latter of which was nerfed in Season 3) which, as you'd expect, led to quite a lot of damage. Akuma also hit much harder in ''Fated Retribution'' than he does currently as of Season 3; jabs, launchers, d+2, his iconic Shun Goku Satsu/Raging Demon super, and so on.
*** In his initial release, Leroy quickly went from one of the most hyped newcomers in a long time to one of the most [[TierInducedScrappy reviled]]. He [[MasterofAll had it all]] - excellent and safe offense, [[SimpleYetAwesome next to no execution]] combined with high damage combos, one of ''the best'' parries in the entire game (parrying EVERYTHING except for lows, throws, and projectiles), strong block and whiff punishment, unquestionably the best stance in the entire game in Hermit, and the list just goes on. It got to a point where there was ''[[ComplacentGamingSyndrome six Leroy players]]'' in EVO Japan 2020's Top 8 (the other two players stuck with Julia and Kazumi). And that's not taking into account the notoriety that Leroy accumulated Online, either. Yikes.
*** While not as bad as Leroy was initially, the final DLC character of Season 3, Fahkumram, has also been met with growing disdain from the community in the months since his release in March 2020. Common complaints include his very [[HitboxDissonance wonky hurtbox]], having (again, like Leroy) [[SimpleYetAwesome little to no execution]] in his damage output, absurd range because of his long limbs (excellent whiff punishment is a given here), usurping the main gimmick of resident TierInducedScrappy Gigas (chargeable moves that guarantee free mix-ups on block), and the fact that, for his size (being the same as token MightyGlacier Craig Marduk if not taller), he has [[LightningBruiser an excellent backdash and better than average sidestep]].

** In the original version of ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'', you had Guile. His defense is virtually unbreakable, he can spam out Sonic Booms that other characters have a hard time getting through, he's very mobile, his Flash Kick has good reach, hits enemies above him, and can either knock opponents away for further distance or rip them apart, he has a combo that can knock 60% off an opponent, and overall, he doesn't have any significant weaknesses. If you can name a strategy in ''II'', chances are Guile was best at it. It's been said a few times that Guile's stayed essentially unchanged over the years, because all he really needs is his original moves to stay competitive.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheFighters'' has Sonic's spin-dash move. Even on the hardest difficulty, this move will mow down any of your foes like a hot knife through butter, due to its excellent damage and the recovery time it has your enemies go through, with the possible exception of [[NintendoHard Metal Sonic.]] Even if you block it, a direct hit will [[GameBreaker STRIP OFF THREE BARRIERS!]] The default number of barriers you have is three and you can have a maximum of ten depending on the settings and almost all the other barrier breaking moves only break one of them. If you let Sonic [[MundaneUtility (Or Tails, Knuckles or Espio)]] hit with a Spindash twice, then you're pretty much defenseless for the rest of the match.

* The ''Franchise/StarWars: Episode 3'' game has Keto, Cin Drallig's apprentice who [[DualWielding uses two lightsabers]]. She is SUPPOSED to be a defensive character, and therefore has the best run speed. However, her attack animation is quick, and consists of hitting the enemy on the head, causing some stun... and letting you follow up. Only, that attack causes stun too. So you can keep attacking, and keep spamming, easily outclassing even the offense specialist. Except if they try to break off, you can just chase after them and start spamming again. Her attack power is only a little bit below average, but it's INSANELY easy to make both hits connect, and to start a flood of hits, letting you take out a good portion of the opponent's health very quickly. Its possible with good timing you might even be able to make an infinite combo.

** The characters are fairly well-balanced with the exception of Louis. At first appearing to be the MightyGlacier, Louis is the slowest character, but does above-can use his armor to block a hit and counter with a strong grab: good, but not excessively so. Then, you find out that he can transform into LouisEX when he's on less than 25% health. This causes him to lose the armor, but it vastly increases his speed, and he gains a spear that gives him the best reach in the game and can spam instant-hit ranged attacks that knock back multiple targets. Hopefully, you can finish him off by attacking him just as he finishes his uninterruptible transform which also deals damage.

** ''VideoGame/DragonBallZBudokai 2'' has Android 20, a.k.a. Dr. Gero who was everything Android 19 was in the previous game, except smaller and faster, and was actually more powerful than he was since his Ultimate move Life Drain 20 was even ''more'' effective than Android 19's was in that can be repeatedly used. This actually carried on into the next game where he was just as effective as ever.
** ''VideoGame/DragonBallZBudokai 3'' has several {{Game Breaker}}s as well. The most obvious ones are the "revive" capsules, Frieza's/Cooler's Spaceship/Babidi's Mind Control. Essentially, they revive the fighter when dead to FULL health and Ki, in addition to making them far more powerful than they were to begin with (for instance, Majin Vegeta has an instant kill move). Less obvious is the "Broken Combo": Viral Heart Disease/Vaccine/Yakon/Gero's Deflect-back R&D .This combo automatically drains most of an opponent's health while making it INCREDIBLY difficult to fight transformed (i.e. as a Super Saiyan), all the while automatically sending Ki Blasts back at the opponent by blocking. Add this to Dr. Gero, who can absorb Ki Blasts anyway, and you have the formula for being quite.

** Raging Blast has its moments, too - particularly Captain Ginyu in Team Battle. You can fight with him until his health is low, have him use Body Change to regain health, switch to another team member, switch to a THIRD team member (or have the second transform if the situation allows), and then switch back to Ginyu. He will be in his own body again, and thus be able to use Body Change again. Until the other fighters in your team are beaten, you can essentially make Ginyu immortal.
** A great Game Breaker in Raging Blast 2 is equipping Guldo with Unexpected Blow and anything to increase Ultimate Attack damage. Charge him up to High Tension, activate Raging Soul, and you can use the Guldo Special up to four times in succession. Since the attack is unblockable, difficult to vanish from, and homes in on the victim, this is a huge game breaker to those who [[HeKnowsAboutTimedHits don't know about timed hits]].
** Goku himself is a game breaker in Raging Blast 2. It comes with the territory when your most powerful attack can only be accessed in the base form (and there is no energy struggle or combo necessary like in previous games). Goku also has a Kaioken finish, a high priority attack which guarantees an opponent's health bar without using too much of Goku's energy.
** No love for Infinite World? Yes, the same gamebreaker of Budokai 3, Gogeta (both Super Saiyan 2 and 4 versions) and Vegito are there, as is Omega Shenron, but these guys pale in comparison to Baby Vegeta. How great is he? You know Vegeta's super moves, Final Flash (once only usable as a Dragon Rush ender in 3) and Big Bang Attack? Baby Vegeta can keep using those as ''regular'' moves! Even GT Vegeta only had the former! On top of that, he has a super on par with other fighter's super moves. The only characters that really stand a chance against him are Super 17 and Janemba, and even then, you have to get lucky.

*** Super Saiyan 2 Teen Gohan is one of the fastest characters in the game, hits like a truck, has great ki control, and has great stock moves along with one of the most powerful ultimate moves (Father-Son Kamehameha an unblockable cutscene attack) in the game that can be powered up using his stock move "Unforgivable" to do obscene amounts of damage to ''any'' opponent he faces.

** Continuum Shift Extend gives you Platinum the Trinity. Platinum's projectiles are very ''very'' annoying if you cannot properly counter and predict her attacks... wait, it's both he and she. That cat face missile is huge. And by the time you recover from blocking or from being hit by the missile, she/he has another set of three ready to fire. You don't really need MoreDaka when those projectiles are about one-third the height of the entire stage.

*** While not as bad as Leroy was initially, the final DLC character of Season 3, Fahkumram, has also been met with growing disdain from the community in the months since his release in March 2020. Common complaints include his very [[HitboxDissonance wonky hitbox]], having (again, like Leroy) [[SimpleYetAwesome little to no execution]] in his damage output, absurd range because of his long limbs (excellent whiff punishment is a given here), usurping the main gimmick of resident TierInducedScrappy Gigas (chargeable moves that guarantee free mix-ups on block), and the fact that, for his size (being the same as token MightyGlacier Craig Marduk if not taller), he has [[LightningBruiser an excellent backdash and better than average sidestep]].

** While not as bad as Leroy was initially, the final DLC character of Season 3, Fahkumram, has also been met with growing disdain from the community in the months since his release in March 2020. Common complaints include his very [[HitboxDissonance wonky hitbox]], having (again, like Leroy) [[SimpleYetAwesome little to no execution]] in his damage output, absurd range because of his long limbs (excellent whiff punishment is a given here), usurping the main gimmick of resident TierInducedScrappy Gigas (chargeable moves that guarantee free mix-ups on block), and the fact that, for his size (being the same as token MightyGlacier Craig Marduk if not taller), he has [[LightningBruiser an excellent backdash and better than average sidestep]].