History Main / AdaptationalWimp

* ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'': [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 The 1987 Ninja Turtles]] from their series were jokey due to being LighterAndSofter to market them for kids, but were still competent fighters and knew when to take a situation seriously. The movie, however, displays them as being extremely childish even in the face of the entire multi-verse threat, joking every few minutes, can ''barely'' fight, and heck, one point, acting like ''crybabies'' when they barely avoid an attack by a powered up 2003 Shredder. Likewise '87 Shredder is showcased to be utterly incompetent; while the original show did turn down his threat level and gave him comedic defeats, [[NotSoHarmlessVillain he was still a leader and a mastermind]].

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* Likewise, many of the more powerful Marvel characters tend to suffer from this in the ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom'' series. For the sake of gameplay balance, absolute powerhouses like [[Characters/MarvelComicsBruceBanner the Hulk]], [[Characters/MarvelComicsApocalypse Apocalypse]], ComicBook/{{Onslaught}}, [[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos Thanos]] (with the Infinity Gauntlet!) and [[Characters/MarvelComicsGalactus Galactus]] can be defeated in physical combat by human characters like [[Franchise/ResidentEvil Jill Valentine]], ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}, [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu, Chun-Li]] or [[Franchise/AceAttorney Phoenix Wright]]. Yet the biggest sufferer of this is undeniably Shuma-Gorath. Shuma-Gorath in the ''ComicBook/DoctorStrange'' comics that introduced him basically treated him as up there with the PowersThatBe. He's older than the universe, a RealityWarper, rules countless dimensions, him simply ''existing'' in our world is treated as a massive threat, and Doctor Strange, himself one of the most powerful Marvel heroes, struggles to even keep him contained. The only character in the entire roster who would stand even a chance against him is Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet, and even that's arguable -- Shuma-Gorath fighting someone would basically consist of him blinking them out of existence. But the developers of the franchise didn't know any of this -- rather, they picked Shuma-Gorath because [[RuleOfFun they liked his design and thought it would make a fun and unique character for a fighting game]]. As a result, he shows almost no signs of having ''any'' of the powers of his comic counterpart: his moves almost universally focus on simply having him jump around hitting people with his tentacles, with the occasional round of shapeshifting or EyeBeams to break things up. He's not an overpowered SNKBoss-type character, either--he's not even top tier in any of his appearances. He did have one move reworked to imply a bit of his true power (Chaos Dimension), but other than that, he comes across as downright cuddly rather than terrifying. Even his endings in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' play him for comedy, with him becoming a gameshow host.

* Likewise, many of the more powerful Marvel characters tend to suffer from this in the ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom'' series. For the sake of gameplay balance, absolute powerhouses like [[Characters/MarvelComicsBruceBanner the Hulk]], [[Characters/MarvelComicsApocalypse Apocalypse]], ComicBook/{{Onslaught}}, [[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos Thanos]] (with the Infinity Gauntlet!) and [[Characters/MarvelComicsGalactus Galactus]] can be defeated in physical combat by human characters like [[Franchise/ResidentEvil Jill Valentine]], ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}, [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu, Chun-Li]] or [[Franchise/AceAttorney Phoenix Wright]]. Yet the biggest sufferer of this is undeniably Shuma-Gorath. Shuma-Gorath in the ''ComicBook/DoctorStrange'' comics that introduced him basically treated him as up there with the PowersThatBe. He's older than the universe, a RealityWarper, rules countless dimensions, him simply ''existing'' in our world is treated as a massive threat, and Doctor Strange, himself one of the most powerful Marvel heroes, struggles to even keep him contained. The only character in the entire roster who would stand even a chance against him is Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet, and even that's arguable -- Shuma-Gorath fighting someone would basically consist of him blinking them out of existence. But the developers of the franchise didn't know any of this -- rather, they picked Shuma-Gorath because [[RuleOfFun they liked his design and thought it would make a fun and unique character for a fighting game]]. As a result, he shows almost no signs of having ''any'' of the powers of his comic counterpart: his moves almost universally focus on simply having him jump around hitting people with his tentacles, with the occasional round of shapeshifting or EyeBeams to break things up. He did have one move reworked to imply a bit of his true power (Chaos Dimension), but other than that, he comes across as downright cuddly rather than terrifying. Even his endings in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' play him for comedy, with him becoming a gameshow host.

** In the actual tabletop game, archdruids are some of the most powerful spellcaster [=NPCs=] around with a high health pool, a wide arsenal of druid spells, and can wild shape into beasts of CR 6 or less. By comparison, the two archdruids present in the early game, Halsin and Kagha, are actually much more weaker stats-wise than their title would suggest. Then again, Larian probably did this to prevent them from being Early-Bird Bosses. Although this gets downplayed with Halsin if he becomes a party member later in the game.
** Vampire spawn in the tabletop game are ''much'' stronger than Astarion ends up being. They have innate damage resistance to non-magical physical damage, necrotic damage, possess 60ft of darkvision, a lesser form of Vampiric Regeneration at the start of their turns, can climb walls, as well as multiattack, claws for extra unarmed melee damage and a bite that not only can be used more than once per rest, but deals necrotic damage, reduces an enemies hit point maximum and heals the Spawn for more health. Astarion only has the bite, limited to once per short rest, deals only the piercing damage and can be killed with a wooden stake still. It's likely the illithid tadple is messing with his powers much as it's also protecting him from sunlight.

** In the classic ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' continuity, Vergil is one of Dante's most powerful foes and actually wins their first battle in each of the games they fight in, whether as himself or as Nelo Angelo; with Dante needing to embrace his powers and [[TookALevelinBadass get considerably stronger over the course of the story]] in order to first give him an even fight and then finally beat him. [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration In both the story as well as the actual player controlled battle]], Vergil remains one of the toughest bosses Dante ever faces. In ''[=DmC=]'', Vergil is still powerful, but Dante is far stronger and Vergil needs him to act as his enforcer. [[spoiler:When they duel at the end of the game, Dante wins handily.]]

* All individual ''Velociraptor'' go from being the BigBadEnsemble to just foolish EliteMooks in every ''Jurassic Park'' video game. But the games that weaken them the most are ''Videogame/JurassicParkTheGame'' and ''Videogame/LegoJurassicWorld'', where the raptors are easily distracted. At least in the latter they can never be directly taken on in a fight due to their size.

** The FightingGame ''VideoGame/JusticeLeagueTaskForce'' for UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis and [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] has Superman, Characters/{{Wonder Woman|TheCharacter}} and other super-powered heroes go toe-to-toe with the likes of ComicBook/GreenArrow and Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}} with straight punches as if they are all equally strong.

* This trope is evident in any MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, but especially so in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' Major examples include:

** Bardin's Drakegun and Drakefire Pistols. In-game, they are a typical example of VideogameFlamethrowersSuck. In lore, Drakefire is the fantasy equivalent of ''napalm''. It burns white-hot for ''days'' on end, and the heat is so intense that even heavy gromril plating crafted by master Dwarf artisans cannot protect from it; Irondrakes have to be provided with special armour enchanted with magical runes just to stop the operators from broiling themselves alive with their own weapons.

* ''WebAnimation/DarkSecretsOfGarrysMod'': [[Videogame/HalfLife1 G-Man]]'s [[RealityWarper control over spacetime]] is simply nonexistent in this series and has the same abilities as regular human.

** In their home series, the [[Videogame/RavingRabbids Rabbids]] are usually shown to be [[NighInvulnerability pretty durable]], but here, it does not take much more than a pickaxe to the head for [[Videogame/MineCraft Steve]] to kill one of them.
** In ''Videogame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'', Cosmic Clones are nigh-invincible and only vanish after the player grabs a star. In this series, they are easily taken out by Videogame/ToejamAndEarl, a far cry from the Mario doppelgangers' original incarnation.

** In the actual tabletop game, archdruids are some of the most powerful spellcaster NPCs around with a high health pool, a wide arsenal of druid spells, and can wild shape into beasts of CR 6 or less. By comparison, the two archdruids present in the early game, Halsin and Kagha, are actually much more weaker stats-wise than their title would suggest. Then again, Larian probably did this to prevent them from being Early-Bird Bosses. Although this gets downplayed with Halsin if he becomes a party member later in the game.