History Main / MechanicallyUnusualFighter

* Decapre, the newcomer in ''Ultra VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' is an interesting example. On the surface, she's definitely a aggressive rushdown character. Her excellent mobility and mix-up and terrific Ultras make her viable threat. However, she's also a charge character, which contrasts her playstyle as charge character in just about any fighting game typically leans toward the defensive side. The biggest draw with Decapre being a rushdown charge character is that while her tools are effective, they're not readily available, especially if you want to walk up to your opponent.

** Rachel and Arakune also have interesting mechanics, possibly unique to them throughout the entire genre. Rachel has a wind gauge, which allows her to push things, including Rachel herself, in whatever direction you choose for a tiny period of time, with lighter things being blown farther. Arakune has a gauge where, when full, causes attack inputs to summon bugs that follow patterns and deal CollisionDamage whenever they hit until the gauge empties. However, the only way to increase it is to hit with certain attacks.

Different from FightingClown, which is about the character's whacky appearance rather than the actual mechanics (although the two may overlap). Different from JokeCharacter, {{lethal}JokeCharacter}} or not, as this character is intended to be a viable option without resorting to an obscure tactic. Also compare MechanicallyUnusualClass, the more RPG-like {{sister|Trope}}.

** In the first installment: Yoshi's command for third jump was instead a projectile, but he gained armor during his extended double jump; he also lacked an ordinary shield, instead covering himself in a shell, preventing him from jumping while shielding, an attribute he kept in later games to his detriment. Ness' third jump was a remote control projectile that you had to hit yourself with to get an aerial boost, and Jigglypuff had no "third jump" at all, instead a combination of her neutral special and 4 "double jumps" were used for recovery.
** ''Melee'' added the Ice Climbers, where one player would control two characters simultaneously, Zelda, who could transform into Shiek (and viceversa) mid battle, and Pichu, many of whose attacks damaged itself.
** ''Brawl'' made Samus unusual in that her [[LimitBreak Final Smash]] triggered a transformation into Zero Suit Samus. It also introduced Olimar, a MinionMaster whose majority of attacks are tied to his Pikmin, Pokémon Trainer, who not only can rotate between three transformations, but if he stays in any for too long, they actually start to get weaker, and Snake, who has unusual attacks with unusual timing to them, including the ability to plant a mine instead of a downsmash, an extremely high recovery but very vulnerable triple jump, and numerous odd projectile attacks which don't attack instantly or which control strangely (such as grenades and fly-by-wire rockets).
** ''Wii U/3DS'' adds Mega Man, who has projectiles for several basic attacks, Wii Fit Trainer, who has a StatusBuff move that increases her attack power, Rosalina, who fights alongside a Luma PuppetFighter style, Little Mac, whose [[ManaMeter power meter]] and focus on ground combat make him closer to a traditional fighting game character, and Robin, who's large variety of moves are actually from spellbooks that he holds as items and have limited uses. On the flipside, it eliminated all transformation characters, turning Pokemon Trainer's Charizard and both forms of Zelda and Samus into more standard fighters.

** ''Wii U/3DS'' adds Mega Man, who has projectiles for several basic attacks, Wii Fit Trainer, who has a StatusBuff move that increases her attack power, Rosalina, who fights alongside a Luma PuppetFighter style, and Little Mac, whose [[ManaMeter power meter]] and focus on ground combat make him closer to a traditional fighting game character. On the flipside, it eliminated all transformation characters, turning Pokemon Trainer's Charizard and both forms of Zelda and Samus into more standard fighters.

The result of this weird control scheme can vary. Sometimes it makes the character a [[DifficultButAwesome difficult to learn but very satisfying to master]] one, and sometimes it makes the character [[TierInducedScrappy nigh impossible to play]] instead.

A good way to determine if a character fits this trope is to ask "If the character lost his gimmick, would he still play similarly or very differently?". If the answer is the latter then it is this trope.

Different from FightingClown, which is about the character's whacky appearance rather than the actual mechanics (although the two may overlap). Different from JokeCharacter, [[LethalJokeCharacter lethal]] or not, as this character is intended to be a viable option without resorting to an obscure tactic. Also compare MechanicallyUnusualClass, the more RPG-like [[SisterTrope sister]].

** Frank West has a MagikarpPower system - his moves aren't so impressive at first, but he can rack up "EXP" by comboing the enemy with enough hits and then takes a snapshot with his camera, in order to "level up". He has 5 levels; higher level means improved moves as well as unlocking certain moves to use.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'': Just as Robo-Ky lacks a tension gauge, Hakumen replaces his heat gauge with a magatama gauge which automatically fills and can store up to 8 stocks. While other characters can perform their specials at will, each of Hakumen's specials uses a certain number of magatama stocks, but as a compensation, they do large amounts of damage and can be cancelled into each other.

* In the ''{{Manga/Bleach}}'' DS fighting games, Don Kanon'ji has a "Ratings Meter", befitting his TV personality, where certain attacks do more damage the better he is performing. Missing attacks or calling for certain attacks when he does not have the energy decrease his ratings, while doing damage gains ratings. [[PracticalTaunt Taunting]] significantly increases his ratings.

* [[VideoGame/HeavenlySword Nariko]] in ''VideoGame/PlaystationAllStarsBattleRoyale'' fights using a "key pose" system that momentarily places her in [[StanceSystem different stances]] based on how she uses her Square attacks, made for opening up unique combo-trees. What makes her odd is that the game has a number of conventions tied to the Square attacks, and this in turn influences the button-placement for other common mappings: Up Square is generally a LauncherMove (hers is Up Triangle, which is usually used for AntiAir attacks), Grounded Down Square tends to be a sweep/tripping attack (hers is a weird ground bounce) and Neutral Circle is a CounterAttack (hers is Neutral Triangle).

* Shang Tsung from ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' is capable of [[DittoFighter turning into other characters.]] In some games he can turn into any character at will, in others he can only turn into his opponent (at least, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard when used by a human player]]). In later games, he can also heal himself by taking energy from his opponent.

* Both Voldo and Dampierre's from ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soul Calibur]]'' main attacks largely involve being unable to block due to their stances, be they facing away from the enemy or being downed on the ground.

* ''VideoGame/{{Killer Instinct}} 2013'' gives us Fulgore, who does not have a [[ManaMeter Shadow Meter]]. Instead, he has a Reactor meter, which is divided in 10 parts unlike the aforementioned Shadow Meter, which is divided in 2. The Reactor meter determines how much energy Fulgore can spend on special attack cancels and shadow moves. The meter can either be charged manually with an special move, or by doing auto-doubles. It also makes Fulgore move faster. His [[SuperMode Instinct mode]] charges the meter automatically, and also allows Fulgore to spend the fully charged meter by firing a powerful beam that can take up to 40% of damage to the opponent.

* Decapre, the newcomer in ''[[StreetFighter4 Ultra Street Fighter 4]]'' is an interesting example. On the surface, she's definitely a aggressive rushdown character. Her excellent mobility and mix-up and terrific Ultras make her viable threat. However, she's also a charge character, which contrasts her playstyle as charge character in just about any fighting game typically leans toward the defensive side. The biggest draw with Decapre being a rushdown charge character is that while her tools are effective, they're not readily available, especially if you want to walk up to your opponent.

** ''Wii U/3DS'' adds Mega Man, who has projectiles for several basic attacks, Wii Fit Trainer, who has a StatusBuff move that increases her attack power, Rosalina, who fights alongside a Luma PuppetFighter style, Little Mac, whose [[ManaMeter power meter]] and focus on ground combat make him closer to a traditional fighting game character, and Pac Man, who can summon items and entities from other {{Creator/Namco}} games. On the flipside, it eliminated all transformation characters, turning Pokemon Trainer's Charizard and both forms of Zelda and Samus into more standard fighters.

** Also worth mentioning is [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Gundam Epyon]]; in a game built around ranged combat, it has absolutely '''no''' guns, instead fighting with a [[WhipItGood segmented whip]] and [[{{BFS}} giant beam sword]]. However, its melee is very fast, damaging, and can be cancelled freely, and the rest of its moveset includes a mobility move that lets it dodge enemy attacks or quickly rush into melee range, and a move that empowers its sword even further at the cost of draining its boost gauge more quickly. Even though it's generally ranked low in the CharacterTiers, in the hands of a skilled player Epyon can be an unholy menace.

* ''[[GundamVsSeries Gundam Extreme Vs.]]'' has the [[Manga/MobileSuitCrossboneGundam Crossbone Gundam Full Cloth]], which only really has two weapons (a beam crossbow and a {{BFS}}), but also has two [[HourOfPower temporary super modes]]. One grants the crossbow's projectiles homing properties, turns its spread shot into a [[DoABarrelRoll barrel-rolling]] BeamSpam attack, and grants protection from enemy beams that come at it from either the left or right. The other makes its melee attacks stronger, faster, and able to cancel into one another almost freely. A player able to carefully manage these two modes (along with their cooldown times) can rip through just about any opponent.

** In all his appearances Spinal has had the unusual property of his floating skulls, which are earned by absorption and consumed by performing special moves. He is less effective if he doesn't have any skulls to cash in.

** ''Wii U/3DS'' adds Mega Man, who has projectiles for several basic attacks, Wii Fit Trainer, who has a StatusBuff move that increases her attack power, Rosalina, who fights alongside a Luma PuppetFighter style, and Little Mac, whose [[ManaMeter power meter]] and focus on ground combat make him closer to a traditional fighting game character. On the flipside, it eliminated all transformation characters, turning Pokemon Trainer's Charizard and both forms of Zelda and Samus into more standard fighters.

** ''Ultimax'' has two versions of new character Sho Minazuki. One version does ''not'' have a Persona, unlike the rest of the cast, and instead fights more like a character from ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' in terms of normal attacks.

** ''Ultimax'' has two versions of Sho Minazuki. One version does ''not'' have a Persona.

** The [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld loli]] [[PhysicalGod goddess]] Suwako Moriya from '' Hisoutensoku''. Her standing is actually crouching, and her crouching is conjuring a lily pad underneath her, making her ''taller''. Her regular walking is slowly hopping like a [[AnimalMotif frog]] (and while hopping she counts as being in the air), and her ground dash is swimming underground, making her invincible to all attacks. Her air movement is her flapping her arms around, and is limited to several directions. Her attacks are relatively normal, though.

* ''VideoGame/{{Killer Instinct}} 2013'' gives us Fulgore, who does not have a [[ManaMeter Shadow Meter]]. Instead, he has a Reactor meter, which is divided in 10 parts unlike the aforementioned Shadow Meter, which is divided in 2. The Reactor meter determines how much energy Fulgore can spend on special attack cancels and shadow moves. The meter can either be charged manually with an special move, or by doing auto-doubles. It also makes Fulgore move faster. His [[SuperMode Instinct mode]] charges the meter automatically, and also allows Fulgore to spend the fully charged meter by firing a powerful beam that can take up to 40% of damage to the opponent.

** ''Wii U/3DS'' adds Mega Man, who has projectiles for several basic attacks, Wii Fit Trainer, who has a StatusBuff move that increases her attack power, Rosalina, who fights alongside a Luma PuppetFighter style, and Little Mac, whose [[ManaMeter power meter]] and focus on ground combat make him closer to a traditional fighting game character.

** ''Wii U/3DS'' adds Mega Man, who has projectiles for several basic attacks, Rosalina, who fights alongside a Luma PuppetFighter style, and Little Mac, whose [[ManaMeter power meter]] and focus on ground combat make him closer to a traditional fighting game character.

** Phoenix Wright plays entirely around "evidences" and StanceSystem: Investigation Mode (his weakest form) is mainly to find evidences, the Trial Mode is used to use the evidences as weapons. When he has 3 evidences ready, during this mode he can pull off an OBJECTION! which, if hits, will let him go to [[SuperMode Turnabout Mode]], with improved normal and special attacks, as well as his Lv 3 hyper that is the strongest in the game.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'': Just as Robo-Ky lacks a tension gauge, Hakumen replaces his heat gauge with a magatama gauge which automatically fills and can store up to 8 stocks. While other characters can perform their specials at will, each of Hakumen's specials uses a certain number of magatama stocks.

* In ''VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom'', Gold Lightan and PTX-50A are very massive fighters (who are about 3 times the average height of other characters) and so they fight alone, as opposed to fighting in duets. They also move slowly and have to crouch often to attack.

** ''Melee'' added the Ice Climbers, where one player would control two characters simultaneously, Zelda, who could transform into Shiek (and viceversa) mid battle (though in reality, pretty much everyone just started out as Shiek and stayed that way the whole battle, because Zelda sucks), and Pichu, many of whose attacks damaged itself.

* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'': Dr. Bosconovitch (only in the third game) spends his time prone to the ground and (at his best) crouching; he never jumps or indeed ''stand still''. It's tricky both to play and fight him.

** In the first installment: Yoshi's command for third jump was instead a projectile, but he gained armor during his extended double jump. Ness' third jump was a remote control projectile that you had to hit yourself with to get an aerial boost, and Jigglypuff had no "third jump" at all, instead a combination of her neutral special and 4 "double jumps" were used for recovery.
** ''Melee'' added the Ice Climbers, where one player would control two characters simultaneously, Zelda, who could transform into Shiek (and viceversa) mid battle, and Pichu, whose attacks damaged itself.
** ''Brawl'' made Samus unusual in that her [[LimitBreak Final Smash]] triggered a transformation into Zero Suit Samus. It also introduces Olimar, a MinionMaster whose majority of attacks are tied to his Pikmin, Lucario, who gets stronger the more damage he takes and points he falls behind, and Pokémon Trainer, who not only can rotate between three transformations, but if he stays in any for too long, they actually start to get weaker. Snake is also an oddity, in that several of his smash attacks are nigh useless for the usual purpose of smashing, and one of them isn't an attack at all, but planting a land mine.

** ''Brawl'' made Samus unusual in that her [[LimitBreak Final Smash]] triggered a transformation into Zero Suit Samus. It also introduces Olimar, a MinionMaster whose majority of attacks are tied to his Pikmin, Lucario, who gets stronger the more damage he takes and points he falls behind, and Pokémon Trainer, who not only can rotate between three transformations, but if he stays in any for too long, they actually start to get weaker.

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' - In the first installment 3 of the 12 had at least one quirk making them different form the standard character template. Yoshi's command for third jump was instead a projectile, but he gained armor during his extended double jump. Ness' third jump was a remote control projectile that you had to hit yourself with to get an aerial boost, and Jigglypuff had no 'third jump' at all, instead a combination of her neutral special and 4 'double jumps' were used for recovery.
** Melee added the Ice Climbers, where one player would control two characters simultaneously, Zelda, who could transform mid battle, and Pichu, whose attacks damaged itself.
** Brawl made Samus unusual in that her Final Smash triggered a transformation. It also introduces Olimar, where the majority of his attacks are tied to his Pikmin, Lucario, who gets stronger the more damage he takes and points he falls behind, and Pokémon Trainer, who not only can rotate between three transformations, but if you stay in any for too long, you actually start to get weaker. This makes for about 8 of 35 characters that are different from the typical mold.
** Mega Man has projectiles for his basic attacks and Rosalina fights using a Luma as a [[PuppetFighter puppet]].

** Melee added the Ice Climbers, where one player would control two characters simultaneously, Zelda who could transform mid battle, and Pichu whose attacks damaged itself.
** Brawl made Samus unusual in that her Final Smash triggered a transformation. Olimar, where the majority of his attacks are tied to his Pikmin, Lucario who get's stronger the more damage he takes and points he falls behind, and Pokemon Trainer who not only can rotate between three transformations, but if you stay in any for too long you actual start to get weaker. This makes for about 8 of 35 characters that are different from the typical mold.

** From pre release material both Franchise/MegaMan and Rosalina are shaping up to be unusual fighters in Smash 4. Mega Man has projectiles for his basic attacks and Rosalina fights using a Luma as a [[PuppetFighter puppet]].

** From pre release material both Franchise/MegaMan and Rosalina are shaping up to be unusual fighters in Smash 4. Mega Man has projectiles for his basic attacks and Rosalina fights using a Luma as a puppet.