Guest characters have been appearing in fighting games since the mid to late nineties and can serve as a great way to draw in new fans to a franchise. Sometimes, however, introducing a new combatant with a pre-determined fighting style can seriously upset the delicate balance that’s typically found in fighting games.
Whether due to their size and speed or the ridiculous amount of firepower that they have at their disposal, numerous guest characters have crushed the party rather than simply crashing it. These days, the ability to nerf broken fighters through patches can mitigate the problem somewhat, but they can still cause plenty of issues in the short term.
8 Gon (Tekken)
Many people consider this tiny dino to be an original Tekken character, but Gon actually started life as a Japanese manga protagonist. The Gon series was in print for almost 12 years and even received its own short-lived animated show in 2012. His sole appearance in the Tekken franchise came some 15 years prior in the series’ breakthrough third entry.
Much like Yoda, one of the other broken guest characters to appear in Tekken, the problem with Gon is not so much that he’s overpowered, but instead that his small stature can at times make hitting him incredibly difficult. It’s so bad, in fact, that he somehow manages to make Yoshimitsu’s erratic movements seem calming; which really is saying something.
7 Geralt (SoulCalibur)
The SoulCalibur Series has had its fair share of guest characters over the years, but few have been anywhere near as broken as Geralt, the main protagonist of The Witcher series. He features in SoulCalibur 6 alongside YoRHa 2B from Nier: Automata and Haohmaru from SNK’s Samurai Showdown series. Sadly though, he’s nowhere near as well-balanced.
Although he does have his weaknesses, Geralt packs some incredibly powerful combos that can make him a fearsome opponent. He can be beaten with enough practice, but players will first have to get used to watching the drawn out animation for his soul charge and him spamming a near endless stream of signs.
6 Jason (Mortal Kombat)
The last few Mortal Kombat games have crammed in quite a lot of guest characters, with many of them coming from horror movie franchises. Leatherface, Predator and the Xenomorph all feature in the series’ tenth entry, as too does Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th movies.
While Jason is a little slow and can be easily punished by experienced players, he has access to a series of devastating combos which can quickly shred his opponent’s health bar in a matter of seconds. He’s a lot more balanced these days thanks to a series of nerfs, but, upon his release, at least, he was a seriously broken kombatant.
5 Sephiroth (Super Smash Bros.)
When Masahiro Sakurai announced that Sephiroth would be joining the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster in late 2020, players were excited to see how the one-winged angel would turn out. They got their answer just a few days later, but it was one that many players really did not like.
A lot of of the DLC fighters in Smash are unbalanced, and Sephiroth is no exception. He’s insanely powerful, is incredibly speedy and has access to an amazing counter as well. The most OP thing about him though is definitely his range, which, thanks to his Masamune, is considerably greater than most of the game’s other fighters.
4 Akuma (Tekken)
Akuma first cropped up in Super Street Fighter II Turbo and has since gone on to become a series regular. He has also made a number of guest and crossover appearances, most notably, perhaps, in the Tekken series. As one might expect, he’s playable in Street Fighter X Tekken but also serves as a guest character in Tekken 7.
With his ability to shoot fireballs and his powerful super combos, he quickly became one of the most frustrating fighters to come up against. Subsequent patches have helped to balance things out quite a bit, although many players still consider him to be a cheap fighter due to his ability to spam fireballs and his solid low sweep.
3 Kratos (Soulcalibur)
Kratos is one of several characters to have appeared as a guest fighter in multiple fighting game franchises. His most recent appearances came in the PlayStation versions of Mortal Kombat (2011), but it’s his debut outing that proved to be the most unbalanced.
Kratos featured as a guest fighter in the PSP exclusive title Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny; a fitting name, really, considering how Kratos plays. Despite being based on his earlier design, Kratos is far from the roster’s fastest fighter. He more than makes up for this though with his immense power and ridiculous range. Even against AI, defeating him is far from easy, but in the hands of an experienced player he can be almost unplayable.
2 Spawn (Mortal Kombat)
Spawn is another character to have appeared as a guest fighter in more than one series, having done so now on two separate occasions. Like Kratos, he served as a console-exclusive fighter in one of the earlier SoulCalibur games before making his way over to Mortal Kombat as part of the first Kombat pack for MK11.
He’s not the fastest fighter in the game, but he does have access to some ridiculous moves that can quickly turn the tide in a fight. The most notable of these are his War Club combos, which not only have the ability to dish out some serious damage, but can also beat breakaways. Patches have made him a far more balanced fighter, but he still remains incredibly strong.
1 Cloud (Super Smash Bros.)
Given the costs associated with the DLC fighters in Smash and the ease with which they can be nerfed later on, it’s perhaps not too surprising that they’re given a bit of an edge over regular fighters upon their release. Sephiroth is a recent example of this, but when compared to some of the guest characters in Smash 4, he’s made to look incredibly average. Two stood out in particular.
Both Cloud and Bayonetta were ridiculously overpowered upon their initial releases, but while the latter was eventually nerfed, Cloud remained broken for the remainder of the game’s lifetime. Smash Ultimate did rectify this somewhat, although he still remains a solid pick even now thanks to his great mobility.
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