Balancing video games is a really tough ordeal, especially when players can customize elements of their characters. Developers should always strive to make their products as balanced and fair as possible. However, sometimes, there are incredibly overpowered video game characters that just break the game. Let’s take a look at them.
Table of Contents
Funky Kong with Flame Runner – Mario Kart Wii
Funky Kong had the highest speed stat in the game. Coupled with the Flame Runner vehicle, Funky Kong would have amazing stats in Speed, Weight, and Drift. This made for one of the best, if not the best combinations in the game.
Meta Knight – Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Meta Knight’s name might be fitting for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, being that the meta of the game revolves around him. With Meta Knight being the only character in the SS tier, characters are viable based on how well they perform against Meta Knight.
Meta Knight is has insanely fast attacks with little lag and he possess multiple jumps and 4 recovery specials, making his recovery unpredictable. This , alongside incredibly strong aerial game, makes it too risky to chase him offstage.
Meta Knight is so powerful that some tournaments straight up ban him.
Twisted Fate – League of Legends
Way back in the early days of League of Legends, Twisted Fate had a pretty similar kit today, but with some slight changes that made him incredibly broken. First off, his ultimate, still called Destiny, did reveal enemy champions, but it also slowed them for 4 seconds.
The only downsides are that it would reveal Twisted Fate to the enemies, and compared to today’s Destiny, Twisted Fate could not use Gate to teleport.
Speaking of Gate, Twisted Fate did indeed have that ability, but it was a basic ability on an 18 second cooldown. And it was global. This meant that Twisted Fate could be anywhere on the map every 18 seconds.
This allowed for split pushing, quick escapes, and responding to team fights. Needless to say, Twisted Fate had total control of the map during his period of the game’s lengthy lifespan, making him notable among overpowered video game characters.
Mega Rayquaza – Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
Mega Rayquaza was so powerful in Generation 6 that it created an entirely new tier for competitive Pokemon: Anything Goes. This is a tier that is essentially an unbalanced metagame. Why was Mega Rayquaza so powerful?
Unlike other Mega Evolutions, Rayquaza doesn’t need to hold a Mega Stone in order to Mega Evolve. This is significant, as a Pokemon losing other useful items to hold helps to balance out the strong stats of Mega Evolution.
The only requirement for Rayquaza to Mega Evolve is to know the move, Dragon Ascent, which is a powerful move anyways that you would run in a competitive match. A single Dragon Dance allows Mega Rayquaza to hit like a truck.
Additionally, Mega Rayquaza’a ability, Delta Stream, prevents any weather changes (aside from Primal Groudon or Primal Kyogre’s abilities). Delta Stream creates strong winds that remove the weaknesses of Flying type Pokemon. Being a Dragon/Flying type, Mega Rayquaza essentially only has the weaknesses of Dragon types, but with the resistances of both Dragon and Flying types.
Brigitte – Overwatch
Brigitte was one of the most overpowered video game characters in Overwatch history. With a powerful passive healing, a Shield Bash on a 5 second cooldown that could stun other heroes through shields and take priority over Reinhardt’s Charge and Doomfist’s Rocket Punch, Brigitte was a powerhouse that could take on any champion in the game.
Her Repair Pack also had a substantial healing with 150 healing over 2s and would convert any overhealing into temporary armour to a maximum of 75 armour.
Her ultimate, Rally, had a lower charge cost, higher maximum armour, and didn’t decay. The bonus armour was underneath natural shields as well, meaning that the enemy would have to remove a hero’s shield before removing the armour.
There was also a bug on release that went unnoticed for a year that made her armour reduce extra damage unintentionally. Brigitte was essentially a raid boss when she ulted, and her inclusion in the game changed the game significantly, as she contributed to the rise of the GOATS meta.
Even after multiple nerfs, she could not be balanced by Blizzard, and so they ended up forcing a 2-2-2 team composition.
