Summary
- Street Fighter 3's Twelve may look neat, but his weak attacks make him an easy target for punishment by stronger characters.
- Characters like Fox McCloud, Heihachi Mishima, and Geese Howard consistently dominate in multiple fighting games, reaching the top tiers.
- Iconic characters like Iori Yagami, Smoke, and Magneto have proven themselves to be strong contenders with their abilities across various games.
Fighting games feature a wide variety of characters, from dainty schoolgirls to hulking monsters. However, their designs can’t help them if they play poorly. Street Fighter 3: Third Strike’s Twelve is a neat display of animation, but his attacks do piddly amounts of damage and practically invite the rest of the roster to punish him.
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While he doesn’t have any luck in his game, other characters seem to have all the luck in the world. Maybe they have one or two games where they were mid-tier or worse, but 9/10 they’re a force to be reckoned with no matter what game they’re in. Whether they’re A-rank, S-rank, or somehow higher, these fighting characters always end up in the top tiers.
1 Fox McCloud
Soaring Up The Ladder
- Highest Tier: S (Super Smash Bros Melee)
- Lowest Tier: C (Super Smash Bros Brawl)
There’s a reason the Melee tournament rules “Fox Only, No Items, Final Destination” became a meme. Fox McCloud was already good in Smash 64 at A tier, but Melee upped his speed, gave him high-damaging combos, had specials that aided his recovery and could reflect projectiles, and many other advantages that made up for his short reach.
He got toned down in the sequels, severely so in Brawl as he became the weakest of the Starfox cast after Wolf and Falco at C tier, where his attacks were minus on-shield and he suffered bad knockback. But he got his mojo back for Smash 4, reaching A Tier again, then up to S- in Ultimate, where the reduced lag and increased speed suited him very well.
2 Heihachi Mishima
As Immortal In Battle As He Is In Lore
- Highest Tier: S (Tekken 1, Tekken Tag Tournament 1-2, Tekken 5, T5: Dark Resurrection)
- Lowest Tier: C (Tekken 7)
Yes, he’s back. After surviving being dropped off a cliff, thrown through a building, blown up, and having a heart attack-GBH-lava dip combo, Heihachi Mishima will be making his return to Tekken 8. Between him, M. Bison, and King of Fighters 15’s Orochi team, villains coming back from the dead seem to be becoming a habit. At this rate, Geese Howard will due back in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
In an interview with Edge magazine, series director Katsuhiro Harada said they never set out to make Heihachi intentionally OP. Yet he was the strongest character in Tekken 1, then he stayed high-to-top tier for T2-Tag 1 and T5-TTT2. The only games that saw him come low were T4 and T7, where he was mid. Whether he’ll be mid again in T8 won’t be known until he's been tested out.
3 Geese Howard
Capable Of The Foulest Beatings
- Highest Tier: S (SVC: SNK Vs Capcom Chaos, Tekken 7, Capcom vs SNK 2, KOF '98: UM, KOF 2002: UM)
- Lowest Tier: B (Fatal Fury Special, KOF 14-15)
Speaking of the bird man, Geese Howard became so notorious that he managed to conquer Tekken 7 as a guest character. He’s the best character in the recently re-released SVC: SNK Vs Capcom Chaos with his overpowering projectiles, midair control, counters, combos, and infinite combos that he doesn’t even need. Other games have toned him down, but like Iori, he’s never been lower than mid.
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He could close the distance with his spinning kick, keep them away with his Reppuken barrages, and then counter errant strikes with his reversals. Some games let him pick opponents up off the ground for another throw, while his Raising Storm can either be used defensively or as the ultimate anti-air punisher. Even when he’s a regular character, he’s always the boss.
4 Iori Yagami
Moody And Magnificent
- Highest Tier: S (KOF '95, '97-'98, 2002, 13 as EX Iori, 14-15)
- Lowest Tier: B (KOF '99, 2003, SVC: SNK Vs Capcom Chaos)
It would be quicker to list the games where Iori Yagami wasn’t a contender, given he’s appeared in a ton of fighting games since KOF ’95. Even then, his lowest tier tends to be B, where he’s still a solid player. Even his latest appearance in KOF 15 has him as one of the game’s strongest characters.
Aside from being one of the KOF series’ most striking designs, he’s one of the easier characters to get to grips with as an all-rounder shoto. His moves favor going on offense, but his toolkit has generally been versatile enough to allow up-close attacks, mixups, crossups, and keep foes away at mid-range. If he isn’t the best in the game, he’s always one of the best.
5 Smoke
Where There's Smoke, There's Fire
- Highest Tier: S (Mortal Kombat 3, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Mortal Kombat: Deception, Mortal Kombat 2011, Mortal Kombat 1)
- Lowest Tier: B (Mortal Kombat: Armageddon)
Fans often wonder who the best ninja in the MK series is, whether it’s Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Reptile, etc. Taken on tiers alone, there’s a good case to be made for Smoke. Granted, he’s got double the batting average as he has his human form and robot form. But while his robot mode was high in MK3 and Deception via his tag team with Noob Saibot, he was better as a human.
In UMK3 and MKT, he was basically a faster, gray version of Scorpion, able to get in his foe’s face with a flurry of strikes, trapping them in the corner, then vanish via a teleport punch and play keep-away if the heat was on him. His later human appearances were toned down by comparison, but be it MK9 or MK1, his rushdown game still dominated online play.
6 Magneto
Magnetically Drawn To The Top
- Highest Tier: S (X-Men Vs Street Fighter, MvC2, MvC3, UMvC3)
- Lowest Tier: B (Marvel Super Heroes)
Former Capcom community manager Seth Killian fought hard through Disney’s early 2010s X-Men ban to get Sentinel, Storm, and Magneto into Marvel Vs Capcom 3 just because of their notoriety in Marvel Vs Capcom 2. The game’s rebalancing brought the weather goddess and purple robot down a peg, but the Master of Magnetism remained triumphant.
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Even without his anti-assist snapback juggles, his moves were still swift enough to mix his foes up easily. If he wasn’t going after his foes with his swift mix-up attacks, he was bringing them to him with his Hyper-Grav, projectiles that pulled opponents toward him for combos or super combos like his Magnetic Tempest or Gravity Squeeze. It’s a wonder the X-Men could contend with him.
7 Devil Jin
The True Power Of The Dark Side
- Highest Tier: S (Tekken 3-Tekken Tag Tournament 1 as Jin, Tekken 5, T5: Dark Resurrection, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken 7)
- Lowest Tier: A (Tekken 6, Tekken 8)
Still, Heihachi is only "mostly" top tier. He’s got two blips, but they’re two too many compared to his grandson Jin. In T3, he mixed the moves of both his parents, Kazuya and Jun, and did his own take on them that made him the strongest non-boss character in the game, to just being the strongest of the bunch overall in Tag 1. Once he discarded it for regular karate, he went from being a menace (T4) to mid (T5).
But when he gave in to the dark side, Devil Jin went back to the style and threw in extra flight, laser, and quick dashes that made him a force to be reckoned with. In every game since his playable debut, Devil Jin has either been A Tier or right at the top, because he can crush his foes at any distance, provided players can get to grips with his tricks, as he isn't easy to learn.
8 Kabal
Striking Fear In His Opponents' Hearts
- Highest Tier: S (Mortal Kombat 3, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Mortal Kombat 2011, Mortal Kombat 11)
- Lowest Tier: A (Mortal Kombat: Deception, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon)
No fighting game is truly 100% balanced, and balance alone doesn’t guarantee fun or an enjoyable time. Otherwise, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 would be a miserable experience. Instead, as busted as it is, it’s a fast, frenetic game many players enjoy because of its crazy combo chains. Particularly with Kabal, the masked gangster who can stun his foes with one fast dash.
Midway tried to tone him down in UMK3, after his speed traps and jump kick-projectile combos made him a monster in MK3. Instead, he ended up being the best character in the game. Neither they nor Netherrealm Studios have succeeded in toning him down since, as thus far, he’s never been lower than A Tier, with MK9 making him just as busted up as in the old days.
9 Diddy Kong
The Prime Primate
- Highest Tier: S (Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS)
- Lowest Tier: A+ (Super Smash Bros Brawl)
Most of the characters here have appeared in multiple games, but where is the line drawn? It has to be more than one or two at least, or it'll sound cheap. But three games is a decent streak for a character as, if they manage to avoid significant nerfs in that time, it shows they've got something special. So, three games are the minimum, which surprisingly means Donkey Kong's little buddy Diddy Kong qualifies.
His debut in Brawl saw him placed at the tail end of the A+ tier thanks to his agility, combo potential, and his slippy banana peel attacks. Then he only got better in Smash 4, where his improved reach and strength made him the best non-DLC character. Players had to pay for the likes of Cloud and Bayonetta. In Ultimate, his exploitable weaknesses placed him in S-, and still in the game’s top ten best characters.
10 Zero
Truly A Mega Man
- Highest Tier: S+ (SVC: SNK vs Capcom Chaos, Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Marvel Vs Capcom: Infinite)
- Lowest Tier: N/A
Zero is the archetypical example of a character that’s always top-tier in every fighting game they’ve appeared in. He’s got great range with his normal attacks thanks to his sword, and plenty of multi-hit attacks, including his midair "Pizza Cutter" spinning attack. Plus, he has plenty of supers to make them hurt more, like his Sougenmu install and Rekkouha.
What’s less known is that he was deadly since the beginning in SVC, which used his Megaman Zero design instead of his Megaman X one. He has faster, long-range attacks, can avoid projectiles with his slides, and can perform infinite combos with his "Pizza Cutter" move. That’s without mentioning his Exceed buff and Cyber Elf traps. No matter the game, Zero's a hero.