Summary
- Guest characters are now a staple in fighting games, with characters like Darth Vader and Yoda appearing in Soulcalibur IV.
- Strange guest characters can disrupt gameplay, like Yoda's height creating issues in Soulcalibur IV and Gon being too short in Tekken 3.
- Some guest characters, such as Norimaro in Marvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter, can be out of place but add a unique twist to the game.
In the past, fighting games rarely had guest characters from their company’s other franchises, let alone from other companies. It’s why SNK’s King of Fighters and Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros drove fans wild by pitting their best and brightest up against each other. It wasn't every day that Mario could trade blows with Kirby, or that people could see the Psycho Soldiers and Ikari Warriors go toe-to-toe.
Nowadays, guest characters have become nearly as imperative to a roster as life bars and super meters. Practically every fighting game release, big or small, has a guest in it. But some guest characters stuck out like sore thumbs, as these uncanny fighters proved to be a step too far for some.
10 Best Guest Characters In Fighting Games, Ranked
The addition of guest characters in an established fighting game is a boon and a delight for avid players of the genre, and here are some of the best.
10 Darth Vader, Yoda, & The Apprentice (Soulcaliber 4)
Sci-Fi Icons Transcend History
Soulcalibur IV
- Released
- July 29, 2008
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Project Soul
Link was considered a great guest character in SoulCalibur 2, as his sword-swinging medieval style fit the historical setting. So, Bandai-Namco decided to pivot in the opposite direction for SoulCalibur 4 by throwing in a bundle of Star Wars characters: Darth Vader, Yoda, and the Apprentice from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Their sci-fi appearance and weaponry stuck out next to the axes and katanas of the rest of the cast.
Vader and the Apprentice played fair enough, using many of their trademark moves from the games and movies. However, Yoda was a particular pest for players. He was too short for most of the roster to hit properly, while he had no problem hacking at their knees with his lightsaber. The funniest part was that the game was considered canon to Star Wars at the time, though this has since been retconned thanks to Disney's acquisition.
9 Earthworm Jim (Battle Arena Toshinden)
The Grooviest Earthworm in Gaming Makes His Fighting Debut
Battle Arena Toshinden
- Released
- September 1, 1995
- ESRB
- e
- Developer(s)
- Tamsoft, Digital Dialect
- Genre(s)
- Fighting
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Game Boy, PC, PS1
Before SoulCalibur and its progenitor, Soul Blade, there was Battle Arena Toshinden. It did well as an early 3D fighting game, and had full 3D movement via sidesteps before Virtua Fighter and Tekken. But it never improved enough to meet VF and Tekken’s quality. Still, if players got the game on PC, they would’ve gotten an extra playable character: Earthworm Jim.
Playmates, the company that owned the annelid at the time, helped port Toshinden to MS-DOS. The only downside is that he had the same move set as Rungo Iron, one of the regular roster characters. As a result, Jim feels rather pedestrian compared to his appearance in Clayfighter 63 ⅓, where everyone on the roster is a caricature.
8 Rash (Killer Instinct)
Getting Warty with the Competition
Killer Instinct (2013)
- Released
- November 22, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Double Helix Games, Iron Galaxy
- Genre(s)
- Fighting
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
Double Helix and Iron Galaxy’s revival of Rare’s Mortal Kombat clone eventually found its groove, capturing the combo-heavy gameplay of the original games with more solid fundamentals. It had a few guest characters that fit well among its roster of misfits and monsters, like Gears of War’s General Raam, and an Arbiter from Halo.
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But then it included Rash, one of the Battletoads, whose ram-horned headbutts, wrecking ball swings, and 90s attitude made him feel like he took a wrong turn on his way to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up auditions. For some, that's the big appeal of the Battletoad. Others might have wanted to see Joanna Dark trade strikes with Orchid instead.
7 Cristiano Ronaldo & Salvatore Ganacci (Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves)
SNK Scores a Hat Trick or Drops the Bass
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
- Released
- April 24, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- SNK
- Franchise
- Fatal Fury
- Genre(s)
- Fighting
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
As of this writing, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves isn’t out yet, so people don’t know how Cristiano Ronaldo or Salvatore Ganacci will play. But they’ve already upset longtime SNK and Fatal Fury fans, as it felt like the company was capitulating to their higher-ups' desire for real-life celebrity endorsements. At least Ronaldo's teaser trailer let players know months in advance that the soccer star would have something to do with the game.
Still, SNK's fighting games do tend to be pretty niche, so there may be a method to the madness of including one of the world's most (in)famous soccer players and a popular EDM star in their game. Whether it'll work out for the company has yet to be seen.
6 Toro, Kuro, & Bad Box Art Mega Man (Street Fighter X Tekken)
Console-Exclusive Characters Turn Players into the Punchline
Street Fighter X Tekken
- Released
- March 6, 2012
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Franchise
- Street Fighter, Tekken
- Genre(s)
- Fighting
Street Fighter X Tekken’s guest characters left a sour taste in players’ mouths. For one, they were all PS3 exclusives, which is understandable for Sony-exclusive characters like InFamous’ Cole McGrath, and mascots Toro and Kuro. But it also applied to Pac-Man and Bad Box Art Mega Man, who weren't. Cole and Pac-Man were familiar enough, but the others were more perplexing.
Toro and Kuro had the same moves as Ryu and Kazuya, only they were too small to hit their opponents, or for their opponents to hit them. Bad Box Art Mega Man came out in the wake of Mega Man Legends 3 and Mega Man Universe’s cancelations, and Mega Man producer Keiji Inafune's departure from the company. This bad timing made the character feel less like a funny joke, and more like salt in Mega-fan's open wound.
5 Norimaro (Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter)
How One Nerd Can Defeat the Avengers
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
- Released
- August 27, 1997
- ESRB
- t
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Franchise
- Marvel vs Capcom
- Genre(s)
- Fighting
- Platform(s)
- Arcade, PS1, Sega Saturn
Another thing that feels off about Ronaldo and Ganacci in FF: COTW is that they felt too normal, like they should have been exaggerated to fit in with the scantily clad ninjas and fireball-throwers. In other words, they might have preferred something like Norimaro in Marvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter.
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The character was a nerd parody performed by Noritake Kinashi for a variety of shows. Marvel didn’t like the idea of this sketch comedy geek beating up their top superheroes, and wanted him out of the game. But after much pleading from Capcom, he was allowed in the Japanese versions of MSH vs SF. People can find a partially localized version of the character if they hack the game, though it's easier to just play the Japanese ROM.
4 Gon (Tekken 3)
The Orange Dinosaur Might Be Why Tekken 3 is Locked to the PS1
Tekken 3
- Released
- March 20, 1997
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Namco
- Franchise
- Tekken
- Genre(s)
- Fighting
- Platform(s)
- Arcade, PlayStation (Original)
Tekken is no stranger to strange guest characters. But in terms of weirdness, the series peaked when they included Masashi Tanaka's Gon in Tekken 3. His seinen comedy strip is underrated, but he's arguably more famous worldwide for his fire, farts, and fists in this game.
He was the first character to be too short to hit, predating Yoda, Toro, and Kuro's height-related issues by decades. He's also likely the reason T3 hasn't been properly re-released since its debut too, as Bandai-Namco doesn't own the video game rights to the character anymore. It's something for companies to keep in mind once their hot releases today become tomorrow's retro classics.
3 Pepsiman (Fighting Vipers)
Superliminal Advertising in Action
Fighting Vipers
- Released
- January 1, 1995
- Platform(s)
- Sega Saturn, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Virtua Fighter was bigger in the East than in the West. So, to court those Western interests, Sega made Fighting Vipers. It was more bombastic, with breakable walls, fanciful moves, and more American settings. Even so, it had a Japan-exclusive guest character in Pepsiman, the carbonated crime fighter from the soft drink’s Japanese TV commercials. The crime? Not drinking Pepsi.
With his swift running speed, nifty strikes, and weird hand waving, he could beat his opponents as swiftly as he could quench thirst. It’s not unusual for a product mascot to go beyond their territories. But without Pepsi, this silver superhero would just be a regular guy, so he never made it to the US or PAL versions of the game.
2 Hornet, Mr. Meat, & the AM2 Palm Tree (Fighters Megamix)
From Sega All-Stars to Sega's All-Sorts
Fighters Megamix
- Released
- December 21, 1996
- Platform(s)
- Sega Saturn
In the early days of the internet, when people heard Pepsiman was in a fighting game, they thought he was in Fighters Megamix. The latter was half-full of Fighting Vipers characters anyway, and it had a ton of odd guest characters.
If anything, it’s hard to narrow down the strangest one. There's the Hornet, the Daytona USA car that fights by rearing up on its back wheels, and Mr. Meat, an anthropomorphic hunk of ham based on a pickup from Golden Axe. Then there's the Palm Tree from the Sega AM-2 logo. Yet, there’s something endearing about them, as fighting games are unlikely to include characters this wacky again.
1 Barack Obama (Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation)
The Audacity of Mixups
- Developer: Capcom
- Platform: PC
- Release: 2008
Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation was a mouse-based fighter for PCs that pitted five SF characters against the cast of Cyborg 009, Batsu and Akira from Rival Schools, heroes from Jing Yong's wuxia novels, and Barack Obama.
Made as part of the game’s Valentine’s Day DLC, the then-recently elected President of the USA was basically a model swap for Ryu. He had all the shoto’s moves, including his Hadouken, only he always had a speech bubble next to him saying “Yes We Can” on it. It wasn’t a great game to play, and has since become lost media as it wasn't preserved. However, it’s since gained infamy thanks to this curious character inclusion.
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