Game Breakers

Ivan Ooze is an alien sorcerer who serves as the final boss in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition. I’m not well-versed in Power Rangers lore, but the game makes him seem like a real jerk. He floats continuously and never touches the ground, and this makes him immune to low attacks. His special moves are also absurd, and his projectiles can home in on their targets while Ivan hangs out in corners of the screen that other characters can’t reach. His aptly-named “Unblockable Attack” is even more unfair than it sounds, since it can be used to escape hit stun. This means that if you (somehow) manage to land a blow, he can instantly recover by performing the devastating move. The only reason why Mr. Ooze isn’t ranked higher on this list is because he’s a secret character that needs to be unlocked with a code.

T.T. (also known as Tick-Tock) isn’t as fondly remembered as some of the other characters on this list, but he’s a complete menace nonetheless. The anthropomorphic stopwatch is introduced as the Time Trial organizer in Diddy Kong Racing, and he can typically be found wandering around lobbies. If you beat his posted times in every track, he’ll join the roster. He’s the only racer who has max acceleration and top speed, so it’s virtually impossible to keep pace with him. Whether you’re racing cars, hovercrafts, or planes, T.T. is the obvious choice. Diddy Kong Racing introduced us to Banjo and Conker, but you’ll spend most of your time playing as a stupid clock with no personality. Diddy’s name might be on the marquee, but T.T. is the ultimate racer. Poor Wizpig never stood a chance!

Meta Knight was introduced in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and became the first fighter in the series to be banned from tournament play. The masked warrior has fast attacks and high priority moves that would make him a viable fighter in any situation. He can also control the air, and his edge-guarding gives him a significant advantage. To make matters worse, he’s hard to KO since his recovery is so effective. His Shuttle Loop gives him the advantage in nearly every close-range trade, and experienced players can exploit his Dimensional Cape technique to become invulnerable for extended periods. The developers intended Meta Knight to be fast and aggressive, but they didn’t realize that the game’s physics engine would effectively amplify his strengths to an absurd degree. In the interest of fairness, he was re-balanced in subsequent Smash titles.

This list wouldn’t be complete without the pint-sized terror from GoldenEye 007‘s multiplayer mayhem. Oddjob is so short that the auto-aim feature targets the area above his head. You’ll be forced to rely on manual aiming while he karate-chops your dreams away. The developers were aware that Oddjob was broken, and programmer Mark Edmonds has plainly declared, “It’s definitely cheating to play as Oddjob!” This issue could have been fixed before release, but sometimes it’s easier to let players make their own rules. “No Oddjob” rules were seemingly universal, and the short king was banned at every sleepover. The 2009 Wii remake leaned in hard, offering an Oddjob shirt as a pre-order bonus that said “CHEATER” in bold letters. The actor who played Oddjob was not especially short, but the folks at Rare did him dirty.

Akuma was introduced in Super Street Fighter II Turbo as a hidden character and a secret boss. It was immediately apparent that he was overpowered. His damage output was off the charts, his teleport allowed him to escape from precarious situations, and some characters had no way to defend against his air fireballs. The game simply wasn’t designed with his moveset in mind. The developers re-balanced him for the 2008 HD Remix, with the hopes of evening the playing field somewhat. They lowered his stamina and dialed back his damage output, but he was still head and shoulders above the rest of the roster even after he was nerfed. It’s easy to see why the first iteration of Akuma had to be banned from tournament play. He outright disrupted the competitive balance of the game.

Pet Shop is a guardian falcon who appeared in the PlayStation port of the first JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure arcade game. When they were adding him to the sequel, the designers felt that he was underpowered. He had the lowest health in the game, he couldn’t block mid-air, and some of his attacks caused no chip damage. Their effort to re-balance the character in Heritage for the Future could be described as an over-correction, as Pet Shop is banned in tournament play. He has a tiny hitbox, his damage output is ridiculous, and he’s basically immune to low attacks since he never has to touch the ground. Oh yeah, he can also create unblockable icicle attacks that can lead to high-damage combos or even instant knockouts! The little guy is overpowered, unpredictable, and downright unfair.

As with most Castlevania games, defeating Dracula was the primary objective in Rondo of Blood. If he was willing to go out of his way, Richter could also rescue a number of maidens that had been kidnapped by Dracula’s servants. Maria Renard is an orphaned 12-year-old that insists on joining Richter, and she can be selected as a playable character after she’s rescued. As unlikely as it seems, she’s way more competent than her vampire-hunting savior. She’s more agile, she deals twice as much damage with each attack, and she has a nifty double-jump at her disposal. Maria attacks with flying doves in lieu of a whip, and they make it much easier to land a hit. Even though Maria takes more damage than Richter, selecting her is akin to playing the game on easy mode. You can basically just pin the attack button and stroll through the levels.

Nabbit is a sack-toting thief who made his debut in New Super Mario Bros. U as a chasable foe. When New Super Luigi U launched as a tougher spin on the base game, Nabbit was promoted to playable character. The purple rabbit couldn’t use power-ups, and Yoshi rides were off-limits. He was immune to all enemy attacks, however, so you could play the game at a more relaxed pace. The Switch port of NSBU allowed Nabbit to be played everywhere, and the challenge was dialed back even further since 100 extra seconds would be added to the timer if he was selected. Although he has the potential to break the game, Nabbit’s inclusion makes perfect sense. The co-op mode was one of the game’s biggest selling points, after all, and Nabbit is the ideal character for children, girlfriends, and all manner of inexperienced gamers.

Tecmo Bowl was the first console game to feature real NFL players, but they certainly weren’t treated as equals. The developers dialed up Bo Jackons’ speed and strength to absurd maxes, and turned him into a pixelated freight train who bulldozed defenders like nothing. You could hand him the ball and watch him shrug off tackles en route to a 99-yard touchdown. It was so effortless that you could loop the gridiron for an entire quarter before scoring. “No Los Angeles” house rules became standard practice, banning Bo outright to prevent instant rage-quits. Family Guy immortalized it decades later, and a new generation caught a glimpse of how ridiculous Bo really was. The real-life Bo Jackson was a two-sport freak, but his Tecmo version was downright unstoppable. He’s arguably the most unfair character ever coded.

When Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was ported to the Switch in 2018, Funky Kong was added as a playable character. He came with three extra hearts, a double-jump, and the ability to hover mid-air on his spinning surfboard. He could also stand on spikes and breathe underwater without having to hunt for air bubbles. Funky all-but trivialized the precision jumps, lengthy boss battles, and spike gauntlets that defined the critically-acclaimed platformer. The Internet had a lot of fun with it, however, and the game’s “New Funky Mode” banner exploded into memes. Fans Photoshopped it onto games where it didn’t belong, like Dark Souls and DOOM. One Twitter user added the banner to a visual novel called Starless: 21st Century Nymphomaniacs. I can only imagine what the Funky Mode would have entailed in that outing.