MrMixtape recently released a new video that describes the act of giving a combatant low vitality as being the worst way of balancing a fighting game character’s strengths. This is mostly directed at the “glass cannon” archetype that we commonly see in fighters.
As one might expect, Akuma is one of the most prominent examples covered in the video. When he first made his debut appearance in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, he was outright banned from tournaments.
Overall, Akuma is capable of dealing more damage, moving faster, and has access to more moves than almost every other character. To keep Akuma in check, he tends to have less stamina.
While he generally has access to the strongest tools, his low durability means that he’s afforded the least number of mistakes. This has held true even in Street Fighter 6 where most characters have had their health totals streamlined to 10,000. Though Akuma does feel quite strong in Street Fighter 6, he’s not quite as oppressive as he has typically been in the past.
However, the most egregious example that we’ve probably ever seen of a glass cannon character upsetting the balance of a fighting game would have to be Marvel vs. Capcom 3’s Phoenix (Jean Grey). She effectively has half the health of the fighters with the second lowest health totals, Akuma, Rocket Raccoon, and Strider.
Phoenix’s entire gameplay is to gain access to five bars of hyper meter. Once she is defeated, she’ll automatically spend those five bars to transform into Dark Phoenix with a refreshed health bar. She then becomes even more fragile as her life total continuously gets converted into white life.
Despite these shortcomings, Dark Phoenix is capable of decimating an entire team by herself. When she’s in the game, a single mistake from either player will dramatically impact the result of the match. Since all of her attacks spawn projectiles, she’s become one of the most oppressive fighting game characters ever created.
Check it all out in the video below:
Source: Event Hubs
