Super Combosare fun. Ever sinceArt of FightingandSuper Street Fighter 2 Turbo, they’ve provided players with a handy risk & reward system. If they hit, they give players a flashy way to rack up the damage on their opponent. But if they whiff, they’ll leave themselves open to a pummeling.
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However, they’re not all equal. Some super moves are terrible for one reason or another. Maybe they require too much setup to use, do pitiful amounts of damage, or are just fundamentally broken. No joke supers like Dan’s Super Taunt either. These are theworst super combos in fighting gamesthat developers thought would be useful.
10Death Bed
Traditionally, super combos had slightly trickier commands than the standard fireballs, spin kicks and the like. TheInjusticegames eased up on this by making their supers available witha single button pressa laSuper Smash Bros. Except for some characters, they weren’t worth the meter they cost.
Scarecrow’s Death Bed inInjustice 2has the fear-obsessed maniac rip open reality and pull the opponent into his realm of despair for some nasty damage. Shame it was so slow that players couldn’t really combo into it, and opponents could easily jump out of its range. Dr. Crane’s meter was better off being spent on Meter Burn moves.
9Konga Beat
Speaking ofSuper Smash Bros. after initially planning them for the game’s debut outing, Nintendo managed to make Final Smashes a reality inSuper Smash Bros Brawl. Still, for every flashy, effective, or even overpowered example, there were some that were too situational. For example, Jigglypuff slowly turning into a kaiju wasn’t too effective on giant stages. But at least it had some places where it was good.
Donkey Kong’s Konga Beat had players hit buttons to make the Banana Slammer’s bongo beats deadly. The problem is that he had to be in point-blank range to hurt his foes, making it easy to avoid on all stages. It also had no visual clue for when to hit the buttons untilSuper Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS, and without proper timing its beats were even more useless. Without a keen ear or a tight space, it was a waste of a Smash Ball.
Not every super move is a canned autocombo or boosted-up fireball attack. Some are “install supers”, where they power up the character with one perk or another. These can be broken in the positive sense, like Yun’s Genei Jin inStreet Fighter 3, or broken in the literal piece of junk sense, like Ryu’s Hadō Kakusei.
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InUltimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, this move boosted Ryu’s offense. It made his Shinku Hadōken reflect off the stage walls and turn his kick super into a tornado. The move also drained Ryu’s health and lasted for 6 seconds at best. Players were better off comboing into his regular supers than fitting this power “boost” into their play.
7Dragon Install
Still, it could be worse. Dragon Install used to be a risky install super for Sol Badguy players that boosted his offense at the cost of a long cooldown. For lore reasons,Guilty Gear Strivetook this super away from him and gave it to his goody-goody rival Ky Kiske instead, where it got worse.
Ky can only do it when he’s at 30% health or less, where it can mess up his standard combos, and reduces his meter gain by nearly 90%! Millia’s Winger, Axl’s Timestop, andFaust’s Bone Crushing Excitementhave problems of their own like lackluster damage and combo opportunity. But at least they didn’t nerf their characters afterward like Ky’s move.
6Fatal Mutation
Out of all the Tyrant variants,Resident Evil 3’sNemesis is perhaps the most famous one. Or at least that was Capcom thought when they added him toUltimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3. He’s the traditional slow, lumbering fighter that hits hard up close. But he has a few long-range moves to threaten opponents playing keep-away. This doesn’t include his Level 3 super Fatal Mutation.
Its mid-range tentacles look like something players could combo into. But nope. It’s a grab super that requires them to be up close and personal with the opponent. Except it’s so slow that they can jump away from it as soon as it activates. It’s a high cost super with more negatives than positives.
5Unmei no Ya
TheKing of Fightersseries has seen its share of gimmicky supers, or “Desperation Moves” in its near-30 year run. Some are intentional jokes, like Kensou’s EX Meat Bun super healing less than the regular version because he chokes on a bun too big for his gullet. Others are unintentional, like Orochi Shermie’s Unmei no Ya fromKing of Fighters 2002.
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It looks cool when it connects, as she summons a lightning bolt to strike her foe. But it’s a Hidden Super Desperation Move (HSDM), which requires players to have 30% or less health and 3 super meter levels. Its hit spark is as easy to whiff as it is for opponents to dodge. Then there’s a good chance it’ll hurt Shermie as well as (or instead of) her opponent.
4X.C.O.P.Y
The problem with Twelve, one ofStreet Fighter 3: Third Strike’s new characters, is that his moves do as much damage as an insult from a 5-yr old. He’s so low tier that people joke that his third Super Art, X.C.O.P.Y, is actually his best move because it lets him turn into much better characters. It’s still a joke though as it’s actually terrible.
Twelve’s Copy Form can’t do supers or EX moves because it replaces his bar with a timer. He still takes more damage in Copy form than the real deals. Even worse, it has a long cooldown once it runs out, where Twelve takes even more damage than usual.Characters like Akumacan one-shot him with their most powerful supers in this form.
3Sardine Beach Special
Rainbow Mika was no more subtle in her debut than she was inStreet Fighter 5. She was stillshoving her butt into people’s facesinStreet Fighter Alpha 3. Only she was doing it from the bottom of the tier list as she was one of the worst characters in the game.
For example, her Sardine Beach Special saw her run towards her foe, then do whatever follow-up the player could choose. Moonsaults, spinning headscissors, etc. While creative, it wasn’t effective at all. Even if players knew exactly which button did what, they all did much less damage overall than her other supers. Supers she didn’t have access to if players picked X-ISM.
2Giant Swing
Final Fighthas had its fate tied up withStreet Fightersince the original game, where it was almost calledStreet Fighter ’89. Still, Capcom did try to keep the series as its own thing in the 1990s.Final Fight Revengewas an attempt to put the Final Fighters into their own 3D brawler that combinedStreet Fighter-style gameplay with beat ‘em up-style weapons and pickups. It wasn’t very good, and had some lame supers.
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For example, Mike Haggar’s Giant Swing would see the Mayor of Metro City piledrive his foe through the earth in an animation that makes that much less cool than it sounds. But it was a counter super that only worked against jumping kicks. It was too specific to be useful to any degree beyond fighting someone with broken punch buttons and a d-pad/stick that could only move up.
1Blue Nocturne
Twelve may arguably beThird Strike’s worst character, but he doesn’t have its worst Super Art. That would be Remy’s Blue Nocturne. Capcom’s French Iori clone with Guile’s moves and Sagat’s functions would beat his foes up with an autocombo before flip-kicking them away. Sounds simple enough. The issue is that it’s a counter super, meaning he has to be hit first for it to activate.
It has a super flash beforehand, basically telling opponents when to stop to leave Remy one super level down. The move didn’t lock the opponent in place like other counter supers either. So, even if they set it off, they could block, parry, or get around Remy’s attacks anyway. Dan may beCapcom’s premier SNK mock character, but Remy and his Blue Nocturne are the true punchline.
