Fighting games are filled with many beloved character designs that are synonymous with video games as a whole. From the Mortal Kombat ninjas to the Street Fighter world warriors, there are several iconic characters that are synonymous with the fighting game genre.
However, popularity doesn't always equal quality and many of these popular characters are deceptively weak when it comes to competitive play in their respective games. Designers don't play favorites and sometimes game mechanics just don't treat these amazing characters well.
10 Roy - Super Smash Bros. Melee
Despite Roy's appealing design and his flashy fire attacks, he's unfortunately one of the worst characters that players can access in Melee. A strictly worse alternative to Marth not only is Roy's range worse, but his damage output is as well, as Marth's sword reward's a player's spacing with high damage and knockback, while Roy's sword is riddled with sour spots.
9 Heihachi - Soul Calibur II
Heihachi is one of the most recognizable characters in the Tekken series, appearing in every single entry. Heihachi even appeared as one of the three guest characters in Soul Calibur II, available to players playing the PS2 version of the game. Despite his strength in Tekken, his usefulness in Soul Calibur is quite limited.
Much of his weakness stems from the fact that he is a martial artist within a weapon-based fighting game, meaning nearly every other character on the roster out-ranges him
8 Frieza - Dragon Ball FighterZ
In the context of Dragon Ball Z, Frieza is one of the most integral villains in the series. Unfortunately, this strength doesn't translate too well into the context of Dragon Ball FighterZ in which he's one of the weakest characters in the game when it comes to playing at a competitive level.
While the character's main appeal is his zoning potential, there are several characters who offer far superior zoning to one's team without having as many glaring shortcomings.
7 Joker - Injustice
Few DC villains have as much staying power and popularity as the Joker. As much as one may love the character, hand-to-hand combat has never been the character's selling point, so it's not the biggest surprise that the character sits at the bottom of Injustice's tier list.
While many of the strongest characters in the game have frankly abusable tools such as incredible projectiles, teleports, and character-specific powers, Joker lacks much of what makes a character strong in Injustice.
6 Zelda - Super Smash Bros. Melee
Zelda is an interesting case, as early into Melee's life span, she was actually viewed as a somewhat strong and high-tier character. However, as the game's meta evolved she continuously fell down the tier lit until she landed quite close to the bottom. Lacking and combo and kill potential while being light enough that several characters can combo and kill her with ease, Zelda is far from the best choice players have when selecting their character.
5 Chun Li - Marvel Vs. Capcom 2
The "First Lady of Fighting Games," one would be hard-pressed to find a more iconic female fighting game character than Chun Li. While she's appeared in several games, Chun Li's viability has waxed and waned greatly across her appearances.
While she's been notoriously strong in games like Street Fighter III: Third Strike, she's quite weak in several games within the Marvel Vs. Capcom series, including Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 in which she is one of the least useful characters on the roster, lacking useful assists or combo potential.
4 Ganondorf - Super Smash Bros. Series
Despite being an incredibly popular character and the main antagonist of the Legend of Zelda franchise, Ganondorf's competitive history in the Super Smash Bros. series has been quite lacking. One of the lowest tier characters in both Brawl and Ultimate, Ganondorf is a slow heavy hitter that cares more about landing a few well-timed hits and punishing one's opponent's missteps rather than landing combos.
Unfortunately, while this can help new players learn the game's mechanics, at high-level play in which players are far less likely to trip up, this type of play loses some of its viability.
3 Zangief - Street Fighter V
Zangief is one of the most iconic and popular grapplers in the history of fighting games. Unfortunately, grapplers have historically not been the highest tier characters around in fighting games, often ending up somewhat low on their respective tier lists. This often still tends to be the case even in more balanced modern fighting games such as Street Fighter V in which Zangief's lack of mobility and flexibility tend to hinder him at the highest levels of play.
2 Ryu - Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite
The Marvel Vs. Capcom series is one that is characterized by excess, with characters being able to perform extensive combos while dishing out high damage with over-the-top super moves. This lends the strongest characters to be those that can perform the most absurd attacks, while the more "fair" characters tend to be the weakest.
While Street Fighter's Ryu is an easy-to-learn and simple character, his simplicity is his biggest fault, leaving him with far fewer options than other characters in Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite.
1 Shao Kahn - Mortal Kombat XI
Shado Kahn is easily one of the most notorious fighting game villains of all time, known for taunting players in the middle of a fight, eating countless quarters in arcades in the 90s. While he's usually an unplayable boss, he is a playable member of Mortal Kombat XI's roster. Despite this, he is unfortunately quite underwhelming, lacking many of the tools that are required to be a high-tier character in competitive play of the game.