Ultimate Fighting Game Showdown! Who is deadliest?

[Jackalope89]

I can't actually figure out who would be next after Darkstalkers, assuming the lore about planetary level stuff I've heard about is correct. I haven't actually PLAYED many of the top-tier games on this list.

King of Fighters tops out somewhere in the area of, - at best - 'blowing up cities', and I feel that's a bridge too far and based on single, silly sequences in the KoF 99 ending (or was it 2000? I cannot remember).

Killer Instinct is garbage for feats.

Dead or Alive's best feat is Ayane blowing up a big chunk of a skyscraper with an attack she needs to actively take a couple of seconds to prepare; everyone else is waaaaay below that.

No need to talk about Streetfighter, we're all fairly aware of that game's level.

If we go by the BA Toshinden anime (I don't recall feats from the game), they're not even comparable to the above.

SoulCalibur has people wiping out entire armies, as I recall (but only the people with the demon-sword, I think). Not sure if it goes beyond that.

I vaguely recall Tekken having all manner of silliness in terms of power level.

However, from what I understand Guilty Gear and BlazeBlue - neither of which I have played! - are above this kind of thing? Someone with better understanding of those two should speak up.

Alas, it was only for one game, but Darth Vader and Galen Marek/Starkiller were both in Soul Caliber 4. Those two have crazy feats, but never pop up in other games. Thus, they are sadly not included.

[Sharkerbob]

Alas, it was only for one game, but Darth Vader and Galen Marek/Starkiller were both in Soul Caliber 4. Those two have crazy feats, but never pop up in other games. Thus, they are sadly not included.

Hey, if we could use Guest Characters, Soul Calibur also had Spawn! :V

[bruceleegreyhulk]

I still question why the Samurai Showdown cast isn't in the match up. Doesn't feel like the ultimate fighting game showdown to me without Samurai Showdown In mix. Also you know Primal Rage, Enteral Champions, Bloody Roar, Skull Girls, clayfighter and Last Blade.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

I still question why the Samurai Showdown cast isn't in the match up. Doesn't feel like the ultimate fighting game showdown to me without Samurai Showdown In mix. Also you know Primal Rage, Enteral Champions, Bloody Roar, Skull Girls, clayfighter and Last Blade.

I was leaning towards franchises with multiple installments, Primal Rage being only one game as an example.

[grampagen]

I am always compelled to note that without quantifiable feats within their canon, despite the characters' presentation, topics involving fighting game characters are more difficult than they may first appear.

Anywho, we can all agree that Virtua Fighter is at the bottom. Its goal since its inception has been an attempt at a martial arts simulator, and though air juggles and wallbounce combos don't really happen IRL, that's its stated goal, and nothing - besides the liquid metal lady - really contradicts its grounded MO.

Darkstalkers, once you sort out its lore by going for the deep cuts - 2003 called, here's Saiki's Plot Guide on GameFAQs - is nebulously the strongest, I suppose, but again not much of this translates into concrete feats.

The power curve as I see it revolves on what we can extrapolate about four characters in relation to Belial, a lore NPC who embodies the realm of Makai that is the setting:

- Belial fought Demitri and either shoved him - and his castle - through the dimensional gate that connects Makai and Earth, or punched them so hard he sent Demitri to another dimension where he was comatose for over a century.
- Demitri, in this weakened state, went on to eat Pyron, an alien who collects planets but also likes to compress himself to human sized for hand to hand combat for some reason. It's shown in Pyron's ending that he has the power to raze the surface of a planet, then wear their orbits around his fingers like rings. You know, if he wasn't eaten by the titular Vampire. Was Pyron's power suppressed? Did Demitri get a lucky shot in? Either way, canon states Demitri indeed absorbed his power...and still isn't as strong as Belial
- Morrigan, Belial's adopted daughter, had about a third of her power split apart from her in order to stabilize her strength. Upon Belial's death and the subsequent erosion of Makai, Jedah animated this fragment into Lilith. Combined together, they, along with post-snack Demitri, are "S-Rank" Darkstalkers, according to these various translated secondhand sources.
- Jedah, with preptime and copious amounts of souls had the capacity to destroy and recreate Makai using the powers of one of the grossest final levels in videogame history, the FETUS OF GOD. He is also S-Class.

If this sounds silly to you, it should. Asterisks all over here lol. What are BB Hood, John Talbain, and Hsien-ko doing here?

As outlined above, Guilty Gear likely comes next with verified country-nukers, and Badguys that can kill the country-nukers, Vampires that think this is pretty neat, and some knights and magicians that can step up enough to gain their interest. Dunno what's in the magical Backyard though, should really play through Xrd and Strive.

A far jump from here and this is where King of Fighters, Street Fighter and Tekken are.

- SNK Boss syndrome aside, KOF has Takuma Sakazaki, who, if pressed, can amp himself with the power of, uh, Karate, and deflect part of the Zero Cannon, a satellite death laser. Only part of it however, it's canon that South Town, the target of this beam, was destroyed by it.
- The Mishima family are notorious for getting tossed off of cliffs and surviving. Heihachi Mishima was at the epicentre of an explosion of Jack-4s...he was fine 2 games later.. He's not quite at the level of Devil Jin or Kazuya, who can fire lasers that can destroy skyscrapers.
- Street Fighter is largely carried by Akuma and Bison's silliness, Ryu's boulder lift, and Oro taking out his other arm to chuck an opponent into the sky. The upper-mid tier characters like Karin and Chun-Li can slap bunker doors open pretty casually, and they make aerial deployments without parachutes.

Somewhere below this is Mortal Kombat, I guess? They're dangerous with prep and specific artifacts, but outside of their animated films - where Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Liu Kang get massive, silly pop - it's also somewhat grounded. The hordes of Netherealm can be meaningly delayed by a squad of marines with assault rifles and Shaolin Monks. They're solidly below Tekken becaue getting tossed off of cliffs will kill them.

...the rest, I defer to those more knowledgable.

[grampagen]

Based on the online reaction to Omega Rugal, he's clearly the one to beat.

Interestingly, despite his presence as the original boss of the franchise, and the fond(ish) memories of taking him on, Omega Rugal as he was depicted in KOF 1995 isn't quite as fearsome in canon.

In a bit of a retcon, Rugal lost his eye to the 1996 boss, Goenitz, one of the heads of the Orochi clan, who also imparted some of his power to Rugal as an experiment. When he actually actioned on the power that makes him Omega, his body couldn't contain it and he exploded from it after fighting Kyo's team.

Iori talked mad **** about it, and by his feats in the Blood Riot state - he and Leona requiring...the rest of the cast to stop, stunning Orochi - seem to back up his booking.

...of course all said and done, Orochi's kind of a jabroni, so ymmv >_>

[Sharkerbob]

I was leaning towards franchises with multiple installments, Primal Rage being only one game as an example.

Hey, they also released the sequel... as a book...

[bruceleegreyhulk]

Well, Samurai Showdown does have multiple games, 10 canonical games, and four dream match games. Samurai Showdown's canonical timeline goes as follow

1 Samurai Showdown V

2 Samurai Showdown ( 2019)

3 Samurai Showdown

4 Samurai Showdown III

5 Samurai Showdown IV

6 Samurai Showdown II

7 Samurai Showdown 64

8 Samurai Showdown 64: Warriors rage

9 Samurai Shodown Sen

10 Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Well, Samurai Showdown does have multiple games, 10 canonical games, and four dream match games. Samurai Showdown's canonical timeline goes as follow

1 Samurai Showdown V

2 Samurai Showdown ( 2019)

3 Samurai Showdown

4 Samurai Showdown III

5 Samurai Showdown IV

6 Samurai Showdown II

7 Samurai Showdown 64

8 Samurai Showdown 64: Warriors rage

9 Samurai Shodown Sen

10 Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage

Add it to the list.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Hey, they also released the sequel... as a book...

What? No way, really?

[bruceleegreyhulk]

So SNK has two official timelines there's the King of Fighters Timeline (The timeline where Geese is alive) and the SNK timeline ( Fatal Fury Timeline / The timeline where Geese is dead. )

[Len Ikari145]

I am always compelled to note that without quantifiable feats within their canon, despite the characters' presentation, topics involving fighting game characters are more difficult than they may first appear.

Anywho, we can all agree that Virtua Fighter is at the bottom. Its goal since its inception has been an attempt at a martial arts simulator, and though air juggles and wallbounce combos don't really happen IRL, that's its stated goal, and nothing - besides the liquid metal lady - really contradicts its grounded MO.

Darkstalkers, once you sort out its lore by going for the deep cuts - 2003 called, here's Saiki's Plot Guide on GameFAQs - is nebulously the strongest, I suppose, but again not much of this translates into concrete feats.

The power curve as I see it revolves on what we can extrapolate about four characters in relation to Belial, a lore NPC who embodies the realm of Makai that is the setting:

- Belial fought Demitri and either shoved him - and his castle - through the dimensional gate that connects Makai and Earth, or punched them so hard he sent Demitri to another dimension where he was comatose for over a century.
- Demitri, in this weakened state, went on to eat Pyron, an alien who collects planets but also likes to compress himself to human sized for hand to hand combat for some reason. It's shown in Pyron's ending that he has the power to raze the surface of a planet, then wear their orbits around his fingers like rings. You know, if he wasn't eaten by the titular Vampire. Was Pyron's power suppressed? Did Demitri get a lucky shot in? Either way, canon states Demitri indeed absorbed his power...and still isn't as strong as Belial
- Morrigan, Belial's adopted daughter, had about a third of her power split apart from her in order to stabilize her strength. Upon Belial's death and the subsequent erosion of Makai, Jedah animated this fragment into Lilith. Combined together, they, along with post-snack Demitri, are "S-Rank" Darkstalkers, according to these various translated secondhand sources.
- Jedah, with preptime and copious amounts of souls had the capacity to destroy and recreate Makai using the powers of one of the grossest final levels in videogame history, the FETUS OF GOD. He is also S-Class.

If this sounds silly to you, it should. Asterisks all over here lol. What are BB Hood, John Talbain, and Hsien-ko doing here?

As outlined above, Guilty Gear likely comes next with verified country-nukers, and Badguys that can kill the country-nukers, Vampires that think this is pretty neat, and some knights and magicians that can step up enough to gain their interest. Dunno what's in the magical Backyard though, should really play through Xrd and Strive.

A far jump from here and this is where King of Fighters, Street Fighter and Tekken are.

- SNK Boss syndrome aside, KOF has Takuma Sakazaki, who, if pressed, can amp himself with the power of, uh, Karate, and deflect part of the Zero Cannon, a satellite death laser. Only part of it however, it's canon that South Town, the target of this beam, was destroyed by it.
- The Mishima family are notorious for getting tossed off of cliffs and surviving. Heihachi Mishima was at the epicentre of an explosion of Jack-4s...he was fine 2 games later.. He's not quite at the level of Devil Jin or Kazuya, who can fire lasers that can destroy skyscrapers.
- Street Fighter is largely carried by Akuma and Bison's silliness, Ryu's boulder lift, and Oro taking out his other arm to chuck an opponent into the sky. The upper-mid tier characters like Karin and Chun-Li can slap bunker doors open pretty casually, and they make aerial deployments without parachutes.

Somewhere below this is Mortal Kombat, I guess? They're dangerous with prep and specific artifacts, but outside of their animated films - where Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Liu Kang get massive, silly pop - it's also somewhat grounded. The hordes of Netherealm can be meaningly delayed by a squad of marines with assault rifles and Shaolin Monks. They're solidly below Tekken becaue getting tossed off of cliffs will kill them.

...the rest, I defer to those more knowledgable.

To add to Guilty Gear, if we're going strictly by shown feats, I-No (when she had awakened to her full power in StrIVe) casually 'yanked' the moon out of orbit and transported it only a kilometer above the heroes' head and the only reason that the Earth didn't go through a global geological upheaval is because she has absolute control over the universe's physical laws and was willing it not to happen.

[Sharkerbob]

What? No way, really?

Yep! Called Primal Rage: The Avatars. They realized they weren't going to be able to make the game, so the creators said, "Screw it" and made the book to at least get the ideas out there.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2857188-primal-rage

It reads like how you'd probably expect a 90s video game tie-in book to read, but it was kinda fun. The gimmick was the characters would be human warriors who could channel the power of their gods (the original dino/ape creatures, plus a couple new characters) to briefly transform into them alla Bloody Roar, and battle a giant zombie alien demon to free said gods.

[Sharpandpointies]

- SNK Boss syndrome aside, KOF has Takuma Sakazaki, who, if pressed, can amp himself with the power of, uh, Karate, and deflect part of the Zero Cannon, a satellite death laser. Only part of it however, it's canon that South Town, the target of this beam, was destroyed by it.

Yeah, this is what I was talking about. As I understand, Terry does something similar in his ending.

Some people have taken this to mean they operate at 'could blow up cities' level in the past, but outside of the atrocious KOF Manhua, that just doesn't make sense to me (partly because the Karate ending is somewhat being played for laughs). I mean, they're not WEAK; in 'Another Day' (which is canon, as far as I know), we see Athena pretty easily holding up the roof of a collapsing cathedral with her psychokinesis. Given other characters in-canon are just better than that (well, they'd better be or she'd just ragdoll them with PK)...

[Little_Mac]

Dead or Alive's best feat is Ayane blowing up a big chunk of a skyscraper with an attack she needs to actively take a couple of seconds to prepare; everyone else is waaaaay below that.
.

Do we ever count Ryu (and Rachel) feats in Ninja Gaiden (and sequels)? I'm thinking that Dead or Alive stays in the SF/Tekken/KOF range, but that's probably the best place for feats that I could think of.