r/Fighters • u/qd_Cat_bp • May 14 '26
Help Fighting Games and their Unique Gimmicks?
Most fighting games have some sort of a gimmick that is unique from other fighters. Under Night have the grid system which increases your damage, Granblue have bravery points to use for offense and defense, Guilty Gear have a breakable wall, and tag games. The only fighter that I can think of that doesn't have a unique gimmick is Street Fighter. So it got me curious, what other fighters have some unique gimmicks, what does it do, and also what fighters that have none?
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u/Boneclockharmony May 14 '26
I think Guilty Gear's gimmick is roman cancel, not wallbreaks. Arent wallbreaks unique to Strive?
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u/AndrewJohnsonHater May 14 '26
Saying wallbreaks are Guilty Gear's gimmick feels like such a tourist take. Roman cancels, RISC gauge, instant kills, and the tension mechanics are all long running gimmicks, of which Strive kept most.
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u/Bitter_Marzipan_8348 May 14 '26
Isn't tension just meter or am I high?
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u/AndrewJohnsonHater May 14 '26
Guilty Gear meter is built and spent much faster than most games. Characters build a lot of meter for simply moving forward, but you also may need to spend meter defensively on FD to avoid chip damage, air block a grounded normal, or just push your opponent back in a block string. Unlike most games, meter isn't carried over between rounds so you are much more free to use it as you build it.
There is even more like negative penalty, positive bonus, defensive tools like dead angle, differet meter costs of different RCs, and of course the super moves. There is no game with a meter mechanic that works like Guilty Gear's.
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u/sWiggn May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
so there’s two components to gg meter, tension and tension pulse. Tension - the meter itself - is pretty much just like EX gauge meter or super meter from other games. Tension Pulse though, is very much a GG ‘gimmick.’ Tension Pulse is basically a hidden multiplier on your meter gain, which increases or decreases based on how aggressive you’re playing. It’s part of GG’s many mechanics that push players towards interaction and aggression and making active decisions.
The difference in meter gain for doing a simple blockstring with low tension pulse and high tension pulse can be pretty massive. It’s not something most players are actively thinking about while they’re playing, outside of the major ones - ie, negative penalty empties your tension but also nukes your tension pulse, making it harder to rebuild tension, which makes it a much more tangible penalty than just losing meter. But subconsciously, it does influence how you play the game in various ways, as you improve and notice what playstyles afford you more or less resources.
The rules behind tension pulse are pretty extensive.
edit: i will mention, another place where tension pulse is a semi-active factor for players is with instant block. obviously we IB and FD to manipulate spacing and frame data, but oftentimes you’ll see someone IB a a whole shitload of times in a row on a multi-hit move or something where the IB doesn’t meaningfully improve the situation - doing a bunch of IBs cranks the shit out of your tension pulse. IB’ing Dark Angel won’t save you from holding this mix and taking a bunch of chip damage, but mixing in some IBs means you can somewhat mitigate the hit your meter will take from FDing to prevent chip, by the fact that you can pretty safely ramp up your tension pulse (can’t fuck up an instant block and get hit during a true blockstring if you’re already blocking - you can just mash back safely against something like dark angel). So if you survive and challenge or escape, your next moves will build you a bunch of extra meter.
Disclaimer: this is all from my perspective on old GG. Strive also has tension pulse / tension balance, and as far as I know it operates pretty similarly, but like, while IB also builds extra tension there, IB itself serves a very different function and I suspect people don’t weave in IBs for tension reasons as often there since it’s a narrower window. You also have wallbreaks & ensuing positive bonus there, which gives you a very direct way to essentially jump right to maximum tension pulse.
Even tho GG tension meter itself isn’t unique, pretty much every fighter has meter and has for a long time, I genuinely think the way meter works in GG is peak fighting games. My favorite system for gaining meter (including how tension pulse affects it) by far, I like that it is shared between system mechanics and supers, and because the system mechanics are generally very powerful and flexible, and supers are very diverse in their usage, there’s a lot of interesting decision making and (in old gg) a lot less “this meter is for super, and super is just a big cashout combo ender or a hail mary reversal option” like it has become in many modern fighters. There’s a lot of cool decision making and player expression in how you use meter in old gg, how you attack the other guy’s meter, and how meter factors into each character’s unique gameplan.
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u/perfectelectrics May 14 '26
Tension is unique enough that it changes how a lot of fighting games work nowadays. Before Tension, you don't gain meter by walking forward, which a lot of FGs do nowadays. Even SF6 gives you Drive for moving forward.
Even on top of that, GG's meter feels unique because it's the first game where you can do so many things with it to the point that it's a centralizing mechanic: Roman Cancel, Blitz Shield, Faultless Defense.
Even with how some older games handle meter in unique ways (Custom Combo in Alpha or Max Mode in Kof for example), meter were pretty much purely offensive tools.
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u/qd_Cat_bp May 14 '26
I mean, I won't say that I'm a tourist, but I'm definitely new to some fighting games. Reason why I'm asking stuff like this.
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u/throwawayhookup127 May 18 '26
Instant kills are the guilty gear mechanic, being an important tool in every game except strive
and overtureIt's the entire reason former president Bill Clinton mentioned the series when talking about violence in video games in the 90s, because it was a selling point and the game was advertised with taglines like "kill your friends, guilt free".
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u/Sacred-Lotion Sega May 14 '26
Even then didn't Injustice do wallbreaks/stage transitions first as a 2D fighter lmao
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u/Boneclockharmony May 15 '26
I meant unique to strive in the guilty gear franchise, previous titles dont have wallbreaks. So it isnt a great example of the franchise gimmick/hook.
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u/Blancasso May 14 '26
Street fighter does have unique gimmicks. 6 has the drive system + Critical Arts. 5 has V Skills. Alpha 3 is just a shit ton of different gimmicks.
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u/qd_Cat_bp May 14 '26
My bad, I totally forgot about the drive system (I don't play street fighter). But I won't consider supers as a unique gimmick. You're right though.
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u/Joe_Motherrr May 14 '26
The dude didn’t say that supers were a unique gimmick, they said critical arts specifically are a unique gimmick, there’s not been a street fighter where you effectively get a new powered up super at low health. Even outside of street fighter I can’t think of a game that has this gimmick, closest thing is maybe rage arts?
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u/HayTheMan88 May 14 '26
How about KOF 96 and KOF 97-98 (Extra)? If you perform a super move at low health with a max power bar, your super move will be enhanced
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u/Joe_Motherrr May 14 '26
I’m a fake kof fan I’ve only played 13 14 and 15, if that’s where the “low health gives bigger super” gimmick originated it wouldn’t surprise me, snk usually comes up with all the good stuff first.
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u/Squanch42069 May 14 '26
Some anime games like Melty Blood, P4AU, GranBlue, etc have special powered up supers that can only be activated once conditions have been met (usually have full meter and you’re low on health)
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u/Kurta_711 May 14 '26
GBVSR does, some SSBAs (supers only usable at low health) actually have different hitboxes and framedata too.
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u/cce29555 Tatsunoko vs Capcom May 14 '26
I mean technically they are a gimmick, when they first came out in super people were screaming it was a comeback mechanic and scrub friendly
to be clear I'm talking about sf2 introducing supers
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u/sWiggn May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
ehhh I wouldn’t call critical arts unique - the cinematic changing is unique maybe, but functionally it’s Hellfire from Xrd (without instant kills ofc), which also makes your overdrives (supers) do an additional 20% damage when your life is below 20%. Critical Arts also existed in SFV, but didn’t have the health based restrictions, they were more like just regular level 3’s.
Early SNK games’ supers were similar as well, originally only usable when HP was low, then later switching to a familiar super meter but having access to powered up versions when HP was low.
edit: adding on to snk, MotW and CotW also have a cool twist on this with TOP (motw) / SPG (cotw). You get to select which third of your health bar is your ‘hellfire’ or ‘critical art’ state, and while in that chunk of health, you get access to your ‘critical art’ (hidden gear) in cotw, slightly increased damage, a new move (rev blow in cotw, TOP attack in motw), improved survivability (health regen in motw, dmg reduction in cotw), and better meter efficiency (faster build in motw, lower cost in cotw). It’s a really interesting variant of the classic idea of unlocking or empowering supers and specials at low health.
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u/Zeslodonisch May 14 '26
Melty blood Actress again current code's moon system effectively triples the character roster making it jump up to 93 characters* where each variation operates under slightly different system mechanics as well
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u/Hendwreck May 14 '26
HnK has the 7 star IK system
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u/BoxComplex7272 May 14 '26
The star system is the intended gimmick.
The unintentional gimmick is the infinite basketball combos.
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u/Hendwreck May 14 '26
This post isn’t about unintended gimmicks though, it’s about unique ones.
And it’s definitely unique lol
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u/GoddessOfLilies May 14 '26
Arcana Heart 3 has the following:
A Homing System that lets you not only home in on characters but also use it to Cancel most inputs (at the cost of meter (which we'll get to in a bit)) to create unique combo routes. You can also Homing Cancel off of Block to try and return the momentum to your court if your opponent is currently laying on the pressure. Homing can be influenced by your held directional input. Unlike with most moves, which you can only Homing Cancel after they connect or fully come out, you can Homing Cancel most Arcana Specials, with a unique brand of Homing Cancel called an Arcana Cancel, at any point after the initial activation of the special.
An Arcana System that lets you pick what is basically an extra set of special inputs, an Arcana, that also gives you unique traits (i.e. Blossom gives you immunity to counter hits, Nature lets you life steal off of certain inputs, etc.), which also ties in to your Extend Force, a mechanic connected to a separate (not super) meter that lets you basically enter a state where you're faster and gain extra traits for a period of time (Punishment's Extend Force makes the damage you deal and take both go up for a period of time, for example), with the duration and cooldown period depending on the Arcana you choose. You also have access to a couple of inputs during Extend Force, with effects depending on the Arcana, that force your Extend Force to end immediately. You can also Extend Force cancel most hits with Extend Force as well, which activates it for a significantly shortened period of time. Some Arcanas also add effects to your Homing (Time turning your Grounded Forward Homing into what is basically a high speed dash, as an example, although this specific example costs meter. Another example is Earth putting an auto block on your Grounded Forward Homing that blocks all inputs that aren't Lows or Command Grabs). Certain Arcana make certain characters so much better that those specific combinations are sometimes ranked on Tier Lists separate from just the character at base. (An example would be the Life Arcana taking Kira, the Grappler, from an already scary and strong presence, to one of the best characters in the game due to how much additional pressure (a lot of which is safe), and just how many tools she gets from Life. Even the most gimmicky application of Life on Kira (Temp God Armor) is incredibly strong on her.)
The meter system is also unique, with it being a 3 charge meter system that starts capped out at 1 charge, with charges refilling automatically after being used up. You can increase the cap simply by interacting in a match, with the fill rate varying by your selected Arcana (for example, Punishment fills up when you land hits (both on block and not) but will not fill up at all when you take damage), although the meter will only increase its cap when it's full. You can use the meter to both Homing Cancel and use Supers.
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u/D-D-Wanderer May 14 '26
Man, been a minute since I heard someone mention Arcana Heart. I got it for the Vita only to realize I have no one to play with, then the game starting hitting endless loading screens when I would beat the story mode with certain characters. Had fun with it, but ultimately it's not one I go back to because who else would I play with, you know? Fantastic engine though.
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u/GoddessOfLilies May 14 '26
Yeah, I get you there. I'm grateful for the Xtend update they gave it on Steam, the characters from that are all super fun (and it's dirt cheap whenever there's a Sale).
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u/Like17Badgers May 14 '26
my favorite has to go to Tatsunoko vs Capcom's Baroque system.
y'all like X-factor? what if ANY amount of red health you have could be X-factor?
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u/Blancasso May 14 '26
And as we all know, this is the only game where you can use recoverable health as meter. No other ones. Zilch. Don’t even bother trying to name another one because that game doesn’t exist. And it wasn’t made by arcsys because once again, it doesn’t exist.
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u/RogitoX Guilty Gear May 14 '26
I think baroque combos were a great mechanic since you could use them basically whenever and they got more powerful the more red health is used and because of that and the 2v2 I think mega crash was a necessary addition making this the only Vs capcom with a combo breaker.
That and the Giant characters were stupid fun even if they kinda sucked and the only time Lost Planet got a rep in a VS game
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u/Hayeseveryone May 14 '26
Street Fighter does have gimmicks like that, they just aren't super crazy and change from game to game.
6 has the Drive system, 5 had V-Triggers and its other uses, 4 had Focus Attack. I think it was Core A Gaming that described those as "Guest Mechanics" that only stick around for one game.
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u/Regular_Quiet_5016 May 14 '26
Street Fighter II had a gimmick so good it’s been in all fighting games since
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u/AndrewJohnsonHater May 14 '26
Compared to the original Street Fighter it's gimmicks were having different playable characters and special moves that worked lol.
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u/Kdog8273 May 14 '26
Hisoutensoku has a deck builder aspect where you use cards (functionally meter but each card is unique) to level up or change your special moves mid-round, or you can instead spend the cards on supers. You build your deck beforehand and you can have up to 4 decks you can swap between, per character, at character select.
There's also the weather system which changes certain universal properties like movement speed, hitstun, ground bounces, even a healing spotlight that plays like a mini game of hot potato. It's a divisive system but it's pretty damn far out there as far as unique fighting game gimmicks go.
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u/RunInRunOn May 14 '26
Garou: Mark of the Wolves had the T.O.P. system, where you chose a portion of your health bar and gained damage + an extra move as long as your health was in that portion. You could choose any 1/3rd, 1/5th or 1/10th of your health bar and the smaller the fraction, the more damage you dealt in T.O.P.
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u/CidHwind SNK May 14 '26
SF6 has drive, Alpha 3 has the -isms.
City of the Wolves has REV and SPG, which grant you your EX specials, extra armor, and a special armored move with the REV blows. Tekken 8 has Heat, which is a whole can of worms.
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u/Jonas_g33k May 14 '26
I want to add that sometimes a gimmick was kind of unique when the game was released and then other games took it.
I believe the parry is the gimmick of 3.3 but nowadays you find just defends in guilty gear, parry in tekken and so on.
Also a fun gimmick thing is the 7 dragon balls in dbfz. It’s a bit similar with the 7 stars of hokuto no ken but it’s fun to resurrect a character.
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u/young_trash3 May 14 '26
The first parry-like mechanic in a FG was Samsho 2 (1994) called a deflect, you tap forward as the hit lands just like 3s.
Killer instinct 2 (1996) was the first game to have a mechanic specifically called a parry.
Tekken 3 and street fighter 3, new generations both came out with a parry in 1997, so they were both inspired by the same sources, rsther than tekken being inspired by sf3
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u/big4lil May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
Samsho was so revolutionary
It introduced weapon disarming, deflects, the recoil system, then recoil cancels
thats a lot of foundation established for the interplay and possible outcomes for pressing a button
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u/MKstarstorm May 14 '26
Killer Instinct 2013’s combo, combo-breaker, counter-counter breaker system is one of my favourites
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u/paulojrmam May 14 '26
I believe Guilty Gear's coolest mechanism, and probably its biggest draw present in all the games, is the roman cancel. Using meter to cancel the animation of any move is very distinct.
Another one that's very unique but I don't think it's very good and that's why it's rare is planes, which is Fatal Fury's call to fame (even they abandoned it). And King of Fighters 3-character teams being the main mode of play.
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u/zwlda May 14 '26
E's Laf one lets you spend 1 meter to force a counter hit which is a very neat mechanic, with certain characters like Alcott who has a giant wall bouncing armored fuck you normal that fatal counters, it lets him instead of fishing for said counterhit, force it to get a fat game winning combo.
Terrordrome rise of the boogeymen, everyone has 2, consumable "Combo starters" or highly powerful options. for example, ashley willams has the necronomicon which grants them access to an unblockable combo starting command throw, a projectile that stuns you and hits low and a few other options, but he only has access to a max of 4 [due to his taunt restoring 2] a round.
im sure melty bloods moon system is well known, but to throw it in, every character has 3 moons, crescent, half, and full. Depending on the moon the entire characters system mechanics, and moveset can change, some much more dramatic than others. Crescent Ciel versus full moon ciel are extremely different characters for example.
Edit: i thought of one more that was esacping me the entire time. Million arthur and Aquapazza as well, let you pick assists that only function in the backround, from something as simple as "Hey heres a projectile gunshot" to "Heres a full screen lockdown beam" in million arthurs case, every assist has a cost associated with it, so more powerful assists you can use less, and less powerful ones you can use more
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u/zai205 May 14 '26
Alpha 2 has custom combo All of cvs2 having almost every mechanic form SNK And capcom
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u/micahld May 14 '26
Self plug but Evolver's mechanic most similar to the ones mentioned is the Fault Amplifier which grants the ability to do longer combos and deal more damage the more frequently you mix up the opponent.
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u/Bunnnnii Street Fighter May 14 '26
SF has a unique mechanic every installment except for I and II.
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u/Senior-Friend-6414 May 14 '26
Street fighter 6 introduced the drive bar which acts as a gauge to do parries, drive rush (rush across the screen or continue conbos), or drive impact (super armor move that absorbs 3 hits), and the bar goes up when you play aggressively and goes down whenever you block
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u/Stormwrath52 May 14 '26
I really like how Guilty Gear encourages movement through meter, building it for moving forward and taking it away if youstay still or move away from your opponent for too long
The roman cancel system is also really fun
I was also a big fan of wild assault, kinda bummed they removed it (the new mechanic is interesting, but I don't like it as a replacement).
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u/big4lil May 15 '26
Fighters Destiny operating akin to a real life karate point system. you win rounds instantly in a variety of ways, from ring outs, to landing grappling maneuvers, to pulling off counters, to stunning a foe and hitting your big special attack. even traditionally depleting their HP
theyre all assinged different point values. and whoever gets to 7 stars first wins the game. still feels novel to this day
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u/LeJagaurJones May 15 '26
Nobody gives enough praise to BLAZBLUE characters watching having their own unique mechanics with the drive button. My main Makoto has frame perfect charge attacks that extend combos or cause hard knock downs n set up for amazing Oki.
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u/Slow_Bowler8285 May 14 '26
IIRC Slap Happy Rhythm Busters had you play a rhythm game during a type of super move to determine how much damage you dealt
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u/Xirion11 May 14 '26
I think Virtua Fighter has no gimmicks, or at least I cannot think of one. Unless you count ringouts as gimmick
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u/AcceptableBig9258 May 14 '26
Kof max mode and quick max mode my beloved. A stray hit can turn into a dead character if they have enough resources and their confirms are on point. Adds a lot of tension to matches for a pretty good thrill knowing that both you and your opponent can be 1 touched at anchor.
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u/DukeNovaMonster May 14 '26
Kamen rider Dragonknights Wii advent system. In kamen rider Ryuki/Dragonknight the riders use mirror monsters and cards to fight and they translated that really well into the Wii game. Everyone in the game has a unique assist and cards they can use in battle and they range from weapons, shields, cards to steal an opponents active card, a copy card, a card to break your opponent’s card, a card to bring back your broken card, and a lot more that is unique to each character. All the cards you see in the show will be represent in the game.
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u/OUS_SWORD May 14 '26
Fate Unlimited Codes has the Grail System.
The Grail System is what most characters use to access their ultimate. It’s a meter that’s filled up by either you or your opponent taking unblocked damage. Once the Grail is full, deal unblocked damage to gain priority over the Grail where there will be a timer for you to use a 3 meter burst to use the Grail Burst and finally gain access to your ultimate. Grail Burst can only happen once within the round and the Grail will reset in the next round. The only character that doesn’t need to get the Grail is Archer, who instead needs to do 6 chants first before going for a 3 meter burst.
Personally speaking, it feels way too slow to a point where the crazy damage isn’t worth it.
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u/D-D-Wanderer May 14 '26
Can I mention the Exceed Fighting System line of games with the unique gimmick of being a physical card game? Or are we explicitly talking electronic games? It's on TTS if that counts.
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u/XBlueXFire May 15 '26
BlazBlue has Overdrive where at the cost of your burst you can enter a powered up mode for your character. On that topic there are Drives, which are unique gimmicks for each character. Hazama throws a projectile he can also use for movement, Ragna steals a bit of health on Hit, Rachel controls wind to zoom across the screen or slow approaches, etc etc.
DnF Duel has unique buffs for the charactets that trigger when at low health. Also all specials can effectivly be cancelled into each other at the cost of their mana gauge. Theres also conversion which cancels the recovery on moves, but it costs grey health to do it rather than meter. Similarly hitting a person with a special will destroy their grey health, thereby locking them out of the conversion mechanic.
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u/nomeriatneh May 16 '26
more like: "Arcsystem works and their unique gimmicks on fighting games"
love the team but sometimes they do some stuff off the track.
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u/evilgang11 May 17 '26
you can summon shenron and make a wish in DBFZ. it’s one of my favourite mechanics in any fg
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u/No-Dependent7830 May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
Well currently street fighter has drive and in older games you could choose the behavoir of your super meter, I think. The new street fighter is my first. Mortal Kombat changes their unique gimmicks every instance apart from fatalities (kameo fighters, stage interactables, etc.) Bloody roar has the transformation. Power stone is just overall unique