On many rosters in Fighting Games, a “joke” character is a fighter who is meant to be seen as someone weaker than the rest of the cast, sometimes laughably so. Ridiculous moves that border on pure slapstick or pale imitations of respected fighters are prime examples of a joke character players can control. However, while most joke characters aren’t meant to put up a good fight, some have a surprising amount of strength in the hands of the right players.
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Some joke characters become strong by accident, leaving their mark in one fighting game before returning to a bottom-tier status in another title from the same series. Yet, being powerful or not is hardly what makes joke characters popular, as their demand comes from players loving to win matches with them despite their weaknesses. Whenever a new character announced for a fighting game ends up being a legacy joke character, there’s a chance they could have far more tools than players expect.
6. Shingo Yabuki (The King of Fighters 15)
Shingo Yabuki is a student of The King of Fighters‘ protagonist Kyo Kusanagi, acting as a foil to Kyo in many of his appearances. Shingo has been a beloved figure in the KoF games ever since The King of Fighters ’97, where he first debuted as someone who brought levity to an otherwise darker story line in the series. Shingo is often depicted as a simple and plain high school student, but with the personality of a lovable goofball who admires Kyo as their personal idol.
Occasionally, Shingo has shone in various games, but none more than The King of Fighters 15, where his play style was overhauled to be at a similar level of strength to the rest of the game’s massive 61 character roster. Most of Shingo’s moves are copies of Kyo’s, though without the signature flames Kyo tends to wield. In KoF15, Shingo can score random critical hits to juggle opponents with his moves, leading to devastating combos that are equivalent to Kyo’s in damage.
Strong super moves and a variety of tricky and fast techniques can surprise any challenger that underestimates Shingo. If enough critical hits end up taking place in a row, Shingo is given a prime opportunity to win matches all by himself, moving up from a “joke” character into a legitimate contender on anyone’s team. Even if Shingo always views himself as a student, his growth through training has built him up into a powerful fighter in KoF15, able to stand next to Kyo as someone he can take seriously.
5. M.O.D.O.K (Marvel vs. Capcom 3)
One of the weirdest additions to Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was M.O.D.O.K., a character who has long been a joke of sorts from Marvel Comics. Although the MvC series has seen many strange guest characters appear, the Mechanized Organism Designed Only For Killing was certainly the oddest one out compared to anyone else on the roster. Although easy to dismiss due to top-tiers like Zero, Morrigan, and Vergil, M.O.D.O.K. is a secret powerhouse when wielded by a skilled player.
M.O.D.O.K. is extremely unorthodox in UMvC3, using traps and lasers to keep a safe distance from enemies while using overwhelming zoning moves to prevent them from approaching. Defensive gameplay at long-ranges is not unique to UMvC3, but M.O.D.O.K.’s brand of it can be confusing to many players, especially when you factor in the character’s unpredictable movement in his hover chair. Tricky situations and the right assists can make M.O.D.O.K. go beyond just being a joke, turning into a character that secures some baffling wins.
4. Panda (Tekken 7)
Although the grizzly bear Kuma has gotten much stronger in Tekken 8, the joke animal Panda actually won a Tekken World Tour pro series back in 2018 for Tekken 7. This is not only a testament to the professional player who found success with Panda, but also how the character is much stronger in Tekken 7 than they had been in the past. Kuma and Panda are the longest running joke characters in the Tekken series, even in a franchise known for putting boxing gloves on a kangaroo and a velociraptor.
Kuma and Panda are both characters who have tricky moves compared to the rest of the Tekken cast, sacrificing varied martial arts in favor of sweeping slashes and larger attacks. Oftentimes, this makes them more predictable, and easier to combo or punish by skilled players. Panda in Tekken 7 defies this weakness somewhat by having the second highest damage in the game, rewarding players who are masters of the game’s defensive mechanics.
While Kuma is incredibly slow and arguably one of the worst characters in Tekken 7, Panda has some quick moves that allow her to punish opponents in better ways than Kuma. Some of her attacks also lead naturally into a stance that can set up a variety of moves, testing opponents and putting them into tough situations. While mostly seen as a joke pet companion of Ling Xiaoyu, Panda holds her own in Tekken 7 far more than players were ever prepared for.
3. Pichu (Super Smash Bros. Melee)
Pichu isn’t a joke Pokemon in the mainline Nintendo series, but in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the character was meant to be a fun alternative to fan-favorite Pikachu. This “baby” form of Pikachu pre-evolution is typically meant to be seen as incredibly weak, mainly in the Pokemon games where you have to raise Pichu’s friendship levels to maximum to evolve it into the electric mouse everyone loves. In Super Smash Bros., Pichu’s weakness is reflected in its play style, with the Pokemon taking damage from every attack they try to do.
While this is a huge weakness compared to Pikachu, Pichu utilizes the same move set as Pikachu in different ways. Similar to the comical nature of Jigglypuff in the same game, Pichu sports extremely high damage under the right circumstances, outshining Pikachu in some regards. Extremely high mobility also helps Pichu stand out, in almost complete contrast to the slow-moving, floating gameplay of Jigglypuff. Pichu is one of the fastest characters in Melee, with K.O. power and combos that far exceed what most joke characters ever get access to.
2. Dan Hibiki (Street Fighter 5)
The most well-known joke character in any fighting game is Dan Hibiki, the weakest among the “Shoto” archetype combatants seen in the Street Fighter series. Dan is everything Ryu, Ken, and Akuma are not, with a bombastic and over-confident attitude seen with a pink outfit and flashy taunts. Meant to first parody the SNK Art of Fighting protagonist Ryo Sakazaki, Dan has often returned to Street Fighter as a friend of Sakura and Blanka, but far, far weaker than the two of them.
Despite Dan’s inability to create a true Hadouken, his fighting style has evolved over the years. In Street Fighter 5, Dan was actually given many moves that dealt good damage and unique combo routes exclusive to his character. This all culminated into Dan being able to cancel attacks into taunts, even using a specialized skill to stop the animations of his normal attacks if a player’s mechanics were talented enough. Ironically, a character who had often been the butt of every Street Fighter joke became a fighter whose potential unlocked with the most veteran players.
The “Dan Infinite” was a combo route discovered in Street Fighter 5 when players realized that Dan could endlessly chain his attacks together through a complex series of special move and normal cancels. Dan’s possession of a random chance to throw out a stronger fireball than normal could throw a wrench into this strategy, but those able to pull it off from start to finish were seen to eliminate 80% or more of an opponent’s health. From this alone, Dan was legitimately busted, with an overpowered set of moves that allowed him to finally ascend from joke status.
1. Faust (Guilty Gear X)
Faust is almost the quintessential “joke” character in Guilty Gear, even in a series with figures like Robo-Ky and other comical figures. This fighter represents a heavy shift from the first Guilty Gear game, with Faust being the new name of Doctor Baldhead, a serial killer who is trying to repent for their actions. The paper bag-headed doctor possesses a number of supernatural abilities that are wacky to look at, from conjuring doors to walk through, bursting flowers out of the ground, or turning his scalpel into a fishing hook to reel in enemies.
As technically a newcomer fighting game character in Guilty Gear X, Faust slowly evolved into a truly menacing force in that title and its iterations. There are also strong appearances of Faust in the Guilty Gear Xrd series later, with the character tricky moves making them a strong fighter while retaining weird and joke-filled techniques. For example, Faust has a move that throws out a “projectile,” but the item he tosses is picked from a random selection of options, meaning that neither the player controlling him or their opponent know what is about to happen.
Players with excellent adaptation skills have been able to push the boundaries of what Faust is capable of, even in his weaker iterations in games like Guilty Gear Strive. Faust’s greatest strengths come from his unpredictable nature, turning his jokes into chaotic mix-ups that can quickly steamroll rivals who haven’t studied what the character does. For that reason, Faust can easily be considered “over-powered” in different games, making him the only joke character who has been largely consistent in strength across an entire fighting game series.
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