Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior basically turned fighting games into what they are today, but it couldn’t future-proof itself against everything. For example, if two players both wanted to pick Chun Li, one was bound to be out of luck because the game didn’t allow mirror matches. One different character per player only. Luckily, Championship Edition fixed this by introducing alternate colors to tell players apart.
Then, the next few SF2 games added more colors, and other 2D fighters followed suit, while their 3D cousins produced at least two different costumes per character. Now, they all have multiple costumes to pick from, and even more if players install mods. However, like those mods, some could end up verboten from competitive play. These fighting game costumes ended up banned from tournaments.
10 Gigas Preset 3
The Tekken World Tournament is clearly all about Tekken, the premier 3D fighting game series known for its spiky-haired heroes and villains, and its juggling combo gameplay. For the past few years, they’ve seen the best Tekken 7 players take each other on for prize pools as high as $250,000. Custom costumes couldn’t be used, but the in-game presets could, somewhat.
Mirror match players would have to rock-paper-scissors for the privilege since they didn’t have alt colors. But some presets were banned outright. Gigas’ Preset 3 turned him into a blocky brick figure that retained the same hitboxes as regular Gigas. This meant those blocky corners were essentially invincible and made his moves hard to read. While Gigas players are a rare sight due to his low tier status, the rules have to be fair and apply to everyone. Including...
9 Jack-7 Presets 3 & 4
Jack-7 is higher on the totem pole than Gigas, despite also suffering some significant flaws. He’s still big, slow, and tricky to get the most out of. His equally blocky Preset 4 and craggy Preset 3 might’ve had an advantage over Akuma or Feng Wei at TWT because of those crags and corners masking his moves and hit boxes. But it would've been an unfair one.
That, and Preset 3 also made Jack-7 hard to see on dark stages due to its dusky shading. It seems like a small thing to quibble over. Yet it wouldn't do to give the $250,000 prize to someone who got lucky through wonky hitboxes and character outfit quirks than pure skill. Everyone has to get an equal shot where their gameplay matters more than their slyness. Thus, Rock Jack and Gold Lightan Jack were made inadmissible at TWT.
8 Summer Vacation Yun
Not all bans are due to design flaws, or even permanent. Yun’s Summer Vacation Outfit in Ultra Street Fighter 4 would’ve been fine over Blanka’s hitbox-confusing carnival costume. It’s just a yellow top and pants that’s not completely unlike his cousin Jamie’s default in Street Fighter 6. The problem was that it produced a glitch where Yun’s taunt became another light kick input.
Wily players managed to use this new shortcut to turn Yun’s Focus Attack into a quick SF3-like parry, escape opponents’ attacks with option selects, and artificially inflate their Player Points. Since this essentially broke the game, the Summer Vacation outfit was banned from the 2014 CapcomCup and other tournaments until the glitch was patched out in the next update.
7 Street Fighter 5's Mega Men
The most famous set of banned costumes come from the Capcom Pro Tour 2020, where 13 whole fancy outfits from Street Fighter 5 were deemed contrary to fair play. The largest chunk came from the Mega Man-themed costumes, as Mega Man Ryu, Airman Rashid, and Gutsman Balrog got the axe.
Like the Gigas and Jack-7 presets, their proportions changed so much compared to their regular duds that they could be separate characters. For example, Airman Rashid is much bulkier up top than regular Rashid, yet most of that bulk is intangible because he retains the same hitboxes. His Viewtiful Joe suit was less dramatic, but also affected his hitboxes enough to go into the tournament bin.
6 Blanka-chan
Popularized by former Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono, the Blanka-chan dolls became part of the game's lore as the Brazilian jungle man looked into ways to monetize them. He found that way through using them in his move list in the upcoming Street Fighter 6. However, it was also used as a full-on costume for SF5.
It was insane, funny, and banned because it caused a glitch where Blanka-chan could freeze time momentarily to get some free shots in like a more cuddly Dio from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. In addition, his Nergigante suit got booted for being hard to read. It’s a shame as it has some nice details, like some mesh on the neck that proves it's just Blanka in Monster Hunter cosplay.
5 Nero Ed
Ed was initially interesting as the snarky psychic kid that hung around Balrog. He could’ve been an improvement on fellow Bison-clone Abel. Instead, Capcom made him as generically beefy as the other SF5 guys, and his ambition to set up a good-guy version of Bison’s Shadaloo felt particularly uninspired.
He was better off dressing up as Devil May Cry 4's Nero, complete with a glowing demon form a la Nero’s Devil Trigger. Which got it banned because the demon imitates everything Ed does, confusing the player over which attack they need to watch out for. Similarly, M.Bison's Ghosts N’Goblins Astaroth costume made him look bigger than he was due to the wings on his back, thus also getting cut from competition.
4 Wesker Urien
SF5 liked to provide different costumes, be they referencing other Capcom games or the holidays. All the women got swimsuits for the summer and cutesy Christmas outfits, and Halloween brought out the cosplay as Guile became a zombie, Dhalsim became a mummy, and Urien became Albert Wesker from Resident Evil.
The problem was that Wesker's clothing was too dark. The black trench coat, pants, boots, gloves and shades meant the only things that stood out were his white hair and tanned skin. If the players ended up on a dark stage, he'd essentially be camouflaged, and thus had an unfair advantage. So, it had to be nixed from tournaments, alongside his Halloween costume where he dressed like his brother Gill.
3 Pyron Gill
Gill returned for SF5: Champion Edition, and was toned way down from his infamously cheap SF3: Third Strike final boss days. Now, he was a relatively fair and balanced character. As such, he became the premier red & blue muscle man in a toga, so Urien players had to avoid his Halloween costume to avoid confusion. As did Gill players, if they picked out his Pyron costume.
Chun Li, Juri, Menat, and others got Darkstalkers-inspired outfits, but they were fair because they didn't hurt viewers' eyes. Pyron Gill's searing orange & teal shades combined with a blur effect that made it hard to see anything he did, so it was banned. In turn, while Necalli’s Halloween Werewolf look wasn’t as painful to look at by comparison, the neon effects from its V-Trigger was still bad enough to warrant a ban for the same reason.
2 R.Mika
Some fighting game franchises got so carried away by their libido that SF, with its leggy kung-fu cops, high-kicking schoolgirls, and tactical T-back one-pieces, was considered more subdued next to competition like King of Fighters' Mai Shiranui. They also didn't have to worry about eSports broadcasts in 1998 when Rainbow Mika leaped butt-first into people’s faces in Street Fighter Alpha 3.
However, when she returned for SF5, broadcast standards became a big deal. One televised SF5 bout saw a Mika player advised to change out of her default look because its big bust and thong were too much for TV. By CPT time, this would also include her Professional costume as her pom-poms made her hands look bigger than they were. The general rule of thumb for tournaments is to stay proportionate or forfeit.
1 120 Outfits in Dead or Alive 5: Last Round
If SF was one of the least libido-driven fighters, Dead or Alive was clearly the most. Some of its keener fans don’t like it when people ignore the fast-paced gameplay, destructible stages and in-depth techniques just to gawk at/mock the T n’A on display. But Team Ninja didn't do them any favors with the DOA Xtreme series and DOA1’s “Bouncing Breasts” option. Sexuality is as part of DOA's charm, as the punches and kicks.
Playing it safe, the DOA Community enacted a soft ban on 120 costumes for the women in DOA5: LR. This meant that the outfits could go through if the tournament organizer agreed to it, but it would be more convenient if players stayed away from them in general. These outfits included Bunnygirl Swimsuit Ayane, Sexy Angel Kasumi, and the tactically-placed Christmas ribbons all the women got.