First, fighting games were all about punching & kicking the opponent. Then it became about throwing fireballs at them before developers came up with the next big step: a huge fireball charged by a meter.
Nowadays, whether they’re called Overdrives, Desperation Moves, or Final Smashes, super moves have become a standard part of the genre. They’ve come in all sorts of types too, but some came out rather odd. These are the weirdest super moves in fighting games.
10 Ultra Street Fighter 4: Oil Combination Hold
Street Fighter 4 brought the genre back in from the cold, and its Super, Arcade and Ultra updates kept the heat going. The new Ultra Combos left an impression as they were more over the top than ever. Yun doing skateboard tricks with his unfortunate foe was nuts, as was Rufus turning into a kung-fu typhoon. Both are understated next to the Turkish oil wrestler Hakan.
He coats himself in oil and lies on the ground. Then, if the opponent gets too close or lands on him, they’ll slip and Hakan will grab them. With a spinning flourish, he’ll squeeze them so hard they slip out like a bar of soap and slam into the edge of the screen. His wacky design and moves suggested he’d do something crazy, and the Oil Combination Hold didn’t disappoint.
9 Street Fighter EX2 Plus: Skullo Dream
Akuma’s Raging Demon super became iconic the moment he zonked M. Bison with it in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. So, it was bound to spawn a bunch of wacky imitators like Morrigan’s Eternal Slumber in Marvel Vs Capcom, Iggy’s Sand Storm in Jojo’sBizarreAdventure, and Skullomania’s Skullo Dream.
In the original EX and EX+Alpha, the skeletal superhero would strike his foe with comic-style quick cuts of attacks. For the sequel, it was spiced up with some random cutaways like Skullomania stomping the opponent between the legs, fighting them in a dust cloud, or having tea with them at a little table. At least he’s courteous in his beatdown.
8 Final Fight Revenge: Poison Kiss
Most people would think Poison, the notorious lady punk from Final Fight, made her playable fighting game debut in Street Fighter X Tekken. However, if they hung around the right arcades or had a Japanese Sega Saturn, they would’ve found her in Final Fight Revenge: a weird 3D fighter with all the Final Fight cast from the grunts to the bosses.
Nearly all their supers could count for this list, like Haggar piledriving people through the earth, or Rolento chasing them down in a helicopter. However, they pale next to Poison’s kiss-induced, saucy version of the Raging Demon. Ever wanted to see her do the Marilyn Monroe pose over the air vent? Try out this game, then take a long, hard look in the mirror and think about life.
7 Marvel Series: Otoko Michi
Street Fighter’s perennial gag character Dan Hibiki has his fair share of goofy supers. The super fireball with pathetic range. That big grin at the end of his barrage Shisso Buraiken super. His Super Taunt that spends max meter to do nothing but leave Dan at his opponent’s mercy. The only step up from that would be a move that kills him when he does it.
Enter the Otoko Michi from the Marvel games. Do the Raging Demon super command in reverse, and Dan will dash, grab his foe and, with a loud cry to his father (“OYAAAAJJJIIIII!”), he’ll blow up. It’ll inflict a decent amount of damage to his victim...while leaving him with just a speck of health left. He might hurt his foe, but they just need to jab him afterward to win.
6 Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Road Roller Da!
Nowadays, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is a familiar anime staple. Even people who have never seen the series know about its memes. But between 1997 and 2012, if people were familiar with it at all, they knew it from the Capcom fighting game with the Road Roller.
Series villain Dio Brando will leap off-screen, then drop a road roller on his opponent before pummeling it until it explodes. Even in a game that features a fighting dog, the Road Roller left people perplexed. Was that a real thing from the manga? Yes it was, and it would only get stranger as anime fans 20+ years later would find out.
5 Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax: Claw Machine Mutilation
Chances are that light novel lovers are already aware of Sega and Ecole Software’s Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax. Characters from Sword Art Online, A Certain Magical Index, Toradora, and more battle it out to take down the Zetsumu Organisation. Kirino Kōsaka from Oreimo also pops up as a playable character.
Her native series saw her try to hide her nerdy interests from her friends and family. By this game, she was confident enough in them to trap her foe in a Claw Machine and grab them for big damage. For an extra kicker, it’s based on the UFO Catcher from the Yakuza games (and actual real-life game centers), complete with music and sound effects.
4 King Of Fighters 14: The Wisdom!
SNK has had a lot of weird characters, but not many weird supers. King of Fighters’ tiny Freddy Krueger knockoff Choi slashes people with his claws. Poisonous ninja Lin pummels and poisons them. Muimui from the pachinko game Dragon Gal summons a dragon. They’re colorful if typical for the characters.
Nothing is typical about Xanadu. This con with the loopy beard and bug eyes flails his arms, shouts, and babbles nonsense to himself. His Climax move sees him do more of the same, only to pause in awe of some off-screen light. “Eureka!” he cries as his move ends. What did he see in that light? No one knows, and no one seemingly cares as he’s been left behind in KOF 14...for now.
3 Guilty Gear Xrd: Stimulating Fists Of Annihilation
If this list counted Fatalities and Instant Kills, Guilty Gear’s Faust would out-weird the whole Mortal Kombat roster. He blows his foe up with an afro-inducing bomb in Guilty Gear X, then accidentally nukes the entire stage in X2. Then his impromptu plastic surgery in Xrd gives his opponent a new, randomly-generated face. But super move-wise, his ‘Stimulating Fist of Annihilation’ is dodgy enough.
Faust swims through the ground and gives his opponent a game of chance. If they find the angel in one of 4 cups, they’ll escape the move. If they find the Reaper, Faust will stick his fingers together and...strike a stimulating spot. He had this move in GGX and X2. Xrd just used those new 3D graphics to zoom in on his fingers and his foe’s unfortunate reactions.
2 World Heroes Perfect: Secret Garden
ADK’s premier fighter saw figures from history take each other on in a deadly tournament. That sounds cool, though their design team had issues. Jack the Ripper became a 70s punk. Captain Kidd became a buff pirate that lynches his foes. While Mudman summons his gods to lift them up to Heaven with his bongos.
It only gets weirder as Rasputin is turned into an effete stereotype with magic powers. His Secret Garden super has him pull his foe into a rosy bush, then the two tussle within it as a big love heart with his face pops out. If he does it at max level, he’ll give them two goes in the garden.
1 Vampire Savior: Midnight Bliss
The Darkstalkers games are full of odd moves and transformations. Lord Raptor turning his foe into a basketball for the Hell Dunk. Lilith making them dance in a little rhythm game for her enjoyment. Jedah slicing his foe apart in a sea of blood. Yet it’s Demitri, one of the series’ drier characters, that has the series’ most infamous transformation super move.
In Vampire Savior, he’ll dash and grab his opponent, and turn them into something more to his liking before draining their blood. The men get turned into women, and the women get dolled up or made into something strange. For a standard shoto, this super gave him some flavor, and became a part of his arsenal in SVC: SNK Vs Capcom Chaos and Capcom Fighting Evolution.