Summary

  • Unbalanced gameplay can lead to chaotic fun with friends, like Mortal Kombat Armageddon's massive roster of 62 fighters.
  • Quantity over quality can make games more enjoyable, as seen in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 with a stunning 161 characters.
  • Pay-to-win mechanics in games like Roblox allow for a unique gaming experience with exploitable mechanics and monetization options.

There are games that are notorious for being unbalanced. Sometimes this is due to an oversight where certain features can be used in combo to achieve unexpected results. Other times, this can be an exploit that a player discovers to have an edge over others. However, the best times are when these unbalanced elements are deliberately intended in order to make things more enjoyable.

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Having a balanced game can lead to fair matches in a competitive environment, but having unbalanced gameplay can lead to plenty of chaotic fun with friends, especially when players are able to randomize things. This tends to happen when a game is focused on providing quantity over quality, or a single tide-turning item.

5 Mortal Kombat Armageddon

Quantity Over Quality

Mortal Kombat Armageddon All characters

Fighting
Platform(s)
PS2, Wii, Xbox (Original)
Released
October 11, 2006
Developer(s)
Midway Games, Just Games Interactive

This is a clear example of why quantity can sometimes be better than quality. Competitive fighting games tend to have a small character roster to make things easier to balance, and will slowly add new characters over time to add more variety and keep the game interesting and fun. However, this is not the case for Mortal Kombat Armageddon, which was released with a total of 62 fighters right off the bat. This included every well-known fighter from past Mortal Kombat games, along with some completely obscure ones. The game also featured a handful of hulking powerhouses like the Dragon King, Onaga, and the final boss figure, Blaze.

These powerhouses hit very hard, and characters like Molock could charge forward in a rage-like frenzy. Players can also sidestep to have slower-moving projectiles and charges zoom right past them with much more ease than others. This resulted in characters having play styles that differed from others. From button mashers to ones that players would need to actually learn the combos of. What made this so much fun was that even though it sometimes felt like matches had fighters that should be in different games, the sheer size of the roster let friends both select the randomized fighter option and take each other on with little to no knowledge of how to play them. This prevents a player from only playing the best Mortal Kombat characters for every match.

4 Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3

Made To Appease Fans Of The Franchise

Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Title goku

Fighting
Platform(s)
PS2, Wii
Released
November 9, 2007
Developer(s)
Spike

Dragon Ball is a very long-running franchise that added new faces, and fighters, as the series progressed. With each of the Dragon Ball Z Budokai games, more and more characters were added. With Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 has a stunning 161 characters. This includes some of the franchise’s strongest characters from the original story, Z, GT, films, and more. A lot of the characters added are purely for lore and to fluff up the game’s story mode.

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The gameplay itself is far from anything in the competitive world of fighting games, with different characters needing different mechanics for their special attacks to deal maximum damage. This included time button pressing, spinning analog sticks, and some special moves hit for maximum damage without any additional work. Some giant characters and transformations don’t flinch like normal-sized characters when being hit with physical attacks. This is one of the best Dragon Ball games for casual fighting game enthusiasts who are also massive fans of the franchise.

3 Mario Kart 64

Features An Unstoppable Item That Seeks Out The Player In First Place

Mario Kart 64 Wario Bowser Peach Toad Upscaled

Racing
Platform(s)
N64
Released
December 14, 1996
Developer(s)
Nintendo EAD

While the first Mario Kart game was Super Mario Kart back on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was not until Super Mario 64 that the series would receive one of the most iconic and OP items in the game, the Blue Spiny Shell — more commonly referred to as the Blue Shell in many communities. This is a blue shell of a Koopa with spikes sticking out of it, and will only be able to be acquired by races that are between the 4th and 8th positions.

When used, this item will pursue and strike the player that is in first place, stunning them in the process. It can also strike any other race that it touches between the user and the racer in the first place. This means a skilled racer could take first place early on, and hold this place until the last few seconds of the race, only to be hit by an item used by the racer in last place. This can prevent them from placing in the top 3 spots while the user still comes in last place.

2 Roblox

Pay To Win Everywhere

Roblox title bloxtopians

Game Creation System
Platform(s)
PC, iOS, Android, Xbox One, PS4
Released
September 1, 2006
Developer(s)
Roblox Corporation

Roblox is so much more than just one game, it is an infinite number of different experiences that players are able to explore. Similar to what Fortnite has turned into since it first made the scene. Players will open the Roblox Player app and begin to navigate all manner of different experiences. There are shooters, RPGs, simulators, tycoon games, and even a wide range of experiences for players who just want to relax. Creators of these games can include all manner of monetization options that can get them Robux from their players.

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This means games are riddled with exploits, skips, and pay-to-win mechanics. There are a lot of games where this does not negatively affect players who don’t buy anything. One game might have a giant player pick up and fling a player, while another game might have a player setting in motion a cataclysmic event that changes the very game world for a limited time. Players can drop out of an experience and into a new one at any time, and this makes for a one-of-a-kind gaming experience.

1 Blood Bowl 2

You Gotta Roll On Some Ones

Blood Bowl 2 Legendary Edition Orks vs humans
  • Platforms: PS4, PC, Xbox One
  • Released: 22 September 2015
  • Developers: Cyanide
  • Genres: turn-based strategy, sports

While the latest video game adaptation of the Blood Bowl franchise may be Blood Bowl 3, Blood Bowl 2 offers so much more bang for a player's buck. The Blood Bowl IP is deliberately made to be unbalanced, with success being a combination of tactical turn-based choices and a lot of luck. A team’s “Big Guy” is a character with dangerously high stats, but also lots of negative skills that see them not act, or even eat a teammate. You get teams without any of these players, and others where they make the majority.

A coach might try to have one of their players score a point and end up losing their entire turn without any of their other players acting, but this is the addictive nature of a game where the RNG is one of the highest that a gamer can experience. Blood Bowl 3 has a limited roster of teams, while Blood Bowl 2 features 23 teams of varying fantasy races and obscure mechanics — as well as a thriving active community to play against. This is still one of the best strategy games set in the Warhammer universe and well worth looking at.

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