While there are plenty of Fighting Games out there that have had players taking the easy way out, The King of Fighters seems to exacerbate this even more than most examples.
Series-wide
- Iori Yagami is a very reliable character in the hands of a good player, having very solid offense and damage output once you get back some of his possibly clunky moves and slow walking speed. This is mainly due to the fact that his moveset is simple and very effective, but he lacks in solid pressure due to some unsafe attacks on block or on whiff. His EX version (or rather, his classic moveset) in XIII is no exception to this. Not so much in XV, however, where he's overshadowed by the likes of VRT - Vanessa, Ralf, and Terry.
- The Orochi versions of the New Faces Team were used much more than their original versions; Orochi Shermie was the least used, and meanwhile, Orochi Yashiro was considered a high tier character.
- Goro Daimon, due to his high damage potential as a grappler and some very reliable gimmicks compared to other grapplers of his kind.
- Takuma Sakazaki, due to his powerful offensive game when he corners his opponent. Ditto for his EX counterpart, Mr. Karate in XIII, who is considerably more well-rounded than regular Takuma.
- Kim Kaphwan was a staple for several offensive Tae Kwon Do characters; due to the nature of the KOF series overall, he was a very perfect character for space control and offensive pressure alike. There's probably a very good reason why he sat out KOF XV's launch.
- K' wasn't often as frequent in the past, but a lot of current installments (notably 2002 UM) make him very frequent due to his nasty and simple combo potential and his very solid space control game.
- Kyo has always been a reliable character in his various incarnations over the years thanks to having a solid set of normal attacks, easy screen carry with his Shiki Kai kicks, and a great mixup game thanks to his Aragami series of attacks.
Specific Games
- XIII had several examples:
- The original arcade release featured K' and Raiden on damn near every team. K' was very over tuned, meanwhile Raiden had his devastating dropkicks that took off absurd damage. Elisabeth was also popular thanks to how fast she built meter and being able to do big damage with only one super meter. When the game hit consoles, all three were nerfed considerably and didn't see much tournament play.
- Then there was "Team $15," consisting of the three DLC characters, EX Kyo, EX Iori, and Mr. Karate, whose combined cost was $15. The three were considered so strong (especially the latter two) that by the end of the game's competitive life, it wasn't strange to see one or more of them (or even all three) heavily used in tournament matches.
- Additionally, as mentioned above, you also had Kim as a very frequent sight in tournament due to a combination of several factors, really. Good damage, amazing rushdown, great meter efficiency, and for just being a reliable character in general.
- In '98, and more so in the Ultimate Match version, the EX versions of the characters were overused in several tournaments. EX Yamazaki, EX Billy, EX Mary, EX Ryo and EX Yuri being very frequent in the scene. Due to that case, EX Geese (who was a rebalanced version of Nightmare and Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 Geese in one) was used a lot more than normal Geese, possibly due to his better zoning with actual projectile-based Reppuuken attacks.
- Krauser, as mentioned in the Game Breaker page, ESPECIALLY his Ultimate Match incarnation. He was thankfully nerfed quite a bit in the Final Edition version.
- Depending on the version of XIV...
- Shun'ei towards the end of the game's lifecycle. Being one of the easier and more reliable characters on the roster to use while having highly damaging combos with little required in the way of execution certainly made him a common pick later on in XIV's lifecycle.
- XIV as a whole had light confirms into MAX Mode (Quick) cancels up the ass to the point the developers went out of their way to rectify this in XV by making MAX Mode more expensive to use (two bars as opposed to one in XIV) while also freeing up EX Moves, as MAX Mode had to be enabled beforehand in order to use them. This among many other changes to avoid this trope entirely after seeing competitive matches in XIV.
- And as for KOF XV...
- Only a month after the game's launch and KOF XV has already seen its first power trio in the form of Ralf, Terry, and Vanessa. The three of them are a frequent sight for a number of reasons: ease of use (most especially in the case of Ralf and Terry), very high damage potential - most especially without meter - that's easily attainable, buttons that simply can't be contested by other characters (Ralf's standing Strong Kick being a prime example), and overall low risk, high reward playstyles that other characters on the roster simply can't keep up with.
- If not VRT, then there's definitely Dolores, who is an exceptionally well-rounded grappler character with high (and meter-efficient) combo damage, absurd space control, and easy, low-risk confirms that can be pulled off no matter your level of play.
- Elisabeth also isn't too far off since she's capable of some insane damage output with as little as half a bar of the Power Gauge, good normals, (again) excellent space control, and she is a living nightmare for zoners like Ash (amusingly) or Athena to deal with thanks to Illusion, which puts Elisabeth right behind the poor sap that dared to throw a projectile at her, and Aurore, her Attack Reflector (that is also a useful combo tool in its own right).
- Krohnen. Where to begin? Fantastic (and banally easy) damage output - especially with meter - one of the best Anti Airs/Reversals in the entire game period with Heat Shield (with a close second being the infamous Genocide Cutter), fantastic normals to harass the opponent with at any range (Crouching C is an outright contender for That One Attack, next to Ralf's pre-patch far D), and is just flat-out amazing no matter your skill level. There's a reason viewers of EVO 2022 was calling it Krohnen of Fighters (and, yes, the winner did have Krohnen on his team).
- Feel free to take a pocket Iori on your way back to the main page!
