YMMV / Heroes Unlimited

• Fashion-Victim Villain: Even for a super hero genre series some of the costume designs in this game are... interesting to say the least.
• Game-Breaker: Even with their many restrictions and drawbacks Mega-Hero characters can easily become this. They get access to some extremely useful abilities that often fall into Boring, but Practical territory (such as hundreds of extra hit points or the ability to breathe without air) in addition to a handful of powerful buffs that other heroes simply don't get. They probably won't need to settle for just one either, since the rules allow them to acquire two mega powers if the GM allows it. Even their main weakness can end up being little more than a mild annoyance with a little luck from the RNG. In fact, the game book actually includes a small section warning about how important planning and control is when allowing this type of character and even recommends only using them when everyone agrees to play as a Mega-Hero so that they don't overshadow the other players!
  • The "Immune to Psionics" and "Immune to Magic" abilities introduced in Powers Unlimited are horribly broken when used on the right kind of character. While neither grants 100% total immunity and both come with a few major drawbacks the sheer usefulness of the abilities make them well worth the price. Having just one makes a hero heavily resistant to about a quarter of the powers the game can throw at them and makes an otherwise mediocre character into a beast while making an already great hero into a complete titan in the right circumstances. Tired of your godlike Flying Brick getting completely locked down by that annoying mage or psychic? Slap these bad boys on your character and those annoying punks lose about 90% of their effectiveness, threat and danger. On a good hero these powers can be deadly, but on a juggernaut? Game over kiddos...
  • While the game has some very strict rules on power mixing to help preserve game balance there are a ton of loopholes savvy players can exploit with some careful planning and creative thinking. While players cannot mix two elemental forms (such as fire and electricity) together on the same hero there aren't really many rules for comboing powers between two different categories together. An example provided by the game itself notes that both water form and superspeed can be used together since both would logically be compatible with one another without either being cancelled out or deactivated. The result? Said player can use both powers to form a giant tidal wave to sweep the battlefield at hundreds of MPH to deal massive damage to their enemies and even knock them off their feet as a bonus. That's good enough on it's own but if the GM was particularly lax (or just plain careless) about how players were allowed to pick powers they could easily create a hero team with super synergy via power mixing from different heroes to make for some devastating combos. (The aforementioned giant tidal wave not enough? Maybe throw in a few heroes with lightning or earth control powers to make a giant electricity wall or speeding mudslide!) While the books do take the time to mention that the game is more about playing as a team, fully thinking things through and working together than it is about power-gaming or tricking the GM... when has admonishment from the developers ever stopped a really determined munchkin?
  • While most abilities in this game aren't really too OP on their own there are a few (such as the above mentioned magic/psionic immunity powers from Powers Unlimited) that are so good by themselves that they make comboing or additional powers completely redundant. One example of such a power is Alter Physical Structure: Plasma which grants several fantastic abilities to the player all on its own. First and foremost is the power to shoot deadly plasma bolts that can easily deal upwards of 50 damage per hit (in a game where most characters don't have a combined S.D.C./HP count over 100) and a lethally hot plasma body that can burn foes to a crisp with a single touch. As if all that firepower wasn't enough already going plasma form also grants the hero several immunities (most notably to heat, bullets and wooden projectiles), allows its user to fly and lets them burn through both thick wood and solid steel in seconds. The only real downside to this power is an increased weakness to cold/water attacks... and the fact that the character becomes so dangerous and destructive that they now have to be careful to avoid doing excess damage to their surroundings and innocent bystanders! Hardly a fair penalty for such an arsenal... and that's just by itself, it can also be used with several other powers if the player made some good rolls during character creation. Best of all? It's available in the second edition of the base game. That means any player can become a walking engine of fiery destruction without even needing to buy one of the many superpower-focused sourcebooks!
  • While the core rulebook generally has some pretty strict rules for how certain abilities and skills should interact much of the content provided in sourcebooks is noticeably much more lenient due to many of the new superpowers coming from ideas submitted by Palladium fans or other sources. In particular, the Powers Unlimited series of supplemental material is an especially notable example of this with there clearly being little to no consideration how seemingly impotent or mundane powers might interact with one another. For an example, one new ability introduced in Powers Unlimited is "Indestructible Bones" which does nothing except give the character indestructible bones. That's it. Normally, this would only be moderately useful but the vagueness of the ability gives it some pretty insane potential. Does it also effect teeth/fangs, horns and fingernails/claws? If so the character can now bite, pierce or slash through anything with ease. What about characters that have "bones" on the outside, such as shells or exoskeletons? If the power doesn't just affect internal bones then these characters are basically wearing indestructible armor over potentially 90% or more of their body 24/7. These are just a few examples of how easily these poorly defined superpowers can break a game in the right hands.