Do you really, truly, honestly, realistically, deep in the pits of your soul believe that all characters in their respective fighting games were designed and created equally? If so, whatever planet you are on, whenever you get the opportunity, we will have a serious conversation when you come back to earth. So this raises the question, when game developers initially designed each character and their abilities did they unintentional create the top tiered, mid-tiered, and low-tiered characters.

For instance, in Super Smash Brothers have characters such as Marth, Shiek, and Falco on the top tier, Samus and Ganondorf on the mid-tier, and Game and Watch and Yoshi on the low-tier. From a design and development standpoint, there are certain undeniable aspects that must be taken into account which can be summed up into four categories: power, speed, range and priority. These categories can be simply summarized respectively.

Super Smash Brothers

Power is the amount of overage damage inflicted with each attack, normal and special. Speed is the time frame necessary for a character to close a gap, initiate an attack or recover from an attack to counter. Range is the distance in which a character’s attack can inflict damage whether from a lunged attack, projectile attack, or an extension such as swords, staffs, et cetera. And finally, priority is when two attacks are initiated at the exact moment, which attack is given precedence over another.
 
Now after these categories are clarified, the next thing that must be taken into account when designing and developing characters is how in fact will these characters be balanced. If one character is superior in power, the opponent must be able to counter by attacking out of range, be able to move away from danger before taking damage, or haven a move in its arsenal that has priority over its opponent. One can continue to use the reasoning when countering the other respective categories. The only problem with this methodology lies in the fact that the designers lack of knowledge and underestimation of not just the top-tiered characters, but top-tiered players.

Who knew someone would find the Steve Fox gut check glitch in the first version of Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection? Or that Super Smash Brothers’ Falcon’s Shine which initiates in the first frame of the animation knocks a character up which isn’t a big deal. But his down smash attack is a glitch in that he falls faster than he jumps so that the top-tiered player can repeat that combo for serious damage.

I don’t think I need to explain Ryu, Ken and Akuma’s flying uppercut against any air attack and invincibility “through” projectile attacks. There are countless other examples in various different games. And no matter the amount of funding, designers, testers, or research and development, it is nearly impossible to find these glitches that inevitably imbalance a “perfect” game if you do not know what to look for or know the competitive aspect of the games.

My final prognosis: Designers and developers should design and develop games. But true hardcore, experienced gamers should be consulted in the early and latter phases of the games so that they can take them to the next level. Any other answer to this problem would only lead one to fool themselves into believing a game is glitch free. Will characters ever be completely “balanced?” Probably not. But our best hope is to allow the gamers that find and make these glitches to do so before they hit the market.