When a Single Addition Rewrites Everything
Some characters arrive and fundamentally alter their games. Not just in small ways—the entire experience shifts around them. Sometimes a character is so powerful, so innovative, or so perfectly designed that playing without them feels weird. These twenty characters didn't just join their games; they became the reason people kept playing or the reason they stopped.
Sergey Galyonkin from Raleigh, USA on Wikimedia
1. Meta Knight (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)
Meta Knight was basically cheating. He could recover from anywhere, his attacks beat almost everyone else's, and he was fast enough to avoid most problems. If you played Brawl competitively and didn't use Meta Knight, you were making things harder on yourself for no reason.
Philip Terry Graham on Wikimedia
2. The Spy (Team Fortress 2)
The Spy made everyone paranoid. You could disguise as the enemy team, turn invisible, and one-hit kill anyone from behind. Suddenly, you had to shoot your own teammates just to make sure they were real. The mind games changed everything.
The Conmunity - Pop Culture Geek from Los Angeles, CA, USA on Wikimedia
3. Akuma (Super Street Fighter II Turbo)
Akuma was the boss character who became playable, and he was way too strong. His special moves were better versions of what other characters had, and his ultimate could delete half your health bar. The game company banned him from tournaments because he was unfair.
Enrique Guzmán Egas on Unsplash
4. Brigitte (Overwatch)
Brigitte ruined dive comp overnight. For over a year, Overwatch was all about fast characters like Tracer and Genji jumping on the enemy team. Then Brigitte showed up with a stun that stopped them cold and armor that made their damage useless. The entire competitive scene changed within weeks.
5. Fox (Super Smash Bros. Melee)
Fox isn't necessarily the strongest character in Melee, yet he's what competitive Melee is all about. He's fast, has complicated combos, and rewards technical skill more than any other character. About a third of tournament players use him because he can do things other characters can't.
6. The Medic (Team Fortress 2)
The Medic's invincibility charge changed TF2 from a regular shooter into something strategic. For eight seconds, your team can't die, which means you can push through areas that would normally be suicide. Every competitive match revolves around whose Medic has their charge ready and when they use it.
Roger Murmann from Eppertshausen, Deutschland on Wikimedia
7. Bayonetta (Super Smash Bros. for Wii U)
Bayonetta nearly killed Smash 4's competitive scene. She could combo you from 0% damage straight to death, and there wasn't much you could do about it. Some places banned her from tournaments entirely.
8. The Demoman (Team Fortress 2)
The Demoman controlled entire sections of maps with sticky bombs. He could place eight remote explosives and blow them up whenever he wanted. The developers kept trying to balance him but couldn't, because removing what made him strong would break the game's defense strategies.
9. Junkrat (Overwatch)
Junkrat started out fine, then the developers gave him two mines instead of one, and he became a flying nightmare. He could kill most characters in one combo, bounce around maps like crazy, and control areas that other characters couldn't touch.
10. Oddjob (GoldenEye 007)
Oddjob was the short guy, and that made him nearly unbeatable. The game's auto-aim targeted where normal-height characters stood, which meant it missed Oddjob constantly. Every friend group had the unspoken rule: if you pick Oddjob, you're admitting you need an unfair advantage to win.
11. The Scout (Team Fortress 2)
Scout went from annoying side character to the centerpiece of competitive TF2. He's fast, can double jump, and captures objectives twice as quickly as other classes. In organized matches, teams always run two Scouts. Always.
Tim Dorr from Atlanta, United States on Wikimedia
12. Invoker (Dota 2)
Invoker has ten abilities instead of the normal four, and you have to memorize combinations to use them. He's incredibly difficult to play, which makes him fascinating. Good players make him look unstoppable. Average players make him look useless.
13. Ana (Overwatch)
Ana was the first support character who felt powerful and skill-based. She could heal teammates by shooting them, but she could also prevent enemies from healing at all with her grenade. Her sleep dart could shut down ultimate abilities.
Michael Ocampo from United States on Wikimedia
14. Thresh (League of Legends)
Thresh came out in 2013, and he's still relevant in professional play today. He has a hook, a tool that pulls teammates to safety, an ability that knocks enemies away, and an ultimate that helps in team fights. His lantern specifically changed how the game works by letting you save teammates who made mistakes or start fights from unexpected angles.
15. Genji (Overwatch)
Genji represented a character where skill actually mattered. He could wall climb, double jump, and reflect enemy attacks back at them. His ultimate could wipe entire teams if you were good enough. The best Genji players made him look like a completely different character than what normal players experienced.
Paulo Guereta from São Paulo on Wikimedia
16. Ice Climbers (Super Smash Bros. Melee)
Ice Climbers are two characters controlled at once, and that creates weird advantages. They have an infinite combo that can kill any character from a single grab, discovered in 2004 and still debated today. Some tournaments banned the technique, others allowed it, splitting the community.
17. Roadhog (Overwatch)
Early Roadhog could hook you and kill you instantly. He had 600 health and could heal himself for 300. Playing against him meant your positioning had to be perfect, or you'd get deleted. When they nerfed his combo in 2017, Roadhog players were furious.
Richie S from Brooklyn, NY, United States on Wikimedia
18. Yasuo (League of Legends)
Yasuo is the most played and most hated champion at the same time. He has a wall that deletes projectiles and infinite dashes through enemies. He's frustrating to play against and apparently frustrating to play as, yet people can't stop picking him.
19. The Engineer (Team Fortress 2)
The Engineer builds things: sentries that auto-shoot enemies, dispensers that give health and ammo, and teleporters that move the team forward. His buildings create the infrastructure that defensive play revolves around. A single weapon swapped his powerful sentry for faster, weaker ones, allowing aggressive placement and fundamentally changing his role.
Pikawil from Laval, Canada on Wikimedia
20. Master Chief (Halo: Combat Evolved)
Master Chief didn't change his own game since he was always there, yet he changed what shooters on consoles could be. Halo built everything around console controls and proved that shooters could work great without a mouse and keyboard.
