Whenever a new fighting game is made, there has to be a decent balance to the roster. They can’t have too many characters similar to each other, as gamers have different tastes and styles. If one of your favorites doesn’t make the base roster, it’s probably because they have a gameplay equivalent already.
This focus on uniqueness made us remember how Injustice 2 got over this problem. Rather than have a clone character take someone else’s spot, the devs decided to make them an alternate skin for existing fighters. Even though they were skins, they still had different voices and character interactions, making them feel completely different.
How has no other fighting game copied this feature yet?
A major reason fans loved this Injustice 2 feature is that it let other characters become playable, while not wasting someone else’s roster slot. Rather than make Mr. Freeze a different character to Captain Cold, they just had them share move-sets. They did the same for numerous heroes and villains, letting Reverse-Flash and Power Girl be alternate skins for The Flash and Supergirl.
Can you imagine how many resources Marvel would save if they did this for a future fighting game? Have Spider-Gwen be an alternate skin for Spider-Man with unique lines. Do the same for Yelena Belova by making her an alternate for Black Widow. You know fans would love it if Betta Ray Bill were an alternate skin for Thor.
Street Fighter V almost did this, giving characters alternate skins based on existing Capcom IP. Ken had a Dante skin, Chun-Li had a Morrigan costume, and Oni had a sick Asura look. Despite these skins being great, they kept the regular character voices, so you weren’t really getting Dante with Ken’s move-set.
Despite introducing the idea in Injustice 2, NetherRealm has only done this a few times since. In Mortal Kombat 11, they introduced a movie pack DLC and brought back the actors to voice themselves again. Mortal Kombat 1 also had a Jean-Claude Van Damme version of Johnny Cage, since he was supposed to play this character before.
click to enlargeHonestly, there’s still lots of potential with this alternate character skin feature. Street Fighter 6 could get a ton of mileage out of unique character skins. Imagine an Evil skin for Ryu, or an Oni look for Akuma. We would absolutely love a Decapre skin for Cammy with unique dialogue when the two former Dolls face off.
We know that this amazing feature will still require a lot of work. The move-sets and base model are there, but this does require different voice actors and additional writing for unique character interactions. However, that extra amount of effort would be enough to get money from fans, as these are much more in-depth than regular costumes.
So please copy the amazing unique character skin feature from Injustice 2. Maybe also give us an Injustice 3 while you’re at it.
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