Broken

From SmashWiki, the Super Smash Bros. wiki

Meta Knight inBrawl is an example of a character that is considered broken by many.

Broken is a term used in many games, particularly fighting or otherwise competitive ones, to describe characters, techniques, or other elements or combinations of elements so overpowered that they make the game stop functioning as intended and/or severely skew the game's balance in a player's favor, making alternatives nearly irrelevant by comparison.

A classic example in theSuper Smash Bros. series isFox when the fight occurs inTemple inSuper Smash Bros. Melee: he can outrun almost every other character on the massive stage, and can chip at the enemy by using hisBlaster to fire shots, allowing him to easily time out a match and win by percentage. Another classic example of a broken tactic iswobbling which allows Ice Climbers to take a stock from any character from a single grab. These types of strategies are almost always deemed "broken" and action is taken to prevent it from impacting competitive play; for instance, the former would be addressed by banning Temple, and the latter would be addressed by banning use of the technique. The definition is, by nature, subjective, so what is generally considered broken often changes as the community evolves, particularly after the release on a new game. Despite this, broken elements are usually banned from tournaments, or users of them are at the very least frowned upon: if a broken element is not dealt with, the concern is that the game would simply degenerate into players trying to be the first to make use of it, as nothing else would prove effective. Many casual players instead believe all parts of the games should be allowed; however, due to many broken elements being extremely frustrating to play against, there is a general consensus that using them excessively, or at all, ruins the fun.

Types of broken elements[edit]

Generally, broken elements in theSuper Smash Bros. series come in three forms:

A character has an overpowering advantage on a specific stage (as the Fox on Temple example above); this is dealt with by banning the stage.
A character can create a situation where it is impossible for them to lose, such asstalling indefinitely with something like theInfinite Dimensional Cape or theLuigi Ladder; this is dealt with by limiting or banning usage of the technique.
A game mechanic can completely subvert the challenge involved in completing a task, such as by abusing thepause glitch in the originalSuper Smash Bros. to get a time of 0:00:00; this is also dealt with by limiting or banning the technique's use.

A fourth form of brokenness can exist: a character can, without the aid of stages or techniques, overpower the rest of the cast to the point at which no other character can viably compete. Whether a broken character exists in theSmash series is heavily debated, though a few characters spark more discussion than others:

Pikachu inSmash 64 is sometimes considered broken. For this reason, Pikachu is sometimes banned, and becauseKirby is often considered to be by far the second best character in the game, he is sometimes banned alongside Pikachu as well. Banning or limiting the use of these characters in doubles is even more common, with certaintournament rulesets either banning Pikachu and Kirby outright (Zero Pikachu Kirby or ZPK) or limiting to one Pikachu or Kirby (Single Pikachu/Kirby or SPK) per team. Tournaments will occasionally run both events simultaneously as alternatives.
Meta Knight inSuper Smash Bros. Brawl is the classic example, his legality having been disputed and experimented with for most of the game's competitive lifespan.
Cloud inSuper Smash Bros. 4 was considered by some to be broken in doubles due to his extreme advantages which allowed him to consistently win almost every match in double tournaments. This has been dealt with by banning him in certain tournaments.
Prior to patch 1.1.6,Bayonetta inSSB4 was considered broken enough to be banned in certain regions, including St. Louis, Missouri and Tampa, Florida.
Steve's brokenness inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate is largely debated. People who think Steve is broken cite the incredible utility of every move he has, great recovery, and his ability to block attempts to intercept set ups, and create potentially near-unbeatable situations with his block placing mechanics. Particularly, the Phantom MLG tech which allows Steve to cancel hitstun and immediately counterattack has led many to argue that Steve should be banned from competitive play.

Though other characters have been at some points considered broken, none have been considered broken enough to be banned from most tournaments. InBrawl, theIce Climbers were considered broken by many players, but a widespread ban was never enacted duringBrawl's competitive life; following the release ofSmash 4, they have been occasionally banned at the fewBrawl tournaments hosted, such asGlitch 2.Smash 4Bayonetta was hotly debated to be broken, with some citing statistics^[1] that show her to be very centralising, but because she was not as centralizing asBrawlMeta Knight, bans in high-level tournaments never caught on during the game's lifespan.

Bosses can be considered broken if they are accessed throughhacking.Giga Bowser inMelee is an old, notorious example, with hisWhirling Fortress equivalent having outrightinvincibility on start-up, massive amounts of movement potential, and extremely large hitboxes, making it almost unpunishable and resulting in an extremely warped metagame.Master Hand inUltimate is another example, being intentionally designed to defeat fighters very easily in his playable appearance. However, not all bosses are created equal, with examples likeSmash 64Metal Mario being arguably worse than most of the cast, though they are generally kept banned due to crashes involving theresults screen or other glitches that make organising tournaments difficult.

Other definitions[edit]

The term "broken" is often used colloquially to describe any strong or overpowered gameplay element, particularly one that is frustrating to play against. Though using the term in this way is not technically incorrect, as "broken" is an inherently subjective term, many discourage it, for misusing or overusing the term can lead to it undergoingsemantic bleaching, and prefer the use of alternate terms such as "OP", "stupid", or "insane", which are more in-line with the more emphatic uses of "broken".

More colloquially, broken can refer to elements that arebuggy, or do not work as intended in all circumstances. Broken can also refer to game glitches that cause the game to become unplayable on a greater than superficial level, such asgame crash or game data corrupting glitch.