Assemble! - Fighting Game Archetype Roster - The Joke Fighter

This is Assemble, where we look at several different characters across multiple series to form a perfect team-up. Whatever the case may be, whether it’s a fighting game roster or an RPG adventuring party, we’ll find the best team for the job. In a change of style from the more long-form articles featured here, these articles will be shorter entries, focusing on one or two characters each, and spread out over time until the complete roster is formed. 

What would a fighting game be without a roster of several different, powerful, and engaging characters? In this batch of articles for Assemble, we will be assembling a fighting game roster using characters from several different fighting games based on different character archetypes.

The picks will be based on where the characters fit in terms of game mechanics and their place in the story and world of the game. Only characters that originated in fighting games will be observed here. That means no guest characters, no licensed fighting games (unless their roster includes original characters), and no crossover titles. Finally, I’ll only be discussing games or characters that I am at least somewhat familiar with. While this means I won’t discuss all the fighting games out there, there should be at least some variety from just the major titles.

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THE JOKE FIGHTER

With this guy, the joke’s always on them.

The Joke Fighter is a character in the roster best known for being the designated comic relief. They often have the wildest, most exaggerated personality and interactions with this character tend to result in wacky shenanigans. However, this character is often also the weakest character in the roster, with ineffective moves in battle or stats or passive abilities that are completely underpowered compared to everyone else in the game. Some players even consider it a challenge worth bragging about to have beaten the game using this character.

Basically, the opposite of characters like this.

While certain characters may immediately come to mind for this fighter in the roster, our choice comes from the indie fighting game, Divekick. 

Divekick is a parody of normal fighting games with overly simplified controls, tongue-in-cheek jokes and references, and characters that each carry a laundry list of funny moments, including an inept and deep-in-debt martial arts master that wears shoes on his hands, a definitely-not-a-wolverine, and a cross between Yun from Street Fighter and Will Smith. (Yes, that Will Smith.) This is another instance where any of these characters could fit for the category, so to stand out, the one selected for the Joke Fighter would have to prove to be more of a joke than others in the roster.

Our choice for the Joke Fighter is…

Mr. N from Divekick.

To really understand the jokes behind this character, one should know something about his main inspiration, Martin Phan a.k.a. Marn.

Marn was a competitive fighting game player, placing high in tournaments for games like Tatsunoko vs. Capcom or Guilty Gear XX: Reload. He was even sponsored at one point. However, when he took an administrative role in an Ohio-based fighting game tournament called Seasons Beatings, Marn (who was also a competitor in the event) rigged the brackets for the Guilty Gear portion of the event in his favor. After his cheating attempt was discovered, the Guilty Gear portion was canceled and all of its matches were invalidated. Other controversies followed, including getting barred from being a tournament stream commentator after remarks relating to sexual harassment and an attempt to form a League of Legends pro team that fell through due to mismanagement.

His Divekick counterpart, Mr. N, is an exaggerated caricature of Marn. While Marn is overweight in real life, Mr. N is morbidly obese. Mr. N’s outfit consists of a toddler-style onesie, a neck-support pillow, and a towel being worn as a cape, many of his mannerisms are silly and unflattering, his special ability in the game involves running away from the opponent, and even when he wins a match, he sits on the ground with several plates of food while crying. Even some of the other ridiculous characters in this game use Mr. N as an example of how not to be a fighter.

For being portrayed as a joke character, even among other joke characters, we now add Mr. N to the roster.

ADDED!

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Honorable Mention: Dan Hibiki (Street Fighter)

For many fighting game players, Dan Hibiki is the definitive joke character. He wears a pink gi, his moves are significantly weaker versions from characters like Ryu and Ken, his boisterous and arrogant personality get him into trouble very often, luck just can’t seem to go his way, and he has a super move made entirely of non-damaging taunts. What separates him from Mr. N is how they are regarded by the fans of their respective games. Dan has had moments in the past where he was a low-key viable fighter in terms of gameplay (maybe not top-tier, but at least somewhat viable) and, in story material, Dan has even had some endearing moments. Mr. N on the other hand gets nothing but ridicule for whatever he does and is shown as a completely negative caricature, one that some would argue even borders on bullying toward the character’s inspiration.

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What did you think about this article? Want to see what other characters get picked for our roster? Do you think someone would fit this role better besides whoever got picked? Make your voice heard in the comments below. Thanks for coming.