80’s Slasher Fighter

I’m a decent fighting game fan. My go to will probably always be Mortal Kombat, and the latest few entries in the series has me thinking. After Arnold, Alien, and Predator, showed up as guest characters, it would be pretty cool to break out as its own game. The focus would be on 80’s action slashers, but I’d bring in action horror, and comedy horror as well. Like a larger Freddy v Jason. It’d be a spin off from the MK studios so I could keep the Mortal Kombat chassis, but my roster would be …

Character Roster

I’ve broken down the roster by character type, including an explanation of each of the 4 types, and their play styles. Then, I break out each character with the feel for how they will play, and special moves or iconic abilities they would have.

• Rush: Aggressive, fast characters. In your face, hitting lots of fast combos. Their goal is to be adjacent to their opponent and try to hit a juggling attack. They tend to be fast and frail.
  • Alien: Alien is a classic rush character. It runs around on all fours and charges, but I’d also give it powers to stick to the walls (like you are playing MvC2) or even stick to the ceiling. Really give it a “can come from anywhere” feel. I may also give it a “call a friend” power. Where a second one jumps out from off screen for a hit, and scurries away.
  • Michael Myers: Michael, fast? I know what you’re thinking. In this game, Michael will not be fast, but will have tons of teleport style powers. He can walk off one side of the screen and appear behind you. He can open a cellar door and pop up under you. He can climb a ladder and fall on you from above. Then he slashes away. Otherwise, his character is animated to basically stand around menacingly.
  • Pazuzu: The demon from the exorcist, having taken possession of Regan. She’s a Rush fighter, and probably floats off the ground a bit in a T pose. Attacks are clearly a body being controlled, and very off-putting. One big attack is obviously the vomit power, but we could also give it a throw where Pazuzu jumps into the opponent beats themselves up, and back into a limp Regan laying on the floor.
  • The Thing: The thing is a shapeshifter, and the game should reflect that. I think it starts in quadruped form, but if it fills some meter, it can turn into a clone of the main character, forcing a mirror match. In primary form, it has a bunch of grow pointy flesh appendage powers that give it an OK reach, but are fast hitting. In second form, it plays like the character emulated, but gains 2-3 fast attack body horror powers as well. Things like spikey appendage growth.
• Zone: They control screen space. Generally across the screen, but maybe at a weird midpoint. They tend to keep opponents away and blast with reach or ranged attacks. They tend to be slow and frail.
  • Candyman: He’s obviously got the hook, and that will be his basic attack. His real thing is the bees, which he will use to make zone based attacks. He can shoot bee blasts, but we can also have them bubble up from the ground, or swarm in from behind and hit.
  • Cenobite: The Cenobites are a good option to bring in. The temptation is to use Pinhead, but another option to bring a lady front and center is good. So we will use a Cenobite, known as Female Cenobite. We will also tell Clive Barker to work on his names, because she’s got a legit history. Anyway, she’s going to be a zoner, with some basic attacks, but her big thing will be summoning chains and hooks from off screen to lash at folks. From above, below, or behind her.
  • Freddy Kruger: Freddy will have some dream powers, and your most “Magic” like abilities. Giant claws from out of the sky, teleporting, that sort of thing. He can use them to keep folks away from him, and has to have some good taunts.
  • Predator: The predator should just have a pile of weapons. That cool chakram, shoulder mounted lasers, grapple line, stuff like that. The chakram is his fast far reaching attack that does minimal damage, lasers are his medium reach and strike ground and/or air. A grapple line can be used to pull people closer setting up combos and messing with their ability to judge zones. Lastly, its pretty iconic, so he should also be able to go invisible. Maybe in general, or maybe as a part of a dash forward and strike power so that the invisibility makes it hard to judge timing.
• Shoto: “Default” or straight forward characters. They tend to be characters like Ryu, who have the moves that are easy for new players to pick up, but difficult to master.
  • Bride of Chucky: Chucky is the more serious entry, but we are hurting for women in our list, and Tiffany is a legit horror icon. She is going to end up our OddJob. Small, hard to hit, and everyone will complain how OP she is. Broadly, she is going to have traditional combo based attacks with a knife, just fast, with a small, low hit box. She should probably get an ability to jump on people’s back, maybe as her throw.
  • Leatherface: It sounds weird, but Leatherface plays like a “sword guy”. traditional attacks, but animated in a way to make them look wild and out of control. All of his attacks are going to be animated as big spins and wide swipes, even if their actual range isn’t huge. He’s going to be our combo guy, where you chain a lot of hits in a row. Lots of animated movement, but relatively straight forward for where the hit actually lands.
  • T-1000: A T-1000 is going to play like Baraka from MK for the most part. Growing swords from its hands, but you can also do some slick damage animations where it flows back together. I’d give him a pistol attack as well, so he has a basic blast.
  • T-X: T-X is a little recent for an entry in the list, but we have the other two big terminator models, and can use more women in the game, so why not. She can take the form of other characters, so she plays like a Shang-Tsung. She will have a collection powers similar to the T-1000, but her big thing is being able to pull powers from other characters. I’d give her some Alien mouth bite attacks, and maybe a couple of Candyman’s bee powers, so even though she is a Shoto type, its a little different.
• Grapplers: Large and slow, relying on less frequent, high damage attacks. They tend to either push people away and use ranged attacks (almost like a zoner) or are able to dash in suddenly and hit hard (like a rusher). They don’t tend to have combos, and tend to be very tough, but easy to hit.
  • T-800: Lumbering and slow, maybe a short range shotgun attack, but broadly unstoppable. Have him start looking like Arnold, but as he takes damage skin flakes away. I imagine a cool power would be for him to jump offscreen real quick, hop on a motorcycle and come in to run over the opponent.
  • Jason: Jason has a close range knife, and maybe a couple of the more exciting kills from one of the later movies. A lot of his powers are going to let him ignore damage for a second and have him lumber forward anyway. Maybe even a health regeneration ability where he stands still.
  • Ripley in a Mech Loader: Probably the strongest, slowest character. She has lots of spinning arm combos. I’m envisioning something like Zangief, so she can grab people in her pinchers and launch them.
  • Robocop: Robocop has gun powers, obviously. So I imagine he is going to be a slow zoner, and if you get near him, he hits like a brick with grappler elements thrown in. Maybe throw in a power like Scorpion’s teleport punch, but he jumps on his motorcycle and drives back, then forward to switch sides to get distance.

Secret Characters

Secret Characters are great, and fighting games with big rosters are important. They also let you have a little bit more fun with the theme of the game, adding in characters that are not quite the tone you want with the rest of the game.

• E.T.: The first secret unlock is E.T. You play it up like some sort of crazy alien in the cut scene, but then he steps out. He has some mundane powers, but they are effective in game. He can heal himself, blind them with a flashlight, roll Reece’s Pieces underfoot so people trip. That sort of thing. He should also be a little floaty kind of like Mewtwo in smash. Ultimately, he plays like a zone character.
• The Cheerleader: She is a shoto with a move set that is mostly cheer leading poses and tumbling routines. Not particularly from any specific horror franchise, but the concept is in many. Its tempting to go the Dan route, and have her be ineffective, but I think there’s room to take after Buffy, and make her strong and effective. Maybe even give her a stake.
• Gremlins: The gremlins play as a swarm. At any given point, you have 5-6 standing near one another, and we keep it ambiguous over which one is launching an attack. Stripe is the primary and the hit box is focused on him, but for most attacks he points, and one stands from the swarm to do something. They keep Bride of Chuckies small hit box, but are a zoner. Most of their powers are one of the gremlins standing up and throwing a hand tool, or riding an RC car out to bash people’s shins, or shooting a nail gun.
• The Killer Klowns: These play like the Joker pretty much. My switch up would be to use the TMNT mechanics from MK, so you fight them all interchangeably. They will be a rush character who pull out classic clown moves, but lethal. So seltzer bottles of acid, exploding balloon animals, buzzer gloves, that sort of thing.