Previous years, we’ve done Best New Fighting Game Character as a category. We love fighting games here, and we love talking about them- it’s always a very fun category to talk about. But the things we love about fighting games aren’t actually fighting game exclusive. There are other games that emphasize characters with unique movesets and abilities that feel incredibly good to play. So that’s what has led us to this new category: Best New Action Character. Fighting games, shooters, MOBAs, other action games. Everyone Is Here.
The Winner
Young Impa (Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity)
The new format is done a great service by Young Impa, the most fun character from the latest Musou game. She’s a young insecure ninja girl… sure. Anime tropes, why not. But in gameplay, she produces a squad (squad!) of clones of herself that duplicate her moves, she fires eye lasers, she throws bombs, she summons giant frogs… holy SHIT is she fun. I have played a lot of Musou games. Young Impa is the most fun character who has ever been in a Musou game.
God. I need to go play more Age of Calamity.
The Runners-Up
Arizona (Them’s Fightin Herds)
Arizona was one of the first characters added to Them’s Fightin Herds, so she is a slightly odd addition to this list. After all, we talked about Velvet from Them’s Fightin Herds last year. However, the game properly came out this year, we spent a lot of time with it this year, and it was only in this year that any of us really spent time with Arizona. That time was very rewarding.
Arizona is a very impressive demonstration of the skills of the developers. Arizona has no cruft. Her moves are all good and useful, they contribute to a gameplan. The lasso feels good as hell, her animations are great, and I really admire this concept of a combo grappler that’s among the best of that rare archetype I’ve ever seen.
“These are a few of my favorite things: kickin’, stompin’, and KICKIN’!”
Belial (Granblue Fantasy Versus)
The most hyped DLC character for Granblue Fantasy Versus was actually worth the wait, holy hell. The horny antagonistic fallen angel fits very nicely into the playstyle of Granblue, with a mix of projectiles, projectile throws, and a very scary counter that create an intimidating character that makes you afraid to press buttons, and then punishes you for not taking the initiative.
Plus, the SUNGLASSES!
Sephiroth (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)
I know everyone’s said it by now, but… what?! They put SEPHIROTH in this game?! And he’s sooooo fun! He’s got great long normals, unique and scary projectiles, Dat Octaslash, a powerup mode… I really can’t find fault with him. I guess I can, actually: I literally did on our podcast. He’s very cool, he’s not as inspired as he might be. But what a great implementation of a classic character. My new Smash main.
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We had a lot of great year for action game characters, and a lot of really awesome characters got cut from our list. I hope you’ll join us for our 13 remaining categories, and perhaps take a listen to the discussions that created these lists over on the Scanline Talks podcast feeds. See you for a third category later today!
A big thank you to Zwimmy (@zwimmy on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!
