If you have not already listened to this category’s podcast, these are the final results, so this will spoil the course of the discussion on that podcast! Be warned!
The Winner
Ziluan (Dynasty Warriors Origins)
Taking Dynasty Warriors’ beloved roster and reducing it to one, semi-generic self-insert was always going to rile up the fanbase. After all, part of the fun is collecting dozens of heroes, each with their own over-the-top fighting style, and grinding them out to their peak potential! Could Dynasty Warriors Origins truly be a worthy entry with just one guy?
Fortunately, Omega Force did more than just hand Ziluan 90% of the series’ weapons. They iterated on the weapons themselves, and the way each of their combos worked! The days of relying on the same Light, Light, Light, Heavy combo regardless of what you wield are no more: each weapon has its own, unique moveset, and putting the effort into learning them is incredibly satisfying. They help keep the action fresh, even as you spend hour after hour with the same blank slate of a boy. And we can’t wait to see them carry forward this new approach to the weapons once they (hopefully) make a follow-up that brings back the stacked cast of characters!
-Jen
The Runners-Up
Robbie Reyes (Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3: Community Edition)
I can’t tell you why there are now three Ghost Riders in the modded version of Marvel 3. I’ve got no beef with the… Spirit of Vengeance, is that their collective title? In fact, I don’t feel anything about them. I cannot imagine being invested in the Flaming Biker Skeleton as a dramatic narrative character. Sounds like a rad as hell Castlevania enemy, but not a source of pathos. I’m sure there’s been some great writing done about them in the comics: lord knows there have been enough issues about the characters and writers for them that the law of averages demands there must be some decent stuff in there. But I cannot care when it’s all about the skeleton man from hell who is mad at you and also rides things.
Even more bizarrely, the two Ghost Riders added to Community Edition are actually sick as hell? Robbie Reyes follows on from Carter Slade- where Carter is the original cowboy Ghost Rider, Robbie is a mechanic from LA. Where Carter does staccato zoning with bullets and hellfire, Robbie zips around as one of the most aggressive rushdown characters in the game with possibly the most wild rushdown in all of fighting games.
Getting Robbie to stay on the ground long enough to fight back is a challenge- but a welcome one. The dreaded top tier team of Morrigan/Doctor Doom taught everyone who plays Marvel 3 the difference between overwhelming (complimentary) and overwhelming (derogatory). Robbie may be a ridiculously fast airdashing chain-spinning mixup machine, but he manages to feel fair and fun to fight while he does it. These modders are getting scary good at this.
-Six
Yami Yugi (DragonBall FighterZ)
From the modder that brought the brilliant DIO mod to DragonBall FighterZ, you’d think they would sit back and bring over other, more simple Shonen Jump characters. But on Christmas Day 2025, he decided to deliver a present to me in specific: Yami Yugi joined the fight, and what’s on display is one of the most technically impressive mod characters ever made. DIO took a lot of work, no doubt. But DIO has been in several fighting games to this point- how on earth do you make a character like Yugi work when almost all of his appearances have been so much more casually focused platform or arena fighters? You build it yourself, and Kongmeng did brilliantly.
I could gush endlessly about the fanservice on display: like a lot of DBFZ characters, their move lists are inspired by beloved moments from the series. Yugi has many of these, from summoning his most iconic monsters to unleashing Berzerker Soul to overkill his opponents. But, there are also many little things that show a consideration for not just making fanservice but making them interesting as a fighting game character. Setting Trap Cards, Decking Out, even winning the match instantly by assembling Exodia show a level of care put into making you feel like the King of Games when it all comes together.
He’s not perfect, I admit. Some of the monster models are a little off and how you play cards from your hand by motion inputs is obtuse and complicated in the way you have to make it in a game this old. But the effort to bring this passionate duelist to one of my favorite games is something I can’t help but celebrate.
-Kyrie
Sister Blades, Lim and Oros (Hades II)
Look, I’ll just say it: wielding a pair of twin blades and stabbing enemies in the back for extra damage is always fucking rad. What game they’re in, or how good that game is, barely matters. When you get up close and personal with an enemy, slashing away, and you receive bonus points for positioning yourself correctly? It’s one of the best feelings an action game can offer. Of course, your over-the-top aggression is usually offset with worse general damage, a lower health pool and paper-thin defenses, but who cares? The devil-may-care excitement these knives bring are worth almost any price.
If that’s all Lim and Oros represented, they’d still beat most weapon sets in any game. Hades II, for all its faults, still has its predecessor’s best-in-class combat mechanics on lock, so of course the coolest weapons in any game would be extra-cool here. But then you unlock the Aspect of the Morrigan, which elevates the knives even further by introducing the Blood Triad. Landing your Attack, Special, and Omega Move on a single enemy inflicts an absolutely devastating amount of damage. In Rank I, it inflicts 333 damage points, which is nothing to sneeze at. But by Rank VI? You’re looking at a single move that deals one point shy of a THOUSAND.
In a game that mostly got begrudging acceptance from me, Lim and Oros’s Aspect of the Morrigan made my jaw drop in delight. And that is something to celebrate.
-Jen
And that’s a wrap on week one of the Gimmick Awards 2025… mostly. The Best of 2025 piece from Six got pushed back for refinement, and will be coming out Saturday. But the proper Awards will resume on Tuesday with Best Surprise!
Our art is a commission from GOMA on Bluesky.
