Meta Tactics That Ruined Multiplayer Games

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It’s a given that online games will see players get frustrated and leave when they lose, and they’ll do whatever it takes to win. This makes sense – everyone prefers winning to losing, especially if they feel the loss wasn’t fair.

It’s surprisingly common for players to accidentally make games less enjoyable for themselves. Here are a few well-known tactics from multiplayer games that have often backfired and negatively impacted the experience.

5. Sandbagging

The Mario Kart Series

Players who usually win in Mario Kart often complain about the items they get when they’re in first place. While leading, they mostly receive unhelpful items like green shells and banana peels, though the Super Horn offered some protection against the Blue Shell later on. So, being in the lead with a lot of the race left can actually be a disadvantage, as you’re a target for everyone and don’t have powerful items to defend yourself.

Because of this system, some players started using a strategy called “sandbagging.” They intentionally fall behind early in the race to avoid getting hit by items and collect powerful ones. Then, they make a strong push for the lead at the best moment, rather than risking the early lead and becoming a target. It’s unfortunate this works so well, but it’s how Mario Kart is built. Other kart racing games, like the often-overlooked Konami Krazy Racers on the Game Boy Advance, don’t balance items this way, which creates even more unpredictable and chaotic races because you never know what the leader might have.

4. Choosing The Same Tired Meta Team Members

The Pokemon Series

It’s understandable that players want to win and will use the most powerful Pokémon available to them. After all, that’s the best way to improve their chances of success. Game Freak, the developers, sometimes release Pokémon that are surprisingly strong, seemingly without fully realizing how they’ll affect competitive play. However, seeing the same few Pokémon dominate every team can get repetitive. A good example is Mega Kangaskhan from Pokémon X & Y. Its ability, Parental Bond, made it incredibly powerful, as did Pokémon like Mega Charizard Y and Mega Mawile. It took a while for Game Freak to weaken the ability, and Kangaskhan remains one of the most notoriously strong Pokémon in the game.

Different series have handled this better than others, but constantly needing to prepare for the same few powerful Pokémon limits team strategy. With over a thousand Pokémon available, some imbalance is expected, which is why competitive groups like Smogon use tiers to give less common Pokémon a chance. It’s not surprising, then, when a Pokémon like Pachirisu achieves surprising success.

3. The Infamous DMR Spam

Halo 4

This issue isn’t limited to just one game; camping and using the strongest weapons are common problems in many first-person shooters. A skilled sniper can control important parts of the map, but when everyone has a powerful, all-purpose weapon like the DMR in Halo 4, matches can easily turn into long-range shootouts with little action or movement.

First-person shooter players often prioritize getting kills over completing objectives, and the DMR didn’t really encourage them to change that habit. It’s good at long and medium ranges, and though it doesn’t replace a shotgun up close, it’s more flexible than a typical sniper rifle while still performing like one. Other similar weapons, like the Covenant Carbine, weren’t as effective and were frequently left out of players’ arsenals, which led to less variety in gameplay and fewer strategic options.

2. Hitting The Meta Knight Win Button

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

The Super Smash Bros. series is known for having huge and diverse character lineups, aiming to include characters from many different games and franchises. Given Masahiro Sakurai’s strong connection to the Kirby series, it was expected that Kirby characters would be well-represented, and Meta Knight’s inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl quickly made him a powerful and popular choice among players. His arrival essentially created a dominant playstyle, often referred to as ‘Meta Knight dominance’.

Most characters in Super Smash Bros. have standard strengths and weaknesses. For example, Ganondorf is strong and heavy, but slow and hard to knock off the stage, although he struggles to recover if he does get launched. His attacks take a while to start, but they’re very powerful when they connect. Meta Knight was designed to be his opposite: light, fast, and able to quickly recover with flight, relying on many weaker attacks. However, in Brawl, the developers accidentally made him overpowered. It was extremely difficult to punish his moves, and he could deal damage very quickly. No other character really stood a chance against him, making him the most effective character to play for many players.

1. Ganging Up On Lone Members Of The Opposing Team

For Honor

Ubisoft’s For Honor is a well-established medieval multiplayer game. Originally featuring battles between Samurai, Vikings, and Knights, it’s expanded significantly over time. The game now includes the Outlander and Wu Lin factions, and boasts a large roster of unique heroes. While the game has grown in terms of gear and modes, its core remains focused on intense, one-on-one combat. Success requires quick reflexes, anticipating your opponent’s moves, and using clever tactics – like exploiting the environment or utilizing each hero’s special abilities – to win.

Certain game modes involve four-player teams, where each player initially battles one opponent. You’d expect fair one-on-one fights, but players have discovered a dominant strategy: teaming up to quickly overwhelm individual opponents. If the opposing team corners you, it’s tough to defend against this tactic – and can be quite scary! The game’s intended countermeasure, the Revenge system, doesn’t always work effectively.

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2026-01-31 06:08