Pac-Man World Rally.
Trap yes.
Keepaway, no.
Another thing about CVS2 is the ratio system. In the first CVS the ratio system was not very beneficial. But, here you can influence the number of characters you play (which would be three by tradition tournament standards anyhow). That also includes changing the characters damage output to an extent, plus the groove you play, and your ability to play accordingly.
There are many fighting games noteworthy for good balance, such as KOFXIII (console) and Street Fighter Alpha 2. Perhaps Guilty Gear could count because the characters also suit the mechanics well and the players are given plenty of methods of fighting because of it. (But, that might be up to interpretation… Eddie Tier? Perhaps…)
I’d say Karate Champ. Exact Same moves.
Under that, SF1on vs mode and Heavyweight Champ (The first hand -to-hand fighting game, by SEGA).
I think though that while sf1 is sort of balanced, the special moves do far too much damage and it may devolve into landing them first.
Whoa whats up with this whole number of styles being viable? If that is the case than Vsav is unbalanced as fuck. What the hell is balance to you guys? You can’t have it both ways. Clearly amount of characters viable is more important. Amount of styles has more to do with the quality of the game, not its balance. And MvC2 is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY off the mark for balance. There are more characters that you may not see in tournament play than the amount of characters in st x2.
3S. everyone can parry always.
Tekken Tag Tournament, Virtua Fighter, Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend, Street Fighter 3rd Strike, and Soul Calibur 2.
EDIT: King of Fighters 13
I heard SEGA do a good job of this? And then you have SNK fighters, traditionally so full of broke, they go full circle and sort of balance themselves out :looney:
I literally laugh out loud at the monitor every time I see a post on this forum stating AE finally balanced SFIV, lol
TTT? You mean Mishimas and Ogres?
3S? You mean Chun/Yun?
Cool story, brah.
EDIT: King of [any] Fighters? Gentleman, we have a wildcard in the pack!
Can someone link me to this podcast? Sounds like it’d be interesting to listen to if a developer was in it.
Some King games are super balanced, like 98. I hear 2002UM is balanced as well, and King 13 is fairly well balanced…
That said, I think it’s hard to make a game with 30+ characters and have balanced. Nearly impossible - in fact, I don’t know of any that I would call balanced based on overall roster. In terms of mechanics, as argued on previous pages, I still stand by saying that the engines in MvC2, ST, and 3S make them the most balanced games, but via roster? No fucking way.
2002UM has easily 25 characters with varied playstyles with which you can form a great team and kick ass.
But the game has like over 60 characters, so ratio wise, not good.
Still, that’s more valid characters than the cast of many games
That’s nearly half. Marvel 2 is like 1/4 of them (14/56), CvS2 is about 1/3… so yeah. I’ll agree with that. 
Actually I think that has some of the WORST balance in a competitive fighting game that I have seen. Keepaway, zoning, and projectiles in general are nearly useless. Basically the game is DOMINATED by fast pokes, damage off of those fast pokes and throws as a ghetto mixup. Personally I don’t think it’s a bad game, but saying that game is balanced is a joke.
Someone obviously doesn’t play 3S.
Having a universal mechanic like this doesn’t make the top tier characters any less dominant. I never got the “everyone can parry so the game is balanced” thing. Sure a bad character like Alex can parry but so can a great character like Chun Li, in fact she usually gets more off it. Alex still sucks and Chun Li is still a much better character regardless.
3s is a momentum based game tiers matter to some degree but if a Alex player parries and punishes a chun player that would mean getting her in the corner or near it with around 35% of her hp gone. One of the uses of a parry as a game mechanic is that it makes certain options unsafe that would be safe in other games.
For example after knocking down chun on the ground she can’t quick stand crouch jab to escape pressure easily due to the fast walk speed or dashes of most character’s combined with parries.
Anyways most fg’s that are played nowdays are really balanced. Question is at what lvl of play are people that care so much about tiers playing them.
Most balanced fighting game? One game that deserves mention is Samurai Spirits Zero Special (Samurai Shodown 5 Special).