Powerups

The players can select a special power-up for his player. The following power-ups exist.
SUPER TORQUE - The next contact with other player will super multiply any torque available.
SUPER FORCE - Same as Super-torque but with force variable.
BOUNCY - Player will turn into rubber and bounce everything off easily.
STATUE - Player will turn into stone.
REVERSE - All forces will be reversed.
STOP - All forces will come to a stop.
TIMESHIFT - Selected player's physics will run at half speed.

Originally Posted by Gargon

Since the document is back from 2005, and there seems to be no documentation of it on the forums, I would assume it was either planned but not released, or possibly in place at the starting age of toribash, which I doubt.

To answer the question of why it shouldn't be a thing, is because this game is pretty balanced (as far as tori and uke go), the addition of powerups would probably lead to TB becoming a pay to win game, something the majority of this community does not want. Would you like it if you were constantly destroyed by some guy who has power ups? I sure wouldn't.

Originally Posted by DashSora

Alright, I guess I kinda had the same conclusion.

As for the p2w thing : No ! Of course not. What I meant is EVERYONE has the same amount of power ups in a match.

In the same way other competitive games have gameplay mechanics like stuns, dodges, charged attacks, or whatever, I think adding a fixed amount of powerups per match could be great for the competitive scene. This way you can have a greater diversity of play styles, and create more clutch moments, crazy saves, and mindgames.

I think the best idea would have 1 in each match, and you have to chose among the list above (or a revisited list). They'd have to be balanced, all equally as efficient in the way they perform at their tasks, and perhaps have a consequence, even. (Especially the ones deal with torque and force would need a lot of tweaking)

For example, the heavy feet one could be changed to only affect on foot, and make the whole leg forced to be relaxed for the next turn, or why not fracture the ankle? You have a powerful tool that could help you perform a clutch throw, or kick, but there's an after effect that'll cost you if you misuse it. The statue powerup? make your whole body impervious to damage and completely immovable, but at the next frame you're fully relaxed, or perhaps you suffer from a higher weight (if it's possible for the feet, it should be possible for the whole tori)

Let's imagine a scenario in a striking mod :

Frame 1 : Player A is about to throw an incredible kick. Player B sees that and thinks "I'll use my statue powerup, so he'll kick incredibly hard with his heavy feet power-up, and damage himself.

Frame 2 : Turns out Player A faked his move, got in an even better position, and is ready to throw the kick of the century.

Frame 3 : Player B is fully relaxed as an aftereffect of his power-up, and player A destroys him with a powered-up kick.

Another one, per say, Aikido?

Frame 1 : Player A pushes player B to the edge of the dojo

Frame 2 : Player B activates his heavy foot to counter throw player A

Frame 3 : Player A activates his own heavy foot powerup, which puts his weight on the player B's relaxed leg, regaining his advantage or even dq'ing B.

Isn't that pretty balanced and fun to think about ? I think it is.


EDIT : Heavy foot is an "alternative limb mode" (as mentioned in the document in the op), for some reason my brain remembered it as a power-up. Well, my bad. But I still think it'd be interesting, even if I somewhat invented it.