ST has 0 comeback mechanics, and is fine. I'd love to see more games based off its fast/aggressive gameplay. Matches can be long if people want to zone out, or if you make a good read, you can end things in a single TOD. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that system(plus having real walk speeds and good throws).
Likewise Melee has basically no comeback mechanic, and a focus on hyper offense. New smash has...something..rage or whatever. It's pretty bleh(the more you are losing by, the stronger your attacks, but that fucks with your combos...so..eh). It's not super awful since it's mostly timid, but there's still some noteable issues.
Ultra SF is...ok. Ultra's are hype usually, and do affect the match in interesting ways and create real decisions. It helps that they aren't so insane that they always show up. It's more than possible to blow someone up and never see their ultra, or even in a long match they may never use it(although the threat certainly can warp things). Basically it really helps that in order to use your comeback tool, you usually need to set it up. It's not automatic like rage, or insanely easy to use like Xfactor/clash.
Xfactor is bad, but not as bad as it could be. There's several reasons you might blow it early, and honestly, in a game like MvC3 where the whole goal is to just make the largest pile of bullshit from the available bullshit, it works fine. The main saving grace is that it can be used to increase your advantage, not just solely a comeback tool. In a game where with just meter alone you can ToD, having "more ToD" isn't totally insane. It's the mobility/alpha counter features combined with good chip and a projectile spammer where it gets silly(sup phoenix).
Rage is fucking awful. You have to play around it, and it's binary as hell. All the bad things about x factor with none of the good things. It's just so stupid. The old samurai showdown games had a similar mechanic, but it was "damage taken across rounds", not some arbitrary life threshold thing....well except in 5, where that was a huge issue until they nerfed the hell out of it in V special(even then you could change how early it would activate, and there were decisions based on character. SS has a lot of good comeback ideas mixed with bad overall balance).
Injustice is....mostly awful. The idea of wagering meter has merit, but it needs to happen a fuckload faster(clashes murder hype 9/10 times), and NOT reset position, and the payouts should probably change. It currently rewards projectile heavy meter independent characters(who can close out a round without triggering), while meter dependent corner monsters are just screwed. I do like the idea somewhat of locking it into "second round only" but I think the big issue is that it's just too hard to avoid, which divides the cast into those who are screwed by it, and those that aren't(someone already compared shazam to wonderwoman).
MK9/TvC- Both games gave you meter on damage, and both games let you use that meter to break combos. Both games have major issues with characters who don't need to use meter, because then they just save it up and use it for combo breaks, and thus have more HP than the rest of the cast. TvC became a mess because of this+awful fucking meter options when compared to baroque+combo break. MK9 has things like kabal who's a prime example of what happens when someone has a solid game without meter. Theoretically the system could work if you can balance everyone right, but i have to say i'm worried that someone or something is going to slip through on MKX and become the new Kabal. Also worth mentioning that with these systems, you need to be careful about how the break works. Both games, on release, had issues with combo breaking giving you advantage, thus allowing you to fucking punish the guy who was comboing you, and in TvC's case, I think you could kill off it(fucking dumb).
The one thing that really helped in MK, was that you built more meter on attacking into a block, which combined with flat out nasty chip, put a huge emphasis on aggression. I should add that X factor being a way around breakers is interesting in theory, but poor in practice(as were most x rays in general). Better/more important x rays would've gone a long way towards helping.
KI- They've got xfactor meets ultra + combo breaking. Both systems are core gameplay mechanics, not just something that was slapped on, so they're built around well, and I think it helps a lot. Still there's some issues with certain "ultra modes(can't remember the real name)" being too strong and they also had situations where getting broken put you at a major disadvantage until they fixed it. I don't really know enough to comment beyond that however. The whole "I get to pause time to react" thing seems mostly like a good thing...but it might just be from a spectator perspective.
SC- I really wouldn't call ring outs a comeback mechanism so much as a constant threat/neutral alternate win condition. I can be at full HP and you a hit away, and we both have the exact same ability to RO that we started the match with. It doesn't really help that "how well you ring out" is usually a character trait, with some characters having insane stage carry, into ringouts, creating ToD combos(sup Hilde). I do think it's a good mechanic, but they need to be more aware of who can and can't abuse it to prevent disasters.
KoF- I don't know much about the game, but the big thing seems to be that you get the ability to have more total meter, and practically any member of the cast can quickly ToD with the max amount. It's a fairly clever way to help the down player, and like ultra's, they still need to earn the comeback. Not just push a button and watch it happen.
Likewise Melee has basically no comeback mechanic, and a focus on hyper offense. New smash has...something..rage or whatever. It's pretty bleh(the more you are losing by, the stronger your attacks, but that fucks with your combos...so..eh). It's not super awful since it's mostly timid, but there's still some noteable issues.
Ultra SF is...ok. Ultra's are hype usually, and do affect the match in interesting ways and create real decisions. It helps that they aren't so insane that they always show up. It's more than possible to blow someone up and never see their ultra, or even in a long match they may never use it(although the threat certainly can warp things). Basically it really helps that in order to use your comeback tool, you usually need to set it up. It's not automatic like rage, or insanely easy to use like Xfactor/clash.
Xfactor is bad, but not as bad as it could be. There's several reasons you might blow it early, and honestly, in a game like MvC3 where the whole goal is to just make the largest pile of bullshit from the available bullshit, it works fine. The main saving grace is that it can be used to increase your advantage, not just solely a comeback tool. In a game where with just meter alone you can ToD, having "more ToD" isn't totally insane. It's the mobility/alpha counter features combined with good chip and a projectile spammer where it gets silly(sup phoenix).
Rage is fucking awful. You have to play around it, and it's binary as hell. All the bad things about x factor with none of the good things. It's just so stupid. The old samurai showdown games had a similar mechanic, but it was "damage taken across rounds", not some arbitrary life threshold thing....well except in 5, where that was a huge issue until they nerfed the hell out of it in V special(even then you could change how early it would activate, and there were decisions based on character. SS has a lot of good comeback ideas mixed with bad overall balance).
Injustice is....mostly awful. The idea of wagering meter has merit, but it needs to happen a fuckload faster(clashes murder hype 9/10 times), and NOT reset position, and the payouts should probably change. It currently rewards projectile heavy meter independent characters(who can close out a round without triggering), while meter dependent corner monsters are just screwed. I do like the idea somewhat of locking it into "second round only" but I think the big issue is that it's just too hard to avoid, which divides the cast into those who are screwed by it, and those that aren't(someone already compared shazam to wonderwoman).
MK9/TvC- Both games gave you meter on damage, and both games let you use that meter to break combos. Both games have major issues with characters who don't need to use meter, because then they just save it up and use it for combo breaks, and thus have more HP than the rest of the cast. TvC became a mess because of this+awful fucking meter options when compared to baroque+combo break. MK9 has things like kabal who's a prime example of what happens when someone has a solid game without meter. Theoretically the system could work if you can balance everyone right, but i have to say i'm worried that someone or something is going to slip through on MKX and become the new Kabal. Also worth mentioning that with these systems, you need to be careful about how the break works. Both games, on release, had issues with combo breaking giving you advantage, thus allowing you to fucking punish the guy who was comboing you, and in TvC's case, I think you could kill off it(fucking dumb).
The one thing that really helped in MK, was that you built more meter on attacking into a block, which combined with flat out nasty chip, put a huge emphasis on aggression. I should add that X factor being a way around breakers is interesting in theory, but poor in practice(as were most x rays in general). Better/more important x rays would've gone a long way towards helping.
KI- They've got xfactor meets ultra + combo breaking. Both systems are core gameplay mechanics, not just something that was slapped on, so they're built around well, and I think it helps a lot. Still there's some issues with certain "ultra modes(can't remember the real name)" being too strong and they also had situations where getting broken put you at a major disadvantage until they fixed it. I don't really know enough to comment beyond that however. The whole "I get to pause time to react" thing seems mostly like a good thing...but it might just be from a spectator perspective.
SC- I really wouldn't call ring outs a comeback mechanism so much as a constant threat/neutral alternate win condition. I can be at full HP and you a hit away, and we both have the exact same ability to RO that we started the match with. It doesn't really help that "how well you ring out" is usually a character trait, with some characters having insane stage carry, into ringouts, creating ToD combos(sup Hilde). I do think it's a good mechanic, but they need to be more aware of who can and can't abuse it to prevent disasters.
KoF- I don't know much about the game, but the big thing seems to be that you get the ability to have more total meter, and practically any member of the cast can quickly ToD with the max amount. It's a fairly clever way to help the down player, and like ultra's, they still need to earn the comeback. Not just push a button and watch it happen.
