Summary
The beta's surprise 16th fighter — bombs, glider, and madness.
Green Goblin was announced as a late addition to the open beta, bumping its roster from the planned 15 fighters to 16. The official announcement leaned into the surprise — and gave players a full weekend with his glider-and-pumpkin-bomb arsenal before launch.
Coverage noted this is effectively Norman Osborn's first proper playable fighting-game appearance. Aerial glider movement plus thrown explosives points toward the game's air-mobility and trap-pressure space, with the exact tuning still to be labbed on the launch build.
As a Knights of Doom member playable in the beta alongside Doctor Doom and Magneto, he leaves only Carnage as the villain team's launch-day unknown.
Move list: Green Goblin
| Move | Type | Gauge | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glider Summon4U | Unique Move | — | Mounts the Glider (its gauge depletes over time).Air OK |
| Flyby Kick5U/6U/j.2U | Unique Move | — | Air kick that mounts the Glider on contact.Air OK |
| Glider Dash | Unique Move | — | On-Glider lunging attack in a chosen direction. |
| Glider Attack (scratch rush) | Unique Move | — | On-Glider clawing rush, usable while moving. Official name pending the launch command list. |
| Glider Attack (tracking missile) | Unique Move | — | On-Glider missile that tracks the opponent. Official name pending. |
| Glider Attack (downward shot) | Unique Move | — | On-Glider downward projectile, usable while moving. Official name pending. |
| Glider RetreatU (in Glider) | Unique Move | — | Dismounts the Glider. |
| Razor Bats236L/M/H | Skill | 25 (Heavy) | Up to three throws on odd trajectories.Air OK |
| Pumpkin Bomb623L/M/H | Skill | 25 (Heavy) | Rotates through four bomb effects: Sticky, Explosive, Poison, Stun.Air OK |
| Shock & Awe214L/M/H | Skill | 25 (Heavy) | Forward punch; stronger versions hit overhead. Not usable on the Glider. |
| Glider Raid22L/M/H | Skill | 25 (Heavy) | Calls the Glider itself in as an attack.Air OK |
| Sky Scraper236M+H | Super Skill | 50 | Sends the Glider lunging, then detonates it.Air OK |
| Goblin Surprise632146M+H | Ultimate Skill | 100 | Missile into a Glider-mounted follow-up; refills the Glider Gauge on hit. |
Inputs use numpad notation for a character facing right: 2 is down, 6 is forward, so 236 is a quarter-circle forward and 623 a “dragon punch” motion; L/M/H are the three attack strengths and U is the Unique button. The game also has simplified one-button skills — the controls guide covers both.
Startup, active, recovery and on-block values need the retail build to measure and land here after August 6, 2026. Invented frame data is worse than none.
How to play Green Goblin
Green Goblin is a glider-install zoner. Glider Summon mounts the Glider — whose gauge depletes over time — and unlocks a whole on-Glider moveset: a clawing scratch rush, a tracking missile, a downward shot. So his strong state is a timer you have to manage, not a button you hold.
Grounded, he throws: Razor Bats travel on odd trajectories, and Pumpkin Bomb rotates through four effects — Sticky, Explosive, Poison, Stun — so the same input threatens different things. Sky Scraper, his Super, sends the Glider lunging and then detonates it.
The gameplan is glider uptime: mount to pressure and zone from angles in the air, dismount before the gauge runs dry, and land Goblin Surprise — the Ultimate refills the Glider Gauge on hit, which is the reward for connecting and the thing that keeps his strong state going.
In the open beta he drew 71 picks, split 8 on point and 63 as an assist — about 89% assist, one of the most support-skewed splits in the whole field. His bombs and glider tools were prized as an assist to bolt onto a point character far more than as a fighter to lead with.
Kit-level gameplan from Green Goblin’s documented moves and the open-beta usage split — not frame data. Specific frame advantages and matchup reads land once the retail build is tested.
On the Vibranium and above leaderboard, Green Goblin was picked 71 times across 1,600 character slots — 11th most-picked of the 16 playable.
Players overwhelmingly used Green Goblin as an assist — 89% of picks — rather than as the fighter they started the match with. Compare every fighter’s beta pick rate.
By raw picks, Green Goblin landed just ahead of Star-Lord and just behind Wolverine.
Popularity is not strength — this counts what people chose over one three-day weekend on a pre-launch build, not what wins.
Official character guide
Arc System Works has not published a character guide for Green Goblinyet. We link the official one when it exists rather than substituting someone else’s footage.
Green Goblin is voiced by Steve Blum — officially credited (source).
Combos
Combo routes for Green Goblin live at ComboForge, where players have been submitting and voting on them for a year. That is a better source than anything we would assemble here.
Every other fighter
Amazing Guardians
Fighting Avengers
Knights of Doom
Samurai Outriders
Year 1 DLC