This is a really good example!
I spent a shitton of time playing Mortal Kombat 3 on SNES and learned quickly that Sheeva was useless but with Lui Kang I could beat most.
Tekken was really good too. Weirder characters with different abilities.
Had no idea at the time this was related to game theory but I knew when I got my arse kicked in certain matchups that I needed different skills/strategies if I wanted to win.