The Most Overpowered Weapons In Video Game History

Overpowered weapons in video games are typically acknowledged in one of two polarizing ways: as the greatest tool in the game, or a spawn of hell sent to this earth to ruin the good times of all. No matter where you stand on the issue, the weapons that made this list are without question ones that pack plenty of wallop (and tears).

The Halo series has had chance after chance to make a weapon as efficient, clean, and powerful as the pistol from the original Halo: Combat Evolved. This tried and true gun is a mainstay of combat against the game's many enemies, and sent many a Grunt running away in sheer terror.

The pistol packs a punch in just about every way: from the jumpy recoil, to the explosive firing mechanism, to the reload speed. It's efficiency, accuracy, and power together have yet to be replicated—and we don't know that it ever will. Unless you count the Halo 2 Energy Sword...that thing is at least a close second.

Though it's popular among many Smash Bros. groups to disable items in favor of more serious competition, all the items in every installment of this franchise are too profoundly silly and fun to ignore entirely. Chief among them is the simple but deceptively strong Hammer Bros. Hammer, which pretty much grants the power of Thor to the player who snags it first. Not only does it deal ludicrous melee damage to opponents unfortunate enough to cross its path, it also sends opponents flying off the stage, leaving them susceptible to, you guessed it, more hammer swings.

The hammer is a returning veteran of the Super Smash Bros. series, and we hope to see it return again and again for as long as the series continues. Unless someone besides us gets it, in which case, forget this awful thing.

While many think the lightning bolt is the worst harbinger of doom, no other weapon in the Mario Kart series is as recognizably enraging as the Spiked Blue Shell. Not only is it granted regularly to the player in last place (read: the one sucking the most), it targets the lead player (read: the greatest player of all time) with perfect, unwavering accuracy. It explodes upon contact with the lead player, stopping the kart dead in its tracks, and easily adding at least 8-10 seconds to the leader's completion time. While this is happening, players in second or third place can easily pass you and attain the victory that was just yours mere moments before.

The Blue Shell is the reaper of souls and true breaker of friendships. Fear it, lest you be cast out (of first place).

It's easy to understand how a gun whose name is an acronym for "Big F****** Gun" would make a list like this. It also should come as a surprise to no one that it's an absolute blast to use in its original form in iD Software's 1993 classic, Doom. Between having giant energy balls for bullets, an on-weapon ammo counter, and the coolest reload sound ever, the BFG is a powerful, complex, and to most, downright magical force to be reckoned with.

Hell demons best start running when you get your hands on it.

In multiplayer Counter-Strike, you have a plethora of weapons at your disposal for taking out your opponent. But to many players of the tried and true version, Counter-Strike 1.6, the AWP Rifle is the only real option.

This gun, which is the distance weapon of choice for the Arctic Warfare Police (a canonical team in the game), is a super powerful bolt-action sniper rifle available to all players. The rifle is infamous for being able to instantly slay a player with one hit to anywhere on the body, with the exception of the legs. For this reason, and the fact that you can run up and kill players with an unaimed point-blank shot to center mass, the AWP remains one of the most popular and widely overused weapons in Counter-Strike.

There's no shortage of weapons that do tons of damage in the Nintendo 64 classic, GoldenEye 007. But no gun was more powerful than the Golden Gun. What makes it so powerful, you may ask? Well, even though it only holds one bullet and needs to be reloaded after every shot, it's also capable of one-hit kills. It is insane, and ridiculous, and completely amazing.

The Golden Gun isn't an everyday weapon, though. Players can first find it in a secret bonus mission in the single-player campaign, and can also use it in a special multiplayer mission called, appropriately, "The Man with the Golden Gun." It's also available for use in more scenarios as a cheat that players can enter. Of course, if you use it on your friends, it won't matter how many one-hit-kills you're able to perform in the game. Get ready to be beaten within an inch of your life in reality.