Blue shell, BLUE SHELL! Brake! Too late, do a backflip and watch the new Mario Kart first place finisher cross the line with your trophy. Every game has that one weapon that turns out to be better than the rest. Either through magazine size, fire rate or sheer power, gamers find themselves drawn towards these weapons and the might they bring. I’ve written about amazing video game weapons before but here are some guns that require no special prerequisites to acquire.
Halo: Combat Evolved – M6D Personal Defense Weapon System
Although it’s technically called the M6D Personal Defense Weapon System or the M6D Magnum Sidearm, players around the world know this particular weapon simply as “the pistol,” and the weapon and its variants have become the ultimate sidearm of the Halo franchise. The Magnum is a semi-automatic handgun with a 1.2x scope, and is so massively damaging that two headshots can kill an Elite, shields and all.
Since the game was released, rumors spread that the original gun wasn’t quite the level that the developers thought it should be but deadline constraints prevented them from correcting it. That is, until Bungie co-founder Jason Jones quietly altered the code one night shortly before the game shipped. During an interview with IGN in 2013, Jones admitted that he had actually done just that.
This weapon is perfectly balanced: high damage, good reload speeds and a rocking recoil. Sad to say, the source code was fixed in subsequent games to make the weapon less powerful, but all Halo fans will always have a special place for the original masterpiece. Nothing says “dead grunt” like the pistol and the Birthday Party Skull.
Super Smash Bros. – The Hammer
“You want me to put the hammer down?!” My brother would always pick Kirby whenever we played Super Smash Bros. together, and I would always laugh at him. Tiny, pink and cuddly are all things he isn’t. However, the instant that Kirby picked up a hammer, I could instantly see the similarity.
This delightful little bundle of fun could very easily spell the end of the game for all the other players. It almost guarantees an instant K.O. as it knocks other players completely off of the screen.
The Hammer is an iconic part of the Smash Bros. franchise and players hope to see it again and again in future games. Unless it ends up in the hands of an opponent, in which case we need to ban this awful thing.
Mario Kart Series – Spiny Shell
Why? Seriously, why? Usually granted to the last place (a.k.a. the worst) player on the track, the infuriating spiny shell, also called the blue shell, targets only the first place racer, and not only knocks ten seconds off of their time, but can cost them both their position and the win with almost no ability to counter its effects. Unless by some miracle they happen to have a Star, anyone caught in the blast is thrown into the air and left shunted about by other cars racing by.
This destroyer of friendships and breaker of trust can cause even the most honorable players to drop into second place and let somebody else take the hit if they know that they are being targeted. Feel free to use that little tip for future races.
Doom – BFG9000
No, not the Big Friendly Giant. Labelled the Bio Force Gun in the 2005 film, anyone who has had the pleasure of using the BFG9000 in a DOOM game can probably guess what the “BFG” actually stands for, and won’t be surprised to see the weapon included here. A direct hit usually spells an instant kill for the target, as well as splash damage which deals no harm to the player. One use is capable of destroying an entire room if used properly.
Goldeneye 007 – The Golden Gun
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? 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.” Goldeneye 007 was later remade on the Nintendo Wii, where it included “Golden Gun Mode.”
I actually remember playing the original N64 “The Man with the Golden Gun” level with my friends. There was one friend who would always find the gun and win the game. Of course, it didn’t matter how many one-hit kills he was able to perform in the game. Three other people were ready to beat him back in reality.
Honorable Mentions
Kingdom Hearts – The Keyblade
While the Keyblade is not necessarily an overpowered weapon, the mechanics behind this weapon are what earns it a mention on this list. It’s not yet clear how they first appeared, but they have a multitude of uses depending on the wielder. Most wielders simply use the power of the Keyblade to travel between worlds, but it can also be used to transfer a person into a new body to grant a form of immortality, summon the somewhat ambiguous Kingdom Hearts, and appear or disappear at the wielder’s command.
Half-Life 2 – Gravity Gun
The Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator, more commonly referred to as the Gravity Gun, is excluded from the main list purely because it relies upon external objects rather than carrying its own ammo, and is of little use on its own against enemies until the endgame. This weapon is iconic to all gamers who played Half-Life 2 and can remember the feeling of using an explosive barrel or circular saw to blast their way through the game’s zombie hordes with this little gem.