Most Overpowered Video Game Items

Like an offshore oil rig or a carefully-played game of Jenga, balance is pretty important when it comes to video games. Generally, you'll find that your hero is on even footing with most of his or her opponents. But occasionally, a power-up slips through development that flips the script and makes someone grossly overpowered, ruining the experience for everyone but the player wielding the omnipotent weapon of choice. Here are a few of those power-ups that can turn a formerly fun game into an unfair fight.

There was a time when video games were presented as challenges to be conquered, and that hard-fought accomplishment was a good thing. If only a few people could make it to the boss, the game was a worthwhile endeavor to attempt. Today, if you die a few times in Super Mario 3D Land for the Nintendo 3DS, a golden leaf will pop up to gently escort your dumb sausage thumbs through any level, granting you invincibility against enemies and infinite flight. You get credit for completing the level, and you learn nothing. If you bowl with the bumpers up, you're never going to get a rewarding strike, and Nintendo just filled the whole damn world with bumpers.

The far-too-effective Golden Gun is the bane of every GoldenEye player, whether you're playing an old school Nintendo 64 deathmatch or playing online in the Wii version. Because the glistening gat can kill with a single shot from infinite range and has unlimited ammo, it's pretty much the perfect fictional weapon, with only one drawback: it can only hold one bullet at a time and it has a slow reload. Still, if you have steady aim and an awareness of your surroundings, it's generally the one weapon that will dominate a match, turning the well-dressed spy into a remorseless killing machine. It's so overpowered that the Wii version of the game includes a mode that forces every other player to focus their attacks on the gun's current user, and even then, it's barely a fair fight. Just what's in those bullets, anyhow?

As an unofficial successor of GoldenEye, it makes sense that Perfect Dark would have its own impossible gun, and the FarSight XR-20 takes it to a whole other level. Not only is the sniper rifle capable of seeing through walls using some insane version of x-ray tech, but it can also shoot through any obstacle with perfect accuracy and penetration. It's pretty much the perfect imaginary stealth weapon, since you can hide around corners and effortlessly headshot any rube in range, even if they're behind solid concrete and steel. There's never really been a gun this completely insane in any other game, and that's probably a good thing. Don't give Call of Duty any ideas.

Like Excalibur, Glamdring, or Stormbringer, there really shouldn't be a sword more powerful than Link's iconic Master Sword, but Biggoron's Sword is literally 100 percent more dangerous. With a longer reach and twice as much damage, it's hard to beat. The only problem with the sword is that it takes two hands to swing, so Link has to adventure without his shield. But with brute power provided by Biggoron's Sword, it's a barely noticeable tradeoff. It's also an affront to all things mystical and awesome about the Zelda series, but that's another discussion altogether. Still, when Nintendo tells you that it's better to use a girder to smack baddies instead of a sword imbued with magical, evil-vanquishing energy, they've gone off the rails.

The most absurd weapon in Super Smash Bros. is actually pulled from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The Gust Bellows do no damage to your opponent, but don't be deceived: since the entire goal of Smash Bros. is to push your opponent off of a platform's edge and into oblivion, an item that creates inescapable gale force winds is pretty much a death sentence. Loved by those who score the random drop, and hated by those who have to go face the tornado, the Gust Bellows is the ridiculous, windy item that truly tips Smash Bros. over the edge, and can make or break an otherwise fair match.

After being murdered thousands of times by the heat-seeking red shell in Super Mario Kart, who would be deranged enough to invent an even deadlier turtle-based weapon? A staple of the Mario Kart series since 64, the rare spiny shell actively seeks to destroy the first place racer on any track, destroying any player in its path. Sometimes it flies above the track, but most of the time, it's just an immortal, unstoppable prickly obliterator, and there's no escape. Like Boba Fett, dimethyl mercury, and taxes, it will cause your death, and you cannot stop it.

It takes a while in Far Cry Primal to learn how to craft Berserk Bombs, but once you do, they're a total game changer. Because your hero is a master of all primitive beasts, all it takes is a whistle to summon a man-sized spirit owl that clutches bombs full of bees, fire, and psychotropic poisons, and send it undetected into enemy territory. When a Berserk Bomb is dropped, like Saturday at an all-you-can-eat buffet, it causes anyone caught in the cloud to get irrationally angry and attack one another until only one person is left, at which point the sole survivor is nearly dead anyhow. It's almost like this game isn't based on anthropological records at all.

The Slugthrower isn't a standard, selectable gun, and it's something that only comes with a purchase of a dreaded DLC pack and the completion of a mission for Jabba the Hutt, but once you use it, you'll never go back. Most Battlefront guns require a cascade of well-aimed shots to take down an opponent, and even Han Solo's DL-44, the most powerful pistol in the game, usually takes two shots to take down an enemy. There are sniper rifles that take forever to charge and can kill with one shot, and a cycler rifle that can fire through energy shields, but the Slugthrower combines a one-hit kill, shield-penetrating bullets, and the insane ability to rip apart multiple enemies at once. It may take a while to recharge, but that's why you have a backup sidearm. It throws slugs, and it'll definitely make your opponents salty.