History GameBreaker / PlatformGames

*** The [[EpicFlail Scorpion Flail]] can spread hurt over a large area and has a generous 20 shots, with each Ammo Alpha Mod granting another 5, while one ammo crate replenishes 20% of its current ammo capacity. That's ''a lot'' for a weapon that can, with the Shock Omega Mod and a few Area Mods, clear basically the entire ''screen'' of enemies in one or two shots. Its final upgrade also creates a shockwave that propagates straight and quite far. Its only downside is that it's ineffective flying enemies, but if you hit the flying enemy with it...
*** The Mini-Turret Launcher, while the last of regular weapons obtained, can make the game quite easy. While it has less ammo than the previous game (without Ammo Mods, that is), don't forget that this game features many more arena challenges where you can throw a few of these and wait while they obliterate enemies. Damage-wise, one shot doesn't do that much damage, but since they shoot ''fast'' and you can have as many as 5 active of them at the same time, that damage accumulates quickly. Full upgrade shoots lasers instead, making them even more efficient, and putting different Omega Mods on them means they can be used from slowing down enemies to brainwashing them.

** ''GameBreaker/MegaManLegends''

** ''GameBreaker/MegaManXDive''

* The Windmill Slash special weapon ability (not to be confused with the Windmill Shuriken) is extremely effective in the original ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' for the UsefulNotes/{{NES}}. The reason for this is how the game codes the damage for the Windmill Slash--the other projectile-based special weapons all inflict a set amount of damage to a target. The Windmill Slash, on the other hand, inflicts one point of damage... for ''every frame of the attack that touches an enemy.'' This turns the Windmill Slash into the ninja flipout cousin of the [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Screw Attack]], making the attack a OneHitKill on any boss it can reach.

* ''Mega Man''

* ''MegaMan''

* ''GameBreaker/MegaMan''

* ''VideoGame/City Siege'': The Spy Unit stands head-and-shoulders above every other troop, despite being in a game where rocket-firing helicopters and heavily-armored tanks are some of the best endgame units you can purchase. The Spy beats all other units by sheer virtue of the fact that she doesn't draw enemy attacks until she is within a (helpfully-shaded) red sphere next to them. This makes most levels absurdly simple, as the Spy can simply waltz through enemy bases rescuing [=VIPs=], with very little to stop her barring heavily-fortified structures. This is only balanced out by the fact that the mainline games only give her C4 as a defensive weapon... which is still enough to kill all ground units multiple times over, and can be placed directly beside them without drawing their attention, no less. Additionally, she is one of the cheapest units to buy, making her an early-game purchase that has far more value than most of the rank-and-file soldiers. Incredibly, the Spy was ''buffed'' in the third game's expansion pack (the ''FUBAR Pack''), which gave her a shuriken that could be used to snipe enemies from halfway across the map without any aggression, even from air units. Come the following game, the Spy Unit was eliminated completely.

* [[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the NES]]: The 'ninja scroll' special weapon. Pierces through multiple enemies, kills most minor enemies in one hit, and even inflicts massive damage to bosses. There are also several places in the game where the power-up icon respawns, potentially letting you hoard up to 396 of the things.

* ''[[VideoGame/PapaLouieArcade Papa Louie 2: When Burgers Attack]]'' has Xandra. Her X-wand shoots stars that can kill multiple enemies, she can jump slightly higher than the other playable characters, and her gliding can carry her a massive distance.

* ''VideoGame/CitySiege'': The Spy Unit stands head-and-shoulders above every other troop, despite being in a game where rocket-firing helicopters and heavily-armored tanks are some of the best endgame units you can purchase. The Spy beats all other units by sheer virtue of the fact that she doesn't draw enemy attacks until she is within a (helpfully-shaded) red sphere next to them. This makes most levels absurdly simple, as the Spy can simply waltz through enemy bases rescuing [=VIPs=], with very little to stop her barring heavily-fortified structures. This is only balanced out by the fact that the mainline games only give her C4 as a defensive weapon... which is still enough to kill all ground units multiple times over, and can be placed directly beside them without drawing their attention, no less. Additionally, she is one of the cheapest units to buy, making her an early-game purchase that has far more value than most of the rank-and-file soldiers. Incredibly, the Spy was ''buffed'' in the third game's expansion pack (the ''FUBAR Pack''), which gave her a shuriken that could be used to snipe enemies from halfway across the map without any aggression, even from air units. Come the following game, the Spy Unit was eliminated completely.

* ''VideoGame/Cit Siege'': The Spy Unit stands head-and-shoulders above every other troop, despite being in a game where rocket-firing helicopters and heavily-armored tanks are some of the best endgame units you can purchase. The Spy beats all other units by sheer virtue of the fact that she doesn't draw enemy attacks until she is within a (helpfully-shaded) red sphere next to them. This makes most levels absurdly simple, as the Spy can simply waltz through enemy bases rescuing [=VIPs=], with very little to stop her barring heavily-fortified structures. This is only balanced out by the fact that the mainline games only give her C4 as a defensive weapon... which is still enough to kill all ground units multiple times over, and can be placed directly beside them without drawing their attention, no less. Additionally, she is one of the cheapest units to buy, making her an early-game purchase that has far more value than most of the rank-and-file soldiers. Incredibly, the Spy was ''buffed'' in the third game's expansion pack (the ''FUBAR Pack''), which gave her a shuriken that could be used to snipe enemies from halfway across the map without any aggression, even from air units. Come the following game, the Spy Unit was eliminated completely.

** Back in ''Going Commando'', the upgraded Sheepinator: the ''Black'' Sheepinator. It [[BalefulPolymorph transforms enemies into sheep]] at an alarmingly fast rate, enough to make it not-completely-useless against medium-to-large-sized enemies. On top of that, the sheep themselves are now evil, [[RedEyesTakeWarning red-eyed]] [[BaaBomb exploding]] sheep that [[DrawAggro draw the enemy's attention to them]], and it has infinite ammo. Not quite as game-breaking as the other examples, but its unlimited ammo and enemy-distracting properties turn the [[BrutalBonusLevel Impossible Challenge]] into a cake-walk, and unlike just about every other weapon, it works just as well in [[NewGamePlus Challenge Mode]] as it does in the regular game, making it a good DiscOneNuke to fall back on when you're still grinding for money to buy all the Mega Weapons. It's useless against bosses, though.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Shantae}} Shantae: Half-Genie Hero]]'' has the Magic Tiara item, which provides infinite magic. That in and of itself is pretty overpowered, but it can be combined with Invincibility, the most upgraded form of the bubble that makes you immune to damage in exchange for magic, to gain {{Nigh Invulnerab|le}}ility that no attack can penetrate and never runs out. While it takes some sharp searching to acquire, it can never the less be found before even entering the final level of the game, rendering it and the final battle [[ZeroEffortBoss a complete joke]].
* In the ''City Siege'' Flash platform series, the Spy Unit stands head-and-shoulders above every other troop, despite being in a game where rocket-firing helicopters and heavily-armored tanks are some of the best endgame units you can purchase. The Spy beats all other units by sheer virtue of the fact that she doesn't draw enemy attacks until she is within a (helpfully-shaded) red sphere next to them. This makes most levels absurdly simple, as the Spy can simply waltz through enemy bases rescuing [=VIPs=], with very little to stop her barring heavily-fortified structures. This is only balanced out by the fact that the mainline games only give her C4 as a defensive weapon... which is still enough to kill all ground units multiple times over, and can be placed directly beside them without drawing their attention, no less. Additionally, she is one of the cheapest units to buy, making her an early-game purchase that has far more value than most of the rank-and-file soldiers. Incredibly, the Spy was ''buffed'' in the third game's expansion pack (the ''FUBAR Pack''), which gave her a shuriken that could be used to snipe enemies from halfway across the map without any aggression, even from air units. Come the following game, the Spy Unit was eliminated completely.

* ''Super VideoGame/MeatBoy'' has Steve from Minecraft in the PC version which makes numerous levels extremely easy since he can create and destroy tiles at will. In fact, he's such a Game Breaker that the game disables achievements while he's in use. Often many other characters can break individual levels.
* ''VideoGame/Jak3Wastelander'' might be easier than its predecessor because of the wider arsenal, but the Beam Reflexor, the second Blaster Mod really stands out. It is basically the same thing as the Blaster, except the bullets now reflect from enemies and walls. That in itself wouldn't be a Game Breaker, but the shots automatically home in one enemies, meaning you don't even have to bother with aiming. Just use the jump + spin + shoot combo (shoots five bullets in every direction) and you'll slaughter every enemy in the room. The Beam Reflexor's effectiveness diminishes in open areas, due to the shots taking longer to rebound, but it's still more effective than most other guns. Moreover, the gun is obtained very early on (after the second Arena Challenge) and doesn't even use up much ammo (it consumes one bullet when it fires and another each time a reflected shot hits an enemy). With the fully upgraded ammo capacity of 300, you can fire away to your heart's content. You may find yourself deliberately avoiding the Beam Reflexor to keep things at least somewhat challenging.

* The Windmill Slash special weapon ability (not to be confused with the Windmill Shuriken) is extremely effective in the original ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' for the NES. The reason for this is how the game codes the damage for the Windmill Slash--the other projectile-based special weapons all inflict a set amount of damage to a target. The Windmill Slash, on the other hand, inflicts one point of damage... for ''every frame of the attack that touches an enemy.'' This turns the Windmill Slash into the ninja flipout cousin of the [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Screw Attack]], making the attack a OneHitKill on any boss it can reach.

* There are two in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro: Dawn of the Dragon''. First, Cynder's Shadow element has a basic attack that uses almost no mana, is inordinately powerful, and can hit every enemy in a fairly wide radius around her. The second is the Roll ability - its intended purpose is to quickly dodge powerful attacks, but you are invincible whenever you use it, to the point where an Earth Golem can smash its building-sized hand down on you, and if you roll you take ''zero'' damage. Using these two abilities in conjunction with each other can potentially get you through the entire game without ever dying, or indeed without any kind of a challenge.
** The Shadow Strike ability deserves a little elaboration. Not only does it hit everyone in the vicinity, but it will knock the smaller enemies into the air for several seconds, and then they will spend several seconds after that getting back up. And if that wasn't enough, the shadow "blinds" them and makes them start attacking ''each other''. If one uses this ability right, you can get a whole room full of enemies all attacking each other without you ever entering the fray.
** In ''A New Beginning'', Earth element, specifically its sub elemental shot, is very great. You don't get it until just before the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, but if you've been saving your EXP for it and put it all into the sub-shot of the element, it makes it a complete and utter joke. The sub element is a tornado shot that, on it's highest level, can stun even the larges enemies into the air while doing constant damage to them. This alone doesn't sound too great, but add on the fact that it can do this to multiple enemies at once, and the fact that doing this causes them to drop spirit gems which recharge your mana while they're still alive, when normally they don't do this until you've killed them, and you have an attack that not only stuns all enemies in the general area and keeps them from attacking, does constant, high damage to them, but ''also'' recharges itself for basically no cost at all. Once you get it, pretty much the only strategy for the rest of the game is "use tornado, wait for the attack to wear off, use tornado again" until all enemies are dead. The basic breath also does high damage, but it isn't as great because also does high damage to your mana.
** Electricity is also very great in ''A New Beginning'' too if you know how to use it, on top of the fact that you get it pretty early on. On paper, it's an element that let's you stun and toss enemies, while not doing much damage. Doesn't sound too spectacular, until you realize that enemies in this game take FallDamage, and often get {{One Hit Kill}}ed even when falling off short drops, and when you throw them into bottomless pits, you still get their spirit gems regardless. If you level the basic breath version of it up all the way, you can toss even the biggest of enemies off cliffs and ledges, killing them instantly, making it amazing crowd control when the game starts getting spam happy with enemies.

** ''VideoGame/RatchetDeadlocked'' has besides obligatory InfinityPlusOneSword (in the form of [[KillSat Harbinger]] this time) two another contenders:
*** [[EpicFlail Scorpion Flail]] can spread hurt over large area and has generous 20 shots, with each Ammo Alpha Mod granting another 5, while one ammo crate replenishes 20% of its current ammo capacity. That's ''a lot'' for a weapon that can, with Shock Omega Mod and a few Area Mods, clear basically entire ''screen'' of enemies in one or two shots. Its final upgrade also creates a shockwave that propagates straight and quite far. Its only downside are flying enemies, but if you hit the flying enemy with it ...
*** Mini-Turret Launcher, while last of regular weapons obtained, can make game quite easy. While it has less ammo than previous game (without Ammo Mods, that is), don't forget that this game features much more area challenges where you can throw few of these and wait while they obliterate enemies. Damage-wise, one shot doesn't do that much damage but since they shoot ''fast'' and you can have as much as 5 active of them in the same time that damage accumulates quickly. Full upgrade shoots lasers instead, making them even more efficient, and putting different Omega Mods on them means the can be used from slowing down enemies to brainwashing them.
* VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}: While the game can be so NintendoHard that nothing truly breaks the game, having the luck to acquire a jetpack in early levels can render a great many of the challenges moot. Combine with the shotgun and a host of other gear, and you're golden.

** The tunnel man is a definite gamebreaker. With the unbreakable mattock you can get tons of money early on to spend on shop items and avoid a ton of enemies. Getting to the city of gold with a jetpack becomes almost trivially easy, and the last boss can be avoided a lot easier as well. Even though it's impossible to attack while jumping, he starts off with no bombs or ropes and only 2 health instead of 4, playing as the tunnel man is still a lot easier.

* ''VideoGame/Jak3Wastelander'' might be easier than its predecessor because of the wider arsenal, but the Beam Reflexor, the second Blaster Mod really stands out. It is basically the same thing as the Blaster, except the bullets now reflect from enemies and walls. That in itself wouldn't be a Game Breaker, but the shots automatically home in one enemies, meaning you don't even have to bother with aiming. Just use the jump + spin + shoot combo (shoots five bullets in every direction) and you'll slaughter every enemy in the room. The Beam Reflexor's effectiveness diminishes in open areas, due to the the shots taking longer to rebound, but it's still more effective than most other guns. Moreover, the gun is obtained very early on (after the second Arena Challenge) and doesn't even use up much ammo (it consumes one bullet when it fires and another each time a reflected shot hits an enemy). With the fully upgraded ammo capacity of 300, you can fire away to your heart's content. You may find yourself deliberately avoiding the Beam Reflexor to keep things at least somewhat challenging.

* [[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the NES]]: The 'ninja scroll' special weapon. Pierces through multiple enemies, kill most minor enemies in one hit and even inflicts massive damage to bosses. There are also several places in the game where the power-up icon respawns, potentially letting you hoard up to 396 of the things.
* The Clockwork Kazooie eggs in ''[[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Banjo-Tooie]]''. They're meant to be used as remote-controlled bombs, but they're capable of picking up important items like Jiggies, Jinjos and Cheato Pages all by themselves. You can just fire them at the normally hard-to-reach object you want and completely bypass a lot of difficult platforming and puzzles.
* [[VideoGame/PapaLouieArcade Papa Louie 2: When Burgers Attack]] has Xandra. Her X-wand shoots stars that can kill multiple enemies, she can jump slightly higher then the other playable characters & her gliding can carry her a massive distance.

** The Shield Charger/Tesla Barrier is an interesting example of this trope. It doesn't attack enemies mainly, instead it protects you fully from all forms of damage bar falling. Not only that but any enemy that comes into contact with the 360 degree shield takes a fair amount of damage especially with the upgraded Tesla Barrier. Sure it runs out eventually but nothing is stopping you from reequipping the shield immediately after it dissipates. Like the Bouncer example above, it was less effective in ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal Up Your Arsenal]]'' with reduced ammo (5 instead of 15) but it was still a {{Game Breaker}}.

** ''Videogame/RatchetDeadlocked'' has besides obligatory InfinityPlusOneSword (in the form of [[KillSat Harbinger]] this time) two another contenders:

** The (Heavy) Bouncer in ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando Going Commando]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal Up Your Arsenal]]''. It launches a massive ball that hits for massive damage, then splits into about 50 smaller bombs that all hit ''for equally massive damage''. This allows you to clear entire areas with ease and turns the final boss of ''Going Commando'' into a joke. Furthermore, in ''Going Commando'' the ammo clip is absolutely massive, and with all the ammo crates lying around replacing 5-8 ammo per pickup, you're unlikely to ever run out of ammo for the thing (since, remember, a single shot is usually more than enough to clear out an entire room). They tried to nerf it in ''Up Your Arsenal'' by lowering the ammo amount, but it still hits just as hard; it's only prevented from being a true Game Breaker in that game by the presence of other weapons that are greater than itself (see Rift Inducer above). It's still one in the 2016 game, as it can be bought on Novalis for 100 bolts, and Heavy Bouncer's bomblets release explosions on each ''bounce'', destroying most bosses with ease. They also now home into flying enemies, destroying everything both on land and on air. It's only drawback is that it's pre-order DLC, with no known plans for public release.

* [[GoGoEnslavement Slave Leia]] in ''Videogame/SuperStarWars: Return of the Jedi'' may be ''the'' most powerful playable character ''in the entire series''. She makes the level aboard Jabba's sail barge almost trivially easy.

* In the ''City Siege'' Flash platform series, the Spy Unit stands head-and-shoulders above every other troop, despite being in a game where rocket-firing helicopters and heavily-armored tanks are some of the best endgame units you can purchase. The Spy beats all other units by sheer virtue of the fact that she doesn't draw enemy attacks until she is within a (helpfully-shaded) red sphere next to them. This makes most levels absurdly simple, as the Spy can simply waltz through enemy bases rescuing VIPs, with very little to stop her barring heavily-fortified structures. This is only balanced out by the fact that the mainline games only give her C4 as a defensive weapon... which is still enough to kill all ground units multiple times over, and can be placed directly beside them without drawing their attention, no less. Additionally, she is one of the cheapest units to buy, making her an early-game purchase that has far more value than most of the rank-and-file soldiers. Incredibly, the Spy was ''buffed'' in the third game's expansion pack (the ''FUBAR Pack''), which gave her a shuriken that could be used to snipe enemies from halfway across the map without any aggression, even from air units. Come the following game, the Spy Unit was eliminated completely.