History Main / BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame

* VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas has a scene where you can fight a Vietnamese gang boss sword vs sword (he tosses one to you to duel). Of course, if by then you've picked up a shotgun, you're still more than free to use it.
** SaintsRow 2 has a similar scene where you fight a rival gang's (A yakuza style gang who fight with swords) enforcer and his men with samurai swords. Although you can't use any other weapon during this part of the game.
*** Although thanks to a glitch in this troper's game, he ended up with the taser instead of the katana.
*** [[spoiler:Mostly Subverted, however, considering your character loses the dual no matter what, and just pulls a gun on the guy]]

* Subverted in VideoGame/HypeTheTimeQuest, the Final Boss, Barnak, has a "Smart Tornado" that follows the character. You can use this to your advantage by getting Barnak in between you and the tornado. It isn't very effective, though, and is absolutely not necessary, but fun.

* If you kill another player enough times in any class-based multiplayer (like ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'') expect him to eventually switch to the same class in an attempt to blance the playing field.

* Reverse example. in [[DevilMayCry Devil May Cry 3]], Dante goes the whole game with his broad sword and his brother Vergil with a [[KatanasAreJustBetter Katana]]. At the final level, Vergil gains a similar sword and starts fighting almost exactly like ''you'', going from a GlassCannon Ken to a full-fledged PerfectPlayAI.

** In the sequel {{Okamiden}}, the final boss can strike out your Celestial Brush techniques until you manage to make the sun re-appear, at which point he will start attempting to use Brush techs of his own...which you can, of course, strike through and interrupt yourself.

** XCOM ''loves'' this. Aliens with psionic powers are the bane of your squaddies... Until you get a psionics lab and train your gifted soldiers to use their powers back. Nothing better than watching a fully levelled psionic trooper take on an Ethereal in a mind war and ''win''. In the new Creator/Firaxis game, there's also achievements for killing a [[TheBrute Muton Berserker]] with an MEC trooper's RocketPunch, or defeating an [[TheQuisling EXALT]] sniper with [[SniperDuel one of your own]].

* This is the tactic employed by the [[AntiVillain Anti-Spiral]] in ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' - whenever the protagonists get a bigger mecha, they field an equally big one to try and instil despair into the protagonists in order to dampen their [[HotBlooded hot blood]] powered Spiral Energy.
* When Kenshiro fights Shu in ''FistOfTheNorthStar'', he managed to defeat him through a secret Hokuto Shinken technique that allows him to emulate Nanto Seiken.

* VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto: San Andreas has a scene where you can fight a Vietnamese gang boss sword vs sword (he tosses one to you to duel). Of course, if by then you've picked up a shotgun, you're still more than free to use it.

* Played with ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Bart Carny". The Simpsons let a father and son who worked at a CrappyCarnival Homer got closed, which included such things as an impossible ring-toss, stay at their home. The father and son ended up locking the Simpsons out of their house when they were away. Homer bet the house he throw a hula-hoop around their chimney and the carny agreed. [[spoiler:When Homer seemed about to throw the thing, the family run back into the house and lock the door. So they ''really'' beat them at their own game: cheating.]]

* in ''Film/TheMatrix'', Neo and the other humans are nearly powerless in any direct confrontation with the Matrix's agents, and can only gain the upper hand through luck or the element of surprise (which is nearly impossible to obtain). Neo surprises his fellow humans by surviving a face-to-face encounter with an agent by dodging its bullets (as seen in the famous "bullet-time" scene.

* In TakAndThePowerOfJuju, Tak defeats Tlaloc by turning Tlaloc's sheep curse back on him.
** In Tak 2: Staff of Dreams, Tlaloc uses half of the Staff of Dreams to turn into a huge purple monster with tiny bat wings. Tak counters by using his half of the staff to... turn into a huge '''blue''' monster with tiny bat wings.

Compare FaustianRebellion, where the villains really should be ''in charge'' of the game, yet are at risk. Also compare HoistByHisOwnPetard, which is where villains are defeated by their own weapon or plot, but not necessarily by a hero.

* In ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', several types are weak to themselves, and in some cases, that is the only thing that is super effective. As an example, Dragon-type Pokemon are weak to Ice- and Dragon-type attacks. However, later games in the series introduce two Water/Dragon-type Pokemon, Palkia and Kingdra. The Water type cancels out the Ice-type weakness, and the Dragon type cancels all of Water-type[='s=] weaknesses, meaning that the only easy way to take one of these down is to BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame with a Dragon-type attack.

* Black Waltz No. 3 in ''FinalFantasyIX''. As his name implies, he fights with black magic, and your party includes a black mage of your own, Vivi. Black Waltz also has the ability to fly into the air, making him virtually impossible to hit with short-ranged physical attacks but still easy prey for Vivi's magic. And Vivi automatically begins the battle in [[LimitBreak Trance]] mode, allowing him to cast two spells per turn. It's obvious what you were meant to do (not that you ''have'' to, but...)

* ''FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' is a good example of a game where you can [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard cheat just as much as the computer...]] [[GameBreaker and possibly even more than that.]]

* Many times a wrestler will have a trademark finishing maneuver. As in the WWE game cited above, a point of drama is to use a wrestler's finisher against him/her. This only works if the move in question is unique, though; there's not as much drama if Wrestling/{{Kane}} and TheUndertaker trade Tombstones and chokeslams, since they both 'naturally' have them.
* Also in wrestling, certain characters usually have matches that are claimed to be their specialty (TheUndertaker has casket and buried alive matches, the Hardys are associated with ladders, the Dudleys with tables, Kane with the Inferno Match), but generally they tend to lose those matches.
* At some point in [[DwayneJohnson The Rock's]] career, he began to make a habit out of hitting his opponents with their own finishers. This included giving TripleH a Pedigree onto a table, giving the Undertaker a chokeslam, spearing {{Goldberg}}, putting KurtAngle in the ankle lock and giving StoneColdSteveAustin lots and LOTS of Stunners. While he usually tried to pick up a pin after this, they pretty much always kicked out. Also, this usually meant that eventually the other wrestler would give him the Rock Bottom.
** One match saw The Rock was in a Triple Threat match with KurtAngle and TheUndertaker. One point in the match saw Rock use a Chokeslam on the Undertaker, Angle using a Rock Bottom on Rock, and TheUndertaker applying an Olympic Slam to Kurt Angle.
* At ''Hard Justice 2008'', KurtAngle tried to use the Styles Clash on AJStyles himself, only for Styles to turn it into the Angle Lock in midair and force Angle to tap out to his own finisher.
* At ''Final Resolution 2010'', Douglas Williams pinned AJStyles after using the Styles Clash on him.
* Wrestling/{{Kane}} has always been a sadistic monster (though his character can be a NobleDemon depending on plot) that loves playing mind games and mentally tormenting his opponents. What did {{Edge}} do when he had to beat him for the World Heavyweight Championship? Kidnapped [[PaulBearer Kane's dad]] and spend the next few weeks torturing Kane in all sorts of sadistic mind games and torturing his daddy. Kane tries to call him out on it, only for {{Edge}} to remind him of how he's only doing the exact same thing Kane always does. So far, it seemed {{Edge}} has one upped Kane.
* At ''Sacrifice 2007'', James Storm tried to attack Chris Harris with his signature beer bottle, but Harris clocked him with a bottle of his own.
* Subverted hilariously when Vickie Guerrero attempted to Spear {{Edge}}. She comically bounces off him like he was a brick wall.

* The final battle of ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl''. In order to even the odds between himself and the cursed undead pirates, Captain Jack Sparrow picks up a gold piece from the cursed treasure trove, transforming into an [[NighInvulnerability immortal]] undead pirate himself, allowing him to more easily buy time until the curse is broken and the evil pirates are rendered killable.
* [[Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger Dutch]] uses stealth tactics to defeat the Film/{{Predator}}.
** In ''{{Predator 2}}'', Harrigan kills the Predator with its own disc weapon.

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* Inverted in ''SamuraiJack'', after Aku grows tired of sending wave after wave of bounty hunters against Jack, wondering aloud "Is there any fighting style that can defeat his!?" He decides to solve the issue by creating an EvilTwin of Jack [[EnemyWithout from his hatred and anger]]. True enough, Jack could not defeat it in combat; instead, [[SheatheYourSword he defeated the clone by meditating and reaching inner peace]].

* The ''[[LegoAdaptationGame Lego Star Wars]]'' games have the player Force-pushing objects, thrown by the boss, back at the boss. Fighting Dooku even lets you do it with [[ShockAndAwe Force Lightning]].

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'', as the rocket-firing Cyberdemon actually takes less than normal damage from the rocket launcher, making it rather ineffective[[hottip:* :To be specific, the rocket deals damage from both the impact and the explosion itself. The Cyberdemon is immune to splash damage, which means it only takes damage from the impact itself.]].

* ''TabletopGames/Chess'' Grandmaster Jan Timman is known for using his opponents' favorite opening lines against them. Sometimes this backfires, but often it works and he wins, partially due to the psychological difficulties of essentially "playing against yourself".

* In [[DotHack .hack//]] video games you can use Data Drain against the enemies. The same skill the 8 Phases use against people to put them into comas. In fact, Data Drain is the only way to defeat most of them.

* In a championship round of ''Junkyard Wars'', the Turbines stole an entire car from the Pit Crew's lot, and foiled the Crew's attempt to steal it back. This could be karma in action, as the Pit Crew had stolen some motorcycles (yes, ''several'' motorcycles) from their opponents in a previous round of the championship.

* Meta Knight, the recurring sword-wielding WorthyOpponent from the ''Kirby'' series, usually leaves a sword in the boss arena for you to take and use against him. Originally, in ''Kirby's Adventure'', he refused to start the fight until you took it, but in ''Kirby Super Star'', he will fight you if you wait several minutes without taking it. Because Meta Knight's attacks don't create stars for Kirby to inhale and spit, you can't hurt him without a power, meaning that you ''must'' use the sword to defeat him. Thankfully, you won't lose the sword if Meta Knight hits you.

* According to the Strategy Guide, it is almost impossible to defeat the final boss in ''Baldur's Gate 2'' without temporarily giving into your evil nature and turning into the Slayer, which the final boss also starts the fight as. It should be noted that this is rubbish, all you really need is a strong character. They seem to like the idea of you turning into the Slayer for the final boss fight though, and the game drops hints to that near the end of the game.

* While most ''Klonoa'' series bosses require you to throw enemies into them, the King of Sorrow from ''Klonoa 2; Lunatea's Veil'' attacks you with spiked orbs which he controls with chains of energy. To defeat him, you have to steal one of his orbs and throw it at him; conveniently, it can be used multiple times, as it returns to you on a chain of energy after you throw it.

* The original, 2-D platformer ''Prince of Persia'' forces the player to leap through a mirror at one point, creating a "shadow twin" who bedevils the player in later levels. When the hero finally confronts his twin, the player discovers that striking the twin damages the hero, and killing the twin results in the hero's death. The only way to defeat the twin is to [[spoiler: sheathe your sword and run into the twin, causing the hero's dark side to be re-absorbed.]]
* In .hack// video games you can use Data Drain against the enemies. The same skill the 8 Phases use against people to put them into comas. In fact, Data Drain is the only way to defeat most of them.

* Reverse example. in [[DevilMayCry Devil May Cry 3]], Dante goes the whole game with his broad sword and his brother Vergil with a [[KatanasAreJustBetter Katana]]. At the final level, Vergil gains a similar sword and starts fighting almost exactly like ''you'', going from a GlassCannon [[RyuAndKen Ken]] to a full-fledged PerfectPlayAI.