History ActionBomb / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' has the Creeper, whose explosions are generally strong to [[InstakillMook instantly kill a player from full health]] and which is a fairly standard version except for one annoying feature: being utterly silent until that burning fuse noise that translates to "you have about one second to live." The most annoying part isn't even dying: they do heavy damage to the landscape, including whatever structure you were working on. You might recover most of your tools and maybe your armor, but now there's a twenty-foot hole where your beautiful house used to be. If a thunderbolt manages to strike a Creeper, it ''[[LightningCanDoAnything supercharges them]]'', making their explosion attack even more deadly and the craters they leave behind a lot bigger. As of the final version, creepers are by far the deadliest mob in the game, capable of inflicting a OneHitKill on players without armor on hard difficulty from a long distance, and even capable of one hitting players on easy difficulty at point blank range. To the player's benefit, [[BlockingStopsAllDamage raising your shield in time completely negates the explosion damage of even a Charged Creeper]], and thanks to how knockback works in the game[[note]]one hit of melee with any item or weapon without the Knockback enchantment will push a Creeper back just enough for you to be at the edge of its detonation radius, where SplashDamage is lowest[[/note]], it's easy to use Creepers to devastate large numbers of hostile mobs.

* ''VideoGame/BionicCommando'' has kamikaze soldiers with explosive backpacks.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterRise'': Bombadgys are raccoon-like creatures whose bodies are filled with volatile gas. Hitting one will cause it to be launched away like a rocket, causing small explosions from the gas it expels, and can be weaponized by player by swatting them into other monsters and damaging them in the resulting explosions.
* ''VideoGame/MontyMole'': The Amiga/C64 version of ''Impossamole'' has suicide bombers with dynamite strapped to their backs.

* In ''VideoGame/IronGaia'', Rover's Tier 1 [[LimitBreak Rage Move]] is Self-Destruct, which is one of the most powerful attacks in the game. It still leaves him with 1 HP point instead of destroying him, however. [[spoiler:In the "Escape" ending, Rover self-destructs for real at the station's core, causing it to crash instead of landing safely.]]

* ''VideoGame/StarCraftI'' has Zerg Infested Terrans (a rare sight as creating them requires bringing a Zerg Queen into a Terran base to take over an enemy Command Center after significantly damaging it) and Zerg Scourges. Protoss Reavers construct Scarabs to use as ammo, which are actual units and inherit some problems with pathfinding the game is infamous for. ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'' loses Scourges, but gains banelings, which are mutated from zerglings. The ''Heart of the Swarm'' expansion lets you evolve Banelings during the campaign, either to explode and [[AsteroidsMonster split into mini-banelings]] or to have the ability to scale cliffs and jump to close the gap to their targets.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Bonfire}}'', the "booby trap" effect can turn anyone into this, making them explode on death. It's possible for any enemy to start with this effect, but Bloatscorch enemies in particular can apply it to themselves at low health. Interestingly, ''you'' can turn your heroes into action bombs too with Zhu's Booby Trap ability.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' has the ability Kamikaze, qhich is one of three attacks that can break the game's 9999 damage cap, the others being the [=GF=] Eden and Quistis' [[LimitBreak Shockwave Pulsar]]. However, unlike Self-Destruct, Kamikaze removes the using character from the battle entirely and you can't just use a Phoenix Down to get him/her back.

* ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'': The airborne Aeon Mercy guided missile from the vanilla game and land-only Cybran Fire Beetle from ''Forged Alliance'' expansion (which, underwhelmingly, doesn't deal damage if it doesn't activate the bomb on its own). The Seraphim [[HumongousMecha Assault Bot]] Ythotha, when destroyed, leaves behind a quantum lighting orb that persists for around 30 seconds and during this time fries nearby units, without paying any attention to allegiance. The Ythotha's orb was originally intended as a feature for the Aeon Galactic Colossus, but got DummiedOut until Forged Alliance came along. [=ACUs=] explode upon destruction, but unless the game mode is not [[DecapitatedArmy Assassination]], it's not of much use.

** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert: The Aftermath'' there are Demolition Trucks that detonate in nuclear explosions. They are stated by be driven by computers in the manuals but have normal human move sounds (arguable the manuals had that thrown in for censorship). The Soviets have the MAD Tanks that self-destruct in large shock waves damaging vehicles and structures in a large area.

** ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'': Hell Wraths carry organic bombs, which they detonate after receiving sufficient damage. The explosion deals heavy damage to both the player and other enemies, including the Wrath itself, who inevitably dies. They're best handled with guns.
** ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'': Hellbats are larger demonic bats that can detonate themselves when near-death.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode One'' introduces the "Zombine" enemies (Combine troops taken over by headcrabs). They can use grenades but not throw them, meaning that they will essentially commit suicide when using them by rushing at the player with one in their hand (although it is possible to use the gravity gun to "steal" the grenade and get rid of it before it explodes, or to run like hell and let them blow themselves and the rest of the zombies to bits).

** The Blast Psion buffs enemy Vek by making them explode on death. This is especially tricky to deal with when the player has to protect nearby buildings from being destroyed.

* ''[[VideoGame/KaoTheKangaroo Kao The Kangaroo: Round 2]]'' has an enemy who's a dynamite stick on legs and who chases after Kao until he hits something.

%%* ''VideoGame/{{Lemmings}}'': The Bomber skill.

* ''VideoGame/{{Painkiller}}'' had a zombie in the theatre level that carries a big barrel of gunpowder and runs toward you. Shooting the barrel makes him blow up his buddies. ''Not'' shooting the barrel... well, you just don't want to do that.

** As far as enemies go, the Jungle areas have Fire Frogs, which are of the "detonates violently upon death" variation. When they take any damage, they'll explode after a few seconds' delay. In the [[UpdatedRerelease HD version]], {{Man|EatingPlant}}traps can eat them, but [[TooSpicyForYogSothoth they'll still explode after a few seconds]].

* ''VideoGame/StarCraftI'' has Infested Terrans and Scourges. ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'' has banelings. The expansion to the second game lets you upgrade your Banelings during the campaign, either to explode and split into mini-banelings or to have the ability to jump over units.

** All units can self-destruct, damaging nearby units. The Roach and Invader are tiny little bots that are specifically ''designed'' to self-destruct and produce explosions much bigger than their size would suggest. For [[OhCrap bonus]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom fun]] you can load a bunch of them into a sea transport ship and detonate ''that'', or fly them into the enemy base with dropships.
** The Commander can also be used this way as a measure of last resort, provided the server settings allow you to continue playing after your Commander dies.

** ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'' only has powerful death explosions for some units, while it took until the ''Forged Alliance'' expansion to add the Fire Beetle mobile bomb to the arsenal of one faction. However, some of the experimentals, most notoriously the Aeon [[AirborneAircraftCarrier Czar]], will wipe out anything around them when destroyed. The Seraphim Ythotha then goes one better and leaves behind a quantum lighting orb thingy that fries nearby enemies when destroyed. The Czar doesn't just Action Bomb when destroyed, the hull wobbles down to earth and destroys anything it lands on as well! The Ythotha's orb was originally intended as a feature for the Galactic Colossus, but got DummiedOut until Forged Alliance came along.
* ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammer2'': The Bloated Corpse, a unit in the Vampire Coast roster, is a giant zombie swollen with the volatile gases of its own decomposition. When attacking, it throws itself into the middle of an enemy unit and violently explodes, destroying itself but dealing severe damage to anything caught in its explosion radius. While it's not very useful against single-entity units such as characters or large monsters, it's very well-suited to quickly getting rid of large amounts of infantry.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' has this as one property of [[spoiler:Metal Gear ''Sahalanthropus'': its armor is composed of depleted uranium, which is extremely durable. When the armor is exposed to a special type of metallic archaea, however, the uranium becomes enriched. When subsequently self-destructed, ''Sahalanthropus'' would explode with the force of a nuclear weapon, making this model of Metal Gear, in and of itself, a walking nuke.]]

* ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'': Phantom soldiers in ''Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires'' have a nasty habit of exploding when you attack them. In previous ''Empires'' games, your weapons would [[Intangibility pass right through them]].

Especially as a {{Mook}}, {{Action Bomb}}s are incredibly common in video games.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':

* ''VideoGame/EveryExtend'': ''You're'' the Action Bomb, sacrificing a life with every attack. The challenge is to [[EveryTenThousandPoints gain points rapidly enough]] to replace the lost lives.

** In ''VideoGame/ThiefTheDarkProject'' the later stages contain Frogbeasts, who attack by leaping in your face and exploding for hefty damage. In the sequel you can use them to your own benefit, though they're not very effective against the mechanical foes you'll mostly be facing by that point. Their exploding counts as damage from a neutral source though, which can allow you to bypass the no-human-killing rule on higher difficulty settings.

** In ''VideoGame/ThiefTheDarkProject'' the later stages contain Frogbeasts, who attack by leaping in your face and exploding for hefty damage. In the sequel you can use them to your own benefit, though they're not very effective against the mechanical foes you'll mostly be facing by that point. Their exploding counts as damage from a neutral source though, which can allow you to bypass the no-killing rule on higher difficulty settings.