History GameBreaker / ShootEmUps

* ''Touhou'' fangames aren't immune to this either. ''Marine Benefit'' gives us the [=MarisaB=] shottype, which fires piercing lasers, has high power, and has the [[WaveMotionGun Master Spark]] bomb. This has appeared in canon ''Touhou'' games while being considered a generally bad shottype, but in ''Marine Benefit'' the game is practically made for it, with a ton of fairies that are nigh-unkillable to most other shottypes because they stay behind other fairies - and killing them gives the player H items, which both lower the point of collection and give the player more bombs to use, and playing as any Marisa shottype increases the value of H items. Since ''Marine Benefit'' (unlike canon ''Touhou'' games) doesn't have a {{cap}} on the number of bombs you can stock, it is quite possible to get enough bombs that they literally go off the screen...by the '''stage 3 boss''', thus allowing the player to turn the bosses into a joke just by spamming Master Spark. It doesn't hurt that "high power" here is defined as "second highest in the game" (when the highest falls firmly under AwesomeButImpractical and is the difference is barely noticeable). And just in case this wasn't broken enough, all of the final boss' spellcards revolve around summoning the same {{mook}}s that [=MarisaB=] is killing nigh-instantly.
** Unfortunately, the game's latest patch has taken [=MarisaB=] out of GameBreaker status through two indirect nerfs. The first is adding a cap on lives and bombs akin to the canon Touhou games, which means the strategy of "gather so many bombs they go off the screen and then bombspam everything" no longer works. The second is nerfing the mooks summoned by the final boss, which means pretty much ''everyone'' is killing them nigh-instantly, which gives the advantage to shots that can cover a wide range, something [=MarisaB=] cannot do outside of her bomb. While she is still an excellent shot due to having power and piercing for the stages in her favor, she falls short of GameBreaker status.
** Arguably even worse is [=ReimuA=], who has the distinction of being the only shot type that both has a bomb that clears only a specific area of the screen, and can move away from where the bomb is centered. While this sounds like it'd be more of a hindrance than a help, one has to bear in mind that the game has a system where the player is rewarded with lives for grazing a certain number of bullets. This makes this bomb a godsend; every time the player bombs, rushing up to the boss and grazing everything they shoot during the invincibility period can give the player a ridiculous amount of resources. For some idea of just how bad this can get, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Mbk9N_uuE see here]], where a player ends an attack with double the resources they came in with...despite dying ''six times'', and making multiple mistakes.

*** Eiki Shiki's boss summon Spell Card also has some odd effects on the AI. The AI appears to not think ahead more than a split-second, while Shikieiki's summoned boss image regularly shoots a wide laser aimed directly at the opponent, leaving them about a second to get out of the way. Clearly, this is longer than the amount of time the AI tries to think ahead, since it will very often fail to move out of the way.

* In ''Ace Combat'''s half brother ''HAWX'' the situation is arguably worse it's version of the QAAM the "All Aspect Missile" is rightly regarded as completely broken. It's actually even better then the [=AC4=] QAAM as it can lock on ''anywhere'' once in range (even [[BadassBack directly behind you]]!) and has a 100% hit rate baring the use of flares of which you have a set and very limited supply (Way fewer then he has missiles), but even this is normally useless since the missile is very fast and hits in a second at most. Who in god's name thought this was balanced for MP is beyond me, but preemptive usage of them in battle is cause for ridicule and shame and an honor code of "[[TheDogShotFirst only use them if fired at you first]]" is very common.

*** Shikieiki Yamaxanadu's boss summon Spell Card also has some odd effects on the AI. The AI appears to not think ahead more than a split-second, while Shikieiki's summoned boss image regularly shoots a wide laser aimed directly at the opponent, leaving them about a second to get out of the way. Clearly, this is longer than the amount of time the AI tries to think ahead, since it will very often fail to move out of the way.

* The hidden Slave fighter in ''RaidenFighters''. It fires shots that spread out in front of it, which fire very fast and are capable of doing large amounts of damage, particularly at point blank. Moreover, it has a small hitbox, and if you choose the Judge Spear variation of the Slave, you not only can move absurdly fast, but you also have the Judge Spear's super-powerful bomb. On the ''Raiden Fighters Aces'' compilation, the Slave dominates every single online leaderboard, save for ship-specific leaderboards.

* ''AceCombat Zero: The Belkan War'' has a mild version of this in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-37 Su-37 Terminator]], which has a huge standard missile load, can equip the second-best missiles and best bomb in the game, and can turn on a freaking dime. There's little reason to fly anything else once you can afford it. The Eurofighter Typhoon ''is'' available even earlier in Mission 3 but only on the Mercenary Ace path (which is supposed to be harder than the Soldier or Knight paths), and it doesn't carry the Fuel Air Explosive (FAE) Bomb... which allows one to finish the Hresvelgr in three hits and Avalon (one of the infamous tunnel missions) in a single fly-through. Part of the issue is that the Terminator's available so early -- complete Mission 6 on ''any'' path, any difficulty -- whereas comparable or better planes can only be purchased after beating the game at least once, or have their requirements lowered if you have saves from the other two [=PS2=] ''Ace Combat'' games on your memory card. ''Zero'' has a much less mild version of this in the ADFX-02 Morgan, which has a weapon that can finish some ''entire missions'' with a single shot. (Then again, it ''is'' the final boss' plane, and he's already demonstrated its nastiness on you...)
** In ''Ace Combat'' games, the only actual restriction on the "superfighters" -- the X-02 Wyvern (''4'', ''5'', ''Zero''), the ADF-01 Falken (''5'', ''Zero''), the ADFX-02 Morgan (''Zero''), and the CFA-44 Nosferatu (''6'') -- is price to buy and unlock method; there are comparatively powerful late-game planes that are balanced in both ways, but the Su-37 is an exception.
** ''Ace Combat 04'' definitely had Quick-maneuver Air-to-Air Missiles ([=QAAMs=]), which were true "fire and forget" guaranteed air-to-air kills. While these are toned down in subsequent games, in ''6'' they're usually considered a "n00b" weapon that online can only be best countered by... yep, bringing your own.
** The final mission of ''The Unsung War'' is against eight of the toughest enemies in the game. It is intended to last at least thirty seconds for even the best players. However, a trick allows one to use a plane such as the Raptor, or any plane that uses the XLAA, and one shot kill four of them, then preform a loop one shot the survivors. The game literally breaks if you do it right, as since you are not meant to beat them that fast the speech cannot keep up with the speed of the battle, so you are basically waiting for up to a minute after the battle is over.
*** On the plus side, after the battle your wingmen have quite a few thoughts to share before attacking the SOLG. Break the game and you can easily listen to all of it rather than be interrupted by the attack if you went the long\hard way before.
** In ''Ace Combat'''s half brother ''HAWX'' the situation is arguably worse it's version of the QAAM the "All Aspect Missile" is rightly regarded as completely broken. It's actually even better then the [=AC4=] QAAM as it can lock on ''anywhere'' once in range (even [[BadassBack directly behind you]]!) and has a 100% hit rate baring the use of flares of which you have a set and very limited supply (Way fewer then he has missiles), but even this is normally useless since the missile is very fast and hits in a second at most. Who in god's name thought this was balanced for MP is beyond me, but preemptive usage of them in battle is cause for ridicule and shame and an honor code of "[[TheDogShotFirst only use them if fired at you first]]" is very common.
* ''Ace Combat 02'''s InfinityPlusOneSword, the XFA-27, could launch four missiles in one go. While mild compared to pretty much every other one of the AC 'Breakers, it did make ground attack much quicker.

** ''{{FreeSpace 2}}'' has the Trebuchet, presented in-game as an anti-bomber missile with an effective range of 5000 meters. However, it does ''extreme'' SubSystemDamage, more even than the Stiletto II (which is actually designed to take out subsystems, much slower than the Trebuchet, and vulnerable to being shot down), and no anti-fighter capship weapons can reach even ''close'' to five kilometers. This basically allows you to disarm capital ships with impunity with no chance of the target ship retaliating or destroying your incoming warheads.

* ''[[EpicBattleFantasy Bullet Heaven]]'' has [[TheArcher Anna]], unlockable by getting S-ranks on five levels. All the other player characters have subweapons that are, well, weapons; a wider-range, more powerful attack that can only be used occasionally. Anna's subweapon, however, is a SuperMode that gives her triple firepower until the subweapon meter runs down. Upgrade the subweapon recharge speed to max, and you can pretty much keep it on ''permanently''.
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<<|GameBreaker|>>

* Falchion Beta in ''[[{{Gradius}} Gradius Gaiden]]'', compared to the other three ships Lord British, Vic Viper, and Jade Knight. For its Double, Falchion Beta has Auto-Aim - Which auto-tracks and destroys any enemies above it. Auto-Aim renders any stage a cakewalk, even in higher loops. Its Laser, Gravity Bullet, causes such a high amount of concentrated damage that bosses die in mere seconds. Its missile weapon, Rolling Missile, will also pierce targets forward ''and'' back from where it drops.

* The Thunder Claw and Binchou Laser in ''TwinCobraII''. The red and blue weapons needs ungodly ButtonMashing to make them not piss-weak, whereas the Thunder Claw has an '''huge''' spread and doesn't need rapid fire to be powerful. The Binchou Laser doesn't need ButtonMashing either and it kill things really fast.

** The Fire Gun in ''Contra III'' constantly does high damage to anything in the fire. Most bosses die in seconds if you aim it at their weak spots.

[[quoteright:320:[[ThunderForce http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tfvi_rynex.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:320:See that boss on the right? [[GameBreaker That laser]] will [[BossDissonance fry him in less than four seconds]].]]

* ''{{Einhander}}'' has the Flash Weapon Pod, which shoots out a deadly pink laser that hurts A LOT but is [[PowerEqualsRarity very rare to find]] and has very little ammunition. Combine that with the SecretCharacter Astraea Mk II, who ''starts out each life'' with '''[[{{Cap}} 9999]]''' ammunition for each weapon, give it two Flash pods as its starting weapons, and you'll tear up pretty much everything in the game.
* ''FireShark'' has the [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Firesharklv4_3301.jpg flamethrower weapon]]. At maximum level, it fires out '''''SIX''''' streams of deadly fire in a spread (initially). The 4 side flames then proceed to sweep the sides AND back of the player, decimating most mooks they touch via massive damage. Not only that, it's the only weapon to hit behind the player character (there WILL be enemies coming from behind at times). Small wonder why the game is called FIRE Shark...

* In ''ThunderForce VI'', ''every'' ship is broken in some way. The starting ship, the Phoenix, starts with all of its weapons and both Craws, and never loses them on dying like ships from past games. The Rynex-R, unlocked upon completing the game once, doesn't have this luxury, but more than makes up for it with the incredibly broken Twin Shot [[LimitBreak Over Weapon]], pictured above. The caption is ''not'' hyperbole; a boss that takes 30-60 seconds to defeat can easily go down in under 10 seconds. It also has the Free Way weapon, which will target and slam an enemy that comes within proximity of your ship, making it idea for crowded parts of the game. Finally, the Syrinx, the last unlockable ship, is similar to the Phoenix, but with a new Wave Shot that, instead of firing a three-way spread of crescent wave bursts, fires a microwave-style laser that incinerates everything in its path and makes waves of "popcorn" enemies all but trivial.

* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] GameBreaker of sorts: The Boundary Team in ''{{Touhou}}: Imperishable Night'' is by and far the easiest of the teams to beat the game with, with their homing attacks, smaller hitbox, and extremely long deathbomb timer (which was already quite long for a ''{{Touhou}}'' game to begin with). The characters that make up the team? The main character of the series, and the second BonusLevelOfHell's boss from the previous game that can control boundaries (Read: Able to [[RealityWarper manipulate damn near anything she pleases]], be it Dream and Reality, Motion and Stillness, Life and Death, or pretty much anything that could be conceived of as having a boundary whether or not it makes sense in real life.), is older than [[FantasyKitchenSink Gensokyo]] itself, and has a very capable shikigami to help with her attacks. Yes, [[SuperpowerLottery the plot power there is as great as implied]].

** MarisaA in ''Lotus Land Story'' epitomizes this. Apart from the GoodBadBugs listed above (and in the case of the "Malice Cannon", ''even then''), MarisaA in Lotus Land Story is considered to be the most overpowered shot type to exist in any Touhou game, purely by virtue of how absurdly powerful her lasers are. It is not an exaggeration to say that she ends boss attacks 60% faster than the next most powerful shot type. On top of that, her lasers pierce enemies, are the only shot in the game that does, and there ''will'' be enemies hiding behind other enemies regularly throughout the game. Considering this, it's no wonder ZUN has been so reluctant to give Marisa's laser shot types in later games any amount of stand-out power.

** The 'Marisa Bugged/Broken' glitch from ''Mountain of Faith''. Put simply, due to a mishap in the game programming Marisa B does absurd damage firing unfocused between 3 and 4 power. By absurd damage, I mean killing bosses ''before their bullets even approach Marisa.'' If you can get through the stages with a decent amount of power this makes clearing the game an absolute joke. The reason this is going here is that if it's an accidental glitch you would expect a patch - the game's been out for over [[strike:a year]] three years now, and no fix.

* ''{{Tyrian}}'' has the Plasma Storm, a "sidekick" weapon that has limited ammo (although it regenerates slowly) but does '''massive''' damage and has a ''very'' fast fire rate - you can empty it's ten shots in about a second, which will easily wipe out anything that's not invulnerable. Oh, and it's ''[[DiscOneNuke available before the first level]]''. You can only afford one of two, but that's enough. It was toned down slightly in Tyrian 2000, but still retains most of its original awesomeness.

* ''{{Einhander}}'' has the Flash Weapon Pod, which shoots out a deadly pink laser that hurts A LOT but is very rare to find and has very little ammunition. Combine that with the SecretCharacter Astraea Mk II, who ''starts out each life'' with '''[[{{Cap}} 9999]]''' ammunition for each weapon, give it two Flash pods as its starting weapons, and you'll tear up pretty much everything in the game.

* ''{{Tyrian}}'' has the Plasma Storm, a "sidekick" weapon that has limited ammo (although it regenerates slowly) but does '''massive''' damage and has a ''very'' fast fire rate - you can empty it's ten shots in about a second, which will easily wipe out anything that's not invulnerable. Oh, and it's available before the first level. You can only afford one of two, but that's enough. It was toned down slightly in Tyrian 2000, but still retains most of its original awesomeness.

** Arguably even worse is ReimuA, who has the distinction of being the only shot type that both has a bomb that clears only a specific area of the screen, and can move away from where the bomb is centered. While this sounds like it'd be more of a hindrance than a help, one has to bear in mind that the game has a system where the player is rewarded with lives for grazing a certain number of bullets. This makes this bomb a godsend; every time the player bombs, rushing up to the boss and grazing everything they shoot during the invincibility period can give the player a ridiculous amount of resources. For some idea of just how bad this can get, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Mbk9N_uuE see here]], where a player ends an attack with double the resources they came in with...despite dying ''six times'', and making multiple mistakes.

* Falchion Beta in [[{{Gradius}} Gradius Gaiden]], compared to the other three ships Lord British, Vic Viper, and Jade Knight. For its Double, Falchion Beta has Auto-Aim - Which auto-tracks and destroys any enemies above it. Auto-Aim renders any stage a cakewalk, even in higher loops. Its Laser, Gravity Bullet, causes such a high amount of concentrated damage that bosses die in mere seconds. Its missile weapon, Rolling Missile, will also pierce targets forward ''and'' back from where it drops.
* In ''WarningForever'', the enemy ship's weapon "Smash" is one of these. The turrets have a huge fire arc, are usually located in banks on the front and rear, and eject an enormous, slow-moving shotgun blast of large purple projectiles that don't all move at the same rate, shutting down large areas of the screen every time they fire.

*** Similarly, Aya Shameimaru's meteors make the AI look like an idiot, since by the time the meteor enters the area the computer can "see", it's usually too late for it to dodge. Helping Aya's case substantially is that this game's story mode lacks {{Mirror Match}}es, and Aya is ThatOneBoss.

*** Shikieiki Yamaxanadu's boss summon Spell Card also has some odd effects on the AI. The AI appears to not think ahead more than a split-second, while Sikieiki's summoned boss image regularly shoots a wide laser aimed directly at the opponent, leaving them about a second to get out of the way. Clearly, this is longer than the amount of time the AI tries to think ahead, since it will very often fail to move out of the way.

* In the mobile game ''Gun Bros.'' by Glu, there is the obscenely powerful heavy gun called the Kraken. When shot, [[MacrossMissileMassacre it shoots loads of homing missiles.]] As you shoot, the gun appears to quickly overheat. All is lost until...wait...it shoots a [[DisintegratorRay gigantic laser beam that vaporizes anything it touches.]] The gun does not stop firing missiles even WHILE firing the laser. However, there is a price to pay. Quite literally. Originally when the gun was released it was 1400 War Bucks.(currency you spend real cash on.) The maximum package currently offered is 710 War Bucks for $99.99. Which means this thing was initially a little over $200. If you thought that was bad, they've updated it to cost a staggering 3499 War Bucks. Do the math...yeah. Holy shit indeed.

* In the mobile game ''Gun Bros.'' by Glu, there is the obscenely powerful heavy gun called the Kraken. When shot, [[MacrossMissileMassacre it shoots loads of homing missiles.]] As you shoot, the gun begins to quickly overheat. All is lost until...wait...it shoots a [[WaveMotionGun gigantic laser beam that vaporizes anything it touches.]] The gun does not stop firing missiles even WHILE firing the laser. However, there is a price to pay. Quite literally. Originally when the gun was released it was 1400 War Bucks.(currency you spend real cash on.) The maximum package currently offered is 710 War Bucks for $99.99. Which means this thing initially was a little over $200. If you thought that was bad, they've updated it to cost a staggering 3499 War Bucks. Do the math...yeah. Holy shit indeed.