History ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill / VideoGames

* In ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'', after hitting a {{mook}} enough times, Travis can perform a special move that decapitates the {{mook}}, showering Travis in blood and coins. This becomes practical later in the game - said special move can also decapitate/split in half other mooks nearby, resulting in multiple showers of blood and coins. It's CrazyAwesome.

** The Divine Knight / Panzer Soldat battles feature a mechanic where if your main attack is enough to finish off the enemy's remaining HP, then the follow-up attack screen will be presented, except all of the command buttons will change to the option for the most powerful follow-up attack you have in your arsenal. This occurs even if you don't have the BP (brave points) that would normally be rquired to use this. More specifically, your normal options are "Follow-Up" (no BP cost and builds up 1 BP), "Finisher" (3 BP cost, and unleashes a powerful single character finishing move) and Unite (5 BP cost and unleashes a powerful joint attack). Under this mechanic, all choices change to "Unite."

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'', an overkill requires you to land a killing blow that deals five times your opponent's remaining HP. It's only a 10% EXP bonus, but it can add up. Because of this, it sometimes makes sense to drag out the battle a bit to weaken the enemy enough to have a better chance of landing the overkill. Later on in the game, a great way to get overkills is to use the "Burst" link ability, which causes all of your characters to attack every target on the battlefield. What's great about it is that they will continue to strike even when the enemies are already K.O.ed, which counts as an automatic overkill. Applied correctly, you can easily land large multiple overkill bonuses, as well as other ones such as Vanquisher (40% EXP bonus for killing four or more enemies at once), Unscathed (20% bonus for taking no damage during the fight), and Swift and Sure (10% bonus for winning within three turns). The only catch is that you can only get a max of 9999 EXP per fight.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' actually rewarded players for doing exactly what the word "overkill" implies. Finishing off enemies with a hugely damaging attack would increase the XP/gold gain and raise the odds of better item drops. Anima is the ultimate overkill machine, capable of inflicting 3199968 damage in two turns.
** A similar system is used in ''VideoGame/BookwormAdventures'' (only it grants gems that bestow status effects and damage bonuses).
** Cactuars can use 10,000 needles to kill someone instantly unless their HP is above 9999 via Break HP Limit. BonusBoss (one of many in the Monster Arena) Cactuar King uses ''99,999 Needles'', which [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin does that amount of damage.]] Even though you can obtain the Break HP Limit to break your HP cap to go beyond 10K worth of HP, you will never survive this attack (unless you have Auto-Life), even if you use a Game Shark to make your HP go that high.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'''s summon [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZbfDMzynwg&feature=related Eden]]. Nothing says 'overkill' like shooting your enemy with a beam that blows up the next galaxy.
** Similarly, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'''s Ark. You'd think that a TransformingMecha bombarding the targets with a MacrossMissileMassacre would be enough, but the animation keeps going, with the area becoming a sea of lava and Ark [[DeathFromAbove dropping a huge laser column]] that sends a residual signal far off into space. And yet, like every other attack in the game, [[SlapOnTheWristNuke it only hits once and its damage is capped at 9999.]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'''s Quickenings. One can easily enough get the first Quickening for everyone in the party within the first hour or so of gameplay.
** Note that a long enough chain also does a massive AOE on top of the damage the Quickenings themselves do. You can one-shot most of the bosses AND their minions without ever getting touched.
*** Not simply a long chain, but a mixed combinations of different leveled Quickening. For example, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am-ZBiGeJ_M&feature=related Black Hole]], the strongest AOE attack, requires 4 Level 1, 2 and 3 Quickenings each.
** Not to mention this game's version of summons - Espers. There are two Esper's with out-of-this-world {{Limit Break}}s: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLuXBb5HZ0M&t=9m17s Ultima and Zodiac]].

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' the attack [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79ZCWLsmS4E Great Attractor]] of the final boss Ultimecia draws several planets and debris from orbit and smashes the whole party with it.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', TakeYourTime + LevelGrinding = massive amounts of overkill for story battles, since they always have a default level. The downside to being able to drop a Meteor on, say, [[TheScrappy Algus]] is that quite a few of the random encounters afterward (why ''hello'', Mr. [[DemonicSpider Red Chocobo!]]) have the potential to unleash similar amounts of overkill on your party.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' has this in terms of game mechanics, the graphics of attacks, and plot.
** Knights of the Round is the strongest summoning in the game, using multiple attacks in one animation to circumvent the 9999 damage cap. Its animation takes about 1:15 minutes. W-Summon means you can use a Summoning twice in one round. Mimic lets a character... well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin mimic the action of another]]. Putting this together, we get 6 [=KotR=] summonings in one round by letting one character do the W-Summon with the other two mimicking him. Of course, this has a drawback -- you can easily get up, make yourself a sandwich and eat it before continuing with the game without missing anything apart from animations of monsters being hacked to ''very'' fine bits.
** Additionally, we have the Infinite Omnislash, where equipping Cloud with 8 pairs of linked Counter (which counter-attacks with the linked materia when hit) and Mimic (which repeats the last action) Materia allows you to unleash a 16-hit Omnislash on an enemy, which will then be repeated 8 times every time he is hit. This is a great way of taking down some of the toughest bosses in the game solo.
*** Cid's Highwind and Barret's Ungermax can do this if properly set up (both do 18 hits). A few Hero Drinks and either one can basically decimate Emerald Weapon in the same setup.
** Overkilling in both effect and length of cutscene is Sephiroth's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTc9sLmOR0A Supernova]]. He summons a fiery ball of destruction which destroys Pluto, Saturn, and Jupiter before slamming into the Sun, causing it to erupt and swallow Mercury and Venus and tear apart the Earth! The animation takes two minutes, he can summon it multiple times in the same fight (destroying the Solar System each time), and you '''cannot''' skip the animation. Due to the games' mechanics, it won't actually kill the heroes.
** In ''Dissidia'', Super Nova returns, although not as long (or explosive). However, one of his HP damaging attacks does include ''dropping a meteor upon his opponent''. The blast is so bright that your screen ''will'' flash white, and it leaves lightning, flames, and black clouds in its wake.
** [[EvilInc ShinRa's]] plan for destroying Avalanche is most definitely this. They destroy the pillars holding up the Sector 7 plate, killing not only thousands of people living in the slums below but also the thousands living on top of the plate, all to kill six people. And they only manage to kill three of their targets.
** Summons in general have a tendency to look more and more exaggerated as they get more powerful. The three "Bahamut" summons each have a bigger explosion-via-energy-beam-spat-by-a-dragon, with the last one having the dragon shoot the beam from outer space and causing a big enough explosion to be seen from that distance.

* Sin in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''. Eventually, your team pisses it off so much it is provoked into using Tera Gravitation to kill you. The attack in question ''pulls debris in from the Moon'', and gouges enormous fiery rifts in the planet's surface that ''can be seen from outer space''. All this, to kill a piddly ship with some two-legged gnats on (read: you). It's a testament to how resilient your party is that they do ''not'' get turned into vapor by that. Or maybe they are simply that lucky...
** Actually, it uses Giga-Graviton to finish off your party if you piss it off enough. And Tera-Graviton was actually misaimed by the one controlling it so it doesn't actually hurt you. One of the Bonus Bosses actually uses Tera-Graviton as an attack, and...it can never kill you. Weird.

** Also an element in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' - since magic spells are cast faster if used more often, it's quite reasonable to return to early parts of the game to cast Holy and Meteo on Imps (Goblins) to take advantage of this. Of course, [[GuideDangIt nobody ever tells you about this.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'', [[Creator/{{Capcom}} Capcom Unity]], [[NotSoAboveItAll of everyone]], demonstrated the power of [[BlowYouAway Maelstorm]], ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbyE-0Cg4yI on a rabbit!]]''

** The Divine skills of Warmaster and Runelord has them consecutively unleash every single weapon type and magic element, respectively, against the enemy.

* The Real Knife from ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' is none other than an ordinary knife, depending on your route, it is a broken kitchen knife made for cooking in Pacifist Route, or a weapon intended for killing in Genocide Route. [[spoiler: For the later, it inflicts an absurd amount of damage of 99999999999999999999...... which covers the entire screen when it destroys the world in ''[[OneHitKill one hit]]''.]]

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' thrives on this trope. Whether it's constructing an army half the size of the map, sending said army against one particular enemy or structure, to the units such as double-barreled tanks (Mammoth and Overlord), nuclear cannons and trucks, and an orbital laser. ''Generals'' ramps things up with faction generals that specialize in a particular aspect of their army, and that includes a nuclear general, a laser general, and an explosives general. Then there's a secret general in the Challenge mode who has access to all superweapons; she introduces herself by firing every superweapon simultaneously at a column of tanks.
** Speaking of ''Command and Conquer'', just wipe out the majority of your enemy and decide to leave his Construction Yard barely intact with a little HP left? The perfect solution is to move your troops away, then launch your superweapon at the opponent's Construction Yard. Nothing quite so satisfying like kicking someone to the curb like that.
*** The canonical ending for ''Tiberian Dawn'' requires the GDI commander to do that to the Nod Temple -- unlikely in the [[StoryAndGameplaySegregation videos, in the actual gameplay]] a single Ion Cannon blast ''can't'' destroy a Temple... and the Brotherhood repairs the Temple quickly enough that by the time the Ion Cannon has reloaded, the Temple is fully repaired.

* ''VideoGame/KeinegedAnNor'': Several deaths. The most painful one has to be the black scorpion which stings you 153 times.

** In terms of moves, Dracovish's Fishious Rend can be one of these. The move's base power if the user moves first is 170 (original base power of 85 that doubles if the user ges first). Factoring in STAB, a Choice Band, Strong Jaw, rain, and double weakness against Water, (170 x 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 x 4) the move's total power comes out to '''''2295.''''' For comparison, a super-effective STAB Z-Move based on a 140+ power move comes out to 1200 base power, and the highest power Max Moves are 150 base power. Anything hit under optimal conditions with Fishious Rend would be snapped like a twig under Dracovish's jaws.

** One example that actually happens in-game comes in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon''. An [=NPC=] mentions that Trial Captain Lana once used her signature Z-Move Hydro Vortex to get a Sudowoodo to move. Assuming that her Araquanid was the one using the move (which it is if you fight her), Hydro Vortex is based on Bubble Beam, meaning it has a base power of 120. Since this is super-effective on Sudowoodo, that goes up to 240 base power. And that's without STAB, with it the move would reach 360 base power. 120 is a very high power for a move. 240 is ''terrifying''. 360 is [["ThisIsGonnaSuck welp, I'm screwed"]]. The Sudowoodo in question runs away in terror when it realises that the player can now use Hydro Vortex, and you can't really blame it.

** One example that actually happens in-game comes in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon''. An [=NPC=] mentions that Trial Captain Lana once used her signature Z-Move Hydro Vortex to get a Sudowoodo to move. Assuming that her Araquanid was the one using the move (which it is if you fight her), Hydro Vortex is based on Bubble Beam, meaning it has a base power of 120. Since this is super-effective on Sudowoodo, that goes up to 240 base power. 120 is a very high power for a move. 240 is ''terrifying''. The Sudowoodo in question runs away in terror when it realises that the player can now use Hydro Vortex, and you can't really blame it.
** In terms of moves, Dracovish's Fishious Rend can be one of these. The move's base power if the user moves first is 175. Factoring in STAB, a Choice Band, Strong Jaw, rain, and weakness against Water, (175 x 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 x 2) the move's total power comes out to '''1771.''' For comparison, a super-effective STAB Z-Move based on a 140+ power move comes out to 1200 base power, and the highest power Max Moves are 150 base power. Anything hit under optimal conditions with Fishious Rend would be snapped like a twig under Dracovish's jaws.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'': In order to truly ensure the extinction of the X parasites, Samus can't rely on the Biologic Space Labs station's [[SelfDestructMechanism self-destruct systems]] alone; [[spoiler:the only way to make sure they're absolutely wiped out is to deorbit the station with the self-destruct on a timer, and thus ColonyDrop the station far enough into [=SR388=]'s atmosphere to set up a [[EarthShatteringKaboom planet-nuking chain reaction]]. Partially justified in that a station dedicated to biological (biological weapons?) research would have to guarantee that the station's remains were sterilized as well as destroyed, hence the absurdly powerful SD system.]]
** A more personal example occurs in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime 3: Corruption.'' During the fight on Norion, Samus free-falls down a sixteen-kilometer-deep generator shaft in pursuit of [[TheDragon Space Dragon]] and series RecurringBoss Ridley. After administering a long-distance thrashing with beam and missile weapons, she lands on his head, pries his jaws open, and jams her cannon arm down his throat before firing several more rounds "down the hatch."
** Fellow BigBad [[BrainInAJar Mother Brain]] ends up on the wrong end of another such smackdown in ''Super Metroid,'' when she murders the infant metroid from ''Metroid II'' and earns herself a Hyper Beam-fueled RoaringRampageOfRevenge from the creature's [[MamaBear human adoptive "mother."]] The final shot decapitates Mother Brain, exploding her cybernetic combat body; her severed head turns to gray powder as it hits the floor.
** In a straighter example of this trope, killing any regular {{mook}} with your most potent weapons (such as the missile combos in the ''Prime'' series - which include a flamethrower, an ice bomb, and a ''black hole'', among others).

* Pretty much the logic behind the Bloody Mess perk in the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series (only in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''[[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas New Vegas]]'' does it actually provide any benefits). Normally, when an enemy dies, they fall down, possibly losing the last body part you shot at. With Bloody Mess, other body parts will fall off for absolutely no reason. There's nothing quite like detonating a super mutant by ''punching it''.

* This occurs almost constantly in ''VideoGame/OrcsMustDie'' and its sequel. You create hallways of death through which the hapless orcs have to run. While doing so, they are subjected to your traps which do things like crush, burn, slice, dice, pulverize, catapult, explode, crush (from the side), shred, impale, and dissolve (among other things). Though there are some larger enemies (especially in the sequel) which can survive multiple traps, the standard orcs do not and are usually reduced to LudicrousGibs with one trap. Because they come at you in massive waves, there are orc bits flying around almost constantly.

** Some of the mods available for this game take this up to eleven. Take for example the Jet Propulsion Gun, a DLC weapon which knocks people a fair distance and flips cars over. One of the mods increases its power massively, so instead of knocking people off their feet, it sends them into a low-earth orbit. See also the Rocket Launcher mod which increases its rate of fire, and makes the explosions cause everything within a mile of the explosion to die instantly (including you).

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' thrives on this trope. Whether it's constructing an army half the size of the map, sending said army against one particular enemy or structure, to the units such as double barreled tanks (Mammoth and Overlord), nuclear cannons and trucks, and an orbital laser. ''Generals'' ramps things up with faction generals that specialize in a particular aspect of their army, and that includes a nuclear general, a laser general, and an explosives general. Then there's a secret general in the Challenge mode who has access to all superweapons; she introduces herself by firing every superweapon simultaneously at a column of tanks.

** In the final mission of Tiberium Wars: Kane's Wrath you get control of all three factions of Nod at once. This means you could build ''three'' copies of the Redeemer Epic unit when a single one would be more than enough to finish the mission, not to mention combining the best units from each of the armies. Unfortunately, by this point in the mission you'll likely have destroyed most of the opposition and a timer countdown to failure would have also started (Kane specifically sends you these forces because the Macguffin is about to implode and you need to leg it), so there's not much to use the massive army on.

*** In ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'', the first of Quan Chi's fatalities involves ripping off your opponent's right leg and then hitting him with it so that he falls to the ground. Once in the ground, Quan Chi hits him in the head twice with his own leg and then [[YourHeadAsplode it explodes in little fragments]]. And after that he ''keeps beating him to a pulp while the fatality assessment shows up and until you exit the match''. And this move came from ''VideoGame/MortalKombat4'', so he's actually done it before (minus the head-exploding bit, sadly). Who needs necromancy, eh Quan Chi?

** The FightingGame based on ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' rewarded a Super KO with a ReactionShot of your opponent (drawn in the style of the manga) gasping in pain, BloodFromTheMouth, scrolling into place in the background before fading to white and cutting back to your character's VictoryPose. ''Really'' satisfying. Furthermore, depending on how the opponent was finished off, the portraits would show it. If you used Dio's blood suck super or Hol Horse's J.Geil super for example, the portrait would be covered in blood and slowly turn green. If killed by any of Black Polnareff or Chaka or Kan's supers, the portrait would split in half/quarters, and if beaten by Hol Horse's super or one of Polnareff's supers, the portrait would be covered in holes.

** Speaking of supers, Maxima's HSDM in ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters 2002: [[UpdatedRerelease Unlimited Match]]'' defines this, brutalizing the opponent with a barrage of missiles, before making totally sure by blasting them to Kingdom Come with a [[WaveMotionGun laser cannon from his chest]]. Not that his old HSDM (demoted to SDM) was less brutal, since it had him throwing the enemy to the floor with a painful looking body slam, before Bunker Bustering into their spine, for repeated hits and huge damage. By then it should be a wonder if the opponent is still standing after having their spine essentially ground to dust.

* Certain ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed'' games let your cars having ''massive'' advantage over other cars, if they don't have wacky RubberBandAI. In that case, expect you to lap anyone before reaching the finish line.

** The Special classes also count; the Destroyer Droid has machine guns and an energy shield. The Wookie has twice the health of normal infantry and has the bowcaster, which can shoot a shotgun-like burst that can easily kill at close range but can also charge up to fire a powerful shot that will take out nearly any enemy trooper. It also has a two-level zoom scope for sniping with the charged up shot, as well as a grenade launcher for a secondary weapon. The [[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Dark Trooper]] has a lightning gun that can kill four soldiers at once. The Jet Trooper has an EMP rifle that can one-hit-kill anything but main battle tanks and Jedi, and the last two have jet packs.

* The ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series in general is filled with this. It's not uncommon to be hitting enemies for ''billions'' of points of damage at higher levels, when the most HP you'll generally ever see anything with is in the low 10 millions. The third game is particularly guilty, due to the damage formula making the effect of the defense stat completely negligible against higher amounts of damage.

* ''VideoGame/EternalChampions'' had overkill moves that were specific to each stage: if you can defeat your opponent and get their body to fall on just the right spot, they'll be chopped up by a fan, or fall into a vat of acid, or get impaled on the Washington monument, to name a few. The Sega CD remake also added a second form of Overkill, and featured more standard [[FinishingMove Vendettas]], which were always overly bloody. One of the simplest, but most brutal one was where the character would pull out a knife, and stab his opponent ''until the screen faded out''.

** The Spy's Backstab is meant to be a OneHitKill. To make sure it always is a one hit kill, Valve gave the Backstab the ability to always deal damage equaling twice the target's maximum health. And since it's a guaranteed CriticalHit, which triples the already high damage, you're doing damage equal to ''6 times the enemy's max health''. Getting a backstab on a Heavy does an absolutely ridiculous 1800 damage on an enemy that has 300 health (sometimes 450 health).

** The Half-Zatoichi can deal 600 damage if the player hits an enemy wielding the same weapon. This mean a Demoman can one-shot a Soldier in the front with a crit sword attack for the same damage as a full health Heavy Backstab.
** Most weapons feature a "taunt kill". It causes 500 damage caused by the following: a ultra-strong bat swing, a kamikaze grenade attack, a Hadouken, a point blank flare to the face, a ring of fire, a sword swing that is full of honor, a finger gun, getting hit in the head by a guitar, a robotic hand spin inside your guts, a stab from a saw, a stab from an arrow, and a fencing with a butterfly knife.

** A more personal example occurs in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime 3: Corruption.'' During the fight on Norion, Samus free-falls down a sixteen-kilometer-deep generator shaft in pursuit of [[TheDragon Space Dragon]] and series RecurringBoss Ridley. After administering a long-distance thrashing with beam and missile weapons, she lands on his head, pries his jaws open and jams her cannon arm down his throat before firing several more rounds "down the hatch."

* In the shooter ''VideoGame/CallOfJuarez'', Reverend Ray can initiate a BulletTime mode at will, causing to draw your six-shooters and have your crosshairs go towards the center from left and right... allowing you practically kill an enemy, use the BulletTime, and then unload 12 bullets in them.

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' games can sometimes encourage this by giving "Dynamic Kills" to certain attacks; if they deal enough damage to kill, the animation will change to integrate the enemy's destruction, for instance having a super-powered punch drill straight through the target, or an energy blast's explosion keep burning until there's nothing left. One of the first instances of this was Anime/{{Daitarn 3}}'s Sun Attack. If the attack will just harm but not destroy, the attack is simply an big blast of energy. If it ''will'', it's actually the blast carving a hole out of the enemy, and Daitarn drop-kicking the "plug" out. As the series progressed, more where introduced until it became mandatory for at least every "lead" robot of a series to have a minimum of one Dynamic Kill.

** The ''Forces of Corruption'' expansion takes it one step further by allowing you to build the Death Star II, which not only can destroy the planet, but also fire on enemy capital ships and space stations during battle! It also allows the empire to get the Executor, a Super Star Destroyer bigger than the screen at normal zoom, that carries more weapons than a space station and can deploy ''eighteen'' fighter squadrons; it can often take any but the biggest rebel or Consortium fleets on its own. And to add insult to total destruction, it only costs 3 pop cap, the same as a frigate. In other words, its a {{Gamebreaker}} extraordinaire.

** ''New Vegas'''s DLC, ''Gun Runners' Arsenal'', adds a challenge in which the Courier must kill an unmutated animal (some of the weakest enemies in the game) with either a mini nuke or a mine built using one. It's appropriately called "Overkill".

*** You don't even ''need'' this. You can just set up a manufacturing plant that just makes [[ZergRush tons and tons of gunships]]. Add in the above stationary guns, and you will obliterate ''everything.'' And these [[WeHaveReserves endless unit streams]] also are [[QualityVsQuantity hilariously effective]] against something humongous like UEF battleship or Cybran "Megalith" experimental. These things have huge amounts of damage per shot but slow rate of fire which leads to overkilling tier1 units without significally reducing the horde's DPS.
** Units leave wrecks on their death so any player could reclaim them and thus get the mass depending on unit cost. This works like the wreck has health and WorkerUnit slowly reduces it while reclaiming and provides mass income in the process. You can guess what this mean: one can just order to attack the land right under the already dead experimental which has tons of mass to destroy it and not let the enemy get resourses if you can't get them too. Especially, firing a bunch of tactical missiles or T2 artillrery is pacticed. Also, the aforementioned nukes usually obliterate even these corpses.
* ''VideoGame/PlanetaryAnnihilation'' is likely SerialEscalation to the games above and below, allowing to not just NukeEm or FireArtillery, but actually use DeathStar, ColonyDrop and DoomsdayDevice in an RTS game while nukes are expendable like tactical missiles in Supreme Commander and KillSat is a regular unit. You can [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 proclaim Exterminatus]] on the smallest of enemy bases just because his commander happened to be here. And there is also ridiculous amounts of units now without ArbitraryHeadcountLimit at all.

** Mimiron will launch some rockets from time to time. They are not hard to dodge, and will do no damage outside a rather small area. Fail to dodge them, however, and you get hit for 5 MILLION damage. If, at that stage of the game, you have 1% of that, you can consider yourself a damn tough [[StoneWall Tank]].

** [[EvilInc ShinRa's]] plan for destroying Avalanche is most definitely this. They destroy the pillars holding up the Sector 7 plate, killing not only thousands of people living in the slums below but also the thousands living on top the plate, all to kill six people. And they only manage to kill three of their targets.

** GuestFighter [[VideoGame/StreetFighter Ryu]] may just take the cake, since he has options when it comes to his Final Smash: do you want to blast them over the horizon with a [[KamehameHadouken Shinkuu Hadouken]], or launch them into low orbit with a [[MegatonPunch Shin]] {{Shoryuken}}?

* ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' has a move which summons a giant, flaming zepplin that crashes into your enemies like a Hindenburg from Hell.

*** It gets better. As of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRanger Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs]]'', Heatran can use the more powerful Eruption. Meaning that at full health under sun, with +6 Sp Atk and boosts from Flash Fire, Helping Hand, a Cherrim's Flower Gift and a critical hit, with the target Paras at -6 Sp Def, Heatran can deal over ''10 million'' points of damage.

** In a strange non-damaging example of this trope, there are early-game trainers of the Rich Boy and Lady trainer classes in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' and ''Pokémon Emerald''. They use [[ComMons Zigzagoon]] at level 7. The overkill is that, instead of using common cheap healing items like a normal Trainer would do to heal their Pokemon, they use the late-game Full Restores to do the job. For comparison: A potion costs 300, heals 20 HP and is readily available in any store. Full Restores cost 3000, restore all HP as well as remove any status problems, and are only available super late game. Keep in mind they're using them on ComMons that are probably lower level than your starter by that point. Pretty over[[IncrediblyLamePun heal]], isn't it?
** In theory, the most damage that a Pokémon could do would be 202,786,432,200. Conditions do not yet exist to create this scenario, but a 255 base Attack Fire-type with Huge Power as an ability with +6 Attack, while running the maximum amount of [=EVs=], [=IV=]s, and Nature boosts could use a Fire-type version of Rollout after using Defense Curl and after maximizing out its held Metronome item, while two Cherrim are partnered to it in sunlight could get a critical hit against a Pokémon with base 1 Defense that has its Defense lowered to -6 and has no [=EVs=], [=IV=]s, and has a Nature decrease to Defense, when the Pokémon is Bug/Steel with Dry Skin as an ability and has been hit by Forest's Curse. If the move hits for maximum damage, it would be 202,786,432,200. That's over TWO HUNDRED BILLION. And at Level 1, depending on its base HP and its [=EVs=] and [=IV=]s, the defending Pokémon will only have 11 to 17 HP to lose. Yeah.

** Especially when you make a custom settings with explosions turned all the way up, and even more so with a third party program like ''Worms Armageddon'''s Fiddler which lets you monkey with just about every setting in the game. Letting loose with a high-explosive [[GatlingGood minigun]] is very satisfying.

* The ''VideoGame/DinosaurKing'' game features many attacks which very much appear to be overkill. One such attack involves knocking the opponent over and then literally ''stomping them into the ground.'' As that attack only gets that effect at a certain level of HP, it can be very satisfying if you've been beaten a lot over the course of the match. Others involve the opponent being set on fire, stomped flat, falling head-first from great heights, drowned, crushed by giant falling rocks, and being ''impaled on lightning.''

* When Mega Man finalizes and performs the Red Gaia Eraser in ''VideoGame/MegaManStarforce 3 Red Joker'', he first fires off a laser of noise, which is more than enough to kill a weak boss, then the plates on his shoulders detach to perform a sweep beam, and it ends with a gigantic, field covering explosion. Nothing that isn't a major boss at full health should be left standing after this. In Black Ace, the Black End Galaxy involves throwing a ''black hole'' at the enemy, and then slicing them in half.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Painkiller}}'', a great many of the weapons not only kill the enemies, but sends their limbs flying off in every direction in a shower of blood. Bonus points when done to a whole pack of enemies at once and double bonus points when done in slow-motion, and extra gold for juggling a enemies' dead body.
* In ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'', after hitting a {{mook}} enough times, Travis can perform a special move that decapitaes the {{mook}}, showering Travis in blood and coins. This becomes practical later in the game - said special move can also decapitate/split in half other mooks nearby, resulting in multiple showers of blood and coins. It's CrazyAwesome.

*** You don't even need superweapons: A lot of 4X games in which you need total military victory will end with a superweapon, some solopwnmobiles and a swarm of normal units charging that one final enemy unit to finish him of and win. And it makes sense: What else should they be doing after all?

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', in your fight with Vulcan Raven, he uses a gatling gun that ''he took from a F-16'' to shoot you with, while the most effective weapon to use against him is a Stinger missile launcher.

* Thanks to her AI being set to "overkill" by default, Qara of ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' has been known to cast [[DeathFromAbove Meteor]] [[KillItWithFire Swarm]] or [[HerdHittingAttack Burst of]] [[KillItWithIce Glacial Wrath]] on one little orc. Annoyingly, this usually destroys nearby loot chests and/or kills ''you'', if you happen to be in the immediate vincity.

** The expansion can let you ''completely obliterate someone from existence'' by ripping their soul out and eating it, which is completely different from the regular soul-eating ability in that whoever loses their soul this way can ''never'' be reborn. This is an ability you literally get in the last five minutes if you're ''really'' evil, and you only get to use it on three people: [[spoiler:your former companions]]. Just as well, since [[GameBreaker it's incredibly hard to dodge and doesn't allow saving rolls to be made if it hits]], which would make any campaign ridicolously easy.

** That's your entire health meter at that point in the game. At the end of the game your health bar maxes out at 65, using every badge you can find to do it.

* The hip-hop-themed fighting game ''[[VideoGame/DefJamSeries Def Jam: Fight For NY]]'' actually ''required'' you use stronger means than a normal punch to finish your opponent and end the match, usually in the form of high-powered combos, ''smashing your opponent into an element of the stage'', hitting them with a weapon, or the oft over-the-top special moves. And that's not counting the stage where you can push them in front of an passing subway train...

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'''s Hydra: The game's ultimate unlockable shotgun has ''three'' barrels side-by-side. Sheva has to wield it two-handed, but Chris and Wesker are so ridiculously ripped that they simply widen their stance and fire it with one hand at arm length. It has enough knockback potential to put any standard foe on its ass and does damage on par with a standard rifle at long-range, despite being...y'know...a {{sho|rtRangeShotgun}}tgun.

** A mod to the game let you wield a handheld minigun.

* ''VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation'' requires you to fly your plane down the barrel of the Chandelier cruise missile launcher. Yes, a launcher with missiles so big you can fly a plane down its barrel. If a missile is launched with the plane still inside, well, "OneHitKill" is putting it... lightly. On the player's side, it's easy to single out a single target for all four or six special missiles, pop off the heaters and loose a few gun rounds as well. Or feed a single, isolated ground target a FAEB/LSWM/MPBM, all weapons meant for wide-area devastation.

** Yuuka, Marisa and Mima all ''nuke'' the ball with several permutations of the [[{{Kamehamehadoken}} Master]] [[WaveMotionGun Spark]].

** Inverted in Cirno and Letty's combination strike. [[TheDitz Cirno]] moves to blast the ball with her [[AwesomeButImpractical Icicle Fall (Easy)]] spellcard, apparently forgetting that it can't hit anything directly in front of her... like, say, an oncoming soccer ball. The ball proceeds to hit her in the face - not once, but ''fifty bajillion times'', making it a rare case of overkill from the target to the attacker. Though, to be fair, it's still a good hit and the ball can rebound and score a goal.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlBWNGq72DY& "Shikieiki's Final Judgement"]] puts even [[Franchise/LyricalNanoha Nanoha]] to shame. The highest rated comment on that video happens to be the caption for the BeamSpam page image.

** Smooshing enemies into pancakes with your hands. It's especially fun when you get into the higher-level comboes. One-two punch, followed by smashing it between your two giant fists, followed by a powerful spinning backhand, followed by grabbing their ankles and slamming them into walls and the ground repeatedly....

** Not to mention other horrible things you can do. Punching through 5 people at once? No problem. Grabbing a helicopter with a whip, hijack it and use it as a landmower (where grass = people on the sidewalk) or simple jump in the air, land on someone, use his body as a skateboard and kick his corpse into a wall or a car, splatting it into tiny pieces. Or just jumping at the center of a crowded street and kill everyone with a burst of tentacles or spikes coming from beneath the ground.
*** Lets just say this entire game is based around overkill. Even the military needs to use overkill just to put a dent in Alex.

* Singularity Planet Busters from ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri''. For when you really need to turn the heartland of an opposing faction into a vast water filled crater.
* The killstreak rewards in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2'''s multiplayer include everything from AGM missiles to airstrikes to carpet bombing runs to a Tactical Nuke that instantly kills everyone on the map, cannot be stopped or avoided (except via EMP, the second highest reward), and ends the game in victory for your team.

** The Taiidan Emperor in the campaign loves it, but can't always pull it off. The first time happens during a cutscene, when the planet of the Kushan is hit with weapons that ''burned its atmosphere off'', just for a violation of a treaty so ancient that the Kushan didn't even remember it existed. Then in mission 15 the Taiidan attack the Mothership by throwing a gigantic asteroid at it and escorting it with one of the most massive fleets they ever fielded. The kicker? The asteroid was just a distraction to assemble an overkill fleet for the final battle.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Sacrifice}}'', nearly all of the most powerful spells fall under this trope. In particular, the spell that summons a volcano, or the one that causes a giant circle of ground to fall away. The spell that vaporizes a target unit's intestines for a one-hit-kill & gib may also qualify. A similar spell achieves the gib by dropping a giant cow on the target from several hundred feet in the air.

** Minamimoto's ultimate technique: Level ''i'' Flare. A bit of explanation: In Square Enix games, a spell designated "Level whatever Spell" can hit all targets with a level that can be divided by the spell's (so a Level 4 Flare can hit targets with a level of 4, 8, 12, ect. and a Level 1 Flare can hit anything). For those who aren't math geeks, this means that the Level ''i''[[note]]i being the square root of negative 1][[/note]] Flare hits ''anything and everything'', including imaginary and/or complex targets. Overkill indeed.

** It is basically standard Turian military doctrine: First give the enemies one chance to surrender. Then hit them as hard as possible and ask again. If they still refuse, wipe them all out. There was some miscommunication when the Salarians developed the [[DoomsdayDevice Genophage]] as a deterrance against the Krogans.

* With a sadistic RandomNumberGod controlling everything from behind the scenes, you'll see a lot of Overkill in ''Franchise/FireEmblem''. So you hacked away at that boss's HP, leaving them with exactly 1 HP left? Well, the next unit to attack, which if it would crit (despite having a mere 1% chance to do so) would kill the boss from full HP... promptly will crit. Of course, if your plan is to leave the Boss with a minor bit of HP, so a weaker unit could kill it, the second attack of whatever unit you had sent into the fight to weaken said boss, also will be a crit, killing the boss immediately. Or when your unit did their first attack, leaving the enemy with a minor bit of HP, then they take the enemy's counterattack... that's when the Crit will come. Of course it all works in reverse. The enemy won't kill your unit practically. They'll crit and overkill you.

** Along the same vein are the mastery skills from ''Path of Radiance'' and especially ''Radiant Dawn''. In the former, you have to use up a lot of skill capacity points just to learn them and you only get 4 opportunites per game, but the masteries that inflict damage cut through enemies swiftly whenever they kick in. But lordy, ''Radiant Dawn'' is a whole other beast: all units that promote to tier 3 (and Laguz that use a Satori Sign) get a free mastery skill, and they are ALL made of Overkill. Only one or two of them ''don't'' inflict 3-5x more damage, and some have a side effect (put enemy to sleep, ect.) that you're not liable to take advantage of because your hapless victims will usually become DeaderThanDead first.

** A "Ruin Sage Morgan" (skill build for Morgan as Aversa's son where he's a Dark-wielding Sage equipped with a forged Ruin Tome)-- a theorized character in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening''... embodies this trope: 75 ATK (Magic) with 100% chance of activating vengeance, which can depending on his HP, raise that to 114... and he's got a 100% chance to critical. 342 Damage is quite painful in a game where the maximum HP is 80.

** This can also be accomplished with jettisoned crates of fuel; putting enough fuel, or ammo, into an unlimited number of crates and then shooting them will create a massive chain reaction of thermonuclear explosions, killing anything viewable in screen with absolute certainty, and beyond, depending how widely spread the crates are. In theory, one could do this to an entire star system, frying everything instantly and completely.

* Barbatos from the [=PS2=] remake ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny''. His trademark "No Items Ever!" mystic arte is practically guaranteed to deal five digit damage regardless of your stats (In a game where the player HP cap is 9999), and his World Destroyer can easily break into six digits range if it's not stopped. Plus, when he gets low on HP, he uses Violent Pain, which increases his attack power dramatically for even more overkill. This in conjunction with World Destroyer and the deliberate use of equipment that increases damage taken can actually make him [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n465NuG5VbE&list=UUMNeAoJz5R-1EHMPE1vxVuw&index=8&feature=plcp hit you so hard that the damage loops back around into the negatives]].
** In his first appearance in ''Tales Of Destiny 2'', he lacks his trademark hi-ougi, but on higher difficulties, will use Execution and extend it into the absurdly overkill Luna Shade spell in response to item usage, which can hit for five digit damage at a point where you'd likely have slightly over 1K HP.

* In ''VideoGame/Persona3'' and ''VideoGame/Persona4'', if one of your characters uses a normal attack and lands a critical, they usually strike the enemy so hard or so many times, he not only gets massive damage but also is knocked down, in ''Persona 4'' for more than one round. Kanji is probably one of the best examples - his critical attack consists of throwing his chair/board/shield at the enemy, kicking him and punching down to the ground. [[DefrostingIceQueen Mitsuru]] is also similar, she strikes an enemy vertically, launches a barrage of swift strikes and curb-stomps him with boots on high heels. No wonder everyone is afraid of those two characters.

* In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', a party CombinationAttack has your team hitting the enemies so many times that they errupt into sprays of blood. Even if the opponent is one hit away from death.

* The final boss of ''VideoGame/{{Descent}} II'' features a colossal green robot that is ''completely'' invulnerable to all frontal attacks and sports ''dual'' rapid fire homing earthshaker missile launchers that he uses quite liberally. The earthshaker missile is a fusion of the smart missile and the [[PenultimateWeapon mega missile]] turned ''UpToEleven''. In mere seconds of him spotting you, you can expect to have anywhere from 2 to 10 shaker missiles quickly closing in on your position. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh83OXQ8GeY God help you if they miss.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TheGodfather'' games, after choking someone to death, Aldo or Dominic seals the deal with a NeckSnap. You can never be too sure, right? Some of the other Execution animations also involve this. For one, the machinegun Execution on a standing target involves hitting him with the weapon butt twice to knock him down, stomping on his neck and then giving him a belly full of lead.

** Actually, it uses Giga-Graviton to finish off your party if your piss it off enough. And Tera-Graviton was actually mis-aimed by the one controlling it so it doesn't actually hurt you. One of the Bonus Bosses actually uses Tera-Graviton as an attack, and...it can never kill you. Weird.

** Strangely enough, a reflection of RealLife. You can find several videos of AC130 missions on youtube; in at least one of them the gunship is shooting at a lone infantryman who keeps evading the smaller shots by zigzagging around (he only succeeds because the time-to-target is several seconds). Then the gunner gets bored and/or irritated enough to fire the big gun...

* In ''VideoGame/SlySpy'', the player fights a shark as a boss. After killing it, it's possible to keep shooting at it before the level ends, turning it's corpse into a [[{{Gorn}} bloody mess.]]

---> '''Festus''': ''"Do what I do. Walk up to your target, introduce yourself, melt their skin off and then run like the wind. Works every time."''

* ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Terran Conflict's]]'' [=M7M=] missile frigates use MacrossMissileMassacre as their only form of attack. In player hands any such vessel can turn entire sectors to rubble ([[ArtificialStupidity the AI doesn't know how to do this]]), but the AGI Task Force's [[GameBreaker Skirnir]] takes the trope UpToEleven, crosses it with ThereIsNoKillLikeOverKill, and seasons it with MoreDakka.

* In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'', a level 100 player (aka ridiculous overleveled) can go against the weakest enemy in the game (a Gromba), use the time freeze badge combo, then by having the Duplex Crown (for two attacks per turn) unleash Zee Egg and Star Rocket on said enemy non stop for the equivalent of six attacks. The overall damage? About 99,999. That's '''twelve thousand''' times the enemy's health, and enough to defeat the final boss 41 times over. Ouch.

* [[UpToEleven Taken to ridicilous levels]] in Mugen Souls. Literally EVERY special move counts as this. Lets see, we have: Launching your foes into the sky on a giant beam of light, piercing (and of course destroying) multiple planets in the process and subsequently destroying the sun, [[spoiler:what makes this particular attack even more hilarious is the 'OOPS, I DIDN'T MEAN TO GO THAT FAR' in the end]], slicing planets with a giant sword, opening black holes, summoning giant demons of death etc, etc. But lets not forget your own special attack - the Peon Ball. Basically a giant ball of energy, which gets bigger (and more powerful) as you get more Peons from fights... lets see... someone made a video of it with size: Galaxy. Yes you're literally able to throw an energy ball the size of a galaxy on your opponent. Also Overkill is literally the only thing you do in late game. You can upgrade your level-limit to 9999, also every item again being able to being upgraded more or less infinite times, lets just say that one-hitting bosses - with your normal attack... isn't all that special once you reach a certain point in the game. As for normal foes... well you do the math.
** One should maybe add that the game actively REWARDS players for going overkill, one of the mechanics is called a Triple-Counter-Stop which triggers when you fill a counter with damage for one attack 3 times, doing so rewards a pretty nice bonus at the end of a battle, in the beginning this counter is at 999 though as with everything in this game it can be upped to ridicilous levels, expect to see numbers like 9999999999 being topped quite easily.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'', an overkill requires you to land a killing blow that deals five times your opponent's remaining HP. It's only a 10% EXP bonus, but it can add up. Because of this, it sometimes makes sense to drag out the battle a bit to weaken the enemy enough to have a better chance of landing the overkill. Later on in the game, a great way to get overkills is to use the "Burst" link ability, which causes all of your characters to attack every target on the battlefield. What's great about it is that they will continue to strike even when the enemies are already K.O.ed, which counts as an automatic overkill. Applied correctly, you can easily land large multiple overkill bonuses, as well as other ones such as Vanquisher (40% EXP bonus for killing four or more enemies at once), Unscathed (20% bonus for taking no damage during the fight) and Swift and Sure (10% bonus for winning within three turns). The only catch is that you can only get a max of 9999 EXP per fight.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'', using your ultimate to kill one person can be this depending on the ultimate. D.VA is probably the best example. Her Self-Destruct ultimate is the single largest explosion in the game, and is an instant kill on anyone in its radius who hasn't got behind cover. Most of the time D.VA will save it to hit as many enemies as she can... but if you really want someone dead, cornering them and hitting Self-Destruct is a good way to turn them into a fine red paste. (Even better if they're asleep from Ana's Sleep Dart ability - so long as you don't attack them, they'll know what's coming and be utterly powerless to even try to get to cover.)

** It's entirely possible, though [[AwesomeButImpractical often impractical]] due to tanks lacking the pinpoint accuracy necessary, to kill an infantry unit by shooting it with a tank shell. Enemy tanks will often attempt this against your own units, usually if the Edelweiss or Shamrock aren't around for it to fire at. The same is also true of Lancers and their anti-tank Lances (the game's equivalent to rocket launchers,) though Lancers do eventually get the option to equip their lances with anti-personel mortar rounds instead.

* In ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', one of the [=EarthGov=] weapons you can ultimately arm Isaac with is a high-velocity rifle outfitted explosive rounds. You're thinking it's some kind of anti-tank rifle, right? It's actually meant for use on ''human targets''. Specifically, it's a "riot suppression" weapon... in the sense that it "suppresses" the riots by blowing multiple targets into gory chunks per shot until the survivors surrender out of fear of being blown into kibble themselves.

* ''VideoGame/AvoidTheNoid'': How do you destroy a pizza? Of course, you take out a ''bazooka''.

* Most ultimate abilities in ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' are pretty tame and reasonable in-game. Urgot's ultimate stands out among the rest, and even among the other executions. If his opponent is in execution range, he fires chains at them that drag them toward his whirling spike wheels in his abdomen. It's just slow enough to make the execution a show. When someone like Lux, who is a cute and happy mage girl, gets dragged into the spikes and [[NotEnoughToBury her body is reduced to a bloody paste by his ultimate]], it's pure NightmareFuel.

*** To give you an idea of how ridiculously overkill this all is, the highest amount of HitPoints a Pokemon can have is '''1088''', and even in that particular case, it's only for three turns.[[note]] Which is a Dynamaxed Wailord with 31 HP [=IVs=] and maximum EV investment in HP.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/AmericanConquest'' has this relation with even the most primitive firearms - a matchlock arquebus deals about three times more damage than even the strongest units may take. And then you have muskets and fusils - the latter can be even upgraded to inflict One Hit Polykills in case you have another target right behind the first one. The only thing that prevents firearms from being outright GameBreaker is their inherited inaccuracy and relatively slow reload - at least for earlier types.

* In ''VideoGame/FightNRage'', you can keep attacking the enemies after they were defeated, and if they receive enough damage, [[LudicrousGibs they will explode in a rain of bones]]. This will give you extra points, and its mandatory to earn more extra lives on higher difficulties.

** Some of the mods available for this game take this up to eleven. Take for example the Jet Propulsion Gun, a DLC weapon which knocks people a fair distance and flips cars over. One of the mods increases its power massively, so instead of knocking people off their feet, it sends them into a low-earth orbit. See also the Rocket Launcher mod which increases it's rate of fire, and makes the explosions cause everything within a mile of the explosion to die instantly (including you).

* In ''VideoGame/RuneFactory3'' you can continue to hit a dead enemy if they are knocked into the air. You can do this for hours if you want. Additionally, while in wooly form you can grab a dead enemy to perform a [[FinishHim fatality]] on them.

* Certain ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed'' games let your cars having ''massive'' advantage over other cars, if they don't have wacky RubberBandAI. In that case, expect you to lap anyone before reaching the finish line.