Often, AI characters don't seem to care if they win so long as you lose. AI racers will ruin their standing just to screw with you, MascotFighter combatants will [[GangUpOnTheHuman ignore weakened enemies and zero in on the you]] and RTS opponents will hit you with everything they have even with your AI ally running rampant [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs in their base.]]

While Spiteful {{AI}}s are more obvious in free-for-all situations, you'll see them in other places, too. It could be as simple as that [[GoddamnBats annoying enemy]] in a PlatformGame who leaps to its doom to interrupt your crucial leap over a BottomlessPit. Perhaps, in an FPS, those [[{{Mooks}} terrified guards]] become [[AttackAttackAttack reckless, suicidal berserkers]] as soon as [[GameplayAndStorySegregation the cutscene ends.]] In a TacticalRPG, enemy units might [[TooDumbToLive insist on certain death]] meandering around in the [[DamagingTerrain poison swamp]] instead of giving themselves a chance against your men, just to deny you the [[CharacterLevel experience]].

In short, this trope applies whenever it looks like the AI puts thwarting (or [[NintendoHard challenging]]) the player ahead of its own "well-being," whether in terms of the NPCs' survival or the objectives of the game. [[EverythingIsTryingToKillYou This is often the case.]]

Note that whatever it may [[ParanoiaFuel feel]] like, the AI doesn't [[RobotWar actually]] have it in for you. [[AIIsACrapshoot Right?]]

Tropes that can make you feel like a victim of Spiteful AI:
* GangUpOnTheHuman - Apparently, second place and below doesn't care about winning so long as they can stop you.
* SuperPersistentPredator - Especially annoying in games that claim to represent [[WideOpenSandbox whole worlds or ecosystems.]]
* CollapsingLair - Specifically, the idiots who often stay behind to impede you as you flee.
* ActionBomb - A gray area: some enemies are simply built, born or trained to blow up on you. Fine. But why would wild animals or average soldiers act like that?
* TooDumbToLive - On the part of allies, obviously, but also includes enemies that you're trying to capture or that you need to beat up to fill your ManaMeter. Apparently, they're willing to die to stop you from pulling off your infinity plus-one [[{{Combos}} combo]].
* SuicidalOverconfidence - Even when they're doing ScratchDamage and you're killing a dozen with each shot, the enemies still charge at you in a suicidal effort to chip off a few HitPoints.

Not to be confused with AIIsACrapshoot, although a lot of ''those'' can be pretty spiteful, too.

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!!Examples:

* In the {{Pokemon}} game, wild [[{{Mons}} pokemon]] such as Geodude and Voltorb will often blow up on you for no good reason. Why would random animals sacrifice their life--I mean, [[NonLethalKO consciousness]] [[SenselessSacrifice just to damage you?]] How bizarre.
** When you start to get stronger, you really start to wonder about the stupid [[CharacterLevel L2]] Caterpies [[SuicidalOverconfidence jumping out of the brush at you]]. Are they just trying to slow you down or what?
** In Pokemon Colosseum, there are pokemon called Shadow Pokemon you catch from trainers instead of the wild. They have a self damaging move called Shadow Rush, which they will spam if their health is low and the player has tried catching them with a pokeball (or just if their health is low). One trainer will hit her own Pokemon with Earthquake, just to make sure you can't catch it (and because the AI is actually better than any portable game, she will ONLY hit her Shadow Suicune and no other friendly pokemon)
*** That's not spiteful, that's them stopping you from stealing their Pokemon.
**** If that was true (which means they know you can steal theirs) ''why would they use them at all''?
** This comes up in other JRPGs as well.
** Arguably justified in the case of the wild Pokemon - the rules of the Pokemon world make it clear that wild Pokemon can't be captured if they're knocked out, so a wild Pokemon might use self-destruct for the purpose of draining its own HP and thus avoiding capture; it would rather lose consciousness than be forced into slavery.
*** But only if wild Pokemon are assumed to be aware of such rules.
*** Apparently the canon reason for wild Pokemon being obedient to trainers who caught them or have enough badges is them considering them "worthy", though I suppose they figure if you can't get them before they blow themselves up you must be a pretty crappy trainer.
*** Look to [[TruthInTelevision real critters]] for a more immediate reason: Why are poison dart frogs poisonous, when the poison is limited to skin contact? Well, after a predator eats its first frog, they won't be snacking on a second one any time soon. Any wild creature that tries attacking a bright red-and-white Voltorb only to end up with a face full of boom is unlikely to try it again. It's good for the survival of the species; not so good for the individual mon.
*** [[MemeticMutation Evolutionary science?]] In ''my'' {{Pokemon}}? [[FridgeBrilliance It's more likely than you think!]]
* Darth Bob, from ''StarWars: RogueSquadron 2'', a Tie Fighter that kills you by crashing his ship into you. It is generally accepted that this wasn't what the programmers intended, and that it's a [[strike:flaw in the programming]] the AI taking things into its own hands to kill you.
* Enemies in {{Disgaea}} will sometimes [[WeHaveReserves kill their allies]] with area attacks, depriving you of experience and items.
** Enemies in PhantomBrave will sometimes waste attacks on the corpses of your party members, even before you get the ability to revive. This does absolutely nothing to help them win the match, but makes it ''much'' more expensive to revive your guys afterwards.
** Likewise in {{Disgaea}}, the first thing that enemies in the Item World will try to destroy is treasure chests, even if you are a much bigger threat than that chest.
* This rarely happens in FinalFantasyTactics, but given that you don't get EXP for killing blows, it's less of an inconvenience. Now, when your ''allies'' do it...
** In FinalFantasyTacticsA2, there are quite a few escort missions, and while in some the allies will actively flee your foes, some insist on diving right into the action, exposing themselves to certain doom as the enemies will usually target them when able. The Paladin's Cover ability can solve this problem, though.
*** Furthermore, sometimes, an enemy near death will abandon all strategy and blindly launch a physical attack on your clan members, even if they'd get KO'd by the counterattack. This is often done to prevent players from Mounting their Chocobo Knights, or getting the finishing strike with Hunting for more loot.
* The AI in Civilization IV sometimes do this, sending all of their armies to pillage your country while they themselves are being crippled. This can sometimes be explained with the 'personalities' of the civilization rulers, and other times it's just the AI taking leave of its senses.
* In Smuggler's Run, the police cars don't really do much except try to crash into you as hard as possible. They don't mind flipping over in crazy ways that no normal human could survive, or brutally totaling their car every now and then. They just want to TAKE YOU DOWN. To be fair, the only way to get arrested in this game is for a police car to touch you after your engine has been stalled (from crashing too much).
** Same thing happens in the ''GrandTheftAuto'' series. Even if you're driving a tank and their cars instantly explode when they hit, the LemmingCops will still constantly ram you just to slowly drain your HitPoints.
* The pirates will fight you to the bitter end in {{Metroid}}, even by attacking you as you flee after killing the LoadBearingBoss. They might have an excuse, though, since it's often a whole freaking [[EarthShatteringKaboom planet]] that's exploding. Where would they escape ''to?''
** [[FridgeBrilliance Presumably]] ''[[CoolShip your ship]]''. One assumes they know it's not big enough to hold the both of you.
** However, the ship recognizes Samus and won't open for anyone else... though there's no reason to assume the pirates know this.
*** According to a pirate log book in ''Prime 1'', Samus' ship uses an advanced cloaking device that makes it impossible for them to detect it without accidentally walking right into it. This makes sense, as not only would the ship be an excellent target for the pirates, it is also parked in a very visible spot and should therefore not be very hard to find when you got troopers with jetpacks and thermal visors.
* The entirety of Fire Emblem 6 hard mode consists of this. The enemies are too generally too weak to kill you normally, but have at least a 1% chance of scoring a critical hit, which will probably kill their target. There are often 50 or more of them per level, and they will gladly suicide themselves into a situation that WILL kill them the next turn, just in the hope they get to kill 1 of your dudes, forcing you to restart the level, essentially making the entire Fire Emblem 6 hard campaign a LuckBasedMission. Fortunately starting from Fire Emblem 7 (the first American one), enemies rely less on lucky critical hits to kill you, but are still willing to sacrifice their lives when they have no hope of winning.
* The military in ''{{Prototype}}'' is hell-bent on stopping you, and will open fire on you with everything they have, regardless of where you're standing or how many innocent people are between you and the tanks. Soldiers will shoot grenades into groups of pedestrians in the hopes of shooting you and they will run people down in tanks just to chase you farther. Sometimes it seems like the death toll would be much lower if they just let Alex [[HeroicSociopath kill a few]] [[VideogameCrueltyPotential thousand]] people without interfering.
** This is not specific to the player, they attack the infected just as recklessly.
* In the ''{{Lego Star Wars}}'' games enemies will only attack the character you control (unless you're a droid). This becomes extremely frustrating when Obi-Wan is swinging a lightsaber in the face of some stormtroopers, and all Han Solo wants to do is build a switch to open a door. Needless to say, the enemies don't give a damn about anyone but the guy who isn't attacking them.
** This is also why Force Ghost characters cost so many studs. They're not seen, and partially transparent, so not targetted, and weapon fire passes through when shooting at others. Their sabers still work as well. ;)
* In "{{Star Wars Battlefront}}" 2, the AI, no matter how far away they are, will often ignore every other threat just to target you, even when they are physically incapable of hitting you.
** Battlefront II is to the point of RIDICULOUS for this. Try shooting a walker on Hoth with a sniper rifle and you'll see. Even the giant AT-AT pauses in its march, to turn and start blasting at a sniper for a stray shot that did nothing. :p
* In ''FatalRacing'', it is not unusual on the harder settings for opponents to actually go backwards around the track. This usually kills them, but their suicidal rampage is inevitably followed by a chain of fatalities when the pack catches up with the survivors limping to the pitlane. At least they're not targetting ''you'' in particular. Also, some opponents will take the pitlane road even if they are at full life, without stopping, just to plough into ''someone'' at 300 kph and catapult them out of the pitlane to their death, while taking massive damage themselves. On the harder difficulties, it is often a good idea to deliberately fall back half a lap and wait while half of the pack mangle themselves and each other. When most of the AI have been eliminated, make your move.
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