History Main / YouNukeEm

* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' allows the player to detonate Megaton's namesake bomb, wiping out the city entirely. It also comes with a few varieties of the mini-nuke sort, and even exploded cars left over from before the war go up in a nuclear detonation. All such explosions irradiate the immediate area.

** Earlier ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games usually ended with the player detonating a nuke conveniently stored in the BigBad's main base. In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout Tactics|BrotherhoodOfSteel}}'', the player's team uses a nuke to break into Cheyenne Mountain.

* ''VideoGame/SCPSecretLaboratory'' has the Alpha Warhead, which can be detonated to destroy the entire facility save for the Surface Zone. Activating it is a complicated process - first, a player needs to locate and take the elevator to the Alpha Warhead Silo (found in the Heavy Containment Zone), then flip a lever inside to enable it. Second, the detonation sequence must be initiated at the Alpha Warhead Control Room (located at the Surface Zone) by activating the console (which requires either a Facility Manager Keycard or [[SkeletonKey O5 Keycard]]). Afterwards, assuming the countdown isn't stopped (which is easier said than done), the Warhead will detonate.

* The Earthling Cruiser in ''VideoGame/StarControl'' uses [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGM-118A_Peacekeeper MX missiles]] as its primary weapon. They have a moderate punch and, fortunately for the cruiser given its slowness and being nearly PointDefenseless, they have very long range.

Oddly, nukes appearing in games are rarely as powerful as their real-life counterparts. Shooters in particular are usually forced to create [[SlapOnTheWristNuke a strange kind of portable mini-nuke]] with a yield comparable to an ultra grenade and use that instead. This will resemble a nuke as closely as possible, but on a far smaller scale. (While portable nukes [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_%28nuclear_device%29 might not be as far removed from reality as you'd think]], you still wouldn't want to use them within 50 metres of the target.)

* In the bad ending of the ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsColdWar'' campaign, [[spoiler: you under [[BigBad Perseus']] command order the detonations of the Greenlight Nukes, devastating Western Europe and [[TheBadGuyWins ensuring Soviet Victory in the Cold War.]]]]

* ''MDK'' parodies this with the "World's Smallest Nuclear Bomb." True to the trope, the explosion is about as big as you are--but, then again, it is the World's Smallest Nuclear Bomb. [[MundaneUtility It's mostly used to open doors]], to the great disappointment of any player who found one for the first time and thought "Oh hell yeah, I'm gonna kick some ass now!".
* Whether you do or not is primary choice at the end of ''Videogame/{{Metro 2033}}''. In the bad ending, Artyom guides in several tactical nukes towards the Dark Ones' hive via a [[PuppetGun laser guidance system]] on the top of the collapsing Ostankino Tower in Moscow. In the good ending, [[spoiler: Artyom realizes the Dark Ones are trying to help humanity and the early human deaths were tragic accidents, causing him to shoot the laser system off of the tower before the missiles launch]].

* At the end of ''VideoGame/ShadowComplex'', [[spoiler: when the only way to take out the Restoration Project's flying carrier is to hit it with FOUR nuclear missiles.]] [[InferredHolocaust Poor, poor Washington populace...]]
* Naturally possible in ''VideoGame/ShadowPresident'' - you are the President, after all. However, nuking another country in all but the most extreme circumstances will almost certainly result in significant loss of popularity, making it very much AwesomeButImpractical in standard gameplay. It's very useful [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNxHUfGc3gE if you plan on trying to lose as soon as possible]], though.

** To add to the humiliation of defeat, the destruction of the ''SupremeCommander'', which are big robotic units that serve of starting the construction of the base, would result in a nuclear explosion. Too bad for you: not only is your [=SupCom=] unit very precious, if it blasted in your base, you're screwed.

* In the [[ExpansionPack add-on]] ''Secret Operations 2'', for ''VideoGame/WingCommander II'', Maniac makes a big deal about the Mace missile mounted by the Morningstar fighter, a tactical nuclear missile that can one-shot smaller capships, or be used to take out a cluster of fighters via splash damage. Oddly, no such deal is made of regular torpedoes, which utilize matter/antimatter warheads that are even more powerful during the war with the [[MegaNeko Kilrathi]][[note]]post-war torps are less powerful, primarily for cost-cutting purposes[[/note]].

* The first attack you see from [[spoiler: Id]] in ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' is a literal village-leveling nuclear blast. Part of Fei's capabilities in Weltall-2 on the second disc include the scaled-down in battle version, "Hell Wave."

** The ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' DLC ''Lonesome Road'' takes this trope to a whole new level. [[spoiler:Not only must you launch an ICBM, but (unless ED-E makes a HeroicSacrifice) you must also choose where a whole silo's worth of ICBMs will land, and consequently which side of the NCR-Legion conflict has its access to the Mojave destroyed.]]

** The Fat Man is a recurring portable nuke catapult that launches mini-nukes to blow up whatever you want. By the time of ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', the [[MacrossMissileMassacre Big Boy MIRV]], a unique Fat Man variant can launch '''''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill 16]]''''' mini-nukes at once.