History ImprovisedWeapon / VideoGames

* In the VideoGame/MegaMan main series, many Robot Masters' weapons are actually industrial tools. Many character sheets show that their weapons were intended for entirely different uses.

* ''{{VideoGame/Doom}}'' has the [[ChainsawGood trusty chainsaw]] as an upgrade to your melee attack.
** ''Doom 3'' also has the flashlight. Since the vanilla version of the game makes it unfortunately necessary to tote the light around in place of a normal weapon sometimes, the dev team was at least nice enough to make it a decent bludgeon, usually taking out former humans in one or two smacks.

* In ''Higurashi Daybreak'', the fighting game of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', you can choose between having your character use his or her WeaponOfChoice and giving them another item that can be used in the same manner. And if Keiichi trading in his [[BatterUp baseball bat]] for a golf club doesn't do it for you, you can go for a character ''without'' a WeaponOfChoice, who instead gets items associated with him or her and is forced to use these as weapons. Rika running around with a mop and spray bottle and Tomitake blinding people with the flash on his camera is ''fun''. The anime is about to adapt this arc in its OVA.

** [[VideoGame/DeadRising2 The sequel]] takes it UpToEleven with ''improvised'' improvised weapons - just add '''DuctTapeForEverything'''. In fact, the only useful melee weapons are the [[http://deadrising.wikia.com/wiki/Combo_Weapons Combo Weapons]]. [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim Shooting them]] works just fine too.

* ''VideoGame/TheWorldIsYourWeapon'' is built around letting you pick up anything off the ground and giving your enemies a good whack with it as long as it isn't anchored there by some kind of mysterious magic, and when we say anything, we do mean '''[[UpToEleven anything.]]'''

* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'', Mario and his friends venture into a strange new dream world where the GoombaStomp doesn't work, and there aren't any power-ups to be found. So players have to defend themselves from enemies by using ''anything'' as a throwable weapon. Vegetables, [=POW=] Blocks, Bombs, and [[ThrowTheMookAtThem even other enemies]] can be picked up and used as projectiles. Boss battle often require using the boss' own ammunition and [[TennisBoss throwing it back]] to damage them.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'', Mario and his friends venture into a strange new dream world where the GoombaStomp doesn't work, and there aren't any power-ups to be found. So players have to defend themselves from enemies by using ''anything'' as a weapon. Vegetables, [=POW=] Blocks, Bombs, and [[ThrowTheMookAtThem even other enemies]] can be picked up and used as throwable weapon. Boss battle often require using the boss' own ammunition and [[TennisBoss throwing it back]] to damage them.

* In ''VideoGame/ThePunisher'' videogame, many interesting objects can be picked up and used for a quick -- and graphic -- kill, including pipe wrenches, baseball bats, kitchen knives, beer-bottles, crowbars, billy-clubs... Oddly enough, all of these items -- including the metallic ones -- will [[BreakableWeapons shatter into tiny fragments after one use]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'': The Amygdalan Arm and the Kos Parasite. The former is an arm ripped from an EldritchAbomination which can be used as a bludgeon or brought back to life and swung like a polearm. The latter is... a bug-sized bug you hold in your hand, and punch people while it's in your fist. Which isn't much at first, but if you equip the Lumenwood Rune, it will mutate your hunter into a half-monstrous tentacle-whipping killing machine.

* Tundran tanks in ''VideoGame/BattalionWars'' are farm tractors with guns slapped on. They still have their turnip-harvesting ploughs attached so they can go right back to being tractors after the conflict ends, according to flavour-text.
* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'': The Amygdalan Arm and the Kos Parasite. The former is an arm ripped from an EldritchAbomination which can be used as a bludgeon or brought back to life and swung like a polearm. The latter is... a bug-sized bug you hold in your hand, and punch people while it's in your fist. Which isn't much at first, but if you equip the Lumenwood Rune, it will mutate your hunter into a half-monstrous tentacle-whipping killing machine.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': Link can use nearly anything that isn't nailed down as a weapon, and most of his early gear consists of random items and farmyard tools scrounged for use as improvised weaponry, including tree branches and soup ladles used as one-handed weapons, farming hoes and boat oars swung like axes or claymores, [[BroomstickQuarterstaff mops thrust like spears]], and the detached arms of skeletal Stal-creatures. This even ties into the game's backstory, since it's mentioned that Link was appointed as Zelda's personal bodyguard after he managed to knock back a Guardian's laser with a ''pot lid'' (and yes, you actually can do this in-game).

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': Link can use nearly anything that isn't nailed down as a weapon, and most of his early gear consists of random items and farmyard tools scrounged for use as improvised weaponry, including tree branches and soup ladles used as one-handed weapons, farming hoes swung like axes, [[BroomstickQuarterstaff mops thrust like spears]], and the detached arms of skeletal Stal-creatures. This even ties into the game's backstory, since it's mentioned that Link was appointed as Zelda's personal bodyguard after he managed to knock back a Guardian's laser with a ''pot lid'' (and yes, you actually can do this in-game).

** Although you're supposed to use the [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Master Sword]] to deflect Agahnim's magic blasts back at him, in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', the bugcatcher net will do quite nicely at this, as well.
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', Link can use a Deku Stick as a LethalJokeItem (it's twice as strong as the Kokiri Sword, which makes it on par with the Master Sword, and under [[GoodBadBugs certain glitches]] you can sometimes use a single stick indefinitely instead of having to pull a new one out after each hit). And for deflection, a ''bottle''.
** In most Games, you start out [[WithThisHerring with a Wooden Sword.]]
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', most of Link's early weapons tend to be this. From a tree branch to a tree axe to a pitchfork to a Stal creature arm... Link can pretty much use anything that isn't nailed down as a weapon. This even ties into the game's backstory, since it's mentioned that Link was appointed as Zelda's personal bodyguard after he managed to knock back a Guardian's laser with a ''pot lid'' (and yes, you actually can do this in-game).
* In ''[[VideoGame/BloodRayne BloodRayne 2]]'', the eponymous character uses mounted animals' antlers/horns, a ventilation fan, and a garbage truck (which explodes after a certain amount of "feeding") to dispose of her enemies. Oh, and you get more powers(via the Carnage/Experience meter) the more enemies in a row you kill(with more unusual deaths providing greater base amounts to be multiplied), within a certain time limit...
* Kratos from ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' doesn't really need to ''improvise'' weapons, but he occasionally does anyway. Most notable might be from [[VideoGame/GodOfWarII the second game]], where he kills [[spoiler:Theseus]] by repeatedly slamming a door into his face. Ripping off a Gorgon's head and using it to petrify enemies also counts.
** He'll also use an enemies whole body as a projectile, ranging from kicking dogs across screen at someones heads to impaling footsoldiers and flinging them at larger groups.
* ''VideoGame/PsiOpsTheMindgateConspiracy'' is another case of telekinetically-fueled improvisation, as anything not bolted down -- including enemies, ''live or dead'' -- can be thrown about with impunity. For bonus damage, [[KillItWithFire set it on fire first]] You can even improvise a hovering power by standing on a crate, lifting it with TK and then surfing it across the room!
** Ditto with ''VideoGame/SecondSight'' where telekinesis is your very first power.
* A defensive example: Marky of ''VideoGame/BackyardSports'' makes shin guards out of newspaper. (It actually helps him.)
* ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'' has a host of improvised weapons fashioned by the inhabitants of the postapocalyptic Moscow Metro. There's the unreliable homemade assault rifle (It uses 5.45x39 bullets, so it's an AR, not a sub-machine gun), prone to overheating and known colloquially as the "Bastard", the shotguns -- one of which appears to be made of some pipes -- and the pneumatic spearguns and sniper rifles, which you will actually have to duck into a sheltered corner and ''pump up'' during a firefight, besides reloading the spears/ball bearings. It's pretty evocative and demonstrated improvised weaponry very realistically.

* In ''VideoGame/AlanWake'', because your enemies are darkness, anything that creates light can be used as a weapon, usually your flashlight. At one point, the PluckyComicRelief defends himself by wearing a headlamp ("It's my [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings flaming eye of Mordor]]!") and wrapping himself in Christmas lights ("For protection. Like garlic against vampires."). [[spoiler:The pyrotechnics of a [[ThePowerOfRock rock stage]] help blast away the enemies' protective darkness.]]
* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' Ezio can liberate people of items like brooms and farming implements and use them perfectly well as weapons. In ''Brotherhood'' you get an achievement/trophy ("Spring Cleaning") for killing a guard with a broom.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' there are at least four daggers who use a model of a broken wine bottle.

* ''VideoGame/Bloodborne'': The Amygdalan Arm and the Kos Parasite. The former is an arm ripped from an EldritchAbomination which can be used as a bludgeon or brought back to life and swung like a polearm. The latter is... a bug-sized bug you hold in your hand, and punch people while it's in your fist. Which isn't much at first, but if you equip the Lumenwood Rune, it will mutate your hunter into a half-monstrous tentacle-whipping killing machine.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', most of Link's early weapons tend to be this. From a tree branch to a tree axe to a pitchfork to a Stal creature arm... Link can pretty much use anything that isn't nailed down as a weapon.

* ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' includes a Telekinesis skill, which allows you to kill enemies by smashing a bag of potato chips into their heads at high velocity. Also, your first weapon is a pipe wrench.

** The sequel takes it UpToEleven with ''improvised'' improvised weapons - just add '''DuctTapeForEverything'''. In fact, the only useful melee weapons are the [[http://deadrising.wikia.com/wiki/Combo_Weapons Combo Weapons]]. [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim Shooting them]] works just fine too.
** The threequel lets you ''combo vehicles'', like merging a motorcycle with a ''steamroller''.

* ''VideoGame/ProjectZomboid'': Hammers, baseball bats, and boards of wood can be used as weapons. With some nails, you can put some spikes on the bat.
* In the VideoGame/MegaMan main series, many Robot Masters' weapons are actually industrial tools. Many character sheets show that their weapons were intended for entirely different uses.
** Mega Man himself is a household assistant robot, designed to adapt to whatever tools he's needed to use and whatever chores he's needed to perform, using his Variable Tools System. When he's converted into a fighting robot, the VTS allows him to copy (usually imperfectly) the abilities of the robot masters he defeats. VideoGame/MegaManX is what happens when the Variable Tools System is designed with combat in mind, becoming the Variable Weapons System and resulting in a terrifyingly effective increase in power and versatility.
* The ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' series has Gordon Freeman's trusty {{crowbar|Combatant}}. ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' turned this into an artform by adding to the player's arsenal the "Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator", more colloquially known as the Gravity Gun, which can grab objects and hurl them at enemies with considerable force. Obviously lethal projectiles, such as buzzsaw blades, propane tanks, and the ubiquitous ExplodingBarrels, are littered throughout the game, but it's possible to kill enemies with wrenches, chairs, paint cans, live grenades, orbs of disintegrating energy, other dead enemies and yes, [[KitchenSinkIncluded the kitchen sink]].
** There is a Steam achievement for killing an enemy with a toilet.
** Father Grigori's various contraptions littered about Ravenholm. Some of them need to be temporarily disabled in order to proceed.
** At one point in the chapter "Highway 17", the player gets the chance to turn a gigantic magnetic crane into a weapon. Few things say "you're fucked" like having a shipping container dropped on your head. Hell, you can use the dune buggy as a wrecking ball but that's not nearly as fun as using shipping containers.
* None of the ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' melee weapons was originally designed for whacking zombies, to say the least.
--> '''Ellis''': (Upon picking up a {{frying pan|OfDoom}}) [[SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud Spang!]]
* ''VideoGame/DeadRising'' for the Xbox 360 has this as a main selling point. ''Any'' item that Frank can lift can be used to kill zombies, up to and including a deck parasol. An Xbox Achievement is actually called "It's Raining Men" and involves using the deck parasol to push a number of zombies out of the way. It's actually a great item to clear a path. Bowling balls will knock over zombies like bowling ''pins''. In a pinch, park benches will kill a dozen zombies in a single swing - and then break. Now, burning zombie faces with a heated frying pan, throwing soda cans at zombies heads or embedding a ketchup bottle there... [[RuleOfFunny that's just silly]]. To say nothing of the Shower Head, now. Zombies seem to have HighPressureBlood, so jamming one in their head [[BloodyHilarious causes them to give themselves showers]]. And at later skill levels, the player learns a skill that lets him [[GrievousHarmWithABody pick up zombies and throw them]].
** The sequel takes it UpToEleven with ''improvised'' improvised weapons - just add '''DuctTapeForEverything'''. In fact, the only useful melee weapons are the [[http://deadrising.wikia.com/wiki/Combo_Weapons Combo Weapons]]. [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim Shooting them]] works just fine too.

* ''Videogame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'' gives us the [[UnitedNationsIsASuperPower Global Defense Initiative's]] Sonic Emitter base defense. It was meant to combat the spread of the crystalline [[AlienKudzu Tiberium]] by targetting its AchillesHeel - its resonant frequency. This came in real handy when aliens partially made of Tiberium invaded, but it also turns out that Tiberium's resonant frequency at a high amplitude is ''lethal'' to humans and absolutely wrecks the structural integrity of vehicles.

*** It also features projectile weapons cobbled together from everyday objects, including a crossbow made of, among other things, a labelled ''cigar box'' and security systems made of food crates, office chairs and tennis ball launchers.
*** You can also make ammo out of things like screws, petrol and rubber tubing with the u-invent machines.
* All Isaac's weapons in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' are modified mining tools, except for the pulse rifle. You can also use another tool, kinesis, to pick up and throw anything not nailed down. Including dead zombie babies at other zombie babies.
** Most of the tools seem to be designed to cause grievous personal injury in case of pirate attack anyways. Give me one reason why the Ripper would ever need to launch a sawblade at mach 1 otherwise. And the rivet guns from the Rail-shooter prequel clearly have the contact-safety pressure switch disabled. One theory is that their previous owners or Isaac modified them for weapons use, we just didn't get to see said modification.
** ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' drives it even more, the plasma cutter, Isaac's main weapon is made from a flashlight and a surgical tissue laser.
* ''VideoGame/{{Vindictus}}'' runs away with this trope. The player can pick up virtually any object lying about and use it to beat the hell out of their enemies, including vases, sticks, signposts, cauldrons, boulders, small ''trees''...needless to say, the results are spectacular. There are even several titles that can be earned this way. It's based on the Source engine, so perhaps the developers thought they'd pay their respects to ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' in this way.
* In ''VideoGame/ThePunisher'' videogame, many interesting objects can be picked up and used for a quick -- and graphic -- kill, including pipe wrenches, baseball bats, kitchen knives, beer-bottles, crowbars, billy-clubs... Oddly enough, all of these items -- including the metallic ones -- will [[BreakableWeapons shatter into tiny fragments after one use]].
** This was also present in the [[VideoGame/ThePunisherCapcom Capcom arcade game]], in which players could use anything from baseball bats to bags of sand to flower pots as weapons. They all broke eventually, but at least they last more than one hit.
* The characters in ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' and ''Siren 2'' generally use random objects they find as weapons. Examples would be umbrellas, wooden sticks, crowbars, fire pokers, shovels, hammers, wrenches, shoe horns, trophies, and pipes. Other characters might have guns or special objects instead, or might lack weapons entirely.
* The games in the ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' series have increasingly featured outlandish methods of killing 47's targets. In addition to our bald friend's regular weapons, he can use anything found in a kitchen, crush people with falling chandeliers and, on several occasions, push them over railings to their deaths. Later games, like ''Hitman: Contracts'' allowed the player to use implements such as pool cues, garden shears and swords to kill targets with.
** The 'Ave Maria' trailer for Hitman 5 contains this trope almost exclusively. In short order a guard is drowned in a decorative pond, another beaten with a walking stick, a third has his head slammed in a door, #4 is smashed over the head with a statue bust and then strangled with electrical cable torn right out of the wall, and finally a fifth is beaten before having his neck snapped using the sling of his own weapon.
** ''Hitman: Absolution'''s many weapons include a plunger. Yes, the toilet unclogger.
* ''VideoGame/SlaveZero'': The main character is a HumongousMecha who can use metal girders, pipes, cars and indeed people as both thrown projectiles and melee weapons. It is not explained how holding a screaming, flailing tiny person causes a punch to deal more damage. Such things are obviously only good once if thrown, but will last for several hits if used in melee. Note that people who get thrown on walls leave a satisfying bloody mess. Also note that gravity has no influence on the trajectory of launched items: they all travel in a straight line.

* ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'' allows the character to pick up legs from broken tables and similar wreckage, but these [[BreakableWeapons shatter into tiny fragments after one use]].
** This was really only doable in the Tea House fight. You could backflip to break furniture and pick it up, the character shouting "I'll improvise!", and pummel the bad guys with chair legs and hams, but this was the only place where you could do this. Oddly enough, the improvised weapons were ''massively'' stronger than your legendary weapons and martial arts.
* ''[[VideoGame/DefJamSeries Def Jam: Fight For New York]]'' lets you use everything in the area as a weapon against the opponent, from beer bottles to sledgehammers. You can even win fights by [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential throwing an opponent in front of a subway train on one level]].
* ''VideoGame/PhantomBrave'' makes this an art form. ''Everything'' on a given stage can be used as a weapon, from swords and axes, to rocks, pillars, clumps of grass, and the bodies of your allies and enemies. Not only that, but these weapons and ordinary items have their own magic and special attacks. So if you pick up a log, for example, you can not only use it as a club, but if you [[EvolvingAttack level it up]], it also becomes a {{BFG}}.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' for the Super Nintendo practically epitomizes this trope, as the main characters (all of them [[KidHero young children]]) have to defeat enemies using improvised weapons such as [[BatterUp baseball bats]], [[FryingPanOfDoom frying pans]] and bottle rockets, just to name a few. The game even goes one step further, when, during the final boss battle, the character must use the power of prayer to help them get an edge over the last enemy.
* In ''VideoGame/RiverCityRansom'', you can use various objects like pipes, tires, trash cans, baseballs, boxes, rocks, even unconscious foes as weapons. You can either throw them or use them as a club, leading to tons of wonderful fights where you knock someone out by tossing a tire at their head, then picking up their body and whacking their buddy with it.
* The bread-and-butter of the combat system in ''VideoGame/CondemnedCriminalOrigins'', where the main method of arming yourself is by ripping something off the environment. Considering the game's themes and dark setting, not at all done for comedy (unless it's of the [[BlackComedy dead baby]] variety). Some of the more... memorable weapons include the "cutter" part of a paper cutter, the fireaxe, the sledgehammer, and the butcher knife. And also ''mannequin arms''. See that gun, Officer Thomas? You can't reload it.

* All of the weapons in ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' (as befitting a zombie apocalypse) aside from the guns are either random junk lying around in the ruins like bricks and pipes, or things crafted from everyday objects like shivs made from scissors or smoke bombs made from a bag of sugar.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', Link can use a Deku Stick as a JokeItem. And for deflection, a ''bottle''.
*** A LethalJokeItem at that. It's twice as strong as the Kokiri Sword (which makes it on par with the Master Sword), and under [[GoodBadBugs certain glitches]], you can sometimes use a single stick indefinitely instead of having to pull a new one out after each hit.

* VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}'' teaches the player how to violently murder gang-bangers with just about anything including plastic bags, pens, fire extinguishers, flashlights and pliers. Weapons [[WhatCouldHaveBeen cut from the games]] goes an extra step further with things like dildos, a vending machine and newspaper rolls.

* In ''VideoGame/SaGaFrontier'' Gen somehow cuts through a thick rope using a rusty length of pipe. Somewhat lampshaded when T260 remarks upon the absurdity of such a feat and nearly {{Logic Bomb}}s itself trying to figure out how it's even ''mathematically'' possible. .
* ''VideoGame/SaGaFrontier2'' allowed you to use the terrain you were standing on for magic. Standing on grass allowed you to use tree magic, snow allowed you to use water magic, etc.