Ready, Aim, Fire: 10 of the Most Badass Video Game Guns

If you’re a fan of shooting games, you know there’s no better feeling than landing a clean headshot. You also know how much more satisfying a headshot is with a badass gun. Thankfully, developers know this, too.

The best thing about video game guns is there are no restrictions on how badass they can be. This has lead to some truly amazing video game guns that put the real things to shame.

Here are 10 of those guns.

1. The Lancer

Move over, bayonet. You’ve got some competition.

The Lancer is the staple gun of the popular Gears of War series. It’s an automatic rifle with a chainsaw attached under the barrel. I’m sure you can imagine all the badass things you can do with that.

The Lancer is a gun fanatic’s wildest dream come to life. It’s hard to find a more enjoyable experience than cutting through a downed alien with a chainsaw. It’s no wonder gun lovers have gone to great lengths to recreate this incredible weapon.

The Lancer has to be one of the most gore-inducing guns in gaming. It might also be one of the most stress-inducing. Getting in a saw-to-saw deadlock with another player is enough to make any player sweat.

2. The FarSight XR-20

You haven’t seen overpowered until you’ve seen the FarSight XR-20 in action.

This gun comes from the N64 game Perfect Dark. It’s a long-range railgun that will kill any unshielded enemy in one hit.

Looking down the scope of the FarSight lets you see enemies through walls in infrared vision. If that’s not enough, it can track players and shoot straight through walls. The FarSight puts every other gun in the game to shame.

It’s an invaluable tool in single player and an absolute nightmare in multiplayer. Well, for everyone who doesn’t have it, at least. Getting killed with this thing probably lead to a lot of smashed controllers.

3. The BFG 9000

There are few more iconic weapons than Doom‘s BFG 9000, otherwise known as the “Big F*cking Gun“.

This silver beast rapid-fires small balls of plasma, decimating anyone in its path. It’s the most powerful weapon in Doom and has made it into every sequel in the series. Saving ammo for the big enemies has never been harder.

The BFG 9000 has gone through a few phases, but the original remains the goat. Future versions see the gun shooting only one large plasma ball as opposed to many. It’s still cool and powerful, but there’s something satisfying about the rapid-fire action.

The gun is so iconic it’s made its way into other series. These include Quake II and II, and Rage 1 and 2.

The BFG even made it into the critically panned Doom film, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. In the film, however, the acronym of the gun is changed to a more appropriate “Bio Force Gun”. No wonder the movie flopped!

4. The Needler

Why do aliens always get the best weapons?

Halo’s needler gun is a one-handed powerhouse. It shoots sharp, purple crystals at its enemies, which explode on impact. Oh, and they’re also heat-seeking, making the needler pretty hard to escape from.

Halo Reach introduced the needler rifle. It’s a two-handed version of the needler with longer range, and the option to fire single “needles” at a time. This is a very cool gun, too, but the fast action of the classic needler is just more satisfying.

The Needler is about as far from realistic as they come, but wow is it badass. For the best experience, try out Halo 2’s needler. It’s the only game that lets you dual-wield the weapon, allowing for double the destructive fun.

5. The Ray Gun

Call of Duty isn’t the only game to employ ray guns, but it definitely does it the best.

The ray gun was introduced in Call of Duty: World at War’s Nazi zombie mode. It’s been a staple of the mode since, appearing in every iteration of “Nazi zombies” since. Realism be damned — this one is just plain fun.

The ray gun acts as you might expect. It blasts zombies with a ray of green energy, tearing them apart where they stand. The gun has that classic sci-fi look (think Marvin the Martian’s gun) and really comes in handy during those frantic late waves.

The ray gun can generally only be found in Nazi Zombies mode. The campaigns tend to go for more realism.

However, the ray gun does appear as an easter egg in the World at War mission “Little Resistance”. It’s just hanging out in a puddle on the beach near the start of the mission. If you’re trying to blast some living Nazis with the ray gun, give this easter egg a go!

6. The Golden Gun

If you were a Goldeneye player back in the day, you’ll definitely remember this one.

The golden gun was only available in one mission in the game. Otherwise, you had to use a cheat code to access it. Due to the power and badassness of the weapon, it feels safe to say this was one of the most used cheat codes of all time.

The golden gun comes straight from the film The Man with the Golden Gun. It’s a solid gold luger-type gun that can kill any enemy with a single shot. To balance out such great power, the gun requires you to reload after every shot.

Still, this has to be one of the most baller guns in gaming. Running up to a friend with this thing in a split-screen match would inevitably lead to panic and chaos. As long as you’re a good shot, you can dominate every match with the Golden Gun.

7. The Gravity Gun

There are a lot of great weapons in Half-Life 2, but none are as badass as the gravity gun.

The technical name for this one is the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator. But gravity gun rolls off the tongue a little nicer.

The gravity gun pulls any object you point it at into its claw-like barrel. Then, you can shoot the object at an enemy. You can even pull in enemies and shoot them at each other!

This gun is a perfect fit for Half-Life 2’s physics engine. It lets you cause major destruction in a majorly satisfying way.

The game gives you plenty of fun objects to shoot around. The best of these has to be circular saw blades. If you want to see the ultimate headshot, just get a gravity gun and a saw blade.

A lot of games have taken inspiration from Half-Life’s gravity gun. Without it, we may not have games like Portal, Bioshock, or Dead Space. They all use physics-based weapons influenced by the gravity gun!

8. The M16A4

Call of Duty’s M16A4 may not be able to control gravity or shoot spikes. But it’s one hell of a nice gun.

The M16A4 is a three-round-burst rifle. It’s available in the Modern Warfare and Black Ops series’ of games and more.

The M16A4 is heralded as one of the best guns in any game it appears in. It has low recoil, high accuracy and power, and a quick reload time. You won’t need an AR 15 handguard or too many attachments to get big kill counts with this one.

9. The Spread Shot

What’s better than a gun that can almost never miss?

If you’re trying to get just about anywhere in Contra, you’re going to need the spray gun. It makes the notoriously hard game much easier, letting you shoot diagonally as well as forward. Basically, it lets you shoot a wall of bullets, meaning a lot of dead enemies.

A gun like this would be a disaster in real life. But for a 2D man in a 2D platformer, it’s the perfect weapon. Slap in the Konami Code, get the spread shot, and get blasting.

10. The Cerebral Bore

The Cerebral Bore isn’t just one of the most badass weapons in gaming. It’s also one of the most gruesome.

The Cerebral Bore was introduced to the world in Turok 2. This otherworldly device shoots a homing projectile at an enemy’s head. Then, it drills into their skull and blows up, resulting in a very bloody mess.

If that’s not the perfect headshot, I don’t know what is.

Watching this thing dig into an alien dinosaur’s head and turn it into a fountain of blood is any gamer’s dream. If someone would fund a new Turok game so we can see the Ceberal Bore again, that would be great.

And These Are Just Some of the Most Badass Video Game Guns

This list could go on forever considering how many badass video game guns there are. Game developers are constantly looking to one-up each other with cooler, more innovative guns than the competition. Chances are if you’re playing a shooting game, you’re going to find some pretty great guns to play with.

Just be thankful that most of these don’t exist in real life. We’re not ready for a world where people can buy needlers.

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