This is mostly an {{RPG}} trope, but can be applied to any game with combat elements and some type of LifeMeter.

This trope is about VideoGames where it's easy to inflict ridiculous amounts of damage, resulting in combat practically just being about attacking first. Actual skill is most likely still involved, but it will be more about agility (Dodging, improvising) than intelligence (MinMaxing, planning ahead).
This trope can happen due to various reasons; Higher offensive stats than defensive ones, an abundance of OneHitKill moves, et cetera.
Please note that this has to apply to both PlayerCharacters and enemies, or it's just a case of GlassCannon.

This trope doesn't ''have'' to be a bad thing. Fast-paced battles tend to be more exciting than longer and tedious ones, and they may require less LevelGrinding.

Compare GlassCannon, OneHitKill, OneHitPointWonder and type 2 MutualDisadvantage. Contrast the inversion, PaddedSumoGameplay
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!!Examples:

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[[folder: Film ]]

* In ''Film/TronLegacy'', [[DeadlyDisc disc hits]] are generally {{One Hit Kill}}s.

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[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', the Vintage and Legacy formats are notorious for this, but the worst offender was Standard play just after the release of Urza's Saga. During the Urza's Saga block, it was a common joke that "early game" meant the coin flip to decide who went first, "midgame" was the decision to mulligan, and "endgame" was the first turn.
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. In 1st Edition ''Advanced D&D'', there was no limit on the damage that could be done by spells, so (for example) a Fireball cast by a 20th level magic-user did 20d6 (20-120) HitPoints of damage. This meant that at higher levels of play, whichever side gained initiative would probably win the fight. The designers of 2nd Edition decided to put level caps on most of the damaging spells to prevent one-round wipeouts. This also happened between two editions of ''Basic D&D''.
** ''Dungeons & Dragons'' 3.5 edition is often accused of Rocket Tag gameplay. Not only because damage outstrips hit points (and [[http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872838/Little_Red_Raiding_Hood:_A_Tale_of_38;_Guide_to_the_3.5_Dragoon Hood]] is merely one example), but because of an excess of spells which instantly kill or cripple their targets (and spellcasters knowing so many spells that they can always choose the one that's most effective, like MindRape against a dumb enemy). In fact, it was possible for every one of a caster's spells of 4th level or higher to be very direct "instant win" spells. For example, ''solid fog'' (a 20' radius) meant standard movement was limited to 5', or 20' if the target ran as fast as he could in a straight line and remembered he could do that. ''Evard's black tentacles'' tried grappling all creatures in the area (in a 30' radius, natch) and usually succeeded. Add ''stinking cloud'' (another 20' radius) to taste, which prevents those who fail their Fortitude save from acting and you have yourself a killer combo. At level 7. In ''core''. (In general, spells of level 3 and below can't plain win fights like this, but a failed save against a ''grease'' or ''color spray'' or ''glitterdust'' or ''web'' means you're pretty much screwed while the caster's friends & minions quickly beat you to death.)
** And if you're a Shadowcraft Mage, then with the right build, you can use a ''level 0 spell'' (''silent image'' with the Gnome Illusionist substitution level) and Heighten it to make it do what was just described. Or cast ''miracle''s.
** At mid and high levels, defenses tend to be binary. If you aren't flat-out immune (or they got unlucky and missed), you're going ''splat!'' in one round or even one hit. Pretty much no exceptions.
** If you plan to play a mid-to-high-level spellcaster (or to a lesser extent, a [[PsychicPowers manifester]]) against a non-spellcaster, [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards expect to win]] because you have ''options''. Even if the game is stacked against you, then you ''are'' about as smart in real life as your character is, right?
** Watch a 3.0 / 3.5 (or {{Pathfinder}}) fight between two [[GlassCannon Rogues]]. If one of them gets the initiative and pulls a Sneak Attack or two, the fight is already over.
** {{Pathfinder}} eliminated most of the damage loops and frank abuses of 3.5, buffed melee and ranged physical damage so the warrior classes do most of the damage, and still results in this trope due to the prevalence of "Save or Suck" spells. In short, casters can shut down the enemy with spells that inflict status ailments so severe the warriors simply cut down the enemy like butter. For example, fail a save versus Blindness and your life expectancy can be measured in seconds.
* ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'', using the FATE system, lends itself to this, as it doesn't take much to inflict wounds or death on an opponent (barring [[MadeOfIron Toughness]] abilities). One or two solid shots is usually enough to end a fight, and many battles boil down mostly to defending and maneuvering in order to set up those one or two solid shots.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' seesaws between this and PaddedSumoGameplay due to its lethality issues. It's trivially easy to throw an attack at someone that is absolutely certain to kill them instantly, resulting in whoever attacks first winning easily... unless the enemy uses one of the game's perfect defenses. Once everyone is using an impossible-to-bypass suite of perfect defenses, the game changes from Rocket Tag to PaddedSumoGameplay, with no attack ever doing more than making the opponent pay a tiny amount of the game's equivalent to MagicPoints.
* {{Shadowrun}}
* The ''NewWorldOfDarkness'' gamelines tend to get accused of this, largely because defensive scaling is slower and more expensive than offensive scaling.
** The OldWorldOfDarkness was little better. Since a character was stunned if they took more than their stamina in damage, and most weapons like a shotgun or a melee-focused character would do just that, whoever lost initiative had best just pray they made it out of the first round still able to take an action. Add this to a game system where the average damage for a shotgun was 4-5 health levels, taking wounds caused you increasing penalties to all actions, and you only had eight HitPoints to begin with, and combat was effectively over in a few rounds.
* Master-type enemies (things like Hive Tyrants and Daemon Princes), and to somewhat lesser extent Elite ones as well, in {{Deatwatch}} and {{BlackCrusade}} tend to be like this. Since both the players and the enemies can do huge amounts of damage, the fight generally come down to who goes first and who can dodge/parry better.

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Most FirstPersonShooter games with a "sniper" class will often revolve around [[SniperDuel being able to spot and pick off enemy snipers before being spotted and shot oneself]].
* Many also have "[=InstaGib=]" or "One Shot One Kill" mode where all players are given an overkilling weapon, making everyone effectively OneHitPointWonder.
* High-level gameplay in the ''{{Disgaea}}'' series and other NipponIchi strategy [=RPGs=]. Due to the way attack vs. defence is calculated damage increases exponentially as levels rise, so more or less any battle over level 500 or so means you either kill your opponent in one shot or die in their response attack. It's actually possible to take multiple hits in the fourth game by stacking defensive abilities, though.
** ''PhantomBrave'', which allots turns based on units' Speed stat instead of alternating between teams, goes one step further: in addition to being a game of one-hit kills, a sufficiently fast team can annihilate the enemy before they're able to make a single move.
* SWAT mode in ''{{Halo}}'' is highly tactical twitch-combat, because one well-aimed shot kills, but ill-aimed shots are almost worthless.
** There's also a multiplayer mode literally called "Rockets" where players are all equipped with, you guessed it, rocket launchers. Explosions and quick deaths for all.
** There's another multiplayer mode called "Sniper". As with "Rockets", if you hit your opponent, they're dead. If not, that smoke trail just gave away your position.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' games have the [=InstaGib=] modifier, as described above.
* A party in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' consisting solely of DPS ([[TemptingFate especially an]] [[TotalPartyKill all-rogue party]]), with no healers and no tanks. Impossible to do in Dungeon Finder to prevent [[{{Griefer}} griefing]], still can be done outside of Dungeon Finder... though the advisability of such is very, very questionable.
** One of the [=WoW=] expantions, "Wrath of the Lich King", did this by accident. Due to a few miscalculations gear scaled up so fast that the healers had effectively limitless magic for healing. Thus damage capabilities were increased to the point where any character could be killed in seconds, so that the healers had to be healing quickly and proactively to keep anyone alive. As a side effect [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] combat became a game of rocket tag where any class could die kill another in seconds with a lucky crit.
* ''VideoGame/EnchantedArms''. You could generally wipe out RandomEncounters in two, maybe three, rounds if you weren't ambushed. If you were, you were likely to have half your party dead by the time you regained control. As an amusing consequence of this, bosses actually did less damage than the {{Mook}}s you'd been killing to get to them.
* ''SuperSmashBros'' has this as an optional feature. If the damage ratio is set higher than the default, characters will be sent flying even with a low damage percentage. Heavy characters like Bowser can also be sent flying easily with this set up, making power hitting attacks like smash attacks or throws become the major appeal to the fights instead of juggling.
** Super Sudden Death sets character damage to 300% and starts dropping random bob-ombs in the area. The first person hit will almost certainly lose.
* ''{{Pokemon}}'', especially in earlier generations, has a metagame role called the [[LightningBruiser "Sweeper".]] The purpose of this monster is to one-shot the entire opposing team due to a high speed stat, insane damage, and good coverage on the ElementalRockPaperScissors table. The best counter for a Sweeper? A faster sweeper that can one-shot it.
** Generation V in particular seems to encourage this, as nearly any pokemon in OU play that isn't a StoneWall is more than likely going to get taken out by one super-effective attack. Ditto's TookALevelInBadass shines in this sort of gameplay, as his new ability to transform as he enters the battlefield instead of spending a move combined with a choice scarf means that it doesn't matter what the Sweeper is or how powerful and fast it's gotten, at the very best it has a 50% chance of going first.
* In high-level ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' play, especially in multiplayer, there is really only one stat: speed. Thanks to a series of [[GameBreaker balance-annihilating skills,]] first strike generally wins. The amount of damage a character can take or deal is irrelevant with Viera Assassins covering half the battlefield in a single turn and instantly killing their target 85% of the time or more, or Moogle Gunners blasting insanely powerful Ultima Shots at ludicrous ranges.
** Likewise, the original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' lends itself to this sort of thing. By the end of chapter 3 it's a common strategy to stack damage-boosting equipment in every slot, and it's very difficult to build a character that can survive more than a round or two against a high-level Ninja or Summoner. And that's before you start dual-wielding Knightswords, driving your Brave stat as high as it can go and making your attacks ignore evasion.
* ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami''. The protagonist is a OneHitpointWonder (though there are a few masks that change this), but very few enemies can endure more than a single armed hit.
* Destroyer-on-destroyer battles in ''VideoGame/{{X}}3'' are basically this. Their guns are powerful enough that if both ships are AI-controlled, the one that gets off the first shot usually wins.
* The {{Achron}} metagame has gone through this at various points with strategies such as chronorushing (rushing chronoporting tech, which lets you send an army back in time, to hopefully wipe out the opponent before they can even do anything). It is possible to defend against, but it's usually easier to just counterrush and try to wipe them out even faster.
* In ''CityOfHeroes'', the Blaster class is your classic GlassCannon: all damage, no mitigation. Get enough of them together, though, and you realize that [[MoreDakka damage works just fine as mitigation]].
* [[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown XCOM: Enemy Unknown]] is like this, at least towards the start of the game. The enemy units have three hitpoints, which can be dealt reliably by any non-pistol weapon you have available. Your troops also start with three hitpoints, and your enemies are armed with pistols that shoot ''plasma''.
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