Home Run Hitter describes the act or capability of one character to strike a blow with a melee weapon that is so powerful that it literally knocks the opponent or target into Low Earth Orbit, usually leaving A Twinkle in the Sky. Usually reserved for The Big Guy but occasionally other characters may have this trait, especially deceptively cute little girls. Named of course for the ability of many baseball players to knock a few outta the park!
Compare Megaton Punch, the unarmed version of this type of attack. Not to be confused with Batter Up!, which while uses baseball bats for an effective melee weapon, may not have the same effect of blasting the poor sap outta the park.
Video Game Examples:
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Adventure Games
- During the final sequence of The Secret of Monkey Island, LeChuck's punches send poor Guybrush flying up into the sky. An over-head "Blimp Cam" shows Guybrush at the peak of the arc.
- In the DLC of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Daruk is seen sending some bokoblins into the stratosphere with his One Handed Zwei Hander.
Beat Em Ups
- God Hand has several of these attacks, such as Dragon Kick, 100 Fists, and the aptly named Home Run God, in which the main character Gene summons a divine baseball bat and swings for the bleachers. Unfortunately, enemies return just as quickly as they disappear if they still have health left, making these techniques best used for finishing blows.
- Hell, it's even in the game's theme song: Dragon kick your ass into the Milky Way!
- The mace in Vendetta (1991) would do something similar, especially if there was a back wall opposite the fourth to send the victims into.
- In Dungeon Fighter Online, the Exorcist skill "Star in the Sky" tosses the opponent into the air, catching them on the way down with a powerful swing of his giant weapon. At full charge, the user screams out "Home run!" on impact and any poor soul caught in the attack is knocked well off-screen.
- In Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, Kenshiro can engage in a game analogous to batting cages from Like a Dragon wherein he beats back bike-riding bandits with a steel beam. Nailing a perfect hit will turn the bandit into A Twinkle in the Sky.
Kenshiro: FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!!!
Fighting Games
- The Home-run bat in the Super Smash Bros. series has this effect when used with a Smash attack, complete with a very satisfying "KRIIIIIING!" sound upon a successful hit. Smash attacks in general can have this effect if the target has suffered enough damage.
- Heck, the entire series focuses on this trope and Megaton Punch as the most frequent ways to win.
- Gamof Gohgry from the games Star Gladiator and its sequel, Plasma Sword, has a super move that will knock his opponent off into the extreme distance as well, and ending with A Twinkle in the Sky, though some timing is required to master the move.
- Featured in the Street Fighter EX games, with Cracker Jack and his baseball bat. The victim bounces off the moon and lands behind you.
- Makoto's Seichuzen Godanzuki in Street Fighter III: Third Strike.
- Cody's Last Dread Dust in Super Street Fighter IV ends with him knocking you into the distance with a lead pipe.
- Pocket Fighter not only allows you to bounce your opponent around the screen, you could hit them so hard, they'd orbit the Earth before crashing back into the arena.
- In Eternal Fighter Zero, this is one of Rumi Nanase's Final Memory moves, the "Big Bang Hitting Method", in which she tosses her opponent in the air and delivers a huge home run hit. It's potentially the game's most powerful attack. She also has a normal version called the "Rapture Full Swing."
- Rival Schools' Shoma, as a baseball player, naturally has this move. He has two variations of it; a simple wind up and swing super move, and a Combination Attack where his partner sets up the victim for the swing instead.
- Power Stone 2 has this with the tennis racket weapon. One smack is powerful enough to send people flying high into the air and bouncing all over Invisible Walls.
- Quite a few moves that score a counter-hit on an opponent in Touhou Hisouten ~ Scarlet Weather Rhapsody either send them flying across the arena in roughly a half a second or send them roughly 50 feet into the air. Yes, there was an notable knock-back boost in IaMP, but here it's just plain absurd.
- The final hit of Deadpool's 4th Wall Crisis in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 consists of him doing this... with his Hyper Combo gauge.
Deadpool: And it's a HOOOOME RUN!! [after the impact, switching to a sing-song voice] This is a hyper combo~!
- Chang does this as his Climax Desperation in The King of Fighters XIV. He smacks the target repeatedly with his Epic Flail, ending with a tremendous slow-motion strike that hits them so hard they orbit the Earth and land behind him.
- Emiko in Blade Strangers has a super where her Mega Neko cat Shakemaru tackles the opponent into the wall before tossing them up into the air, which is then followed up by her swinging a bat at the hapless foe, sending them flying.
- M.U.G.E.N: One of Dancing Banana's special moves is the Baseball Upper, where he swings out a baseball bat from nowhere as a reference to part of "Peanut Butter Jelly Time"'s lyrics. If this connects, the enemy flies into the air offscreen for a few seconds, before hitting the ground hard for even more damage.
First-Person Shooters
- Knock-back effects are common in Team Fortress 2. Engineer sentry guns have a heavy knock-back on hit; an enemy that jumps over one can be propelled so high into the air they'll leave the sentry's range, or at least their body will. The Pyro's flamethrower has a compressed-air blast that will knock enemies back considerably, which has a few tactical uses. The straighter example of the trope is the Scout's unlockable "Sandman" bat. Its taunt is a
One-Hit Kill, and one that launches the victim's rag doll a fair distance. There is even an achievement for sending the corpse hurtling 25 meters! The normal strikes with the bat don't do such a thing, though a Critical Hit can still push someone back plenty far, especially if they were in the air
- Dead Island is more a FP Survival Horror than a standard FPS, but it does have the Homerun Bat developer's mod weapon, which if properly aimed will literally hurl zombies in the great azure - or at least far enough away you'll have trouble seeing them.
- Baseball bats in general are a pretty good weapon, especially for Sam B, and are compatible with a lot of mods, ranging from wrapping them in barbed wire to jamming them full of nails to attaching a rotating circular saw on the head.
- Half-Life 2: If you would like to believe theoretical physicist Gordon Freeman is in fact the sort of literal Übermensch his reputation makes him out to be, fan-made Game Mod SMOD has you covered—armed with a shovel and a HEV suit-assisted forward kick, Gordon can easily smash, bash, and punt mutated monstrosities and alien oppressors to the horizon... at least if the blow isn't so powerful that it reduces them to Ludicrous Gibs first.
- Splitgate's BFB is indeed a bat, and will indeed do a homerun with your helpless opponent by instantly killing him and sending his ragdol soaring through the air and across the entire arena if they don't hit a wall. It's not uncommon in Contamination modes (where most players eventually end up with a BFB) to see corpses flying around through the air.
Platformers
- Princess Peach of all people does this to Bowser at the end of Super Princess Peach. With an umbrella. Why did she need Mario to save her in the first place?
Racing Games
- Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart:
- In its upcoming sequel, Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers, Invincibilty, Grow, and a new item called the Land Mine now send the victims of these items flying across the map, while also putting them in a Tumble damage state that extends the launch with a few extra bounces. While in Tumble, players haplessly riccochet and careen off of walls and slopes.
- Version 1 has the "Goomba Bounce", referred to by the community as the "punt", where a player launched into the air by any means can vertically rebound off of other objects. Thus, stray hazards and other players can send the victims of airborne attacks flying far distances if they happen to be unlucky enough.
Role-Playing Games
- In Fallout and Fallout 2, if you crit an enemy with a bludgeoning weapon like a sledgehammer or supersledgehammer, they'll frequently get knocked backwards and slide across the ground. If they goes far enough, they can potentially slide right off the visible map.
- In Fallout 3, people's heads can fall off rather far, especially with the Bloody Mess perk. Even with headshots!
- Fallout 3's downloadable content adds the Gauss Rifle as a weapon. It's horrifically slow to fire compared with a lot of the other energy weapons, but on a reasonably strong hit it will knock any opponent in the game a long way back and throw them to the ground so hard it takes them several seconds to get up. That includes twenty-foot-tall Behemoths.
- Fallout 4 has the unique 2076 World Series Bat, which is capable of randomly sending people for the fences and then some, if the effect occurs while in V.A.T.S. It can be found in Jamaica Plains, inside the basement of the Town Hall.
- Auron from Final Fantasy X has as one of his earlier learned Overdrives "Shooting Star" which if performed correctly is a Home Run Hitter and will knock most opponents out of the fight.
- Barret from Final Fantasy VII has a similar limit break.
- Final Fantasy also has plenty of monsters that can remove party members from battle, although most often it isn't a physical hit that does it. In fact, in Final Fantasy VI, the most common example was... "Snort", which blew the hapless party member away, with Typhon/Chupon being the most known user of the technique. Final Fantasy VII has Midgar Zolom perform a tail smack which knocks party members out of battle, and that's one of the two instances in which it happens in that part. Quistis in the eighth part has a spell Degenerator which also banishes enemies from the battle, although by throwing them into some kind of a portal or something.
- Shadow Hearts series:
- Joachim from Shadow Hearts: Covenant can learn an ability like this from The Great Gama, in which he hits the enemy with his bludgeon, dealing high damage with a chance to blast his opponent into the stratosphere. In order to keep it from being used against him, the player has to equip an item that protects from instant death attacks.
- From The New World lets Hilda in her Curvy form learn the same attack... and when facing Optional Boss Q the Great (Joachim himself), protection from instant death is again required.
- In Persona 4 Chie Satonaka has a follow-up attack named "Galactic Punt" which can launch enemies into the sky. It's a One-Hit Kill on regular enemies. Major bosses arbitrarily are struck with a slightly different attack called Galaxy Kick, which just deals a lot of damage.
- In Skyrim, giants are usually peaceful, but won't hesitate to smash players who mess with them into orbit with their clubs. And we do mean "into orbit"; anyone that isn't you will practically disappear with how fast they're launched, and if you get smacked instead, you get a peek into what a Twinkle in the Sky's last moments look like.note
- That "into orbit" part is Not a Metaphor: A giant's attack is one of the few ways the player can send the Space Core back into spacenote .
- Potentially available in the Mass Effect games, particularly to the Adept class. Hitting an enemy with a Lift/Pull followed by a Throw (with maximum boosts to biotic power and Throw) can send the hapless enemy literally out of sight. Particularly impressive and useful in outdoor combat environments, especially on Illium in Mass Effect 2. In Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, the Lash power used by the Cerberus Phoenix Adept and Cerberus Phoenix Vanguard had such a high impact stat that hitting an unarmored enemy with it while in an outdoor area meant that it was virtually guaranteed that they'd be thrown out of the map area.
- Some of the largest weapons in Dark Souls II have golf swing-like attacks that can send human enemies, including other players, flying in an arc. The distance and height are not particulary impressive, but sufficient to catch people by surprise by sending them over otherwise insurmountable railings and into a Bottomless Pit or lava sea.
Third-Person Shooters
- In Grand Theft Auto III and its sequels, the adrenaline pill would turn the player into this.
Turn-Based Tactics
- This is how Mao loses the keys to the Getter Mao to Fuka in Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten. Then again, he was trying to get his hands on Desco...
- Fuka also has two unique skills, usable in battle, that play with this. One where she uses a baseball bat to smack a bomb into someone's face, and the second involves placing three targets onto the bases of a baseball field and tackling them out of the park. (and then she casually walks from third to the home plate, scoring an actual home run)
- Like the Worms example below, Hedgewars sends your enemies flying high into the sky, possibly into water, and even then, they're bound to take a large load of fall damage.
- Mewgenics: One of the equippable weapons you may give to your cats is a baseball bat. It launches whoever's hit by it.
- Phantom Brave: Knockback effects are common in the many, many, MANY skills you can learn (or fuse onto your characters/weapons), the most explicit of which is even called "Good Shot!"
- The Baseball Bat from the various Worms games. It's even accompanied by the Charge music and Baseball-themed Bond One-Liner if you knock 'em into the drink.
Other
- Blunt weapons in Dwarf Fortress inflict noticeable knockback if the wielder has a high enough strength stat and the target is small and light enough, with a possibility of said target suffering still more injuries up to and including flat-out splattering on impact if it hits hard enough. Earlier versions also had a bug that made levelling up said strength stat to absurd proportions not only really easy but difficult not to do. Almost every notable DF Let's Play made before that bug was finally fixed somewhere around v0.31 has at least one character pulling off Paul Bunyan-esque feats like punting a goblin a thousand feet in the air.
Non Video Game Examples
Anime And Manga
- Asuna does this to Evangeline using a thrown boat as the bat in Negima!? (second season), the Gag Series of Negima! Magister Negi Magi.
- The Manga has Kotaro launching Mei out of the Tournament Arc arena by using the air pressure generated by his punch.
- Fate does this to Jail Scaglietti at the end of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, swinging her BFS like a baseball bat and sending Jail flying hella far with the flat of her blade until he crashed into a wall.
- In the third season of Slayers, Filia launches both Gourry and Zelgadiss into a ricochet up a bell tower/up a street of houses, respectively, using her massive mace. They, of course, fade into A Twinkle in the Sky.
- Excel♡Saga has a lampshaded example that included the victim shouting, "I'm heading for the Vanishing Point! Look for the twinkle!!"
- Dageki Joi Saori is a Manga where the Doctor combines this trope with Healing Shiv. Get knocked a few miles away and fix whatever's ailing you!
- In Charger Girl, Sento, the male protagonist, often hits Plug and Arresta with a baseball bat. Like the trope mentions, they often go flying when he does it.
- Orihime Inoue, from Bleach, pulled this off on Kon, leaving him a twinkle in the sky. Though it wasn't intentional, since she was busy playing a game of her own invention, named "Yakka", a baseball/soccer combo.
- Rosario + Vampire Capu2]: In one episode, after Kokoa smashes a desk over Tsukune's head, causing him to bleed, Kokoa is promptly drawn to the smell of his blood and tastes it, upon which Kurumu sends Kokoa flying out of sight with the desk. When Moka is about to lose control at the sight and smell of Tsukune's blood as well, Kurumu does the same to her.
Comic Books
- The Incredible Hulk: Occurs in a standalone mini-series, where Doc Samson dares Hulk to hit him, offering him the first punch. The path his flying body describes could best be called a projectile arc...
- He does it again during the World War Hulk arc. Hulk's response to an annoying D-lister who describes herself as "practically invulnerable"? Punting her like a football and deadpanning "Go be invulnerable in Jersey."
- Implied in the issue of X-Men where they introduce the villain Post. The Juggernaut crashes into a street in New York, obviously having been beaten in a fight. When he wakes up, he says, "New York?! I was in Philadelphia!!"
- Done to an art in many Mortadelo y Filemón comics. Several characters have been sent into outer space just with one kick.
- In the Battle For Blüdhaven mini-series, a former pimp turned mutant with delusions of grandeur named Black Baron is unceremoniously neck-snapped and bodily thrown into the distance by an unimpressed and unhappy Monolith after the former sicced suicide bombers on him. For best results, read 'the distance' as 'Hoboken, New Jersey,' or roughly 95 miles by rough DC geographical markers.
- In The Ultimates 3 issue 1, Venom attacks the Ultimates from out of left field. Several of them attempt to resist him, including Black Panther...who attempts to punch the massive Symbiote a few times. A thoroughly unmoved Venom declares Black Panther "really annoying" and bodily flings him to parts unknown with a perfunctory "Bye." One panel includes a shot of an airborne, distant Black Panther silhouetted against the moon.
Fan Works
- Asuka Quest: When faced with a Colony Drop version of Sahaquiel, Asuka forms an Evangelion-scaled baseball bat out of AT fields and whacks the Angel/Giant Alien Starfish into the Pacific Ocean.
- Cutie Mark Crusaders 10k: The end of Twilight's fight against Crystalestia has her use a long stick to send the alicorn flying all the way back to Canterlot, producing a twinkle of light as she does so.
- This Bites!: Luffy's pipe staff + Gum-Gum Pinwheel + Gum-Gum Rifle = Gum-Gum Home Run. Bye-bye, Satori.
Newspaper Comics
Web Animation
- A fairly literal home run in Cálico Electrónico. After breaking El Corretón's Super-Speed machine and thus paralyzing him, Cálico uses a baseball bat to send him flying out of the city.
Webcomics
- minus. has one story in which the eponymous character does this to deflect a would-be meteorite.
Web Original
- The website Busy Street invoked this trope in the first of their videos dedicated to adding tropes to their page; the person in question launched was a 6 inch high Batman action figure.
