History Main / RocketTagGameplay

* For awhile, combat with firearms was essentially this. By the 17th century, armor powerful enough to deflect bullets was also too heavy to be practical to wear on a battlefield. A single musket ball could easily disable or kill whoever it managed to hit. Even with the advent of modern kevlar, battlefield tactics work under the assumption that enemy bullets are immediately lethal, and the best defense is doing everything possible to avoid being shot in the first place.

* For awhile, combat with firearms was essentially this. By the 16th century, armor powerful enough to deflect bullets was also too heavy to be practical to wear on a battlefield. A single musket ball could easily disable or kill whoever it managed to hit. Even with the advent of modern kevlar, battlefield tactics work under the assumption that enemy bullets are immediately lethal, and the best defense is doing everything possible to avoid being shot in the first place.

* ''Videogame/DwarfFortress'': Combat with actual weapons tends to end in a few hits due to the pain mechanics: One guy catches one arrow/hammerstrike/axe chop to one limb and they'll probably pass out from pain if they're not badass enough. Same with beasts: Either the warrior gets stomped through their armor or the monster gets cut in half early into the fight. Weaponless brawls, however, and battles with non-organic foes, tend to be significantly longer.

* Very common in ''VideoGame/{{Onmyoji}}'' [=PvP=], where the team whose accelerator (usually Yamausagi or Kamaitachi) is faster will speed boost the rest of their shikigami, meaning their ''entire team'' gets to act before their opponents, usually resulting in the slower team being seriously crippled, or even [[CurbStompBattle completely wiped out without even getting a single action]].

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'', at least compared to the rest of the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series. Due to the addition of a third tier of character classes, ''most'' stat {{cap}}s are higher in this game than in any other game in the series save for ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Genealogy of the Holy War]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]''. The [[HitPoints HP]] cap, however, is class-based and goes up with promotion for the first time, so the {{Squishy Wizard}}s and {{Fragile Speedster}}s actually cap out lower than a first-tier unit in the rest of the series even at third tier. Defensive stats being higher as well mitigates this somewhat, but physical units' resistance and magic units' defense aren't terribly impressive either.

* Many ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games, including the ''[[Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona Persona]]'' spinoffs, use this style of battle. You get extra turns for attacking enemy weaknesses, and lose them if you attack an enemy with something it's resistant to. They play by the same rules. So the turn-based battles revolve around either annihilating the enemy on the first turn or getting your HP wrecked by the demons if any survive your initial assault. Especially notable is ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'''s Merciless difficulty level: critical hits and weaknesses do three times as much damage as normal, meaning that they're extremely likely to be one hit kills against everything but bosses.

An InstakillMook with low health will always result in this. When this happens in a BossBattle, you have a RushBoss. Compare GlassCannon, OneHitKill, OneHitPointWonder and type 2 MutualDisadvantage. Contrast the inversion, PaddedSumoGameplay, where instead of mutually ineffectual defenses as this trope, there are instead mutually ineffective weapons.

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

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* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''

* This was the competitive play of the original ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''; the game had extremely high hitstun that allowed for easy, frequent very long combos, that often ended in a KO. Additionally, the entire cast had terrible and easily edge-guarded recoveries outside the GameBreaker Pikachu, and most moves dealt high damage while [=KOing=] early, especially throws. Then on top of that heavy offense, defensive options were very limited, and the only two dedicated defensive options in the game, shielding and rolling, were terrible (shields had such immense shieldstun when attacked that a competent player could keep a shielding opponent stuck in their shield through a flurry of attacks until their shield broke, and rolls were slow and very easily punished). This all resulted in a game where the entire cast dies ridiculously quickly and is heavily based on who can get the first hit, and is the reason why competitive Smash 64 runs more stocks in their matches than all the subsequent Smash games do in tournaments.
** The subsequent Smash games 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.
** Sudden Death sets character damage to 300% and eventually starts dropping random bob-ombs in the area if the stalemate keeps dragging on. The first person hit will almost certainly lose. Super Sudden Death in Melee and the 300% option in Special Brawl are both exactly like Sudden Death, sans the Bob-ombs.

** Generation V in particular seems to encourage this, as nearly any Pokémon 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 new level in badass]] shines in this sort of gameplay, as its new ability to transform as it 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.
** Generation V's double battles were also like this, due to the prevalence of TakingYouWithMe moves like Explosion, Destiny Bond, and Final Gambit: Official tournament battles, which were all double battles, frequently ended in fewer turns than there were Pokémon. By contrast, Generation V's ''single battles'' often turned into PaddedSumoGameplay, with the ubiquitous presence of walls like Reuniclus, Slowbro, Dusknoir, and Scrafty with battles consisting largely of both players switching from Pokémon to Pokémon to take hits (until one of the aforementioned Sweepers shows up). Self-Destruct and Explosion got {{Nerf}}ed in Generation VI, though double battles continue to progress much faster than their single-battle cousins to this day.
* 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.

* ''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 the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' are basically this. Their guns are powerful enough that if both ships are AI-controlled, the one that gets off the first salvo usually wins. Averted in ''Albion Prelude'' (and in many {{Game Mod}}s for earlier titles) due to a significant buff in the hull strength of all ships.

** ''Videogame/XRebirth'': Fighters are capable of blowing each other to bits pretty quickly, but [[PaddedSumoGameplay capital ship combat is slow]].

* Many ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games, including the ''[[Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona Persona]]'' spinoffs, use this style of battle. You get extra turns for attacking enemy weaknesses, and lose them if you attack an enemy with something it's resistant to. They play by the same rules. So the turn-based battles revolve around either annihilating the enemy on the first turn or getting your HP wrecked by the demons if any survive your initial assault. Especially notable is ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'''s Merciless difficulty level - critical hits and weaknesses do three times as much damage as normal, meaning that they're extremely likely to be one hit kills against everything but bosses.

* In ''Videogame/StarRuler'', ships can often annihilate each other in their opening salvos, especially at higher tech levels. The speediness of annihilation is often accelerated by [[DesignItYourselfEquipment some ships mounting subsystems]] that [[MadeOfExplodium explode when destroyed]], like AntiMatter reactors. However, larger ships (such as the MileLongShip or PlanetSpaceship designs favored by many players) are generally very resistant to being instagibbed.

* Early versions of ''[[Videogame/MechWarrior MechWarrior Living Legends]]'' had [[HumongousMecha Battlemechs]] and tanks killing each other with alarming speed; a Heavy Gauss slug could OneHitKill any light mech and cripple anything else, for example. Version 0.3 buffed all land vehicles to have more armor to increase the duration of fights. [[SpacePlane Aerospace Fighters]], however, were frequently capable of instagibbing each other with LB-X shotguns and Heavy Gauss Rifles, and was only partially alleviated in the [[ScrewedByTheLawyers final update]] with the infamous [[GameBreaker Shiva "E"]] being [[{{Nerf}} gimped]] and other variants being tweaked for more tradition dogfights rather than rocket-tag.

* ''Videogame/PlanetSide 2'', unlike its predecessor, has extremely fast time-to-kill for almost all its weapons, with sniper rifle [[BoomHeadshot headshots]] and point-blank pump action shotguns being able to OneHitKill. Soldiers pretty much melt under enemy fire, and even the MAX PoweredArmor can only sustain two direct hits from rockets.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'', at least compared to the rest of the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series. Due to the addition of a third tier of character classes, ''most'' stat {{cap}}s are higher in this game than in any other game in the series save for ''Genealogy of the Holy War'' and ''Awakening''. The [[HitPoints HP]] cap, however, is class-based and goes up with promotion for the first time, so the {{Squishy Wizard}}s and {{Fragile Speedster}}s actually cap out lower than a first-tier unit in the rest of the series even at third tier. Defensive stats being higher as well mitigates this somewhat, but physical units' resistance and magic units' defense aren't terribly impressive either.
* ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'': The "All Attacks are Devastating!" maps in Adventure mode makes everybody a OneHitPointWonder. Technically, the player has two hit points due to their LastChanceHitPoint, but the only way to get an A-rank on those missions is to never get hit.
* Open combat in ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' rarely lasts more than a few seconds[[note]]Most roller, charger, and blaster-type weapons (as well as nearly every offensive sub and special weapon) are capable of a one-hit kill, and numerous other weapons can kill in two hits. Weapons with lower damage tend to compensate by having high fire rates, meaning that unless you stack defense buffs, any weapon in the game can kill you in a second or so.[[/note]], with one side or the other wiped out. Thus, sneak attacks, hit-and-run tactics, and more become very useful and important. This is also true of single-player, though armor mitigates it a bit, with distracting, sneaking, or maneuvering so that you can actually squash the enemies before they wipe you out being one of the most important tactics of the game.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** The ''Champions' Ballad'' DLC of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' starts with Link being granted a four-pronged sai-like weapon called the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin One-Hit Obliterator]], which reduces his health to [[OneHitpointWonder a quarter-heart]], but has infinite attack strength [[BreakableWeapons for two hits at a time]] (albeit with a quick recharge period). Its use is restricted to the Great Plateau, where he's tasked to defeat all of the monsters in set areas with it to unlock new shrines and the path forward to learning more about the history of the Champions, his old allies.
** ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'': "Watch out! All Attacks are Devastating!" missions in Adventure Mode, where everything on the battlefield is a One-Hit-Point Wonder, both you and the enemies (well, technically you're a Two-Hit-Point Wonder due to having a Last Chance Hit Point, but the point still stands, especially since in every version of the game except Definitive Edition, you still need to finish those missions without getting hit to A-rank them).

* In ''VideoGame/KatanaZero'', which draws a lot of inspiration from ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami'' (see above), you play as a katana-wielding GlassCannon that cuts through {{Mooks}} as if they were hot butter. Most hits end up with ''someone'' dying in a ludicrously bloody fashion, with a few exceptions (Some enemies can block attacks and need to be hit twice, although this can be averted by ambushing them or hitting them with the right timing. On the enemy's side, some gun-wielding enemies can knock the protagonist to the floor if he gets too close. It's not lethal, but it might as well be, because it stuns him, and in a game as fast paced as this one...). To get a bit of an edge, the player can slow down time to dodge blows and deflect bullets, but still, prepare to die a lot.
* Most games in the Franchise/KingdomHearts series have the option to play in [[NintendoHard critical mode]] which halves the health of the player and makes enemies significantly more powerful in exchange for bonuses that vary between games but are always incredibly powerful including the critical-exclusive [[LowLevelRun No Experience/EXP Zero]] abilities that sacrifice the player's ability to gain experience or level up in exchange for [[LowLevelAdvantage a significant damage boost that scales to the current world's difficulty]] and usually results in the player dealing significantly more damage than a properly leveled player without the ability or on a lower difficulty and getting [[OneHitKill one-shot]] or two-shot if they have [[LastChanceHitPoint second chance and once more]] equipped.
* ''VideoGame/YuGiOhDuelLinks'' has the same problem its parent does in that duels are fast, though this is more intended as life points start at 4000 (as opposed to 8000) and has no Main Phase 2 that lets you take actions after battling. Ironically, battles are ''longer'' than the normal card game, due to the PowerCreep not being as terrible and having cards to balance it out. Most of the time, anyway; sometimes archetypes slip through that are simply too good for the game and can end things as early as the player's second turn like normal[=YuGiOh=].

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* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. In 1st Edition ''Advanced D&D'', there was no limit on spell damage, so (for example) a 20th level magic-user's Fireball 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''.

* ''VideoGame/LethalLeague'', like the aforementioned ''Divekick'', has every attack be a one-hit knockout. This rendered some characters near useless though, particularly MightyGlacier types who had no real advantage in this format. The sequel, ''Lethal League Blaze'', turned it down by actually giving everyone health bars but is still thoroughly in this trope, as it only takes a few seconds for attacks to build up enough power to inflict one-hit knockouts anyway. It's just that said Mighty Glacier characters can get there sooner and, for the most part, have longer range to keep the FragileSpeedster characters at bay.

* PowerCreep turned ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' into this at higher levels of play. Even assuming your opponent is nice and isn't playing a OneHitKill Deck, the speed of the game is so absurd that, given the chance, a well-built Deck will effortlessly pull out three 2000+ attackers and devastate you. Unless one player is ''very'' [[StoneWall defensively-minded,]] you won't find any multi-episode Duels in the real world.

** This is quite commonplace in the VideoGame/{{Marvel|VsCapcom}} entries of the ''[[VideoGame/CapcomVsWhatever Vs.]]'' series, with other notable offenders being ''VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroes'', ''VideoGame/XMenVsStreetFighter'' (to the point that [[VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroesVsStreetFighter its direct successor]] existed partially to do away with all of the crazy infinites in ''[=XvSF=]''), and -- of course -- ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom2''.

** TabletopGame/{{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.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shadowverse}}'' is designed and balanced in such a way that you can complete a match or two between a subway ride in Japan. They way they accomplish is to give every deck a billion ways to deal direct leader damage. Many late-game cards are either huge Storm minions, have some sort of scaling damage, or are extremely hard to remove, and that's not even mentioning [=OTK=] combos that only take a few cards to set up. But to not make the game totally dominated by late-game cards, mid-game cards are either extremely high-tempo cards or permanent leader effects that snowball out of control if not immediately dealt with, and there's good ol' aggro to fall back on. In contrast, late-game healing and Ward minions are comparatively weak and even huge board-stabilizing cards are reactive and do little to defend against direct damage. As a result, the average game doesn't past turn 12 or even ''get'' to turn 10, and games are rarely ever won by exhausting the opponent's options if they aren't aggro.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shadowverse}}'' is designed and balanced in such a way that you can complete a match or two between a subway ride in Japan. They way they accomplish is to give every deck a billion ways to deal direct leader damage. Many late-game cards are either huge Storm minions, some sort of scaling direct damage, or extremely hard to remove followers, and that's not even mentioning [=OTK=] combos that only take a few cards to set up. But to not make the game totally dominated by late-game cards, mid-game cards are either extremely high-tempo cards or permanent leader effects that snowball out of control if not immediately dealt with, and there's good ol' aggro to fall back on. In contrast, late-game healing and Ward minions are comparatively weak and even huge board-stabilizing cards are reactive and do little to defend against direct damage the opponent just played. As a result, the average game doesn't past turn 12 or even ''get'' to turn 10.

* The ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' series suffered from GameplayDerailment resulting in this. It was intended to be a cover-based shooter and used paintball as its main inspiration. Instead, the only thing anyone uses the cover for is to "wallbounce" around the map quickly while attempting to OneHitKill each other with the [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter shotgun]]. Absolutely everything else in the game is considered by the vast majority of the community to be cheap, overpowered bullshit that only idiot noobs with no skill need to rely on to win. ''Especially'' the game's iconic weapon, the [[ChainsawGood Chainsaw Bayonet]].

* Many FirstPersonShooters have "[=InstaGib=]", "One Shot One Kill" or "Hardcore" modes where all players are given an overkilling weapon, making everyone effectively a OneHitPointWonder, or where everyone is reduced to minimum health and will die to almost any form of damage.
** Most [=FPSs=] that tout themselves as realistic use this trope. One lucky shot can kill you, and in some games even if you survive you might as well be dead due to wounds.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}} 2020'' is this in spades too. Solos have combat sense, that adds an extra bonus to initiative depending to its level, meaning they're very likely to start a fight before. Since in that game even with protective gear[[note]]Useless against AP ammo[[/note]] a single bullet, especially if is in the head[[note]]Head damage is doubled[[/note]], can kill your character you can guess why solos mean ''trouble'' for non ones.

[[TropesAreNotBad This trope doesn't]] ''[[TropesAreNotBad have]]'' [[TropesAreNotBad to be a bad thing]]. Fast-paced battles tend to be more exciting than longer and tedious ones, and they may require less LevelGrinding. In [=RPGs=], this can make each turn extremely tense, as the stakes are always at their highest. In real-time action games, this allows the inclusion of weapons which are difficult to use, like an extremely slow-moving rocket launcher, for example, because if it connects at all there will be immediate positive feedback (like your opponent exploding). In a real-time strategy game, this can place a greater focus on the "strategy" side and the logistics, as once battle is joined there is almost no time for the player to micro orders to troops before the demise of themselves or the enemy.

** [[TropesAreNotBad There is a significant upside to this, though]]: Rocket Tag Gameplay for most of the ''Disgaea'' games only happens at levels considerably higher than needed to enter the post-game, wherein you spend the vast, ''vast'' majority of your time LevelGrinding or going through [[BonusDungeon Item Dungeons]] which have dozens and dozens of floors. If battles didn't get shorter as levels increased, getting the InfinityPlusOneSword or defeating the BonusBoss would take an even more unbearably long time.

* The ''Champions' Ballad'' DLC of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' starts with Link being granted a four-pronged sai-like weapon called the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin One-Hit Obliterator]], which reduces his health to [[OneHitpointWonder a quarter-heart]], but has infinite attack strength [[BreakableWeapons for two hits at a time]] (albeit with a quick recharge period). Its use is restricted to the Great Plateau, where he's tasked to defeat all of the monsters in set areas with it to unlock new shrines and the path forward to learning more about the history of the Champions, his old allies.