Home-Run Bat

The Home-Run Bat (, Home Run Bat) is a battering item in all Super Smash Bros. games. It is best-known for its one-hit KO potential.

Origin


The Home-Run Bat originates from the bat-and-ball sport, which has a particularly strong following in Japan and is known as a national pastime of the United States. In the sport, the bat acts as the way that the player hits the baseball being tossed at them; the best batters are not only able to hit the ball, but also with sufficient power to send it to the fringes of the playing area, away from players of the other team. Should the batter hit with the correct timing and angling, the ball can be sent out of the playing area or even out of the park; these instances are referred to as home runs, as all players on the batter's team can finish a run in the playing area. Most home runs, however, also require almost perfect placement of the ball against the bat; in this case, a hit closer to the tip of the bat provides more power behind a swing, whereas one closer to the handle leads to a weaker hit. In Super Smash Bros., this is mirrored by how the bat is more powerful when hitting with the tip, and how it sends opponents away at extreme velocities and trajectories; mirroring how home runs are sent over the walls of the playing field, the resulting angle of the opponents hit with the bat are also sent upward instead of a semi-spike trajectory. Adding to these references, players also tend to bring the bat slightly farther behind them just before hitting, as to put more power behind the swing; this is emulated in Brawl, where players wind-up for a time as though to get more power behind their swings.

In addition to the real-life counterpart, another possible inspiration for the item is speculated to come from the series. and Ness, the main protagonists in ' and ', respectively, use bats as their main weapon throughout the game. As the game progresses, the player will find increasingly powerful bats. In a battle, there's a random chance (decided by the Guts stat in EarthBound) that the attack will be a critical hit (or "SMAAAASH!!" attack), which deals more damage than an ordinary attack. If these games influenced the Home-Run Bat's behavior, then it can be said that the one-hit KO smash attack comes from the critical hits. This theory is further backed up by the fact that Ness' forward smash in Super Smash Bros. and Melee makes a ping sound like the Home-Run Bat's. Additionally, the Casey Bat in EarthBound has similarities to the Home-Run Bat's mechanics: the Casey Bat has very low accuracy (causing the player to miss a lot when equipped), however, it is the highest offense-raising equipment for Ness in the game. If an attack connects, it will potentially deal enough damage to defeat enemies in a single hit. This is comparable to how the Home-Run Bat's windup makes it difficult to hit an opponent, but when it does it results in a one-hit KO.

The Home-Run Bat's original design, used from its debut up to Brawl, is that of a traditional wooden bat with a striped tip and a wrapped handle. Starting with SSB4, the bat now resembles an aluminum bat and uses an ornate black-and-gold design; it bears the Super Smash Bros. logo at its base and a design resembling a shockwave at its tip, reflecting the "Deadly Blow" effect that appears when a character is hit by an attack strong enough to immediately KO.

In battles
While the Home-Run Bat functions like regular battering items, it has the unusual property of completely altering the character's forward smash. Upon performing a forward smash, the character winds up and performs a single, delayed swing that can potentially KO opponents in a single hit. The attack always takes a set amount of time and cannot be charged, making it the only such item to alter this mechanic in players. The swing time for the Home-Run bat varies between games. In Smash 64 and Melee, swing time varies from character to character, but is much faster overall than in later games. In Brawl, swing time was standardized, but much longer overall, though Smash 4 lowered the swing time somewhat.

Along with its signature forward smash, the Home-Run Bat is also powerful when swung or thrown normally, being capable of KOing relatively early, especially in regards to its dash attack and smash throws.

In Smash 64 and Melee, characters use their standard item swinging animation; however, from Brawl onward the animation was changed so that all characters wind up like actual baseball players when performing the forward smash. This altered wind-up causes the attack to be considerably slower than in previous games.

In SSB4, the smash attack swing is comparably faster than in Brawl. In addition, a smash attack swing gives the user super armor at the very moment he or she swings the bat and is capable of instantly breaking shields. These factors make it more dangerous to interrupt head-on when compared to previous games. Starting in SSB4, the bat swing can also reflect projectiles. In Ultimate, the Home-Run Bat will interrupt its forward smash swing when charging to reflect a projectile; reflecting swings have the same power as a standard forward smash, effectively giving them a nearly instant charge time if it happens to reflect a projectile.

The Home-Run Bat deals most of its damage at the tip of the bat instead of the center; the extreme knockback in both of these hitboxes, however, makes this point relatively moot against other players (though very important in the Home-Run Contest, where the former is commonly known as a "tipper"). The Bat is also powerful when thrown, dealing around 20% damage and high knockback. In Melee and Brawl, the bat has a sourspot on the base, though it is very difficult to get this sourspot with most characters. Melee's sourspot deals little damage and does not make the signature sound effect, but nevertheless has very strong knockback and will usually OHKO. In Brawl, the sourspot deals more damage, but doesn't OHKO, instead KOing at around 110%.

The bat is also an item in Smash Tour: when its trophy is selected, the user starts the battle wielding a Home-Run Bat.

In Home-Run Contest
In the Home-Run Contest, the player is given a Home-Run Bat to assist in sending the Sandbag as far away from the starting platform as possible within ten seconds. While acting as the primary way to hit the Sandbag for the large majority of characters, some attacks can potentially send it farther than the actual weapon at certain high enough damages, including throwing the Home-Run Bat itself.

Trivia

 * Bayonetta, Joker, Byleth, and Sora are the only characters who speak when using a smash attack with the Home-Run Bat. Joker, Byleth, and Sora say "You're mine!", "Take this!", and “There!” respectively, while Bayonetta has five different lines, which are "Fire!", "Bingo!", "Goodbye!", "See you!", and "Boom!".
 * The Home-Run Bat's forward smash in Melee is the attack that deals the most extra shield damage in the entire series, dealing 119%.
 * In Brawl, Wolf is the only character who vocalizes when swinging the bat rather than during the windup. This was eventually carried over to nearly every character in Ultimate except for both Falco and Nana.
 * In Melee, Captain Falcon's uncharged forward smash with a Home-Run Bat deals 30% damage and 10 weight-dependent set knockback.
 * In Melee, Sheik ends up sending opponents flying vertically with the Home-Run Bat. As a result, she needs to transform into Zelda to use the Home-Run Bat properly in the Home-Run Contest.