Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs

"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!!!"
—Jotaro Kujo/Star Platinum.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAATAHTAHTAHTAHTAHTAHTAHTAHTAHTAHTAH!!!"
—Kenshiro

A phenomenon common to animation, video games, and comic books, Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs is the act of a punching an opponent dozens (if not hundreds, if not thousands) of times a second. Multiple hits are guaranteed, and even if each strike doesn't cause much damage by itself, the cumulative effect can be absolutely brutal. If you use one of these attacks in a fighting game, you can almost expect that this move's command will involve tapping your Attack button rapidly.

Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs are a staple maneuver by nearly every comic book speedster ever published. It is often combined with a Flash Step for extra effectiveness against a single foe, or for taking on crowds, resulting in Teleport Spam or Speed Blitz.

When a character does this while armed, it is a Spam Attack. This trope is a type of Death in All Directions. In trading power per hit for a large hit count, unless you're a Lightning Bruiser with both to spare, beware Punch-Punch-Punch Uh-Oh. May result in Death of a Thousand Cuts. The next step up in cool is the Pummel Duel, where both fighters do this and try to overwhelm the other.

Note also that while this trope is traditionally done with punches, there do exist many kick-based examples; it's especially common when it comes to higher-level Kick Chicks.

This is actually Truth in Television, as there is actually a Jeet Kune Do technique called the "Straightblast" which is exactly this. It's really difficult to keep at it for very long, though. Or with any power whatsoever. (For those not in the know, Jeet Kune Do is a Martial Art developed by Bruce Lee. Yes, that Bruce Lee.)

Examples of Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs include:

Anime and Manga

  • In Fist of the North Star, Kenshiro's Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken (North Star Hundred Cracks Fist) became so famous that most Fist of the North Star parodies will need to involve this, or spoofing other examples of this trope with his battle cries ("ATATATATATATATA!").
    • Oddly enough, the "fist spamming" was also used several times by other fighters without ever being called this, although at least Raoh had also practiced the same style as Kenshiro. Moreover, Kenshirou's technique that dealt the final blows to the about-to-be-defeated Souther is (superficially) identical.
    • The anime version of Great Teacher Onizuka has Onizuka not only pretend he's Kenshiro, but has him beat the crap out of some thugs with Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken.
    • Excel Saga has a great parody during their Fist of the North Star parody: Excel uses Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken on a gang leader (who looks exactly like Zeed, the first poor bastard who got hit with it in the original series), but instead of exploding, he gets turned into a cutesy, cat-eared, maid costume-wearing midget... who still has his tough guy face.
    • There was a Hokuto no Ken arcade game where the idea was to punch fast. Well, as close to rapid-fire fisticuffs as you can get in real life, anyway.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
    • A staple ability of many Stands is to launch a furious assault of fists. The most famous two users of this ability are Dio and Jotaro, who both have their own oft-parodied battle cries.
    • Giorno Giovanna, probably has the most triumphant and ridiculous example ever when utterly destroying the sadist Cioccolatta. Page after page after page of MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA punctuated by a single page of WRYYYYYY! Just in case anyone forgot whose son he was.
  • The characters in Dragonball Z do this all the time.
  • Cure Black in Pretty Cure does this, in what is probably a Shout-Out to the two above series.
  • Grimmjow does this to Ichigo's face at one point in the Bleach anime. For a whole minute.
    • Aaand Gantenbainne Mosqueda hits Chad in the gut this way, too.
    • Surprisingly, Yoruichi to Aizen.
  • Seiya, the Saint of Pegasus in Saint Seiya has a spam attack as his signature secret move, launching thousands of ultra-fast hits per second.
    • Aeolia, the Gold Saint of Leo takes this to a whole new level. His attack, Lightning Plasma, delivers 100 billion rounds of plasma per second!
  • Ranma ½ has the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken, taught to Ranma Saotome courtesy of the Old Master Cologne. In the manga, it's merely a form of Training from Hell which leads to massively increased arm speed , but it led directly to Ranma using a "rush at the enemy with hundreds of punches per second" assault as his opening move in most subsequent combats. Consequently, the anime and videogames mistook the training's name for the technique's name, which led to them depicting Ranma shouting "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!" when he launched his volley of ultra-speed punches. In the first Non-Serial Movie, he uses it to pelt an opponent with splashes of water so fast that they were like miniature cannonballs, after realising said opponent can use overlong chopsticks to catch his fists in midstrike.
    • Elsewhere in the series, Ukyo demonstrates that she has possibly an instinctive grasp of the basics when, in a moment of embarassment, she subjects Ranma to a blurred barrage of slaps.
    • Prince Herb of the Musk Dynasty can also punch hundreds of times in an instant, overwhelming even Ranma.
    • Kodachi was able to jab like this with her clubs during the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics competition. Well, until Ranma-chan caught her hand and revealed that Kodachi was actually holding a dozen clubs in one hand to simply create the illusion of such a barrage.
  • Tomoyo Sakagami from Clannad has rapid kicks that can hit for about 1000 times. It is a kick variation.
  • God Hand Smash, the signature move of Rom Stoll in Machine Robo: Revenge of the Chronos, is also partially this trope. It consists of Diving Kick to Fist Spam Attack to Big Ass Explosive Punch, and the final words "Sebai!" (a.k.a Punishment!)
  • Luffy on One Piece has the Gum Gum Gatling move, as well as its glorious upgrades.
    • At least once, during his fight with Arlong, Luffy does this while going "ATATATATA..." a la Kenshiro.
    • To a lesser extent, Sanji and Bon Kurei sometimes do the same with their feet, and members of CP9 did it with their fingers.
    • Whenever Luffy was hit with the Slow Slow Beam, Foxy would hit him repeatedly; making it seem like fisticuffs on speed to Luffy.
    • Luffy's fight with Rob Lucci was full of this. It was pretty much mandatory anytime either of them leveled up, or even downgraded. The fanbase now jokes about how Luffy and Rob Lucci are officially "true bros" with all their bro fisting.
    • Gum Gum Gatling is the fandom's favorite move, according to the popularity polls, hence why it's used so often in later books.
  • G Gundam has this all over the place. Domon, Master Asia, and Allenby all engage in both the punching and kicking variety (the latter two even use Rapid Fire Fisticuffs as part of their Handshake Substitute). Chibodee's ultimate attack, the Gounetsu Machine Gun Punch, does this with energy fists; it seems to be an evolution of his Burning Punch attack, as in an earlier episode we see him machine-gunning Burning Punches to take down a horde of Devil Gundam minion MS.
  • Some ninja in Naruto favor showering their opponents in fists. Neji's Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms is only the beginning; the anime gives him the "One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms," and the video game adaptations provide truly ludicrous barrages as super attacks (there Neji has a "Three Hundred Sixty-One Palms" version, which hits every chakra point on the body, killing the opponent on the final hit).
    • Naruto himself does this to Gaara in their first fight, pummeling him from all directions to deliver over 2000 punches.Nar
    • Sakon and Ukon use the ability to fuse their bodies together to fuse everything but their arms together and deliver 'tarenken' (It was once translated as 'gatling punch')
    • Also, Might Guy's Asa Kujaku / Morning Peacock—which was also a Crowning Moment of Awesome for him.
  • Ippo's Dempsey Roll in Hajime no Ippo qualifies, though a skilled enemy can counter to stop it.
    • Actually a subversion, as when Ippo tried accelerating it to true rapid-fire speeds, it ended up making the individual hits weaker. Similar speed/power tradeoffs are shown with Hayami's Shotgun and Itagaki's Porcupine.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima Takamichi's teacher was capable of this (note that his punches have over cannon-level strength). Several other mages also display this ability.
  • Slayers has both Amelia and Philionel do this in one episode of Next (Amelia probably does it elsewhere as well), combined with their signature attack that turns their fists into magic weapons capable of harming low-level Mazoku.
  • During Yusuke's fight with Sensui in Yu Yu Hakusho, Yusuke counters Sensui's Counter Attack fighting style by binding their arms together with his wet shirt, leaving Sensui unable to block. Yusuke then delivers Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs with one arm. If it weren't for the whole Split Personality thing Sensui had going on, Yusuke would have won the fight right there.
    • Also, in the final tournament, Yusuke takes out forty-nine minor rivals at once with one of these.

"Hey, ref? What happens if everybody gets knocked outta the ring like that?"

    • Earlier, at the preliminaries for the Dark Tournament, Yusuke does one of these in his sleep when he's attacked by an opportunistic demon, mumbling all the while about how Genkai's training sucked, he was tired of training, and he wanted to sleep. Which was probably the Crowning Moment of Funny for that arc.
  • All of Kenichi's masters in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, but especially Appachai.
  • Fantine does this to Takashi in the second Satomi vs. Skylark race in IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix after her realization as to why she thinks they should break up. Doesn't work, he wins and they opt to remain Just Friends.
  • Eve uses her hair do do this quite often in Black Cat.
  • Bonta-kun from Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu pulled this off once against a yakuza member then finished him off with a right hook. Even his video game adaptation (Super Robot Wars J and W) kept this attack.
  • Midori Days did this in the manga once. In the chapter, Midori notices Seiji using his left hand a lot more instead of her. She pushes Seiji into several situations where he would have to use his right hand/Midori. One scheme was a fighting arcade game that required you to box. Midori was prepared, but Seiji used only his left hand to completely beat the game, in the same feel as Kenshiro's "ATATATA" but with "LEFTLEFTLEFTLEFTLEFTLEFTLEFTLEFT! LEFT! LEFT... PUNCH!"
  • In Overman King Gainer, Yassaba's Rush Rod pulls one of this as a last ditch-effort attack. Doesn't work. He also has it Super Robot Wars K, where it's the Rush Rod's strongest attack (Go figure).
  • A lot of fights in both Dragon Ball series involve this.
  • Prison Chain Ikari from Eyeshield 21.
  • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid, Vivio immediately forces her first opponent in the Tournament Arc on to the defensive by employing a one-handed version of this trope. Her opponent eventually tried to evade it by attacking from above, earning her a solid roundhouse kick into the face.
  • Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-hen states that its last episode has 100 Rocket Punches in it. It exceeds that.
  • Toriko has an attack call the 'Kugi' or 'Nail' punch, were he strikes at a precise point so fast that several punches can land simultaniously. The number of blows he's able to land increases throughout the serious going from '2 Ren' or 3 punch attack to being able to land 18 blowswith each arm.
  • In Transformers Super God Masterforce, the wandering warrior Sixknight uses a series of rapid fire punches to bring down the Decepticon Pretenders in one episode. In an ironic twist, he is killed in the penultimate episode when Black Zarak bombards him with Devil Power, causing Sixknight to explode not unlike the results of a Hokuto technique.
  • The Pokemon Hitmonchan has this ability, using it to mercilessly pummel Pikachu in one instance.
  • Digimon Savers gives us Mercurimon (Merukimon in the dub) and his "thousand fists" attack.


Comic Books

  • The Flash makes constant use of this trope, since he can rapidly move his arms with his Super Speed.
    • In the Marvel Comics universe, Quicksilver, Northstar, and the Whizzer also use it.
      • Ha HA! Whizzer.
      • It's safe to say that every comic book speedster has used it a time or two. Or more likely, uses it as their primary attack.
    • Superman occasionally uses Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, but only against his more durable opponents.
  • Blurr from Transformers used this technique a few times, but lacked the physical strength to make it very useful. Lampshaded once when fighting Thunderwing, who reacted far faster than Blurr was used to.
  • Spider-Man does this on occasion to his more powerful enemies.


Film

  • The fight between Neo and Agent Smith in The Matrix features Smith slamming Neo against the wall and spam attacking him with blurred-arm, rib-cracking body blows. Later, Neo returns the favor by using this technique to block Smith's attacks.
    • He did it to Morpheus first in the bathroom scene.
  • Liberally used in Ip Man by the titular hero.
    • Truth in Television - kinda. Linking multiple straight punches in quick succession - also known as chain punching - is one of the cornerstones of Wing Chun, the southern Chinese martial art of which the Real Life Ip Man was a master. However, in practice students are advised to keep it to short bursts: it's impossible to maintain the initial striking power beyond a certain point (not to mention the risk of interruption), and to prolong it further is dangerous and impractical.
      • Important to note that Ip Man/Donnie Yen never uses it as an entry technique but as a kind of opportunistic battering of an opponent whose guard is already down. Rushing into an opponent's guard with chain-punches is embarrassing at best, suicidal at worst.
    • The lead actor in Ip Man, Donnie Yen, uses this as a sort of trademark in his movies, especially the ones he gets to choreograph himself. Punch flurries showed up a lot in Flash Point, and his character used palm flurries exclusively in Dragon Tiger Gate.
    • Ip Man 2 takes it to a new level with God Hand-esque pummel duels. MUDAMUDAMUDAORAORAORA anyone?
  • A set of toys created for Dragonball Evolution involved characters made sort of like Rockem Sockem Robots. However, to increase the effect, the toys actually had two sets of overlapping arms and a ripcord start to simulate this effect.
  • Dash does this briefly in The Incredibles.
  • Late Filipino Action Star Fernando Poe Jr. did this to some of his enemies (usually the fat ones, and squarely in the gut) in many of his action films.


Live Action TV


Literature

  • In the Wild Card series, Croyd Crenson at one point wakes up with his reflexes so heightened that he can use Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs. He's also superhumanly strong, meaning when he does use this, he tends to turn the person he's hitting into hamburger.
  • Otto Chriek during the climax of The Truth. Described in the text as having fists that blurred into invisibility as he pummeled a man like a punching bag.
    • Not quite as fast, but Wee Mad Arthur (a six-inch gnome) uses his forehead to invoke this trope on an enraged bull's skull in Feet Of Clay. The sound of his repeated Rapid Fire Headbutts is compared to that of a very determined woodpecker.
  • Not as fast as some of the other examples, but Wes Janson, seriously outclassing his opponent, manages a reasonable facsimile of this trope.

Janson fired off blows into Thanaer's midsection. When the Adumari pilot tried to block those shots, Janson concentrated on his ribs, and Wedge could hear occasional cracks as bones gave way under his blows.


Tabletop Games

  • Several Charms in the tabletop RPG Exalted allow you to do this with both unarmed attacks and melee weapons. Iron Whirlwind Attack, Ringing Anvil Onslaught, Octopus and Spider Barrage, Metal Storm, and so forth.
    • Better yet, they let you do it with weapons that require time to reload and aim after every shot because Solars are just that awesome.
    • Spam attacks are not only possible, they are the best possible strategy against worthy enemies.
  • In Dungeons & Dragons, The Monk class has the ability Flurry of Blows, which has more hits as you level up.
  • GURPS: Martial Arts spends a few pages discussing the utility of this. Long story short, you're probably going to want some level of superpowers.
  • Starblazer Adventures, based on the 1980's British science fiction Comic Book. The Fists of Fury stunt allowed you to strike at an opponent again and again, wearing down their defenses. Opponents don't get the normal +2 bonus when using All-Out Defense against your attack.


Video Games

  • Street Fighter has three several:
    • Chun Li and her infamous Lightning Legs (Hyakuretsu Kyaku).
      • Also taken Up to Eleven with her Thousand Legs (Senretsukyaku)
    • Edmond Honda's Hundred Hands Slap (Hyakuretsu Harite).
    • Dee Jay's Machine Gun Uppercut.
    • Gen's Hundred Snatches (Hyakurenkon) in the Alpha series.
    • Rufus' Snake Strike.
    • The Manga Ryu Final: Street Fighter III posits that the physical component of the Shun Goku Satsu consists of instantaneously delivering thousands upon thousands of punches, each of which releases a Hadouken upon contact. OUCH.
  • Yoshimitsu in Tekken and Soul Series games has a spinning standing slap combo, a crouched version and finally a leg sweep one.
    • Slightly averted in that, after the sixth of any such attack, Yoshimitsu becomes dizzy and falls over.
  • Joe Higashi from Fatal Fury has the TNT Punch, which adheres this trope, until it got modified into something different in The King of Fighters.
    • Ryo's Thresher Punch (Zanretsuken) and the Robert's Spirit Kick (Geneikyaku) from Art of Fighting and the King of Fighters series. These do not require button spamming to execute, though, though they will still produce fist/feet spamming.
    • Ralf Jones (from that same game series, but also Ikari Warriors and Metal Slug 6 and 7) has a signature move called the Vulcan Punch, in where he throws a barrage of explosive jabs at his enemy. He takes it to another level in both his SD Ms - Exploding Vulcan Punch does a superpowered version where he mixes his Gatling Attack and the Vulcan Punch, ending with a monstrous uppercut that pounds his opponent right out of the screen, while Horse-Mounted Vulcan Punch has him tackle the opponent to the ground, then proceed to violently punch them in the head repeatedly with flaming fists and end by rearing back and delivering one last, explosive punch that basically drills the hapless opponent's head in the ground. It honestly makes the player feel sorry for whoever is receiving the beatdown.
  • One of Sabin's Blitz techniques from Final Fantasy VI: Pummel (Bakuretsuken), which is performed with the same command as Ryo's Thresher Punch from Art of Fighting/King of Fighters (See above). His ultimate technique, Bum Rush (Mugen Toubu), involved circling his target to pummel them mightily from every direction.
  • In Final Fantasy XI, the monk job has the 2h (two hour, an ability which can only be used every two hours) 'hundred fists', which eliminates combat delay, and results in punches being thrown non-stop. This is occasionally combined with the Awesome but Impractical ability Souleater, which consumes your own health to deal high damage to the enemy (this combination practically always kills the user), and the Lethal Joke Item Kraken club, which can attack multiple times per round by itself..
    • In a slightly less spectacular but more practical example, the final Hand-to-Hand weapon skill, Asuran Fists, delivers eight punches in lightning-quick succession.
  • [[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]] has Cliff Fittir and his Fist Of Fury. His partner, Mirage Koas, has a similar move called Infinity Kick. It might not use her hands, but it's still unarmed combat, so it deserves a mention.
  • Two Several examples in Super Robot Wars:
    • Ialdabaoth's Kouha Kishin Ken. After upgrading, Apotheosized Ialdabaoth's Shinha Gou Shousen, which combines this with Air Juggling and finishes it all off by slugging your ass through a mountain. And the mountain doesn't make it.
    • Zamzeed's Chou Shin Dou Ken, to the point that it's a blatant Shout-Out of Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken.
    • Soulgain has two attacks that are partially Spam Attack: Byakko Kou and Code Kirin (spam strikes don't make up the majority of either one, though)
    • One of Coustwell Brachium's possible strongest attacks has this in spades.
    • In OG Gaiden, Alion's Agares can clone itself and Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken (yes, it's another FOTNS Shout-Out) an enemy from both sides at once.
  • Millia Rage's Lust Shaker from Guilty Gear.
    • Robo-Ky also has an Overdrive parodying Dio Brando from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure as mentioned above: Dio attacks while repeatedly shouting "Muda!" ("futile" or "useless") while Robo-Ky's attack is accompanied with dozens of word bubbles containing the similar-in-meaning "Dame!"
    • Also, Jam's hidden overdrive is a 100 hit combo, and most likely a homage to Fist of the North Star.
    • Speaking of Guilty Gear, its sequel series BlazBlue makes this trope a component of Makoto Nanaya's Astral Heat.

Rise, power of the stars! Aaaaaaatatatatatatatatatatatata! PLANET CRUSHER!!

  • The fistfighter skill in Tales (series), Rengadan and sometimes spells like Lightning and Grave also qualify.
    • From Tales of Legendia, Senel's Wyrm Rush (Bakuryuken) and Swallow Storm (Renga Hienkyaku) especially when combined.
    • Also from Tales of the Abyss, there's Anise's Mystic Arte Final Fury and Sync's Harrowing Gale.
    • In Tales of Vesperia, Yuri's Brutal Fang arte allows him to punch the enemy as many as 107 times in rapid succession with the right timing.
  • Hitmonchan, the boxing monster from Pokémon; according to the Pokedex in the original games, when it looks like he's just standing around, it's because he's actually throwing mind-bogglingly lightning-fast volleys of punches (likely represented by Comet Punch).
    • Taken further in the anime and Pokémon Special with all three Hitmons. Hitmonlee's legbands are even implied to actually be springlike...
    • The animation for the Fighting-type move Close Combat fits this trope perfectly. Even if the user in question doesn't actually have fists...
    • The same goes for the Steel-type move Bullet Punch.
  • Characters such as Fox, Sheik, and Captain Falcon have attacks like this in the Super Smash Bros. games. Lucario's "On-Hit-Cancel" system allows him to perform combos like this.
  • Some partner moves in Paper Mario work like this, scoring multiple attacks that do one damage each. Due to the way defense works in the game, these attacks are normally completely useless against enemies that have a defense stat greater than 0.
  • Some fighting games have code in place to break up attempts at spam attacks, such as automatically making it miss if used more than twice in a row.
  • Hinata's Rengeki-ken from Rival Schools.
  • Viewtiful Joe has the Red Hot One Hundred, the most useful move in the series. Essentially distorting time to allow you to punch so fast the enemy can't do anything about it.
    • Also a subversion in that from our perspective, he's punching at a perfectly normal rate of speed.
    • The only problem with the Red Hot One Hundred is that, unless you take it out fast enough, the game takes pity on the poor enemy you're beating up and grants them a brief temporary invulnerability (just like you get every time you get hit), forcing you to wait until an opening comes around to start again.
  • God Hand is all about punching people, be it really hard or really quickly (or really hard and really quickly). As such, spamming attacks comes in a variety of flavors. Build yourself a twenty-hit combo with the right moves, mash buttons when prompted with the "Pummel" command to deliver a volley of blows to your enemy's midsection, or use "100 Fists" to throw a barrage of punches that culminates in you launching the poor fool into the Milky Way. Your fights with Azel, Gene's rival and self-styled "Devil Hand," are especially awesome because you can get into a Pummel Duel with him.
    • Also present in the game's Spiritual Successor; MadWorld. In the final boss fight against The Black Baron, the Power Struggle between him and Jack starts with a pummel duel similar to Gene and Azel above (Although it quickly changes to several Cross Counters after a bit of pummeling)
    • Found yet again in Bayonetta in the battles between Bayonetta and Jeanne. With giant fists made of hair nonetheless. Also the primary form of melee attack used by the Bonus Boss of the same game Rodin
    • Also found in Vanquish, when ever Sam Gideon fights one of Victor Zaitsev's Bogeys. He even does this with two of them at the same time!
  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has the Kaiser Knuckle.
    • Can't forget the Fist of Tulkas, which shares the blurry-punch-spam special attack.
    • Portrait of Ruin has the Boss Rush reward of the Illusion Fist. It's like the Crissaegrim/Valmanway, except with less range, but it's still insanely good.
  • In Chrono Trigger, Robo's "Uzzi Punch" Tech consists of him running up close and smashing the enemy with repeated punches. This is what happens when one combines this trope with the Rocket Punch.
  • Magical Battle Arena: the title character of Cardcaptor Sakura, thanks to THE FIGHT. Watching sweet, kind, gentle, Sakura Kinomoto bust out a 16-hit rapid punch and kick combo on a hapless opponent is both jarring and awesome.
  • Spider-Man: Web of Shadows had more than a few moves like this. In the red and blue suit, Spidey can unleash a flurry of punches and in the black suit, he has more than one type of tentacle flurries.
  • One of the Flash's Heroic Brutalities in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is this.
  • Too many attacks in Jump Ultimate Stars to count.
  • In Elite Beat Agents, this is how Sam the dog fights off an army of other dogs.
  • This is Sonic the Hedgehog's preferred method of disposing of Nightmares in the PS360 version of Sonic Unleashed.
  • City of Heroes has several attacks like this. Flurry is part of the Super Speed power pool, while Shadow Maul (and the Sands of Mu temporary power/Veteran's reward power that copies it) is based on negative energy, and One Thousand Cuts is the ultimate Dual Blades attack.
    • Even better is that these attacks are cone-based, meaning they can hit up to five targets in front of you simultaneously.
    • Unfortunately, it's one attack roll, so if you miss you'll just be standing there punching air with a hilarious "miss" sound effect. Due to negative energy's accuracy issues, this led to the Fan Nickname "Shadow Whiff."
    • The rapid-fire attacks in the game require that the player is locked onto the enemy's targeting reticle. This leads to an amusing side-effect: if the enemy runs away after the Flurry animation has started, the fleeing opponent will continue to be assaulted by phantom punches, making it possible to beat the snot out of a mook from across the street.
  • In Fallout 3, when you have enough action points in VATS and stack up enough melee attacks, you can get five or six punches on an opponent (seen in slow motion) before they can begin to react, at least giving the illusion of this effect.
    • Similarly in the earlier games, a couple levels of Bonus HTH would drop the duration of a punch down to 1 AP, allowing some characters (especially on chems) well over a dozen blows a turn.
  • Vulcan Blaze, Adell's final special attack from Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, is of this nature.
    • The Nekomata class in the first game also has a very self-explanitory attack called Fists of Fury. (changed to Cat Fight in the second and third games). In the fourth game, it parodies Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken, with the Nekomata saying "nya" with every punch, and the name of the move appearing on the screen shortly before the target suddenly explodes.
    • Mr. Champloo's Chef's Special attack begins with a fist flurry. His Shredder Kick uses the kicking variant.
  • The Kick13 and Hyper Fist moves from Devil May Cry qualify, as do some of Nero's Buster moves.
  • Shortly after the game's release, this was possible in Left 4 Dead by way of bug exploiting.
  • Ichirin's partner Unzan from Touhou invokes this trope with his BRO-fist danmaku.
    • In a straighter example, we have resident martial artist Hong Meiling with her Searing Red Fist and Intense Rainbow Fist from the Fighting Game spin-offs.
  • When Lo Wang of Shadow Warrior isn't slicing bad guys up with his sword, he's delivering a dose of this.
  • Every boss fight in Donkey Kong Jungle Beat features Donkey Kong delivering savage beatings onto his opponent, although certain smaller-scale baddies can also suffer this treatment in specific situations. This is a rare instance where the player character is actually a far more brutal and violent figher than any bad guy; I wouldn't be surprised if DK could go as high as eight or nine rapid-fire punches a second.
  • "The One" combo in The Path Of Neo does this quite thoroughly.
  • Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII gives us the Rush Assault Limit Break, where Zack punches and kicks one target, moves on to a second one if there's one, then caps off by dashing through another (or maybe the first).
  • The Ganbare Goemon games featuring Impact include a direct homage to Fist of the North Star in the form of Impact's Hyakureppunch, in which the giant robot simply pounds rapid-fire on the enemy at close-range, potentially following up with a devastating kick (and a hilarious sound effect).
  • This is one of the psychs in The World Ends With You: Stellar Flurry.
  • Bullet, Freedom Force's Flash Expy, has three melee attacks. The second and third are the same as the first, but are respectively done three and six times in quick succession. It adds up pretty quickly.
  • Mitsumete Knight has a Rapid Fire Spear Thrusts variation with enemy spear-wielding General Nescelaria of the Gale, who uses this as his Limit Break.
  • Zettai Hero Project: The Rocket Meteor attack with the Rocket Punch L weapon.
  • In Marvel vs. Capcom Sabertooth, Wolverine and a few others have this.
  • Inazuma Eleven has "Bakunetsu Punch" goalie technique, executed by punching a ball repeatly to throw it away.
  • Asura's Wrath has it here and it is REALLY powerful.
  • In Sengoku Basara 3, Ieyasu's fighting style involves a lot of this, and it features prominently in his Limit Break as well. Hideyoshi's fighting style from previous games possessed some of this as well, evoking quite a few comparisons to Kenshiro and Raoh respectively thanks to Hideyoshi's massive frame.
  • Naturally, Hokuto Musou has this from the start. It's Kenshiro's first available Musou attack and it remains iconic of the various Hokuto-using warriors in the series.
  • One of Batman's melee moves in Batman: Arkham City.


Web Comics


Web Original

  • Pretty much every speedster active in the Global Guardians PBEM Universe has mastered this technique. An exceptional example is Gyro, a supervillain who spins at extremely high speed. While spinning, he can extend his fists and end up acting like a circular saw to pretty much anything he runs into.
  • Scrambler of the Whateley Universe has done this repeatedly in her martial arts classes at Whateley Academy, but she only has normal strength so it's pretty useless against someone like Phase or Golden Girl.
  • 3D Lee used this technique during the takeover of Molossia in Kickassia


Western Animation

  • The probable Ur Example (believe it or not) is Popeye, who sometimes used this technique after eating his spinach.
  • In The Incredibles. Dash is surprised (and delighted) when he discovers he can do this, however that they end up being more annoying than anything else.
  • Justice League Unlimited had The Flash raining down who knows how many punches thrown at Super Speed on the downed Luther/Brainiac fusion near the end of the second season.
    • It's also worth noting that, in order to build up enough of a head start, he repeatedly ran around the world at super speed.
  • Hak Foo did this in Jackie Chan Adventures against Captain Black when he was wearing an Oni mask. Captain Black, to emphasize how badass the mask had made him, blocked all of them. Easily.
  • The Powerpuff Girls did this on occasion, Buttercup was especially fond of it.
  • This happens a few times in the Looney Tunes short Dangerous Dan Mc Foo during the title character and his rival's fight.
  • In Superman/Batman: Apocalypse Superman does this to Darkseid at the end of their fight.
  • In the Mickey Mouse short "Guillver Mickey" Mickey and the giant spider do this to each other a few times.
  • Lance does this on occasion in Sym-Bionic Titan.


Real Life

  • This is the best explanation of what Jeet Kune Do's 'straight blast' is. Punch the unlucky stiff as many times in the gut as you can, hurt him, and break his balance. Then, with his balance broken, hurt him some more.
    • Imported from Wing Chun, not that this should surprise anyone; JKD's progenitor was a former student of the most famous practitioner in the twentieth century of its parent art.
      • Rapid-punching tends to lack force and serves the purpose of stun-locking the opponent rather than actually doing damage. It isn't very practical nor efficient, but is quite humiliating when it works.
        • You are supposed to do a "falling step" whenever you get the opportunity, stepping "through" your opponent and putting your entire body behind your fist. These punches are INCREDIBLY powerfull(I've seen 100 kg men literally being flung across the room) and flow seamlessly into the chain punches, which are also much more painfull than you'd expect (remember, Impulse is mass times velocity).
        • Also remember these two are the martial arts techniques which utilize the 1-3 inch strike. They are close-combat techniques which specialize in getting force without having any distance to the enemy. Foot pushes leg, leg pushes hip, hip pushes upper body -> shoulder -> arm -> fist. Youcombine a lot of muscles this way and yes, you can send people flying with one of these.
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