Post
The tiny pause in time when a hit lands, giving attacks weight and letting players process impact.
Hit-stop freezes the action for a handful of frames on impact. The attacker and defender both pause, screen effects land, and the brain registers the hit as real. Without hit-stop, strikes feel mushy; with too much, combat drags. Fighting games, action games, and even many 2D platformers use hit-stop, though the exact frame counts are often a studio secret.
Example
Smash Bros. uses tiered hit-stop based on damage dealt. Hollow Knight's nail swings freeze briefly on contact. Street Fighter encodes hit-stop into its frame-data tables. God of War's axe hits are defined as much by hit-stop as by animation.
Why it matters
Hit-stop is the single biggest contributor to 'game feel' in combat. It is invisible to casual players but immediately felt in its absence, which is why it is one of the first things action-game designers tune and polish.
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