Yahoo! Japan announced that the legendary Flash baseball game, Winnie the Pooh’s Home Run Derby will finally be shutting down on December 16, 2020.
Winnie the Pooh’s Home Run Derby was developed by Walt Disney Japan and released as a free game on Yahoo! Kids Games in 2008. However, it wasn’t until January 2012 that it got popular through 2channel in Japan. Word of mouth eventually reached the West through 4chan and Reddit around January 2013. It became a viral hit, known for its many memes and insane difficulty. The last boss, Christopher Robin, is especially challenging.
The gameplay mostly revolves around hitting pitches from various Winnie the Pooh characters in a home run derby. You control Pooh and click the mouse to swing the bat. The goal is to hit a certain number of home runs within a set number of pitches. The pitchers, however, become increasingly more difficult after each round.
The game starts with Eeyore, who throws straight pitches, and you must hit three dingers out of ten to clear that challenge. Lumpy the Heffalump is the second pitcher. He also throws simple straight balls like Eeyore, except you have to get five home runs of fifteen. Piglet follows with sharp fastballs. Then there’s Kanga & Roo, with accelerating pitches, and Rabbit, who throws unexpected fastballs. Each new character requires you to hit more home runs. However, things really go full baseball anime with Owl throwing zigzagging pitches and Tigger throwing disappearing balls.
Then, you have Christopher Robin as the final boss. Not only does he have the ability to throw all pitches in the game, but he also throws faster and more unexpected versions of these pitches. You must hit 40 out of 50 of Christopher Robin’s demonic pitches to beat the game.
The official Japanese version of the game will shut down on December 16, 2020, due to Adobe ending support for Flash. However, you can still find the game via Disney and other websites in the West for now.
