Pokémon Scarlet and Violet let players spin faster than ever before

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet allow players to spin their characters around at high speeds and the internet has taken notice.

These high-speed twirls were brought into the limelight because of the below tweet from a YouTuber named Arlo. The tweet states that there’s no limit on how fast characters can spin and includes a video of a trainer spinning around. The magnificent pirouette garnered a lot of attention and received over 10,000 retweets.

The Pokémon series introduced full 3D gameplay during the 3DS era, and if players continuously rotated the circle pad, the character would perform a spin. More specifically, this was first identified as a feature in Pokémon Sun and Moon (ねとらぼ/Nlab).

Pokémon Sword and Shield also had a spin that could be performed by rotating the analog stick, but Pokémon Scarlet and Violet take it to another level. As you can see in the below comparison video, the speed of the spin has been upped considerably.

In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, you can enter this pirouette by repeatedly rotating the analog stick. Rotating the stick quickly will bring the character’s spin up to a fixed speed, so it doesn’t seem limitless, but the top speed is considerably faster than previous games.

Pokémon Sword and Shield implemented a nice little twirl, and Pokémon Legends: Arceus doesn’t have a spin move at all, but Pokémon Scarlet and Violet kick it into overdrive with unexpectedly high-speed spinning action.

Furthermore, when trying to spin while riding Koraidon or Miraidon, they will appear to not like it and stop. Additionally, no matter how fast you spin, your character will stumble afterwards. In other words, the high-speed spin was likely introduced intentionally, incorporating speeds high enough to make someone stagger.

But while it’s pretty fun to spin your character around, there is some risk. When it comes to quickly spinning analog sticks, players tend to use the palm of their hand instead of their thumb. I (the original author of this article) ended up with a red mark on my hand after testing. Even after washing my hands multiple times, it still hurts. For that reason, I recommend not going too hard when spinning your analog stick.

While somewhat unrelated, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet seem to have a number of odd bugs that involve spinning. Many players have spotted instances of the Pokémon they’re walking around with in the field spinning around and NPC trainers spinning when dispatching their Pokémon. It’s unknown how much of this is intentional, but it feels oddly consistent.

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-11-30 17:33 JST)