Spin Attack: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Similar is the '''Death Blossom''', which is the exact same thing, but with ''a gun''. Typically shows up in various ''Asteroids''-clones (and in ''[[The Last Starfighter]]'' of course) as a screen-clearing attack in lieu of the simpler [[Smart Bomb]].

{{examples}}

 

* Named for the sword technique in ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'', but there's a much more ridiculous variant called the Hurricane Spin where Link moves around while spinning like a top for several seconds.

** Interestingly, the Hurricane Spin causes the character to be momentarily dizzy. Fortunately, most enemies don't last to take advantage of that moment. Some other games had the 'Great Spin' which was a magically powered spin attack that simply hit a larger range than the usual attack.

** The manga renders Link's attack as "Kaitengiri." It's also insanely powerful in the manga, able to obliterate just about anything, even up to boss-class bad guys.

* If you're going to talk about weird ''spin kicks'', Albus in ''[[Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia]]''.

 

* ''Ferazel's Wand''

* [[Devil May Cry|Dante]] with his sword during a cutscene. In-game gun version with his Twosome Time, and sword version with his Prop Shredder.

* In ''[[Battletoads]]'', the Dark Queen will spin so fast she turns into a tornado.

 

* ''[[Final Fight]]'': Mike Haggar's spinning clothesline!

* A spin attack can be performed in the air in ''Castle Crashers''. However, it's the weakest attack in the game, doing only 1 damage regardless of the player's stats.

 

* ''[[F-Zero]]'' has a spinning maneuver you can do to clear some cars out of the way. It costs you some of your shield gauge, though.

** If you destroy an opponent though, you get some back.

 

* A minority of [[Fighting Game]] characters, have some version of a spin-attack. The most common and reconizable ones are Ryu and Ken's [[Hurricane Kick]] and Chun-Li's 'Spinning Bird Kick' in the popular ''[[Street Fighter]]'' series.

* Garuda from the ''[[Street Fighter EX]]'' series has a spinning headbutt and two different spinning uppercuts AND a spinning top attack. From ''EX2 Plus'' onwards, he can also do the spinning uppercut and spinning top with a [[Katanas Are Just Better|katana]]... moves he stole from ''EX2'''s Hayate.

 

* A legitimately useful tactic in ''[[Left 4 Dead 2]]'' involves revving the chainsaw as you spin around, causing zombies to just run into your whirling meat grinder without a moment's hesitation.

 

* ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]] Legends''

* ''[[Rune]]''

* An entire subclass of Secret Arts in ''[[Muramasa: The Demon Blade]]''. The forward roll variants are generally held to be extremely useful.

 

* In ''[[Another Century's Episode]] 2'', Marina's signature move is a Death Blossom-like spinning shot, dubbed "Marina Special" by Japanese fans; this becomes a plot point when {{spoiler|the mysterious antagonist mecha Buster Ark uses the same attack, revealing the identity of its pilot.}}

** It's also a [[Game Breaker]] since, due to its damage coding, when used at point-blank range it's pretty much an assued [[One-Hit Kill]].

 

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'': Warrior characters can invest talent points in the low-level [http://www.wowwiki.com/Whirlwind Whirlwind] attack or its 51-point big brother, [http://www.wowwiki.com/Bladestorm Bladestorm]. A fair number of bad guys use similar attacks as well.

** As in ''Wrath of the Lich King'', Paladins can get one from a 51-point talent as well in the form of [http://www.wowwiki.com/Divine_storm Divine Storm], probably its Protection tree little brother [http://www.wowwiki.com/Hammer_of_the_Righteous Hammer of the Righteous] as well, though this one it is a magical hammer spins around the user, instead of the user spinning around like a maniac.

* Most of the melee powers available to Tanks, Brutes and Scrappers in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' included at least one Spin Attack.

 

* ''[[Super Mario Bros 3]]'' and ''World'' let Mario use this with the Raccoon and Cape [[Power-Up|Power Ups]]

** ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'' has this as Mario's main and often only attack.

** Also used in ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'' with the hammer, occasionally required to clear away swarms of enemies. There's the swarm of Dull Bones in Hooktail Castle, the first encounter with the Smorgs in Riverside Station, the similar swarm of Dry Bones in the Palace of Shadow, and optionally, the Boos in Creepy Steeple. There's one enemy that can only be encountered by doing this to the Boos twice.

* ''[[Crash Bandicoot]]'' can twist his body for a mini-tornado attack. Unlike most spin attacks, it's actually his basic attack.

** On Naughty Dog's other series, [[Jak and Daxter]], the titular characters use a <s>similar</s> identical [[Hurricane Kick]].

* [[Metroid|Samus]]' legendary Screw Attack. So famous, [http://www.screwattack.com a website] was named after it.

** Sonic's Spin Attack is actually a [[Rolling Attack]]. In mathematical terms, a traditional Spin Attack yaws left-to-right across the body, and Sonic's pitches forward into a roll.

** On the other hand, Espio the Chameleon and Blaze the Cat have been known to do straightforward versions (with their own bodies of course).

** ''[[Mega Man 3]]'' has the Top Spin. You press the shoot button in mid-air, and Mega Man spins and damages any enemy he touches. However, more often than not you either get hit in the process, or use randomly use up way more weapon energy than normal, causing most players to dismiss it as useless.

* Chewbacca could perform a spin attack in the ''Empire Strikes Back'' and ''Return of the Jedi'' in the ''[[Super Star Wars]]'' games, but he had to wait to use it again once he stopped using it or if gauge ran empty. Princess Leia also gained a spin attack when she is in her bikini costume in the Jedi chapter of the series.

 

* In ''[[League of Legends]]'', two characters (Tryndamere and Garen) have this ability, along with a speed boost and slow immunity so they keep up with any enemy player they're shredding. In fact, Garen's signature low level playstyle involves hiding in a patch of grass and waiting for an idiot to walk in ([[Memetic Mutation|"DEMACIAAAAAA!" is shorthand for that]], [[Beam Me Up, Scotty|though that sound is technically activated another ability entirely]]).

* ''Warcraft'' III the Orc [[Hero Unit|Blademaster]] its ability Bladestorm which the unit spins around like a tornado dealing damage to any enemy units in its reach.

 

* ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army]]'' - not sure if this alleviates the lack of realism at all, but Raidou does not remain perfectly upright while spinning (he passes even closer to the ground under the force of the [[Combination Attack]] category like this), and it takes a little bit of time for him to be able to attack again/block after that.

* In ''[[The World Ends With You]]'', the pins Lightning Anger and Lightning Rage give Neku this kind of attack. In addition, Mink Noise use spinning as an attack, as well as [[Spin to Deflect Stuff|to avoid being hit by most attacks]].

* ''[[Avalon Code]]'' lets you do this with swords and hammers. The hammer spin attack lets you fly across the field like Superman for a few seconds.

* This is Cornelius' special ability in ''[[Odin Sphere]]''+.

** Speaking of Robo, he also gets the Laser Spin attack, which [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|involves twirling around while firing lasers.]] And there's a triple combination attack, involving Crono, Robo and Ayla, where Crono's cyclone technique is turned [[Up to Eleven]].

* [[Kingdom Hearts|Kairi's]] fighting style in [[Dead Fantasy]] essentially boils down to this. But since she's [[Dual-Wielding]] Keyblades, it seems appropriate.

* Yosuke in ''[[Persona 4]]'' does this as his follow-up attack. Though it is one of the least useful ones.

* In [[The Elder Scrolls IV|The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion]], a Journeyman of either Blade or Blunt skills can ''perform a sideways power attack with a chance of disarming", which, when in third person view, is demonstrated as your character spinning in a full 360 with their weapon in full extension.

 

* ''[[Fraxy]]'' has ''Manjusri'' by Eboshidori, which uses this attack in the final step of its attack pattern. Anything within the barrier will be sliced to a fine powder.

 

* This is a powerup in ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Football]]''.

 

* ''[[Dead Rising]]'' has the Double Lariat and the Battle Axe's secondary attack.

 

* ''[[Stranglehold]]'''s Spin Attack is the most powerful Tequila Bomb maneuver, and generally consists of Tequila spinning around in slow-mo with his arms and his guns outstretched like an angel of death (if he's currently using [[Guns Akimbo]], that is) and blowing away every bad guy in the general vicinity in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kacy00P7TKE&fmt=18 cool cinematic style].

* Soldiers in ''[[Transformers: War for Cybertron]]'' perform this with a mace.

 

* [[Bare-Fisted Monk|Monks]] in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' and its successors gain the Spin Attack ability early on.

 

* ''[[Code Geass]]'' Spinzaku. That is all.

** That is not all. The Siegfried Knightmare frame uses this as a defensive and offensive maneuver due to its bulk and surface. The attack is so effective that it takes the combined forces of Cornelia and the Black Knights to take them down. (In part Cornelia just happened to jump in and used a downed Gekka to fire off a makeshift Hwatcha with downed Knightmare Frame equipment)

** Exia pulls one off in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' episode 2 when two Anfs attempt to attack him after the armed intervention. Cue to a dramatic spin attack that has him bisect both of them at the waist.

*** More often than not though, Setsuna has a habit of spinning around a target rather than spinning. This is to note that it is a lot better to blindside an opponent by zipping up behind them than to get surrounded by them.

* When overwhelmed and surrounded, members of the Hyuuga clan in ''[[Naruto]]'' can perform the Hakkeshou Kaiten, which involves spinning around and expelling chakra from every pore in the body. Although it can deflect an arbitrary number of projectiles from any angle and fling back nearby opponents, it's exhausting to perform, so it's generally preferred to deal with problems individually if that's feasible.

 

* The Hunter performs one of these during the battle on the Plains of Death in ''[[With Strings Attached]]''. Justified in that he's a ''lot'' faster than his undead opponents.

 

* The Death Blossom attack used in the finale of ''[[The Last Starfighter]]''. The Gunstar rotates in every possible direction and fires all of its weapons simultaneously, hitting literally everything around it.

* A non-game example would be in ''[[The Matrix]]'', the second one, where he gets a pole and just spins around with it to fight off the horde of Smiths.

* Used in the movie version of Potop (see: [[Sienkiewicz Trilogy]]). When you are strong enough to wield a solid wooden bench as a weapon, the trope ceases to be unrealistic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3Zi43-[[Sdo E]] (the fight starts at 5:30)

 

* In the ''[[Bolo]]'' series, created by Keith Laumer, the titular super-tanks would do a spin attack by locking treads on one side and keep the other side spinning. Anything that was in the bolo's path were crushed into a nice paste.

 

* The second variant of ''[[Kamen Rider Den-O]]'' Axe Form's [[Finishing Move]] is this, usually reserved for when surrounded by enemies.

 

** The exception would be using reach weapons (that allow you to melee attack from farther away than close-quarters) make this a less silly option. Unless you're using a whip, since it has the longest reach of all melee weapons, and there are several excellent whip types in non-core books, right up to the [[Game Breaker]] psionic [[Prestige Class]] that allows you to create a weapon out of [[Pure Energy]]. And empower it with ''more'' [[Pure Energy]]. And use feats to make it hit harder, and ignore armor. Basically a dick move that's taken you an entire campaign to pull off, that falls into a range between [[Boring but Practical]] and [[Awesome Yet Practical]].

** The Iron Heart school from ''Tome of Battle'' contains a number of maneuvers like this, culminating in "Adamantine Hurricane" which lets you strike every opponent twice with improved accuracy and move in the same round.

** "Great Cleave" also returns in 4E, this time as a Barbarian power

* Whirlwind Attack and Grand Disarm in ''[[GURPS]]''. After trying it you're defenseless but "in a cinematic game it's traditional for enemies to gape and gawk after this happens".

* Peony Blossom Attack in ''[[Exalted]]''. After spending quite some time as a speed-bump Charm containing a weaker version of the devastating multiple-strike Charm Iron Whirlwind Attack, it was errata'd into a single spinning cut that could hit every opponent within several meters.

 

* Subverted/deconstructed in ''[[Its Walky]]''. A super-powered mook starts spinning rapidly in the presence of the main cast's only [[Badass Normal]], Jason. He runs away at first, then, reasoning that this is probably "more of an oscillating fan thing than an [[Turbine Blender|airplane engine thing]]", sticks his arm into the range of the spinning man... who promptly stops dead, severely dizzy.

* Attempted in ''[[Soul Symphony]]'' when Olivia and John combine their energy shield, flight, and energy sword spells together to launch themselves as a spinning buzzsaw of energy. It doesn't work out.

* Since [[Axe Cop]] tends to get attacked while dancing, one of his dance moves is spinning on his axe and kicking the surrounding bad guys in the face. (Though a kick, it's not of the proper form to be a [[Hurricane Kick]].)

 

* Gyro, a villainous [[Super Speed|speedster]] from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' could spin himself like a super-sonic top. His primary method of attack was to move in on a person while keeping his fists extended.

 

* The grandfather of this trope, the legendary [[Looney Tunes|Tasmanian Devil]]?

* Used by [[SpongeBob SquarePants|Mr. Krabs]] with a sword(fish) to plow through a horde of zombie fish.

[[Category:Special Attack]]

[[Category:Combat Tropes]]

[[Category:Everything's Better with Spinning]]