Screw, known as Aerial Tailspin (きりもみ kirimomi) in Japan, introduced in Tekken 7 as the replacement for the Bound system, though the animation for Screw has existed since Tekken 6. A Screw move causes an airborne opponent to spin in the air and land on their backs with their legs pointing up. Using a Screw attack allows the player to extend a juggle combo, similar to the purpose of the Bound mechanic. Screw was subsequently replaced by Tornado as a combo extender in Tekken 8.
While not completely ubiquitous, in a large number of cases a move that causes the opponent to twirl around during a grounded connect (a "pirouette" stun) will grant the attack Screw properties when done against an aerial opponent.
Unlike Bound attacks, Screw attacks will not work next to walls and cannot be used to cause floor breaks due to their nature of throwing opponents backwards instead of downwards. As low parries still put the opponent into Bound, the player can use Screw attacks after low parrying an opponent to extend low parry combos. Just like how Bound cannot be used again if used as a floor break, Screw is lost if the said move is used as a wall or balcony break.
Like Bound, Screw can only be activated once in a combo. Notably, if a single hit Screw like Backlash were to trigger a wall splat, then it would no longer be possible for another attack to cause a screw, but if the wall splat was triggered by a string that ended with a Screw like Killing Uppercut Grizzly Scratch, then it is still possible to trigger another screw. This rule also applies to either a Wall Break or a Balcony Break.
Trivia[]
- It is possible that the animation for the Screw mechanic originated in the Soul series, as it can be seen as early as Soul Calibur II. The character Cassandra's move "Angel's Exile", for example, causes the enemy to land in a screw animation.[1]
- The Screw mechanic was shown in the first trailer of Tekken 8.[2] though later trailers all featured Tornado instead of Screw. Some moves like Law's Double Dragon retain the Screw animation as the hit animation.