Battle effects

Battle animations are used in the main series of the Pokémon games. They appear in all handheld Pokémon versions, as well as some console games such as Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Colosseum. Battle animations are the visual display of moves used by Pokémon, as well as other in-battle effects such as weather conditions and status infliction. Battle animations require a series of sprites to make a moving animation, sometimes also using different backgrounds to enhance the scenery.

Players have the ability to turn off battle animations as they are not really necessary to progress through the game, and battles progress faster without them. The animations can be turned off by opening the start menu, by pressing the Start Button (or the X Button in Generation IV) and selecting Options, then Battle Scene.

In Generation III, the battle animations of Thunder and Thunderbolt may freeze the game. Turning off the animations will solve this problem.

Trivia

• Pokémon battle simulators, such as NetBattle, don't use battle animations, instead only requiring text detailing the battle and often sprites of Pokémon.
• All Pokémon have the same battle animations as each other, which lead to some controversy over how Pokémon are able to use the attacks.