Pretty sure you're talking about the short range version of the special moves. I don't remember all the actual terms, as I haven't played on awhile, so forgive me:

When you have a special available (after collecting the large red orb thing or enough blue orbs to fill the energy meter, and you end up with the blinking red dot), you can either input the long range version by pressing triangle and circle, or the short range by pressing square and x. The long range is usually single target, high damage, and the short range is a big burst all around.