The Velocity is oriented towards new first time players. It’s typically one of those yoyos people “move on” from. Similar is the Speed Dial and Fast 201, although the Speed Dial has a bit more “long term” use to it since you can adjust the gap to being dead unresponsive. The weight of the Speed Dial is a better better too since it’s metal with thin plastic rims. I intend to get a Velocity and Fast 201 mostly since at my meets, I run into first-timers who come by and want to try, as well as “supporting” people who I have been teaching and have been buying these.
You want perhaps something that can be changed from responsive to unresponsive play, or at this point, go with something unresponsive and learn to bind. Either way, binding is in your near future.
A bunch of yoyos come with 2 bearings: a slim bearing for unresponsive play, and then a full sized C-bearing for unresponsive play. You simply swap out the bearing for the play style you desire. YYF does this with the ONE in the two-bearing packaging(normal YYF-type packaging). YYJ does this with the Legacy II, Chaser, Dark Magic II, Hitman Pro, XCon Pro and several others. The Legacy II is a plastic version of the Dark Magic II. Once you get to deciding to spend Dark Magic II dollars, YYJ has several other models right in that price range with different profiles but similar costs. The Legacy II is under $25 I think, while the YYF ONE is at $10. The ONE is rather light. The Chaser is perhaps too heavy at 73 grams, but it plays really good and doesn’t play heavy.
Other options that are also affordable include the YYF Kickside and Speed Maker. They come fairly responsive. You can twist to adjust the gap to decrease the responsiveness, but if you clean the bearing, they pretty much go completely unresponsive. The Lyn Fury uses dual O-Rings and ships somewhat responsive. CLeaning the bearing and ripping out the rubber o-rings and replacing them with flowable silicone(or other RTV silicone products) makes this completely unresponsive. At under $20, these are safe bets.
You may just choose to go completely unresponsive. People have already mentioned the Protostar and Northstar, which cost the same but weigh different but use the same shape. At $35, these are great yoyos, very popular and well liked. But, let’s drop down a bit in price first. The Adegle PSG and Asteroid are amazing and under $20 and perform at the same level as the Protostar and Northstar if you ask me. The shapes are very different, so it’s a preference thing. Other affordable and not terribly expensive plastics would be the Whip for $10 and the Dienasty for $24. The Whip is rather light though, so just be warned. The Plastic Grind Machine is plastic with weight rings, introduces you to stacked play and costs a mere $30. Another option is the new Stackless Grind Machine for $12. I find the Grind Machine shape, along with the Die-Nasty work great for 5A play as well should you wish to experiment with that style.
After this, there are plenty of other plastic and metal/plastic choices that I’ve left out because I don’t have them. The next choices would be metals. At this point, I don’t recommend metals yet, mostly because you’re gonna bash them up by accident through typical beginner mistakes.
The next decision is yours. What to spend vs. your level of interest. My thoughts push me to suggest one of the two-bearing yoyos, of which I recommend the Legacy II if you’re on a tight budget, or the Dark Magic II if you’ve got some funds freed up. You start responsive and then can go unresponsive: two throws in one. These will last you a good long time no matter what. This purchase indicates you intend to stick with this for a while, which we hope you will. After you learn your bind, a massive number of yoyos open up to you.
If you’re still not completely decided that the yoyo is for you, the Kickside, and Speed Maker are also proven choices. So is the Lyn Fury. Most people buying these aren’t 100% sold on sticking with the yoyo just yet, based on price. These yoyos will either really get you hooked or you may decide “that’s enough” at that point. Most people get hooked and continue. I will say this, as an OK at best player, I bought those three just to have handy, and they are really fun. I already knew how to bind.