Arms - Nintendo Switch

I was never good in fighting games, and they rarely interested me. Even though I am a big nintendo fan, not even Super Smash does it for me personally. However, Arms brings interesting concept of motion controls of boxing like gameplay that made Wii Sports Boxing fun 10 years ago, to the next level. Controls method options are available. If you despise the "gimmick" of motion controls, you may play the game entirely with Pro Controller or docked JoyCons using buttons only. This will render a little bit better precision in timing of some inputs. However, motion controls are the highlighted option. In this fighting game, you actually have the camera behind (third person view) of your character. Motions with JoyCons imitating punches will make your character punch, though their spring like arms extend the punch. Moving your arms with the controllers, will make your character's spring arms curve in the direction you want. It is a surprising fidelity of motion control that makes the game very fun and engaging. The character can move around in the arena to anywhere you want. You may punch, jump, dodge, block, and grab. These simple mechanics work around the logic that: punches beat/cancel grabs, blocks cancel punches, and grabs beat blocks. Simple enough. Though superficially only. As you bump up difficulty, you will learn of further intricacies, such as counter punches, combined with the variety of Arms to be unlocked. The game has 10 characters. More coming through confirmed free DLC. Each character has their own stats of speed, defense, and power. Additionally, each has a unique ability. They vary from Regenerating health when blocking, to multiple air jumps, and even auto charge arms attack when low on health. Each character has a pre-set of 3 arms to choose. The arms are rather like boxing gloves that have unique stats/abilities, that range from fire to burn for extra time damage, freezing to slow down opponent, even creative ones such as boomerangs that make punches extra curved, or slapping arms that make punches more like whipping attacks. You may charge your punches to enable the element/power attack of chosen gloves. As you fight, you get credit points that can be used in a fun arcade game to unlock additional arms for all characters. Stages are few for now, but more may come through DLC. They are well designed and creative, ranging from beach day park, to dynamic changing terrain of a dance stage. There are several game modes. Championship which is a story-less career mode, where you choose difficulty and go through all characters fight in a typical fighter arcade run. V Ball, where a bomb inside a volley ball is thrown around, if ball stays in you court side for too long it explodes granting opponent team a point. Basketball mode, where you literally must grab enemy and throw him/her to a basketball hoop for points. Target practice. And team fights. All of the modes can be played locally single player, locally with up to 4 friends, in between local Nintendo Switch consoles, and Online. Online has additional 1 v 1 mode for ranked serious matches. Online mode also benefits of a dynamic party lobby that rearranges you and online contestants in various modes and fights. Something very fun and interesting to see as matches diagrams keep moving around live as you wait to join a match. Visuals are great as expected of true nintendo franchises. Full HD 1080p 60 frames per second gameplay for single player locally or online. Visuals drop to 900p 60fps for 2 players locally or online. And for 3 or 4 drops to 720p 30fps. If you aren't into fighting games like me, this may still interest you for the unique twists of modes and manner of actual fighting. It is fun for both casual players and hard core fighting gamers. I won't be surprised to see serious tournaments or eSports for this game in near future.

Arms is at once a game with minimal barrier to entry but, keep looking and you'll find a surprising amount of mechanical depth. The unfortunate side with this game is that, the modes and things to do with those mechanics are sadly, much more shallow. Controls (whether motion or button based) take 3 major factors into account: Positioning, Blocking, and Punching. Unlike most fighting games (save for Virtual On), the camera is located squarely behind you, with delayed arms being thrust at your opponent. If using motion controls, this allows you to throw your arms outward in hopes of connecting. Unlike Wii boxing, however, you'll soon find that rapidly flinging your arms out will cause a disadvantage, as it will leave your character open to attacks. This puts the fights into a "Rock, Paper, Scissors" scenario. Blocks will stop straight forward punches, but not grabs or punches from the side. Grabs will defeat blocks, but not punches and also leave your character wide open for pummeling, should the opponent dodge. Dodges briefly prevent you from being able to punch and so on, so forth. The variety of fighters and their weapons (aka "Arms") allows for fights to go a multitude of ways. Stages also create different scenarios based on differing ground elevations, or moving platforms. Fights play out different every time and can be thrilling with the pendulum swinging of incoming victory swinging back and forth. While the fight mechanics are fresh, there aren't enough interesting modes past this. There's no story mode, instead a rudimentary "go up the ladder and face every opponent one by one" grand prix. The variations unfortunately step away from the depth of the rock paper scissors approach, becoming simplified bullish variations of "rock rock rock" instead. "V-Ball", a volley ball style game, feels random and largely uncontrolled, "Hoops" seems overly frenetic and unpredictable as people just throw grabs at each other in rapid succession. Skill Shot separates opponents instead favoring trying to rack up a high score on targets. The 1 vs 100 mode is fun, but will undoubtedly get old over time. Multiplayer Party mode is fun, but aside from 1 vs 1 fighting, it simply feels more chaotic than you'd want it to be, plus 1 vs 1 is limited to ranked fighting and is locked away unless grand prix is beaten at a certain skill level. There's a lot to like about Arms. It's one of the few games I can play against my 6 year old nephew and against skilled online players while walking away feeling the satisfaction of a match. I only wish that there was more to do in it.

Arms is a must-have for the Switch, which is quickly becoming the perfect system to play with friends either at home, or pretty much anywhere. Arms has various modes, but at it's heart, it's a one on one fighting game where all of the characters have stretchy arms that they shoot at their opponents. There are no special moves, combos, or attacks you need to memorize as there are in other fighting games. You punch, move, jump, grab, and block. The strategy comes from when, where, and how to land your punches. The long-range fighting, ensures a tense, strategic pace that is more about out-thinking your opponent than simply having better reflexes. The game encourages the player to use motion controls, which are quite good, and fun to play with, but the game is also perfectly playable with a more traditional control-scheme, which is my preferred play-style. Using traditional controls, you can easily get a one on one split screen match with a friend going using the Switch's included 2 Joycons. While there are few single player options, the online multiplayer setup works better than almost any other fighting game I've played. If you are at home and want to play online, you will be put into either a quick, fun game, or a more serious ranked competitive match in seconds. I know I'll be spending hours and hours perfecting my skills online, because while the game is simple to learn, it's difficult to master. The game is even more fun when playing local split-screen multiplayer. I brought my Switch to school and had other teachers who never really play video games screaming at the television while we pummeled each other. What Mario Kart does for racing, Arms does for fighting games. This game is for you if: You like competitive online games You like fun and crazy character design and art direction You need more games that appeal to non-gamers , casual gamers, or kids. You have other people to play with This game is NOT for you if: You only play games for the story. You MUST have a robust single player campaign, and for some reason refuse to play against people online. You have no internet connection as well as no one around you to play with.

Let me just say this is a game I usually don't get. I like single 1 player games and generally never go online to play with other. Maybe locally with someone in my place but not random people. This game changes everything about that. Playing with others is the way to go! That's where the meat of the game is, this is where you'll be spending most of your time, this is where the fun will be at. The lobby that pits you against others is not intimidating at all. You can be sure if you have kids at home that will use this game when you can't monitor them will be just fine since there's no audio or interaction with the personal user. You get assigned to a match and you fight till there's a winner and you go back to the lobby to be assigned another. Very easy and simple. I've had no issues with disconnections. The fighters are all unique and full of personality. There's many combinations of arms to switch and use that it will never get dull because the strategy will always differ pending on what you choose and what your opponent chooses. The weight of the arms/character also changes the strategy. Light characters are fast and nimble, while heavery ones are slow and more powerful. It'll be fun to mix and match when you get a handle and comfortable with the game mechanics. There's 1 on 1's, tag team battles, all for one's, basketball, volleyball and many more. So it's always switching it up to keep it fresh. This game is enjoyed by gamers like me and casuals like my girlfriend who is just a casual. If you are on the fence with this game. Try it first hand. It can be fun with people you know to play as a perfect party game with the joycon and the motion controls. I can't wait to see what Nintendo does with this game in the future because it can definitely be improved only for the better!

Let me start this off by saying that, when I saw the reveal trailer for this title, I thought it looked utterly ridiculously (in a negative way). Upon getting further information about the game through Nintendo Direct's and getting to try the game during the demo event, I absolutely fell in love with the game. It's easy to pick up, but difficult to master. There are 10 unique characters in the game, all with pros and cons to each, and there are thousands of different arm combinations to choose from once you start unlocking more arms for all the characters. There are a couple of different modes in the game. The first one is Grand Prix, which is a single player mode where you fight through 10 rounds to become the ARMS Grand Champion. Beat it on level 4 or above and you might unlock the true ending. There's a party mode for online battles, which is more for fun and just randomly matches you with others. There's also a ranked mode for the more competitive ARMS players. The different battles in party mode are 1v1 fights, 1v1v1 fights, 2v2 fights, 3vHedlok (Hedlok is a character with 6 arms), basketball (throw your opponent into the b-ball hoop), volleyball, and skillshot (whoever breaks the most targets win). This also applies to local multiplayer, LAN play, and playing with friends online. Overall I absolutely love and adore this game. It brings that magical Nintendo charm to the fighting genre, and they're promising free DLC updates with new stages and characters in the coming months after launch, so that'll keep you going for well after you've purchased the title. Definitely recommend adding this to your Switch collection!

When ARMS was first shown off during the Nintendo Switch announcement back in January 2017, I wasn't totally sure what to make of it, but it caught my interest - and has held onto that interest since, as we learned more about the game's gimmick, characters, and systems. The ARMS Global Testpunch sealed the deal, and I considered myself relatively well-informed when I placed my pre-order. If you're a fighting game fan who's looking for a new take on the genre, ARMS delivers with interest. Rather than the side-on view which has been standard since fighting games first surfaced, ARMS puts you behind your fighter's back. That adds to the challenge somewhat - you can reach all the way across the arena, although your punches do take time to travel - but given that it's an even field otherwise, it's not really a disadvantage. There are ten playable characters to select from to start with, each of them having three ARMS "fists" to choose among at the beginning; Nintendo has also announced that they're going to keep adding characters with free DLC/game updates moving forward, so the cast is only going to grow. While ARMS supports conventional button-based controls, the game is really designed around using the Joy-Con motion sensors, which also lets you curve your punches' flight paths. I personally find that the most enjoyable way to play ARMS, too, partly for the additional 'immersion' it brings. So in short: fun new take on the fighting game genre, a good investment now and one that's only going to get better as Nintendo expands the cast.

Arms is a refreshing new concept for a fighting game from Nintendo. Some old school gamers may recognize aspects of the gameplay from some older mecha fighting games, in particular the Virtual On series. Fighters square off in a 3D arena, with their eponymous Arms as their only weapons. A variety of arms can be equipped with different stats and abilities. The object, of course, is to KO your opponent. Game modes vary from traditional 1v1, 2v2, a point-based, target shooting mode, amongst others. The only lobby system is very well done, and ensures that you never have to wait long before getting tossed into one of these game modes with another player. This brings us to my main issue with the game. It was clearly built around this online component, as there is precious little to do offline, but the nature of the gameplay combined with the games substandard netcode and the Switch's poor wifi reception make it a very frustrating, un-fun experience if there is even a hint of lag. Even with my fiber connection, the games where lag is an issue outnumber those that aren't. The bright side here is that Nintendo has promised that it will continue to patch and provide free content for Arms. Unless you have a group of friends interested in playing this game locally, I would probably hold off until their reveal or release that additional content to see if the game will be worthwhile in the long run.

I'll get the negative out of the way first - the single player component is quite limited; you will have fun boxing with some surprisingly good AI in a variety of cool settings and modes, but there is no story for those seeking a narrative. With that out of the way, everything else about this game is flawless. It's a bold new IP developed by the same folks who are responsible for Mario Kart 8, so it's not surprising that they nailed character balance, design, and approachability. You can throw this on the TV (or the Gamepad) and have fun with your friends or strangers regardless of anybody's skill level. That said, the combat is complex and engaging, offering an exceedingly rewarding online experience, whether you're working your way up through the ranked mode or just having fun with party mode. There's something for everyone, and you'll always have a good time. To address motion controls, they are wonderful but not required. When I play at home after work, I tend to play docked with the joycons acting as my fists. When I play on the go, during my lunch break, I have almost as much fun playing with standard controls on the gamepad. In closing, this is a great game and really a proof of concept for motion controls - I wasn't sold on them in the Wii era, but ARMS made me a believer. This game is worth every penny!