The latest update for ARMS is a doozy. Featuring the inclusion of a new playable character, a new stage, and balance changes, this is the biggest shake-up to the game to-date. If you want to see the full patch notes, head over to Nintendo for those. Otherwise, come with me for my breakdown of what’s new!
As a perfect continuation about the miseducation of fighting game players post from a few days ago, a post from Kotaku perfectly highlighted my point about how misinformed opinions can take life and spread. In it, author Cecilia D’Anastasio highlights a common tactic that Ninjara players use in ARMS to score grabs. She even provides an example in the above gif.
Let’s use this as teachable moment to break down how to counter this particular tactic while breaking down the notion that throws are not cheap in ARMS.
During the Global Testpunch, I thought ARMS was going to be a walk in the park. I was throwing hands like Kimbo Slice, dropping almost every opponent in sight while collecting 100+ coins during each hourly interval. Figured that I would waltz my way to the top of the rankings in no time.
It didn’t take long for reality to smack me in the face with fists powered by springy arms. Everything past rank 6 has been a struggle. I touched rank 10, only to be beat down dozens of times in a row and fall back down to Earth. Just like every other fighting game out there, I’m gonna have to earn it just like everyone else.
I am currently smitten with ARMS. Nintendo’s newest title is a novel take on the fighting game that is one of the most accessible fighters in quite some time. For a brief moment, I thought that maybe this would be the game that magically conquers the genre’s accessibility problem. After browsing online to see the response from players on message boards, Reddit, and Twitter, it was clear that this was not the case.
Just like with any other fighting game, there were complaints about throws being too cheap. About certain characters (coughcoughNinjaracoughcough) being too overpowered. Some were calling the game a mindless waggle-fest or button-masher. You don’t have to look far to find opinions rooted in conjecture. The reality is that getting a wider audience to understand and enjoy fighting games at a satisfying level far more complicated than just creating a simplified game.
Nintendo is no stranger to putting their stamp on genres outside of their wheelhouse. Their take on racing gave birth to the legendary Mario Kart franchise. Their foray into the world of real-time strategy gave us the brilliant Pikmin series. Most recently, Nintendo entered the crowded shooter market with their breakout hit Splatoon.
They don’t always hit with their forays into new territory, but their track record of making something great within unfamiliar territory is ridiculous. This time, they’ve struck gold with Arms, a 3D arena fighter with motion controls.
Over the past two weekends, I’ve been participating in as many ARMS Global Testpunch events as I could. At first, it was to see if ARMS was the real deal. Since then, it’s been a matter of wanting to play as much of this game as possible because it’s really fun.
I’ve had a chance to play with all eight of the characters that were available in the beta. Since Kid Cobra and Bark & Byte weren’t available, write-ups on them will have to come later. For now though, here are my thoughts on the characters we got to play with so far.
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Arms has been no stranger to skepticism. As a 3D arena fighter with motion controls isn’t exactly what you would want or expect from Nintendo. Nightmares of Wii Boxing came rushing back when I first saw this, leaving me scratching my head as to why Nintendo would want to go back to this concept.
Having now played Arms as part of the Global Testpunch, I now see that this isn’t another motion controlled waggle fest. Arms is the real deal.
With its impending release less than a month away, Nintendo pulled back the curtain even further on Arms. In this 20-minute presentation, they unveiled new characters, a number of new modes, a commitment to free post-launch DLC and the announcement of an upcoming beta. Despite my skepticism of the game, Nintendo might have me on the brink of caving in.
When Nintendo first revealed Arms late last year, I cringed. The sight of players throwing fists in the air was enough to bring back memories of terrible Wii motion controls. Didn’t Nintendo learn its lesson with the mess that was Wii Boxing? Well, maybe the lesson they learned wasn’t to just abandon motion-based fighting completely, but to make it better and put it in a package that could stand on its own.
In Third Person 