16.6.2017

Hello Friends?Yes it's me again!!! (Come to think of it, who the hell am I ?!)Anyway Amigos? For me this is an awesome fun game.In a nutshell, ARMS sees Nintendo doing to the fighter what Splatoon did to the shooter – taking the genre apart and reassembling it into something new. With up to four fighters duking it out in fully 3D arenas, players use motion controls to both move their character and aim the punches from their ludicrously long arms.Unlike Wii Boxing, the key to victory in ARMS lies in mastering its subtle movements. As you’d expect, extending an arm out in front of you delivers a forward-facing blow with your fighter’s corresponding arm.Yet the real test of skill lies in curving your blows.When you add a slight twist of the wrist to your punch, your character’s spaghetti-like appendage curves in the same direction. It isn't perfect, but time and time again I found myself impressed by just how accurate the Joy-Con controllers were in picking up my movements, allowing me to unleash winding punches at exactly the right angle and direction.The challenge, however, comes from landing those tricky punches while also keeping your character moving. Here, tilting the Joy-Cons without extending your arms makes your fighter move in the desired direction, and a tap of either L or R allows you to dash or jump around the arena.Initially, moving without punching is infuriating, but once it clicked, seamlessly dodging and aiming with subtle flicks of the wrists worked like a dream. With fighters such as the Naruto-esque Ninjara able to teleport in mid-air, much of the challenge in ARMS comes simply from predicting where your target will move and curving your wrists accordingly.Thankfully, though, there’s more to ARMS than simply punching and dodging. Nintendo has seen fit to borrow two other crucial fighting game mechanics: throws and blocks. Like most fighting games, ARMS operates a rock-paper-scissors methodology, where guards beat punches and grabs beat guards. Here, extending both arms together grabs your opponent, and turning your thumbs inward to face each other initiates your guard. Grabs are a sure path to victory, since once you’ve wrapped your stringy appendages around your opponent, they’re left entirely helpless.The catch is that if you reach for a grab and miss, your arms are left dangling – leaving you completely defenseless. Individually, they’re all fairly simplistic mechanics, but thanks to careful balancing and the ability to unleash game-changing special attacks, everything comes together to create a surprisingly complex meta game.Speaking of the meta, the rest of ARMS’ depth lies in how you choose to combine your chosen character and their arms. Each fighter in the game starts with a selection of three default arms, and sports their own custom ability. With characters ranging from the hovering Twintelle to the sluggish Master Mummy who heals himself by blocking, I was pleasantly surprised at just how much depth there was in combining characters and arms.Arms range from standard, straight-punching boxing gloves, to blade-shaped discs that curve and weave around your foes. Of the 30 different ones available, there’s an almost overwhelming number of different ways to fight. And as well as you contending with your enemies, random stage items that heal and disrupt players also add an element of unpredictability to each match.Unfortunately, how you go about unlocking arms is incredibly frustrating. While each of the game’s 10 fighters starts out with three unique arms, you have to go through a mini-game in order to unlock the rest of their arsenal. As you win in Grand Prix and pummel your foes in online bouts, you’ll earn a couple of coins from a win, with a minimum of 30 needed to compete in the arms-unlocking mini-game.Annoyingly , once you win an arm, it’s only for that individual character. This means that in order to unlock your favourite combination of arms for every fighter you’ll have to put in a ton of hours.That's "Totally Lame"!!!As a purely single-player experience, ARMS leaves a lot to be desired. While there’s definitely fun to be found in the seven offline modes on offer, most consist of self-contained 99-second matches. This is perfect for getting a quick fix when you fancy just letting your fists fly, but for players who are looking for lone modes to sink their teeth into, there are only really two that fit the bill.Grand Prix is the first, and is essentially your bog-standard arcade mode. After picking a fighter, you select a difficulty rating between 1 and 7 and then face 10 randomly selected opponents, before going head to head with two hard-as-nails final bosses.In a nice touch, Nintendo has opted to let players save their Grand Prix progress, meaning that if you find yourself stuck on a particular battle, you can try again another day without having to start from scratch.The second single-player mode that will keep you occupied for more than a couple of minutes at a time is One On 100. As you’ve probably guessed, this mode sees you taking on 100 enemies with one life – and it’s fine, if unremarkable.Network matches are where ARMS really shines. Borrowing the ranked matchmaking system from Street Fighter IV, players are able to carry on playing solo and local matches while they wait for an online opponent to match with them. Each win fills up your experience bar, helping you swiftly climb the ranks.A loss, however, sees you lose a far smaller degree of experience, setting you back slightly without ever feeling overly punitive. It’s a setup that shows that Nintendo is taking competitive ARMS seriously, with the point hammered home by the fact that you have to complete at least one rank 4 Grand Prix before you’re even allowed to compete in ranked brawls.Outside of ranked matches, players can compete for those precious coins online in the more laid-back party mode. Throwing players into a nicely designed lobby, the game matches you with a bunch of strangers, chucking you into a round-robin series of random game modes.These include the fun sport-based modes – V-ball and hoops – that add fighting-game flair to basketball and volleyball. There are also team fights, the target-punching Skill Shot mode, and co-op battles that see you teaming up to defeat the Grand Prix boss. The variety on offer here is fun, and like Mario Kart 8 before it, it’s nice to see that you can hop on party matches with a local multiplayer friend in tow.To sum it all up:ARMS is a unique-feeling brawler with a surprising amount of depth. It also looks great, combining a colourful flair with some of the most realistic environments and characters. Its motion controls are also a resounding success.Yet, despite everything it does right, this won’t be a game for everyone. Lacking the meaty single-player component of a game such as Splatoon, ARMS lives and dies on local and online multiplayer.Now if you’re after a fresh and fun way to take on your friends and the rest of the world, this is "the game" for you. If not, however, ARMS’ lack of single-player content might leave you feeling disappointed.Pros?Brilliant motion controls result in a genuinely fresh fighting experienceThe best online game Nintendo has ever releasedIt looks greatSurprising amount of depth to the combatTraditional controls don’t feel greatCons?Lack of single-player content may leave some feeling coldAnnoying arms unlock systemHope this review was helpful to you, dear friend?My friend code: SW-7691-4672-3704Agent 007 - If you want to add me to your friend list.Later Amigos? - Follow your heart and get this game ASAP!!!

16.11.2017

Arms is a strange game to write about, many reviews consider this game to be a fighter based on the fact you throw long stretchy arms with a variety of gloves. I however feel that Arms is an evolution of the classic Sega robot dual game Virtual On.Arms (Now Version 4, thanks to continued free new content updates by Nintendo) has a variety of play styles. Each new update (free) continues to shake up the competitive round.Each round lasts a maximum of 99 secs if playing on party mode (the most popular) a single round will only be played. For all other bouts (Ranked & Single Player) it's 2 rounds which last 99 seconds each.As you start out the game will limit you to 3 specific gloves unique to the character you select.

17.6.2017

Great game! At 1st i had no intention of buying this but after watching a 100 reviews i went and preordered it and picked it up on release day! After buying extra joy cons and needing a new 4 player game i looked into this even though i knew i wouldnt like but i was so impressed by the videos and the whole art of the game it looked so well thought of and something different to all the other fighting games ive played. I played for about 4 hours straight and i can feel myself getting better and not just button bashing im actually being very tactical and placing shots at the right moment and im on the move constantly to avoid being hit!

20.6.2017

IMHO the Switch starting to hit its stride with ARMS and hopefully Splatoon bringing some new games rather than Wii U ports (MK8, Lego City and yes even Zelda) and thus making your investment worthwhile.In some ways this a big expand on the boxing game from Wii with good use of the joy-cons (so again similar to Wiimotes) to punch/move/block/etc. but with lots of different characters, on-line play (with for now it's free) and hopefully some free updates (DLCs?) going forwards. However you can still play with them attached (console mode) or pro-gamepad - which IMHO is more precise and thus more chance of winning.I'm not a fan of fighting games like Street Fighter, Smash Bros, or even Pokken - but I do like this?

16.6.2017

I have always been a Nintendo fan boy, I pre-ordered the Switch and now own Arms. The game is typical Nintendo, vibrant colours, cool music with a good choice of playable character and wow what a game, it’s hard at times, I’m using motion controls and they work very very well, so much fun. Arms is a bag full of Nintendo fun, Grand Prix mode is great and challenging, I’ve only done it on easy2 mode and I’ve read that hard mode is very difficult, hopefully I’ll get there one day. All the single player modes are great and there are a ton of different challenges.However online play is where it shines, yes it’s hard and losing can be frustrating but when you win it is a ‘yes’ moment. You rack up points,

21.6.2017

Let me start by saying fighting games generally are not my bag. I find them repetitive, slightly dull & shallow. ARMS was not on my radar at all. I'd watched the video clips & seen the demo & still wasn't that bothered by it. I purchased it on a whim.....and that whim was the right choice! I fired the Switch up on the TV with my wife & 2 young daughters & they have already loved playing Mario Kart 8 & helping daddy in Zelda BOTW, but this game instantly caught their attention. 1st of all let me say that the gameplay is outstanding. That's the most important factor for any game for me. The graphics, presentation & sound are jaw dropping & just what Nintendo do best. This game is very deep,

30.7.2017

I like ARMS. It's a fun, unique game and the logical next step for me when the Wii's success is taken into account.The art style is vibrant and stylish, as you can expect from a Nintendo title. The characters are all individual and likeable and feature their own movesets, although these are limited to features such as adding an extra jump, or flinch immunity.The gameplay is mostly solid, but I found the control system to hinder the experience; you move your character by twisting your hands in the same direction, whilst holding a Joy-con in each - this is a novel idea but can be inconsistent at times, resulting in your character making movements you didn't intend, or attacks you didn't plan on.

4.8.2017

Really fun and highly recommended for anyone who likes competitive multiplayer, or even party games... this game suits both categories depending on how you play! The 2v2 co-op is excellent fun and provides much depth to the game as you will build up teamwork and communication with your co-op partner. Don't get fooled by the ads or trailers, this game is by no means Wii Sports Boxing... very far from it! Don't expect any Wii-waggle here, this is a finely tuned and precise combat game with tight controls, can be played both with conventional controls or using motion controls, both modes are great fun. I had low expectations going in since this is a totally new IP from Nintendo, but I was glad I picked it up,

9.7.2017

I'm one of those who enjoyed a lot the motion controls during the Wii times with games like Wii sports. Games like this lacked depth, length and complexity but were perfect to play with friends or with the family.It has been now that I have found a game that has made feel the same with motion controls, but this time much improved.To be clear, the game might lack some content at this stage but this is the only negative point I could find.It's a very original and fresh game for its time that has the following great points, which in my view make up for this supposed lack of content ->-Very funny multiplayer modes.-It's a game EVERYONE can play.-It has depth and complexity if you dig deep into it

29.6.2017

Fantastic game.It can be picked up and played very easily with very little skill. You will get through a lot of the single player easily with it getting more challenging as you progress.Online however is where Arms earns its 5* review. Quite simply it's brilliant. Playing against other people who you have no idea of a their skill makes it challenging and rewarding. You can accept defeat as the other person was just better. It's not like some online games where you feel hard done by or blame the computer. Quite simply it's your own fault. And as you lose you learn to adapt how you play. You learn the arenas and you improve each time.The varied modes and the party lobby screen are a particular

2.7.2017

I'm not a fan of fighters generally but I love this game. Lots of ways to play, the motion controls work well and it is easy to learn for old gamers like me who probably shouldn't still be playing video games. :-)If you love the pain of learning hundreds of button combos it might not be ideal for you, but as a quick blast/party game it is fantastic.Difficulty seems to ramp up really quickly, but the ranked online matches can be unlocked early on in the game, although it may frustrate in the short term as the CPU grabs for the nth time an unleashes a flurry attack just as you thought you were going to winThis is Nintendo at its best. Easy to learn, fun to play,

16.7.2017

This is a real surprise, hopefully the start of a great new series for Nintendo. Such smooth, fluid controls, amazing character design and a soundtrack that you will be humming all day. Once you try it, you will realize that there is so much depth and strategy to the fighting. I spend most of my time playing Switch games in handheld mode and was surprised how well this game works off-TV, however, once I stated playing in on my TV, I realized just how gorgeous the graphics really are. It's made by the same team that made Mario Kart 8, and after playing it, you will see that the same gameplay quality is there, especially in online fights. The extra Free characters and updates we will be getting is the 'icing on top'

20.6.2017

Nintendo has done it again! What a gorgeous game, lovingly presented in classic Nintendo style. The attention to detail is fantastic. But above all, the game is sooooo much fun to play. And you can pick it up for 5 mins and have a quickie, or play for a few hours in the online lobby, which is one of the most intuitive things I've seen recently in online gaming, and still have a blast. With free DLC promised by Nintendo for the foreseeable future, it looks like ARMS has the LEGS to go the distance.FYI, I purchased this game digitally directly from the Nintendo eshop (@2.2GBS makes sense to me to have it with me always)

3.7.2017

Simply put ARMS is to fighting games what Mario Kart is to racing games and Splatoon to shooters. It takes the core mechanics of a fighting game and turns them on their head creating an immensely satisfying, fresh and addicting experience (I've already put in 60+ hours into the game).Gameplay is easy to pick up but tough to master with plenty of hidden depth for fighting game aficionados! Online runs smoothly too.There is a learning curve so if you want to level up quickly try checking out online resources like armspunchclub.blogspot.co.uk or ARMS Reddit (r/ARMS)I can't recommend this game enough. It should be in every Switch owners collection!

9.7.2017

Playing this and really liking it so far it has that special something that keeps it in my rotation of games only using motion controls so far and winning as many as i've lost but i'm slowly seeing the tricks and the rewards of other arms might seem a bit lame but they do add to the online action which is one of the best online sections of any game if you're not fighting it's hoops or volleyball and training to keep you busy between matches sometimes it's so fast you've no time for training at all.It's alot more fun than it should be. There are some updates to come with new fighter MAXBrass being added to the roster very soon too.

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