While established fighters were duking it out on the Genesis 4 stage, a future competitor quietly trained in the background. With Nintendo of America sponsoring G4, this brought a special demo station for the Nintendo Switch and their new fighting game, ARMS. For those who have yet to see this spring-loaded fighter, ARMS is Nintendo’s attempt to create something like Splatoon for the fighting genre: an accessible and welcoming experience, but with tons of depth for future virtual pugilists. It also makes full use of the Switch’s new JoyCon controller, with boxers holding both the left and right JoyCons to act as their character’s fists as they fling punches at their opponent. It’s certainly fun to play for the first few rounds, but time will tell if ARMS has the legs to fight alongside the heavyweights of the fighting genre.
ARMS works on a standard rock/paper/scissors system of punches beat grabs, grabs beat blocks and blocks beat attacks. There are only three offensive options in ARMS: your two fists and a grab, so Nintendo has had to get creative in order to layer on depth to this initially basic system. First off is the ability to arc punches by putting a twist on the JoyCon as you punch. By curving your hits, you can punch around environmental obstacles like stone pillars or even reach behind an opponent’s block to hit them in the back. As players in ARMS can equip special gloves to imbue their punches with different abilities, you will have to adjust your swings to account for your equipped boxing glove. The Boomerang glove naturally has a curved trajectory, while the Trident lets off three small punches which are harder to curve. Mixing up which fist you are punching with and accounting for player habits between rounds will be important for the ARMS metagame, as you can switch which gloves you are using for every round.
You can also charge up your glove’s power, imbuing them with an additional ability to do extra damage. This can be done by simply waiting for a second for your gloves to glow, meaning that the punch is charged. Once charged, the Toaster glove can set opponents on fire (which can deal additional damage), while the bomb-shaped Homie fist will explode after a short fuse time. You can even set up special traps, by using the Homie to lay down a timed explosion, while mixing someone up with the multiple hits of the Trident. There are even potential juggle combos, as the Boomerang whips up a small whirlwind once charged, knocking your opponent into the air for a juggle opportunity. I did not get a chance to try out all of the gloves, so expect people labbing glove-specific combos once ARMS releases.
While punching is great, throwing your opponent for a loop can be a great way to mix up their offense. You grab in ARMS by flicking both fists forward as the same time, sending your extendo-arms flying outwards towards the opponent. You cannot tech a throw in ARMS, but you can stop the incoming grab by punching out one of the incoming fists to negate the throw. This gives players a good opportunity to let off a flurry of punches, which was a tactic I found particularly useful in the handful of matches I’ve played. You can air throw too, with dash forward and jump up grab being a nasty surprise for my opponents. The only problem is there is no direct follow up after throws, as you almost automatically reset to neutral, so don’t expect any vicious Street Fighter V-esque throw loops in the future of ARMS. You also need to keep an eye on the health of each of your arms, as continuous blows to one particular limb can render it useless for a short period. A small yellow icon will appear at first, with it turning red to signal a stun, so bobbing and weave is essential.
Rounding out your offensive capabilities is the Flurry Attack, a super move which has boxers firing off a barrage of charged up punches. These are not character specific; they instead change based on the fists you have equipped, so expect certain Flurry Attack setups to become popular based on the stage you are currently fighting on. You can simply block this furious sequence of blows, but you do take slight chip damage, opening up the possibility of chip kills at low health.
While offense is good, you need a solid defense to really master the sweet science of punching. As we mentioned, you have your block, which activates by turning the two JoyCon controllers inward, along with a short range dash to get out of trouble. The ARMS team must like their Guilty Gear, as you can actually air dash for additional aerial maneuverability. The ninja boxer Ninjara even has a substitution justu for his aerial dash, disappearing and then reappearing following the input. With select arenas having trampolines and environmental hazards to send the battle into the air, mastering your air dashes will be essential for some matchups.
Speaking of potential matchups, let’s talk about the current roster for ARMS. It’s fairly slight at the moment, with only five fighters prepared to duke it out. Spring Man is the base fighter, with well-rounded attributes and a wicked blue pompadour. So far, people have not been able to discern his unique fighter trait but the prevailing theory at the moment is a higher initial jump.
His female counterpart Ribbon Girl gets three jumps instead of two, while Ninjara gets his substitution dash, as well as the ability to disappear and reappear following a successful block. These three represent the normal sized fighters, with Mechanica and Master Mummy acting as the heavies in this build of ARMS. Master Mummy is a huge undead bruiser, with his base fists looking like massive wrecking balls instead of regular sized hands.
Heavies get a flat stamina boost, meaning it takes longer for their limbs to get stunned, but Master Mummy also has the power to heal himself while blocking. While this seems overpowered at first, his health regen is not rapid and if you see him trying to turtle, you’ll wipe off any of his regained health with a grab. Nintendo have apparently been taking inspiration from Blizzard’s Overwatch, as Mechanica seems somewhat reminiscent of another young woman fighting in a huge robot. Mechanica’s mech suit certainly isn’t as sleek as D.Va’s mech, but it gives her the ability to hover in the air using her suit’s booster jets. It’s unclear at this time if specific glove types are tied to set fighters, but I can already see traditional fighter archetypes forming around the ARMS roster.
ARMS does look quite promising at this stage, with elements which could mark it out as a successful genre breakaway, much like Splatoon did with third-person shooters. While it has mechanics taken from traditional fighters and it certainly has the potential to have some real depth, my gut feeling is that it may not have enough here to satiate dedicated fighting game fans. However, never say never knowing Nintendo’s track record with games initially marketed as “fun party games”… The JoyCon control scheme is unique, but I imagine most players will drop the real punches for the Pro Controller very quickly, unless curving punches is significantly easier using the JoyCon. There is definite fun to be had with ARMS, but it needs more time in the ring to see if it is a future prizefighter.
