ARMS Review

From the box art alone, it's clear what this game is all about: arms. It depicts the game's two mascot fighters - Spring Man and Ribbon Girl - in the midst of a match. Evidently, this game isn't like any other, as both fighters have weird-looking arms; Spring Man has springs for arms, and Ribbon Girl has ribbons for arms. In this scene, we can also see that thanks to their weird arms, these fighters can stretch their arms and punch from a greater distance than normal - as we can see by how Ribbon Girl has just landed a punch on Spring Man despite how far apart they are from each other. Isn't the box art great? Well, I guess you wouldn't really know unless you've seen it before, since I don't have a picture of it up in this review. My argument in favor of it sure was convincing, though, right?

Box art aside, ARMS is Nintendo's latest IP, released exclusively for the Switch. It's a fighting game with an interesting twist: as I mentioned the box art makes clear, the fighters all (well, most of them) have stretchable arms that allow them to punch from a distance. Many people initially liken it to Wii Sports Boxing, but the game is much different than that. The first major difference: it can be played with a traditional controller. I know that a lot of people were initially put off by the idea of the game being controlled exclusively with motion controls, but I assure you that it in no way forces the player to use motion controls. In fact, I almost exclusively play the game with standard controls, save for when I just want to have a fun, relaxing fight. That's not to say that the motion controls don't work - they're actually quite satisfying to use - I just prefer having a thumb stick for movement.

The mechanics are rather straightforward: much like any other fighting game, the player can move around, jump, guard, dash, grab, and - of course - punch. Each playable character has their own special abilities, again, much like any other fighting game. Master Mummy, for example, heals while guarding and gains super armor while jumping, dashing, or punching. I find that the game's premise of stretchy-armed fighters lead the character designers to make some really outstanding fighters. From Spring Man and his Space Dandy-esq hair, to Ninjara and his references to real-world ninja, to Min Min and her noodle arm that can turn into a dragon - that one's my favorite - none of the fighters feel like they're just there to fill fighting game character tropes, nor do they feel like copies of themselves. The roster may be considerably small at ten fighters, but ARMS clearly goes for quality over quantity.

Each fighter also has a unique starting set of weapons known as "Arms," which are glove-like weapons that each have different attributes. Any fighter can use any Arm, but any set other than their starting set must be unlocked by spending in-game credits to play a game mode called "ARMS Getter." Some examples of Arms include the traditional-looking Toaster, the heavy-hitting Megaton, and the Thunderbird, which launches a bird. Yes. A bird. Arms gain additional abilities while charged, which can be done by holding the jump or dash button or by guarding for a couple seconds - thought, this doesn't give as much of a charge as the other methods. Some Arms gain elements like fire, which knocks down the foe on a successful hit, some gain electricity, which disables both of the opponent's arms on a successful hit, and some simply get bigger to make landing a hit easier. Arms also have different weights to them, which allow them to cancel out other punches of equal or lesser weight. If it's equal, both punches cancel out, while if it's greater, the heavier punch goes right through the other punch as if it weren't even there.

This brings me to one of my biggest criticisms: the game does a terrible job of teaching the player the more complex details of the game. It does a decent job of explaining the basics, but more complex things, like specific Arm weights, go unnoted. There are some more intermediate tutorials, which help the player learn things like hitting an agile target or countering a grab-happy foe, but beyond providing a set scenario and giving a short intro message on the brief loading screen, the game doesn't actually teach the player the intricacies of fighting. This is bad considering how unique a game Arms is. It may share the basics with other fighting games, but it becomes clear very quickly that there's a lot to learn about the game once you start playing against higher level CPU opponents. Thankfully, we live in the age of the internet, so one can simply read about advanced tactics on a site like Reddit, or search YouTube for video tutorials. Personally, I replayed the Training scenarios until I was able to get a KO in each of them, and that helped make the game click with me.

I've seen a lot of people call ARMS "hard," but I found that after it finally clicked, the game's difficulty was reasonable. It was after finishing level 2 of the game's 7-level Grand Prix mode - the game's equivalent of an "arcade mode" in other fighting games - that I decided to hop over to Training to be sure I understand the game, and after I did, I wrecked house through level 3 and had a reasonable performance through level 4. The way other people made it sound, I thought level 4 was where the proverbial poo hits the proverbial fan and I'd start angrily yelling at the game as if it were Kaizo Mario, but that wasn't the case at all. Every fight in level 4 was reasonably difficult, such that it's clear you're not supposed to start there, but not so much where there was a clear spike in difficulty. Any time I lost, I always saw why. Sometimes I was too aggressive with my attacks and not accurate enough to land them all, so I'd get counter hit a lot. Sometimes I wasn't paying enough attention to my opponent's curving attacks and was getting counter-hit before my punches would land. Sometimes I was too grab-happy and left myself open often. I never lost a fight and felt like the game was too hard; it always felt like my fault. Well, until I got to the secret boss, that is.

These next two paragraphs are going to go into detail about the "final boss" of the game, so if you want to avoid spoilers, skip them. On any difficulty higher than level 3, after you clear the same eight fights and two mini-games that you would on level 1, 2, and 3, you fight an additional opponent known as "Hedlok." This boss breaks the game's conventions by having six arms instead of two like any other fighter. This may not sound like a big deal, but the mechanics are very blatantly balanced around fighters only having two fists. Where you could counter your opponent's punches blow-for-blow with your own fists, attempting this against Hedlok is foolish because it has four more fist than you do and can easily hit you while your two are on the ground. You could use a heavy Arm to plow through its attacks, but not only is it rather hard to hit even with fast Arms, Hedlok has heavy Arms of its own it can use when it's the Grand Prix's boss, so this won't always work. On top of that, certain counter-attack abilities are practically useless against Hedlok because they're not designed to block three to six incoming attacks; they're barely even good for two. Grabbing Hedlok is practically impossible without stunning it because Hedlok is bloody made of fists, so it can easily punch through your grab. In addition to its unfair amount of arms, Hedlok's grab deals 200 damage (compared to the average of 150), and its super attack can deal anywhere between 350 and 450 damage in one hit (compared to the average of 280-350). As the boss of the Grand Prix, Hedlok also has a punch-deflecting move of its own, so in addition to the fact that any one of its six punches can cancel your own, it can also outright deny an otherwise direct hit basically whenever it bloody well feels like it.

Still with me? Good, because here's the best part: items remain on during the Grand Prix fight, so the healing circles that can show up randomly during other fights still show up here, which are easy for Hedlok to dominate and keep to itself because it's a such an immovable object. Oh, and by the way; if you were curious why I kept specifying "during the Grand Prix," it's because Hedlok can also show up at the end of 1-on-100 and randomly during the online Party Mode. It's much more of a pain when it's fought in the Grand Prix because Hedlok is a body-snatcher, so instead of having a body and powers of it's own, it just attaches itself to another fighter and gives them two more arms. In Party Mode, it controls a random fighter with a random selection of Arms, while in 1-on-100, Hedlok merely controls a black slime creature that has no abilities, so in theses mode Hedlok is a bit more reasonable. In Grand Prix however, it always possesses the champion "Max Brass," who is already decently powerful. Max Brass has the ability to puff himself up to have super armor, which gives him flinch resistance and 50% damage reduction to any resisted punch while dashing, jumping, or punching. This makes him - and by proxy, Hedlok - decently tanky. He can also send out a small, defensive shockwave that deflects punches that are close to hitting him, making both himself and Hedlok even more defensive. At 25% health, Max Brass keeps his Arms permanently charged; yet another reason why Hedlok is too powerful when he takes over Max Brass.

As much as I like to pretend that this terrible boss fight is the only instance of disagreeable design in ARMS, I'd be lying if I said that was true. In any 2-on-2 mode, be it local co-op through Grad Prix or during Party Mode, both teams are tethered to themselves. This makes sense in theory, so that players can't attack their opponents from both sides, but it's terrible in execution. The tether forces players too close to each other, and since friendly fire is a thing in this mode, this causes players to hit each other more often than is fun. Additionally, when one player gets thrown by an opponent, their teammate does too, leaving both of them on the ground and also dealing damage to both. I get that this is to make successful grabs more rewarding, since it is very much possible to hit someone during their throw animation to cancel it, but it ruins the fun of the mode by punishing both players for one player's mistake. This is especially bad while playing online, since it's not possible to shout "help! I got grabbed!" to your online teammate like you could if you were playing local splitscreen.

Another design element that I don't fully agree with is the win streak handicap that gets applied in Party Mode. Again, this makes sense in theory, but is terrible in execution. When a player goes on a winning streak in Party Mode, they will have their starting health reduced by a certain amount in return for a credit bonus. It may seem like a simple but effective way to prevent players from dominating an online lobby while still giving them a bonus for their skill, but it's awkwardly implemented. Instead of being an optional challenge or something that comes up when a player is clearly more skilled than their opponent, it's forced upon any player who happens to win a certain number of rounds in a row, with each successive victory lowering their health in increments of 25% to a minimum of 25% total starting health. This would be more forgivable if it was only applied to 1-on-1 fights, but it's applied to every mode. This includes 2-on-2 where a player can easily be done in by their own teammate's incompetence, which I had happen to me on one occasion - the only occasion where I played Party Mode before being put off by the handicap. I had my health reduced to only 25%, and not long into the match, my teammate got thrown twice and I was killed by the tether. That's right: the tether. Since the tether makes both players take damage from a throw, I got killed because my opponent got thrown.

Noticed any sort of trend with these criticisms? If not, let me point it out for you: they all in some way relate to the player being in control of the circumstance. The lack of information in the tutorials makes it harder for players to learn the game, and thus have more control over their opponents in battle. The final boss breaks several of the game's mechanics, making it hard to maintain control and dominance over the fight even after learning the game. The tether in 2-on-2 makes it hard for even skilled players to have control over the fight if their ally isn't as skilled as they are, and forces them to pay for their ally's mistakes. The handicap in Party Mode is forced on the player, whether they like it or not, and can get them easily killed by something out of there control; their ally. Some of those might be a stretch, but my point is that the game only ever feels bad when things are out of the player's control. The reason for this is simple: the game puts some much control in the player's hands that it sucks when it's taken away. Remember earlier when I said that whenever I lose, it always feels like my fault? That relates to this train of thought.

You see, where most other fighting games rely on the player memorizing special move inputs and combo sequences, ARMS only asks two things out of its players: hit your opponent, and don't get hit yourself. Every fighter shares the exact same inputs, so it's less about learning how to use a character's abilities and more about learning the characters themselves. Every fighter only has two attacks - their left Arm and their right Arm - so you know what you're in for as long as you're familiar with all of the Arms in the game, and with only two attacks available at any given time, it's impossible to get juggled to death by a ruthless opponent. A player's ability isn't judged by how well they can juggle-combo their opponent, but rather how familiar they are with the game's mechanics and how good their reflexes and judgement is. This is why every lose felt like my own fault; because I know it was because I need to improve as a player, and not because I don't know the game enough. That's why ARMS is my favorite fighting game out of any I've played, and yes, I've played Smash Bros., Street Fighter, and Skullgirls. ARMS doesn't fall into the same traps that even Smash Bros. and Skullgirls are guilty of falling into, which were originally set forth by fighting game legends like Street Fighter. Skullgirls may still be one of my top favorites, but ARMS trumps it for being a more accessible game.

For these reasons, I give ARMS a 4 out of 5. It wouldn't take much to put this game at a 5, though. The devs just need to add more info to the tutorials, nerf the final boss, and improve the 2-on-2 tether and Party Mode handicap. Well, I guess when I put it that way, it doesn't sound so close to perfection. Never mind, forget I said that.

The perfect way to summarize ARMS would be to compare it to Min Min's left arm: sure, it may not look like much at a glance, but it packs a punch. Like how Min Min's arm looks like a noodle at first, ARMS may look like Wii Sports Boxing with a different coat of paint. However, much like how Min Min's arm can turn into a dragon, ARMS is actually a rather deep and quite engaging fighting game. You know what they say: "Noodle wa nametara ikan zeyo." No? Never heard "Mingitsune" by Babymetal before?