ARMS: Reviews and Discussion

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It’s difficult to describe just how good ARMS is. The best analogy I can come up with is that it is to fighting games what Splatoon is to third-person shooters. ARMS is a bright, colorful, and welcoming game. Newcomers can easily hop in and enjoy most of the matches and modes available. Meanwhile, the more dedicated will find themselves developing complex strategies based on characters and ARMS loadouts and captivated by the opportunities to challenge others online.

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Fighting titles have long been the most competitive and often hardest for new players to get into, but ARMS enters itself extremely well to the genre by feeling like nothing that has ever been played before.

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Arms exudes a level of creativity and mechanical sophistication that feels uniquely Nintendo. It evokes memories of classic Nintendo games like Punch-Out!!, while also feeling equally fashionable and modern — and set next to Splatoon, suggests the publisher is already charting a path toward the future. With a stylish, memorable cast of characters, inventive gameplay mechanics and smart use of the Switch hardware, Arms already feels like Nintendo's next great new franchise.

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ARMS is a great package, subverting and exceeding most of my expectations while offering modes of play that cater to a variety of players. The offline Grand Prix mode leaves much to be desired, and the 2 v 2 tethered fights are lame, but all that is made up for by an assortment of other entertaining modes, slick online lobbies and surprisingly deep and addictive gameplay. At the end of the day, it’s all about having fun, and ARMS provides that in spades.

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Arms’ clever take on boxing provides a simple premise with a startling amount of depth for those who would seek to master the stretching appendages. Its rapidly evolving lobby system had me sticking around for “just one more match.” There may not be a lot worth unlocking right now, but planned free updates may just give Arms some additional legs.

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It works as a fighter, I just wish there was more to do in this debut entry -- both pragmatically in terms of modes and on an emotional level, as I haven't really connected with its universe yet despite its raw style.

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