My First Hour With ARMS: Fighting The Good Fight

Whatever Switch consoles Nintendo didn’t sell off Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Mario Kart 8, they’ll easily sell with ARMS. I just binged it for an hour…and it is damn good.

ARMS was announced, and I didn’t think much of it honestly. A more refined, glorified Wii Sports boxing is what I expected I’d eventually get my hands on. But I was mistaken. So very, very mistaken. Because I quickly found out, that with ARMS Nintendo has something that can do for the Switch, what Wii Sports did for the Wii. The “Global Testpunch” happening this weekend kicked off today in North America, and will continue through the weekend and we will get a second go around next weekend as well. If you have a Switch, you should absolutely be trying this game out. It’s got charm, replayability, custimastion, and whole lot of depth I didn’t see coming. So, just what is here in this demo?

Before you throw yourself into the online arena of the game, ARMS will guide you through a brief tutorial that teaches you the basics of the game. After that, head online and you’ll enter a lobby where you can see everyone else in it. You’ll watch players health bars go down as they battle in their games, and be randomly selected for any one of four available multiplayer modes in the Global Testpunch. All in all, you have your standard 1v1, free-for-all mode (which I never played more than 1v1v1, but there was always an empty 4th slot), V-ball (volleyball, obviously), and 2v2 team fights. V-ball can also be played 2v2, but mechanically doesn’t change. Each mode is lively, insanely fun, and wonderfully designed. Even in defeat, I never stopped smiling.

You have seven unique characters to choose from, and each one has a different set of arms they can use. The ability to mix and match, one speed and one power, or all speed/all power really helped make the game feel deep. Everyone I played used something different, and depending on game mode, I saw myself hardly ever repeating my loadout. When the punches started flying, ARMS showed how great it really is. The pace never slowed, the game never lagged behind, and the action was always intense. Drops come into the arena, helping you heal, charge your ultimate ability, or even place bombs and the fights that surround those drops are so tense and exciting it elevates the game each time. Some matches went the full time limit, others lasted mere seconds. But either way, I was loving every bit.

Two game modes that really surprised me with how wonderfully they were designed were V-ball and 2v2. V-ball, especially in 2v2, was a great change from the more boxing-centric modes. Setting your teammate up, spiking, juggling, long volleys; it’s all there and it, strangely, doesn’t feel out of place even right after a boxing match. In standard 2v2, you are tethered to your teammate which makes for some entertaining encounters. Your teammate gets thrown, guess who’s going with them? Deciding whether to focus one target, or spread the damage out evenly also impacted a lot of my games. I cannot stress enough how vibrant, alive, and fantastic ARMS really is. Nintendo definitely hit the sweet spot with this one. I will have no problem playing this game at launch, and I don’t think you will either.

I’m excited to get back into it tomorrow, maybe an extra hour or so to try out some new characters. Over my first hour, I fought with four of the seven available characters and each felt unique. With an expanded roster, more depth in terms of game modes and playability, ARMS is poised to push the Switch even further into the success column when it launches 16 June. If you’re curious about the times for the Global Test Punch, visit the official Nintendo site to see all the information. I am really, really enjoying ARMS and can confidently say it will do nothing but help the Switch and Nintendo push ahead on this road of success. Give it a shot, and let us know what you think about ARMS!