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ARMS - Nintendo Switch (Motion [optional] controlled boxing, Nintendo, Spring 2017)

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
At least players can't blame their teammates when they lose, so the toxic potential is limited.

Interestingly enough, I think that attitude actually allows characters to keep playing even after losing a significant amount. Having teammates to lean on and "blame" for loses takes some of the pressure off of you. Everyone does it, even if they don't vocalize their frustrations.

1v1 games rarely have a huge following for this exact reason. Besides fighting games, the only comparable phenomenon was Starcraft, but LoL and Dota supplanted it due to these team mechanics and how they provide a lower barrier to entry.
 

Golnei

Member
*I hope they follow the Splatoon rule and keep cross-overs/other Nintendo series away, at least for now. Even Little Mac. Let it be its own thing.

I agree that letting ARMS be standalone is probably the best idea for the most part, but a cameo or secret character that's not part of the promotion cycle would still allow for that; similar to Donkey Kong's inclusion in Punch-Out. But I guess that being a revival of an established IP as opposed to an entirely new one puts it in a different situation.

As for the amiibo, trainable AI in the vein of Smash Bros. would seem to be the most straightforward implementation. I'm curious about the possible pose they could use as well - retracting the arms too much would miss the point of the designs; and it'd be difficult to give them any sort of complicated contorted configuration with amiibo's size and production quality. Maybe one arm 'retracted' to a normal length and at their side and another raised upwards in a victory pose, with a transparent plastic cylinder supporting the raised arm from inside?
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
This looks so weak to me. It's basically Wii Sports Boxing made into a full game. Doesn't mean it won't be fun, but from what they've shown this better not be more than ~$20.
 

jackal27

Banned
Man, watching some more gameplay today and I love the meta of intensity of the fight being ramped up the closer the fighters get to each other. You can keep your distance and play it safe or get right up in their face and risk the punches being faster.
 

optimiss

Junior Member
I played it last night at the NYC event and it was easily the best thing I played. It feels fresh and was super fun. There is a surprising amount of depth and the motion controls work flawlessly. My arms didn't even get tired, probably because unlike Wii boxing you aren't continually punching. There is more tilting, and thrusting, and button pressing. I got to play two matches, one with Ribbon girl and one with the ninja character. It is easily a must purchase for me.
 
More ideas:

Grab-heavy Fighter with duct tape arms

Silent movie-inspired Fighter with film-reel arms

TV-head robot with AV cable arms

Insectoid mutant with flypaper arms

Liek those. Some I thought of:

Cowboy/girl with rope arms

Botanist with vine arms

An actual octopus with twisted tentacles

Clown with connected colorful scarf arms

Mechanic with tire arms
 

JustenP88

I earned 100 Gamerscore™ for collecting 300 widgets and thereby created Trump's America
At least players can't blame their teammates when they lose, so the toxic potential is limited.

Yeah, and I think the 1-on-1 aspect adds to the intensity. Also, matches will be super quick, you could probably boot up and knock out a few rounds in under 10 minutes. Super accessible.

Speaking of accessible, it controls in a way that pretty much any age group can jump in and play. I know people make the Wii boxing comparison, but this is clearly cleaner, quicker, more responsive, more polished and it has that layer of depth there for people who want to git gud. The whole "rock paper scissors" meta game analogy they used on the Treehouse was an excellent way of explaining it and it's a concept almost anyone can grasp and relate to.

I could see my 9-year-old nephew, or my near-30s non-gamer friends jumping right into Arms and having a blast fighting with me. A game like Overwatch doesn't offer that in the slightest. It's accessible for gamers who aren't normally huge into FPS (I'm in that category) but, at its core, it's an FPS and those control schemes are traditionally too much for true novices to handle. This is just a few simple arm motions and the triggers.

32281376286_1501f08e2c_o.gif

Looks so intense!

I just thought of how cool it might be to play this with two Switches linked up in tabletop mode with the players standing across a table from each other. I appreciate the potential for local multi-player that Switch is bringing to the table. I know people rag on 1,2 Switch, but I like the concept of scenarios where players are facing toward each other, rather than facing the same screen.
 
Isn't ARMS the game Nintendo would want to have a 4 player mode? Good brand new IP that can take off and get people to spend money on joy cons
 

synce

Member
Looks like another failed attempt to make a fighting game from a company that knows nothing about fighting games. Remember that Kinect thing for Xbone? It reminds me of that. Hitting the opponent looks like a complete guessing game given how the move takes forever to reach them.

At least the characters look kind of cool, but I said the same thing about the Xbone game, who's name I don't even remember. I think this should've been a pack-in if they wanted anyone to play it
 

zroid

Banned
Looks like another failed attempt to make a fighting game from a company that knows nothing about fighting games. Remember that Kinect thing for Xbone? It reminds me of that. Hitting the opponent looks like a complete guessing game given how the move takes forever to reach them.

At least the characters look kind of cool, but I said the same thing about the Xbone game, who's name I don't even remember. I think this should've been a pack-in if they wanted anyone to play it

🤔
 
Looks like another failed attempt to make a fighting game from a company that knows nothing about fighting games. Remember that Kinect thing for Xbone? It reminds me of that. Hitting the opponent looks like a complete guessing game given how the move takes forever to reach them.

At least the characters look kind of cool, but I said the same thing about the Xbone game, who's name I don't even remember. I think this should've been a pack-in if they wanted anyone to play it

I feel like I'm on Gamefaqs. 😑
 

Celine

Member
Looks like another failed attempt to make a fighting game from a company that knows nothing about fighting games.
If only Nintendo could hire the guys who makes Smash Bros games which are the best selling fighting games on the market.
Oh well, sucks to be Nintendo.
 

Schnozberry

Member
This looks so weak to me. It's basically Wii Sports Boxing made into a full game. Doesn't mean it won't be fun, but from what they've shown this better not be more than ~$20.

You should watch some more footage. It's quite a bit deeper than Wii Sports Boxing, and the mechanics offer a lot more nuance.
 

Alx

Member
Hitting the opponent looks like a complete guessing game given how the move takes forever to reach them.

Fighting games are mostly guessing games anyway, and Arms doesn't seem to be any different. It's still the same old rules : guard beats punch, throw beats guard, punch beats throw. And evade beats some punches and not others. It's all about guessing what your opponent will do to use the appropriate counter-measure.
 

Peléo

Member
Isn't ARMS the game Nintendo would want to have a 4 player mode? Good brand new IP that can take off and get people to spend money on joy cons

In ARMS, fighters are always aiming each other regardless of where they are moving. It's the same as having an automatic Z-Target at all times. Unless they set it to a button (which would mess up the Joy-Con Scheme) or do it automatically (which would be annoying and disruptive) it wouldn't work.

Still, maybe an 4-player Boss Rush Co-op Mode is an option, since they would all be aiming at the same enemy. Has potential, even if there were few ways to interact with your allies.

Another option for 4 players is simply sharing the Joy-Con with a friend, each one controls an arm. Could ben fun, specially in a less serious play session.
 

Kilrogg

paid requisite penance
"Hey guys, this is one 1v1, with boxing gloves and motion controls. It's Wii Boxing all over again."

Some people lack an ability to look at things beyond the surface.
 

jett

D-Member
They haven't said. I feel like it'd have to be the analog sticks as your fists to get the same amount of precision with curving punches, right? But then how would moving work? Curious to see what they end up doing.

I haven't seen any precision required when it comes to curving punches (or motion controls in general). Looks like the same animation every time. I think this game is going to play just fine with regular controls.
 
I haven't seen any precision required when it comes to curving punches (or motion controls in general). Looks like the same animation every time. I think this game is going to play just fine with regular controls.

It's definitely not. I think it was in the Treehouse video where they said the timing of the twist can determine how much it curves
 

oxidax

Member
ARMS makes me want to be a dev so bad! I wish I could make a boxing game for the Switch with the same schematics that ARMS has but more mature graphics.
 

Kilrogg

paid requisite penance
Absolutely not, you are not the only one
But go take a look to Power Stone
THAT is the real inspiration

This game is actually a melting pot of inspirations from the looks of it:
- Punch-Out!! and Wii Boxing for the boxing part, obviously
- Virtual On for the midrange combat: never quite close combat, never quite longrange combat
- Overwatch for the hero-type characters
- Powerstone for the arenas
- Windjammers for the color palette, the upbeat, summer sports-y feel, the small, contained environments and the emphasis on movement and counterattacks.
- Inspector Gadget for the spring arms

So far I seem to be the only one picking up on the Windjammers vibe though. You guys make me sad :(.
 
They didn't say anything like that when they were showing off the tutorial. "It's simple." It's really just waggling replacing buttons presses as far as I can see.
I know Totakeke mentioned it though, and he went to play ARMS in person.
I played this just now and it was great fun.

I don't think it's easy to pick up for people not used to dual stick movements though, I definitely was fighting the controls to remind me that I have to tilt both of the joycons in the same direction for movement. It also feels a bit weird that you can't simultaneously attack and move at the same time because punching would negate your movement input. I definitely had to wrap my head around that instead of kept wondering why I wasn't moving fluidly. I'm definitely curious how that works without motion controls because there's nothing stopping me from tilting left on the analog stick while still pressing punch buttons.

The other interesting thing about the controls is that the timing of the twist controls how far your punch twists. If you twist early the punch will twist early as well and if you twist late it would twist later and much less. The rep also mentioned that if you both punch at the same time, the heavier/bigger gloves would knock the smaller ones away, so that's another strategical element to the game. When your punches get parried you get exclamation marks on that side and you can't punch with it nor use your special move for some time.

Another thing I didn't get the hang of is the timing of the punches. It feels like there is a lot to be gained by timing your punches right in a one-two fashion. If you punch at the same time you obviously will trigger a grab but if you're counter punching and you know you will hit, you want to do a one-two punch so that you hit with both hits instead of just the second punch not hitting the enemy in time. There's definitely a lot of timing involved with how the punches travel ahead and then how long it takes to punch again once it comes back so there's good depth there.
 

jett

D-Member
I know Totakeke mentioned it though, and he went to play ARMS in person.

I think I misunderstood UnemployedVillain, I thought it had something to do with how you much twist the controller. That doesn't really sound different than timing the press of a button in a fighting game, though. But you're both right that there's a certain nuance to the curving punches.
 

Speely

Banned
I love how the Switch lineup is both charming and creepy. Arms is colorful and quirky, but the characters have had their goddamn arms removed and replaced with fucking springs. It's a disturbing kind of mutilation made into a quirky, fun aesthetic.

Snipperclips is hyper-adorable and looks fun as hell, but it has some weird sexual undertones (I might just be a creep, tbh) that I can't help but think of when watching it be played. It's especially emphasized when you hear players talking while playing: "Get on me! Ok, cut me!" It sounds like a goddamn sado-masochistic act. Love it.

I hope we see more creepy/cute games from Nintendo and others.
 

Regiruler

Member
I think I misunderstood UnemployedVillain, I thought it had something to do with how you much twist the controller. That doesn't really sound different than timing the press of a button in a fighting game, though. But you're both right that there's a certain nuance to the curving punches.
It could be thought of like a racing game with digital steering. How much your turning doesn't matter (I think) but you're still steering regardless.

Dynamic curving isn't as important for chars like Mummy or Mechanica I think (Mech has a lot of spread options and Mummy has his balls of absurd hitbox), but Spring and Ninjara probably will use it a good deal.
 
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