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Arms

Arms Hands-On

We got to grips with the quirky new brawler heading to Nintendo Switch later this year.

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Not gonna lie, last Friday's early morning introduction to Arms didn't really blow us away. For a moment it took us back to cartoony genre-classic Ready 2 Rumble, but the long-range shenanigans on show had us thinking that this Switch exclusive was nothing more than a gimmick, a cutesy tech demo designed to show off some new hardware.

That initial assessment may still be proven correct, but after playing the game several times during the unveiling of the Switch in London on Friday, we can report that the experience it offers is much more nuanced than those first impressions had us believe.

This layer of complexity is in no small part due to the range of features offered by the Joy-Con controllers. Each player needs two, one for each hand, and these are used to both manoeuvre and fight. The motion controls are sensitive and responsive thanks to the brilliant mini-controllers that come with Nintendo's new console. Tilting to the left, right, front and back has your character scuttle around the arena, tilting them both inward blocks and incoming attack, and it'll come as no surprise to hear that a punching motion equates to an on-screen jab.

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If that was all she wrote, then this preview would have a very different complexion, but there's actually a lot more to Arms than first meets the eye (of the tiger), and after trying out each of the five characters available in the demo version of the game, sampling multiple environments, and seeing the range of options open to players, we're starting to think that this might end up being a fun multiplayer game with surprising subtlety.

It's still a slugfest, sure, but it also offers boxing with a difference. Extendable arms mean that fights take place across the arena, not just up close and personal. Each character has three different gloves to choose from. These have different speeds and various effects, so some are quicker to return once "fired", while others do more damage but take longer to return. Best of all, you can mix and match them, picking a steadier left hand to work alongside a snappier right jab. That alone ensures a level of tactical depth not usually seen in this particular genre, and clever players will want to work out what kind of attacks are coming, and where's best to position themselves.

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Every attack can be countered, and every move has an opposite, which should ensure keenly contested battles between similarly skilled opponents. You can jump in the air, and spamming jump will keep certain characters floating above their opponents for a limited time. You can also dash a short distance, and combine this with jump for a mid-air dodge. There's also an interactive element to certain arenas that provides additional opportunities, for example, one has a bar running around the outside of the arena which can be used to boost your jumps, and there's another with interactive elements that can be smashed (with your opponent, if you time it properly).

We mixed up our gloves for every fight, giving our fighters one quick option, and a slower, more powerful attack to go with it. It's not all lefts and rights, though, and if you punch both at the same time you can grab an opponent and initiate a powerful throwing move. Then, once you've charged up a meter, you can also unleash a devastating special that, if timed right, can settle a close match in an instant.

As we wrote before, there were five different fighters available to sample during the demo, and there were subtle differences between them. Ninjara, for example, can dodge attacks by vanishing (a handy trick), while Mechanica can hover around the arena. Ribbon Girl is fast on the ground and strong in the air, while Master Mummy can heal while blocking. Springman is very much the all-rounder, but he's also a little nondescript. Hopefully there'll be plenty more, with each new character bringing additional moves to the table, as this would certainly give Arms more longevity.

Overall we had a good time with this quirky little fighter. It's not the most complicated game that we've ever encountered, but there's more to this punch 'em up than we first thought, and the motion controls worked surprisingly well, allowing for increasingly measured play as we got used to how it all worked. To play against another person will require an additional outlay for a second pair of Joy-Con controllers, which drives the cost up somewhat (we didn't play against an AI-controlled opponent, and we're not sure we see the appeal of playing solo), but for those with a Switch and a spare pair of Joy-Cons, this could turn out to be one of the stronger games released for the console in the months after its launch.

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Mechinica and Master Mummy.
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Ribon Girl, Ninjara, and Springman.

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Arms

REVIEW. Written by Magnus Groth-Andersen

"Beyond adding new fists to your characters, Arms ultimately offers the same experience across all of its modes."



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