ARMS

ARMS is a fighting sports game developed by Nintendo that uses extendable arms for battle. It's similar to boxing in that the player strikes their opponents with their fists but, the ARMS stretch to reach the opponent across the stage. ARMS can be played on split-screens, online or with Switch vs Switch.

Gameplay
The game is a 3D arena fighter with the goal to whittle down the opponent's hitpoints. The extendable arms mean that distance does not mean the player can avoid the attack. However, a whiffed punch results in an opening that gets bigger with greater distance. Hitting the opponents arms does not do much damage but can stun their arms, creating an opening. They can also stun arms with certain Arms that either are more powerful or have a stun property. There are 2-on-2 matches in addition to 1-on-1.

In addition to choosing the character the player plays as, the player can choose between 3 ARMS for the character and change between each round. Players do not have to use the same ARM for both arms. The ARMS can also have 1 of 7 attributes; Fire, Electric, Wind, Ice, Explosion, Stun, Blind. Heavier ARMS can go through lighter ARMS in direct collision. All ARMS are compatible with the whole cast but they need to be unlocked with the ingame currency. Each person in the cast starts with 3 arms for free. The List of ARMS can be seen to a complete list of them.

Roster

 * Spring Man
 * Ribbon Girl
 * Ninjara
 * Master Mummy
 * Mechanica
 * Min Min
 * Helix
 * Twintelle
 * Byte & Barq
 * Kid Cobra

DLC fighters

 * Max Brass

Stages

 * Spring Stadium
 * Ribbon Ring
 * Ninja College
 * Mausoleum
 * Ramen Bowl
 * Scrapyard
 * Cinema Deux
 * Buster Beach
 * Snake Park
 * DNA Lab
 * Sky Arena

Items
In casual play, there are 4 items that can come randomly into play.
 * HP Bottle
 * Rush Juice
 * Fire Bomb
 * Shock Bomb

Versus
Within versus is several variations of the gameplay. In default settings, the games allow for items to randomly appear
 * Fight - Standard fight where everyone fights for themselves
 * Team Fight - There are 2 teams with members of each team tethered together
 * Hoops - Players try to throw each other into the basketball hoop
 * V-Ball - Either 1-on-1 or 2-on-2. Similar to volleyball, players try to get the ball to land on the other team's side
 * Skill Shot - Players hit targets to earn as much points as possible. More points are scored when targets are hit consecutively
 * 1-on-100 - A Horde mode where 100 helix-like enemies attack you in waves of 10 each. Over time, the enemies gradually become more intelligent and use more effective combinations of ARMs. At the end of the stage, you will be given a rating based on how many enemies you defeated; these ratings are also different for each character.

ARMS Test
Within Versus. Fight against Helix-style enemies using a random combination of ARMs each round. ARMs can be selected from all those available in the game, even ones you have not unlocked.

Training
Appears within Versus. Allows you to practice by fighting against a dumb or scripted AI.
 * The Basics: Provides a walkthrough of the controls using the currently active controller.
 * Beginner Punching: Face a Helix who moves slowly and will not block. KO him before time runs out.
 * Intermediate Punching: Face Kid Cobra who moves at regular speed and will jump off the edges of the arena and block. KO him before time runs out.
 * Advanced Punching: Face Ribbon Girl who moves at high speed, blocks, and dances in the air. KO her before time runs out.
 * Guard Breaking: Face Master Mummy who constantly blocks. Grab him repeatedly.
 * Trading Punches: Face Min Min who constantly punches using Megaton ARMs. Dodge her blows and KO her (the instructions just say to dodge, but the win condition is the usual one)
 * Don't get thrown: Face Ninjara who constantly tries to grab you. Counter his grabs by punching his ARMs out of the air, then attack him with your other ARM.
 * Rush practice: Face Byte & Barq. Both their and your rush gauge constantly recharge. If you punch, they will Rush. If you Rush, they will block as soon as possible. Wait for them to attack then Rush them.
 * Jump practice: More like anti-jump practice, but still. Face Mechanica who constantly throws jumping punches.
 * Anti counter practice: Face Twintelle who waits for you to attack and then blocks or counters. This is a notoriously difficult training mode. It is necessary to punch once and then quickly use your other ARM to respond to Twintelle's counter.

Grand Prix
This is the main single-player mode. The player fights 10 fights in a row, ending with a fight against Max Brass. If the difficulty level is at least 4, this is followed by a second fight against Max possessed by Hedlok. The third and sixth rounds will usually be variant modes; usually Hoops, V-Ball, or Skillshot..

Party Match
This mode is the casual online mode with a lobby featuring up to 12 players. Players randomly enter fights between each though it seems it prioritizes players that have not been fought yet. In between matches, players can warm-up on the Helix-like dummies. Players can go online with a local buddy with the players alternating between fights, except in team ones.

Ranked Match
This mode requires players beat Grand Prix at difficulty level 4 before getting access. Players compete in 1-on-1 matches with no items with similarly skilled players. The matchmaking takes place in the background so players can play other modes in the meanwhile as they are hooked up with another player.

Friends
Players can play in a lobby with their friends in this mode. It opens up a menu where all your friends are listed and you can invite them. Players may choose to set a passcode for access to the lobby but it isn't required.

Get ARMS
This mode is similar to Skillshot except players spend a game currency (30, 100, or 200 coins) to get time in this mode. Each time a Skillshot level is made, an ARM will appear at the back of the area. Punching this will unlock the ARM for that character. The currency is acquired through playing the games in other game modes. The first ARM available in a round will always be for the character you are playing; after that, ARMs may be provided for any character in the game. If the player manages to get an arm for the same character twice, that arm is upgraded in damage for the character they got it for.

Global Testpunch
During the Nintendo Direct focusing on ARMS broadcasted on May 17, 2017, a demo named Global Testpunch was announced, the demo was made available the following day but the servers would only be opened later. This demo featured only the Party Mode

The first session went from May 26 to May 28 and featured the modes Fight, Team Fight and V-Ball. 3 player matches defaulted to Fight

The second session went from June 2 to June 4 and featured the modes Fight, Team Fight, Hoops and Skill Shot. 3 player matches defaulted to a Hedlok battle.

Roster

 * Spring Man
 * Ribbon Girl
 * Ninjara
 * Master Mummy
 * Mechanica
 * Min Min
 * Helix
 * Twintelle (only during the second session)

Updates
Similar to Splatoon, the game is receiving regular updates in the form of new fighters, ARMS and stages.

Max Brass reveal
The first DLC fighter, Max Brass was revealed during the Nintendo Treehouse livestream of E3 2017 and was said to be released (for free) along with a spectator mode in July 2017.

1.1.0
ARMS was updated to the 1.1.0 version on June 26, 2017. The update allow the player to access the new "spectator mode" promised in the Nintendo Treehouse live, the mode is avaliable under the name of arena mode. A new LAN mode was also added, it can be accessed by pressing the left stick, press L+R on the main menu. Other than that, the update fixes some bugs regarding Kid Cobra and Byte & Barq and their uses of the sliding boards. Another bug is fixed, this time it was a bug that prevented some ARMS to hit properly the boxes in Ribbon Ring. Text-fix for the Grand Prix story can also be noted.

2.0.0
ARMS was updated to the 2.0.0 version on July 12, 2017. The update add Max Brass as a figther, his weapons and a new mode called Hedlock Mode. Some glitchs are fixed as well.

Reception
The overall reception to the final game has been middling. Most are criticizing the game's lack of content at launch and feel there is a lack of depth compared to other fighting franchises. On MetaCritic, the game has received an 78 and it received a 33 from Famitsu.

On its first week, the game sold 100,652 copies in Japan, which is a surprisingly high number for a fighting game for comparison, Street fighter V sold 46.836 on the same frame of time after its release and it is supposed to be a long running and well recognized franchise.

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