Our thoughts on ARMS post Testpunch

With the first Testpunch over we got the team together to offer up some thoughts about not only the game, but how it runs.

Some of us have played the game before at events, for others it was a fresh take.

I didn’t have particularly high hopes for ARMS prior to the Testpunch. While it looked visually stunning in trailers and gameplay footage, the concept reminded me far too much of the awful Wiimote-waggling games of the Wii era. It struck me as a concept that Nintendo should have moved past by now, as the rest of the gaming world already had.

However, I was pleasantly surprised at just how fun it was to waggle my arms at another person over the internet. The motion controls have a level of depth and accuracy to them that you just never would have found in a game from the Wii, with each movement feeling deliberate and distinct. Anything that happened on screen was what I wanted the game to do, not what the game poorly translated into vague actions.

That said, the Testpunch did reveal some glaring issues. Switching targets was a hassle, and three- or four-player free-for-alls almost always ended up with me being ganged up on by the other players. This always felt incredibly unfair and wasn’t particularly fun. On top of this, the traditional control scheme is absolutely bonkers. I just couldn’t get my fingers to get to the right buttons in time to do anything meaningful, and usually just ended up panicking and pressing everything in the hopes I would hit my opponent. It just feels unintuitive. I dread to think what the single Joy-Con controls were like.

V-Ball was… an experience. I’m not really sure what else to say about it, other than I absolutely sucked at it. I’m hoping it’s just because I didn’t understand what I was supposed to be doing, but I don’t think I ever scored a single point, and I can’t have even hit the ball more than half a dozen times.

Doubles matches were similarly frustrating, simply due to the fact that you’re tethered to your partner, which sounds like an interesting idea on paper, but usually resulted in being flung across the map whenever my partner got grabbed or knocked around.

All in all, the ARMS Global Testpunch was incredibly engaging (and tiring, my arms are so sore), it looks fantastic, and all of the characters are packed with personality. I’m still a little on the fence about it, and I’m not quite sure yet if it’s worthy of a day one purchase, but there’s a very good chance that I’ll buy it on impulse once I see everyone on my friends list playing it. It’s an impressive game, and I look forward to seeing what Nintendo has in store for the future of the springy-armed fighting genre.

Straight to it, ARMS Testpunch is the most fun I’ve had with a videogame this year, Sorry Breath of the Wild. There’s just something about it: the short matches, the variety, the high skill matches you can have with such simple controls – I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is, but ARMS just ‘clicks’ with me so much.

The Testpunch was the first time I got to experience the button controls and while yes, the game is designed around motion (and it works perfectly fine), I heavily prefer using traditional controls for the game. The controls aren’t 100% ideal, however. Guarding is done by clicking in the left stick which makes it not always consistent, and the game will tell you to use A/B to punch but you can use ZL/ZR which makes the controls more natural. It also doesn’t tell you that the right stick can change targets. If I could remap guarding to say, the R button, I would be perfect.

The only thing I don’t love about the game is the three & four-player matches. Tethered matches work fine, but the free-for-all type matches can sometimes be straight up awful. The first time I got a 4 player match in Helix’s stage I couldn’t even see that somebody spawned behind me. 3 Player most of the time 2 people will duke it out and the other just casually stands there hiding, or 2 will gang up on the third. The camera isn’t perfect for this game and it really shows in these matches, however on the last session of the Testpunch, I got in some really amazing 3 player matches to the point where time ran out with all 3 alive. Playing with random people is always a weakness for online games, and I feel playing with friends, or in communities you know will fix the issue of camping out, or spamming throws (Well hopefully anyway).

After playing such a limited selection of the game, I already enjoy it more than Super Smash Bros or Pokkén and can’t wait to sink hundreds of hours in the Grand Prix and in Party/Ranked mode online. This is the first real fighting game I have actually enjoyed every minute of it and even when I wasn’t winning matches, I was still having a great time. June 16th can’t come fast enough for me, and neither can next weekend for the next round of the Testpunch.

My initial concern regarding ARMS has always been its longevity. Would I want to keep playing after the initial novelty has worn off? As cool as Pokkén Tournament was, I had my fill after only a few hours of play – although this could be because of my lack of affinity with fighting games in general. This being said, my first hands-on time with ARMS was a delight.

Coincidentally, I have recently taken up boxing for exercise, so I was keen to see how the Joy-Cons’ motion controls felt. I loved it. Once I understood how the controls worked, I had a great time strafing around the lounge room and throwing punches at the screen. The motion of heaving a right hook felt satisfying and was replicated with impressive accuracy. As has been widely discussed, I agree that the targeting input should be remapped for bouts between three or more fighters, but this is negligible in one-on-one encounters. I got belted online more than I care to admit when using the Joy Cons, but this was offset by my enjoyment of the responsive controls. It is much easier and quicker to fight using the Pro Controller (or the Joy-Cons used in the traditional setup), so these are definitely the way to go if being competitive online is your goal. However, I cannot wait to play local multiplayer exclusively using motion controls – I am confident it would make for great party shenanigans. I also got the heart rate pumping, so there are some health benefits too!

There isn’t much more I can add that has already been said about the weekend’s available game modes, but I think I may be one of the few people who “got” the volleyball mode. Volleyball is a nifty variation to break up the fighting, but I fear for its longevity. The mode feels a little shallow, but its contribution will be better gauged when all the other modes are available. Regardless, everything happening on-screen in ARMS is a visual feast. Vibrant colours, fluent motion, and snazzy visual effects certainly help the game a joy to play. That, and the epic music – it almost sounds a bit Persona 5-esque, which is a very good thing.

The online lobby system is fantastic. The lobby shows a visual representation of the fights in progress and who is currently waiting to be matched up against. It sounds simple in theory, but the visual fluidity of the concept elevates it from the stock-standard online lobbies past of looking at a static list of players. Instead of online matchmaking being the time of speedy toilet breaks and consuming as many snacks as possible before the next match, ARMS has created a system that allows players to easily engage with other contests.

I will be tuning into this coming weekend’s TestPunch with interest; the additional game modes on offer, including a basketball variant, will go a long way to determining how long ARMS captures my attention. Also, how great is the phrase “TestPunch”? I’m going to refer to all of my boxing sessions as a TestPunch from now on.

Also, can Twintelle please be playable this weekend? For reasons.

Well, my ARMS experience started off a bit shaky. Most of my matches had me dropping out, or my teammate in 2v2 dropping out, or just an unresponsive game where all my punches were clipping through my opponents while I got hit by everything. If the game is still peer-to-peer for online matches, this will be a very difficult situation for players on sub-par internet. Here’s hoping we find out about some sort of dedicated servers soon!

But once I got into it, and the connections issues started to subside, I had a heck of a lot of fun with this game. I tried out a fair few of the characters, ultimately settling on Min Min with a Megawatt and Ramram. After playing with all the different Arms, I finally found a solid strategy with the Megawatt and Ramram, combining their strengths with dodging and timing my grabs.

By far my favourite mode was 1v1, feeling like the most traditional fighting game experience. The rare few times I got a four-player free-for-all were also enjoyable. The other three modes, however… three player free-for-all usually ended up with a lot of 2v1 scenarios, or someone hiding in a corner until one of the other two players was knocked out, so they could knock out the last person while being on full health. V-ball seems to be the most affected by internet issues, with lag being obvious in almost every match I played.

The lobby system is really, really clever. You can see the progress of every match currently going on, scores and the health bars of the players. This lobby system is going to be a lot of fun for our ARMS nights in the Discord!

I ended up shifting from motion controls to the Pro Controller very quickly, as a way to try get around the lag issues I was having. The Pro Controller controls aren’t what I’d call intuitive at first, but once you start playing, the layout makes a lot more sense. If you have a Pro Controller and sore arms, definitely try it out!