Before I get into what was shown, allow me to just give my thoughts from when I played it during the Nintendo Switch event in January, pulling from the post I made about it. I found it good, and said it was sitting between a casual and technical fighter. I found the controls easy to get into, and liked the stages and content on offer. However, arena fighters aren't exactly my forte, since the last I owned [Pokken Tournament] only ever got played twice in the launch month and then forever forgotten.
With ARMS I am hoping this will be a different story. I still maintain that after seeing it in action in this Direct that it sits balanced in the middle of technical and casual. Though now I am not seeing that as a bad thing. The main point of the game is choosing a fighter and equipping them with ARMS. Each character has three signature ARMS, though more can be won through a mini-game called the ARM Getter. ARMS have different attributes and weights that affect how you play, so an ARM can be a heavy hitter and stun your opponent on contact for instance. The Direct showed off all ten characters and their signature ARMS, as well as showing off all the modes available.
There's regular 1-on-1 matches or 2-on-2 matches. There's an interesting take on basketball in that you grab your opponent and throw them into the hoop to score. There's variations on shooting targets and volleyball as well, as well as training modes to allow you to try out ARM combinations and learn the basics. If you really want to test yourself, there's also a 1-on-100 mode that pits you against numerous opponents until you wipe out 100 of them.
A Grand Prix mode puts you in a round of ten matches with different rule-sets, where winning all ten will make you a champion. Other tournament types include an online Ranked mode, a Party Match mode for up to twenty people, and local wireless for up to eight players.
The game, just like Splatoon, will get free content updates after the game releases. These include new stages, ARMS, and characters. Also like Splatoon, a demo for the game will be available at certain weekends so people can get to grips with it. The Global Testpunch is sure to be played by a lot of people, just like the Splatoon Global Testfires have in the past. Just like with Splatoon, those that play it should be able to gain a better understanding of how the game works.
And talking of Splatoon, a single-player trailer for Splatoon 2 was revealed at the end, showing that a lot of new concepts look to be introduced to it.
Now, am I excited for the game? I'm still sitting firmly in the middle about it. As said, arena fighters aren't my forte, but this looks to be fun, and as with Splatoon I'm sure I'll be getting many months out of it if I was to buy into it. In the end though, I'll be jumping into this Global Testpunch to try the game out with all the new content added that the January Switch event didn't have. It does look like a fun time will be had. As for the single-player in Splatoon 2, it is looking to be similar but different, which is exactly how I can explain most Mario games in their simplest form. Mario sells on its solo adventures alone, so a second outing for Splatoon into that area along with all-new multiplayer maps and modes is bound to do well.
It sure has been an exciting week for me, with the Sonic Forces announcement as well as this. I have no doubt that nearly everything else will have to wait for E3, but if anything else that interests me does come up, I'll be sure to have another post about it. That's all for now, so bye for now.