On May 17th 2017, Nintendo broadcasted an ARMS focused Nintendo Direct which revealed a ton of awesome new info on ARMS that personally has me sold. Let’s go over some highlights!
For one, they’ve revealed 3 new fighters, Kid Cobra, Byte & Barq, and Twintelle. Along with Spring Man, Ribbon Girl, Mechanica, Ninjara, Master Mummy, Min Min, and Helix, that brings the initial roster at 10.
Kid Cobra – A radical skateboarder type character that wants to bring in more viewers for his live streams by competing in the ARMS Grand Prix (that’ll definitely get the views). From the looks of it, he can charge up his dashes and dash consecutively.
Byte & Barq – Byte is a robotic cop while Barq is a robotic dog partner. The two work together as one character. You control Byte while Barq moves around the stage and attacks on its own. You can also use Barq as a footstool to jump in the air. Sounds like a character that’ll be very annoying to fight, but super fun to play as.
Twintelle – Everybody’s rushing to make fan art of this one. Twintelle is a movie star that, unlike the rest, doesn’t use he arms to fight. Instead, she uses her hair. She also has the unique ability to slow down time when attacks come her way. So basically, she’s Bayonetta.
The Direct also revealed the modes that ARMS will offer, which include:
Grand Prix – Basically the Arcade Mode that’s a staple for fighting games. You fight 10 opponents with varying rules until you reach the final opponent who, as far as we know, is an exclusive boss character (hopefully he’s unlockable though).
Versus: Fight – The most basic mode where you can fight your friends locally on one system or a CPU. Items like HP Juice and Shock Bombs will drop occasionally as you duke it out!
Versus: Team Fight – The 2-on-2 battle mode revealed during the last Nintendo Direct. In team matches, you’re tethered to your teammate by a string, so you can’t be too far away from each other. Also, there’s friendly fire, so you can punch your teammate if you aren’t careful.
Versus: V-Ball – It’s volleyball, ARMS-style. Try and get the ball to land on your opponent’s side. Since you’ve got stretchy arms, you can stretch them across the net if you want.
Versus: Hoops – It’s basketball, ARMS-style. Who’s the ball? Your opponent! That’s right, grab your opponent to dunk them into the hoop for points. It’s a mode where your opponent can literally get dunked on.
Versus: Skillshot – Say it with me. It’s target practice, ARMS-style. Destroy as many targets as fast as you can and the more targets you break at once, the more bonuses you receive.
1-on-100 – A mode where you have to defeat 100 Helix look-alikes as they appear in short waves. Perhaps you could think of it as 100-Man Smash in Super Smash Bros.
The Direct also went into more detail on how online modes will work. There will be Party Matches, where you can join a lobby of up to 10 systems that can support 2 players each (so 20 possible players in a single lobby) to play a variety of modes together. There’s also Ranked Matches which, as you’d probably guess, is strictly 1-on-1 matches where your rank and pride is on the line.
It ended with an announcement that, like Splatoon’s Global Testfire, ARMS will be holding a demo event called the Global Testpunch (Ha! I get it!). The Global Testpunch is available to download right now on the Nintendo eShop and the dates for the Testpunch are as follows:
Fri 5/26 (North America Only), Sat 5/27, Sun 5/28
Fri 6/2 (North America Only), Sat 6/3, Sun 6/4
And finally, what is in my opinion the best news. Once again taking a note from Splatoon, ARMS will receive FREE UPDATES post-launch, including new characters, stages, and ARMS to use. Now THAT is generous. Other fighting games should seriously take note (looking at you, Street Fighter V).
You can view all the details on ARMS, including a bonus Splatoon 2 trailer showcasing it’s story mode (Oh god! What happened to Callie!?) in the video below.
