Arms Critic Reviews

It’s difficult to describe just how good ARMS is. The best analogy I can come up with is that it is to fighting games what Splatoon is to third-person shooters. ARMS is a bright, colorful, and welcoming game. Newcomers can easily hop in and enjoy most of the matches and modes available. Meanwhile, the more dedicated will find themselves developing complex strategies based on characters and ARMS loadouts and captivated by the opportunities to challenge others online.

ARMS is what Nintendo franchises thrive to be on the whole; a fun, outside the box take on something that's close to many of their fans' hearts. They've done to fighting what Mario Kart has done to racing, and Splatoon has done to third-person shooters - they've given the genre something shiny, addictive, and new. Forget the Midas touch, ARMS has the Nintendo touch... and it makes every punch you throw that much sweeter.

Fighting titles have long been the most competitive and often hardest for new players to get into, but ARMS enters itself extremely well to the genre by feeling like nothing that has ever been played before.

The fighting game that everyone can play, ARMS is Nintendo multiplayer gaming at its best.

ARMS is polished, addictive, immensely rewarding and - perhaps most important of all - establishes a solid platform to create a popular and long-running series.

ARMS is clearly something that stands out amidst Nintendo's recent works. With its very creative approach, it eschews most of the labels used to categorize games and proposes bouts of physical fighting coupled with other sports and actions thrown into the mix to make something that is without a doubt more than welcome in Nintendo's catalogue. Its wide and varied content, intuitive gameplay mechanics, quality online modes and all the additional content that will be released for it make ARMS an essential game in the universe of every Nintendo Switch player.

An accessible and captivatingly strange new breed of versus fighting game, Arms is another Nintendo knockout for Switch.

Nintendo gets in the fighting genre on Switch thanks to ARMS, a new IP which brings a breath of fresh air to this genre and mixes classic gameplay mechanics with the unique features of Nintendo’s new console.

ARMS is the first new Nintendo IP on Switch, an unusual fighting-game that's both competitive and entertaining. The character design is beautiful and the game mechanics are well-balanced, even if some abilities are easier to use than others. The only problem is the single-player offering, which is not as interesting as the multiplayer one.

Yes, it's a little light on content, but what's in there is delightful, accessible, intuitive, playful stuff. From the off it's fun and, before long, it becomes oddly magical, too. Over time, it may become wondrous. At launch it will just have to settle for being merely excellent, and yet another standard bearer for Nintendo's new console. That, we suppose, is really the most important thing about ARMS.

Arms is Nintendo at its very best. It keeps things simple enough to be fun for the casual player but nuanced enough to satisfy hardcore fighters.

If ARMS is where Nintendo is beginning their first-party efforts for the all-new Switch generation, then I can't wait to see how this system's entire game library is going to look years from now!

Behind its wacky (and absolutely adorable) cartoony appearance, with its peculiar colorful appeal, its delightful cast of characters and its rubbery animations that somehow remind you of Splatoon, ARMS has the heart - and the brain - of a pure-bread fighting game. Deep, engaging, fascinating, fast and far from trivial, this beat'em up shows however one huge merit above its many undeniable virtues: it's a new, completely unique take on the genre, one that will be enjoyable for both fans and newcomers. Another hit for the Big N, scored with a surprising boomerang-punch.

A beat'em up of its own kind: ARMS is more than a motion-controlled fighting game; is a brilliant new IP, an original take on the genre, and yet another impressive game for the Switch line-up. Some extra game modes would have been appreciated, but we remain quite confident about the post-launch support.

As far from a traditional one-on-one fighter as can be - and all the better for it. Thumpingly good fun.

Feels like an evolution of Punch Put series, focused on multiplayer tournaments. Fun to play and tough to master, the downside is its lack of content: characters, game modes and levels.

Nintendo delivers a new twist on Punch Out for The Switch and it already feels like the foundation of a new franchise.

A world where people fight with ramen noodles, DNA, and snakes shouldn't be this much fun. It may take a while to get the hang of the controls in Arms, but the wildly inventive characters, catchy theme music, and unique gameplay style offer enough to capture the attention of casual and competitive gamers alike.

ARMS is a great package, subverting and exceeding most of my expectations while offering modes of play that cater to a variety of players. The offline Grand Prix mode leaves much to be desired, and the 2 v 2 tethered fights are lame, but all that is made up for by an assortment of other entertaining modes, slick online lobbies and surprisingly deep and addictive gameplay. At the end of the day, it’s all about having fun, and ARMS provides that in spades.

ARMS is another great new IP from Nintendo that shows their growing commitment to robust, competitive online games. Its elegant flow of fighting is supplemented by numerous options of continued experimentation, with a strong suite of game types to keep you playing for hours on end.