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Is Arms The Next Big Nintendo Franchise?

Nintendo are on a super duper role right now, and being a huge Nintendo fan myself, this is very good to see.

I've predicted that with the Switch, Nintendo have the potential to enter yet another golden era, mirroring that of the SNES days and with the very surprisingly superb ARMS Nintendo Direct reveal back on the 16th of May, I feel that Nintendo are on the cusp of really understanding what their loyal fanbase wants.

When ARMS was first announced way back at the big Nintendo Switch press conference in January many people looked at ARMS and thought "Here we go again, a cheap gimmicky game aimed at making a quick buck for casuals" pretty much in the vein of Wii Sports, ARMS seemed to be game that should of been a pack-in title for the Switch, not a full retail priced game.

But boy did Nintendo literally (pun intended) flip the Switch on what everyone was expecting from ARMS.

We got a tidal wave of new Character announcements, features, battle modes and a overwhelmingly exciting online structure  for the game, which pretty much sealed the deal for my interest and many others judging by the overwhelmingly positive reactions online, in buying this game.

Nintendo have done an amazing job at selling people the character roster with it's in depth analysis of each character which went into some detail about their individual backgrounds, character traits and the different ARMS they can use at their disposal to adapt to different play styles also the ability to customize each fighter's ARM configurations before battle opens this game up to a wide range of attack styles and combinations which in itself makes this game deeper than anyone thought.

Right off the bat, ARMS seems to have a deep customizable fighting mechanic which opens up a load of match-up possibilities between fighters in the game

Each individual character seems to be very likeable and most importantly unique, which could well see the start of another batch of popular Nintendo mascots following the success of the Inklings and their respective series Splatoon.

Nintendo have introduced some great appealing characters for the ARMS franchise such as Ribbon Girl & Min Min

Newly announced character Twintelle in particular has become a super fan favourite over night since the Nintendo Direct and has become a Internet Meme (for reasons you may notice in the above right image)

For anyone that though this game would just be a "pick up for a casual half and hour and put down" game in terms of gameplay have pretty much been proven wrong, with modes like team fight which can lead to hours of fun and mayhem between 4 players, V-Ball & Hoops mode which puts an interesting twist on the game where V-Ball games involve a volleyball explosive that must be kept on your opponents side of the net at all costs which I can see being extremely addictive, whereas Hoops games involve sending each other through the net.

Bored or just wanna break from the fighting mayhem? Well, ARMS can happily accommodate with something fresh and different with it's V-Ball & Hoops mode, Ensuring playtime won't ever get stale!

The real gem and selling point of this game however is the exciting online modes where lobbies can support up to a staggering 20 players at a time, which is sure to create some truly fun and chaotic (in a good way) moments for players, there are also ranked matches  that are only available for one on one online bouts which adds a much needed competitive aspect to a game like this which will ensure this game has a lot of longevity and who knows, may even become a popular E-Sports title down the line!

Online Mayhem: ARMS boasts pretty much the most impressive online infrastructure seen in a Nintendo Switch game so far, and it's sure to be a hit and raise the bar for Nintendo's upcoming online services

Also with positive reactions to the ARMS global test punch over the weekend, which are due to return on June 2nd, I am pretty much backing ARMS to set the trend for many great Nintendo IP's to come for the Switch, the model that Nintendo has set out for ARMS is genius, because by letting people try the game and get familiar with it's mechanics early before it's big launch they are already selling people on the game which does a LOT more than trying to market the game on hear say ever will and I hope we see this in every other IP that Nintendo put out for the Switch in the future as Nintendo will build great consumer trust in a generation where we have been dissapointed by big AAA games from other companies on the whim of hear say, and I truly believe consumer trust is the one ingredient that has been missing from Nintendo to truly make them the greatest video game company in the world


I'm backing ARMS to be the game that sets the bar and leads the bar for the much needed beefed up online Infrastructure that Nintendo needs to compete on the level of the Playstation and XBox (which we will hopefully see at E3!)


ARMS will launch worldwide on June 16th and Nintendo have already got my money for this game, just when you think you know the cards Nintendo are going to play, you don't, and I hope Nintendo continue to surprise us like this going forward.


Feel free to leave your comments and opinions on what you think about ARMS.



-Simeon Barrett