Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Latest Nintendo Direct event revealed new modes when it took up ‘Arms’

Gabe Gurwin
By
ARMS Direct 5.17.2017
The Nintendo Switch doesn’t currently have any big all-new franchises, with its two biggest games coming from the Zelda and Mario Kart series, but that’s about to change in June with
Recommended Videos
Arms. The fighting game looks to be one of the most unique games on the system, and a
Related
Nintendo Direct event today let us see the game in action. You can check it out right above this post.

Most of the Nintendo Direct detailed many new features coming to Arms. The game is out for the Switch next month and offers a unique take on boxing that only Nintendo could deliver. Players can choose from a variety of different interchangeable “Arms” in order to perform special attacks, and the game makes use of the Switch’s two Joy-Con controllers in a similar way to the Wii Sports‘ boxing game on the original Wii.

While combat customization in Arms is well known, the Direct revealed how much deeper the system goes. Different “Arms” vary in weight, type, range, and attributes. Heavier Arms are more powerful but slow down a player’s momentum. Each set of Arms has one of seven different attributes including Fire, Electricity, Wind, Ice, Stun, Explosion, and Blind. Each type has its own advantages and disadvantages whether playing offensively or defensively. Mixing and matching different Arms is key to victory.

As players fight in Arms, they accumulate in-game currency to use at the Arms Getter. This is where players get the chance to earn new Arms. When players earn one they already have, it becomes an upgraded version.

Later in the direct, Nintendo shared some of the many modes that are available in Arms. Fight is the main multiplayer mode. Here players fight against each other one-on-one. Like other multiplayer Nintendo games, a variety of items including bombs and healing items will randomly drop in. Team Fight is very similar, but this time battles consist of teams of two. Here, attacks can damage allies, so paying attention is key.

Aside from more traditional fighting, Arms features some more unique game modes. V-Ball is a version of volleyball in which players must knock an explosive ball into the opponent’s court. Hoops tasks players with grabbing opponents and shooting them into a net like a basketball. Skillshot involves breaking as many targets as possible. Hitting multiple targets at once will activate a multiplayer for higher scores. For honing skills and trying out different Arms, players can check out Arms Test and Training.

ARMS New Character Battle – Nintendo Minute

With a multiplayer focus, it’s key to have a variety of ways to play. In Arms, friends can either play online or locally. Grand Prix is a local mode where one or two players must win ten straight matches before facing a final opponent. In a Party Match, up to four players can battle online at once in the same lobby. One lobby holds up to 10 systems, but with two players allowed per system, up to 20 players can join in a single lobby.

For showing off to friends, players can take part in Ranked Match. Here, players compete with each other one-on-one. Winning or losing a match will increase or decrease a rank respectively. If friends want to play together locally, up to eight players on eight systems can connect to one another.

At launch, ten different characters are playable in Arms. Each has their own fighting style and personality. Already revealed were Spring Man, Ribbon Girl, Ninjara, Master Mummy, Min Min, Mechanica, and Helix. Announced today were Kid Cobra, Twintelle, and Byte and Barq. Byte and Barq are especially unique as they are two fighters in one. Byte fights as a typical fighter while Barq attacks opponents at random. In the future, Arms will receive free software updates that include new fighters, stages, and Arms.

Just like with Splatoon 2, Arms offers free trail periods to test the game during its Global Testpunch. During the weekends of May 26-28 and June 2-4, players will have a chance to try it out before the game releases on June 16. The free demo is available now on the Nintendo eShop.

Splatoon 2 - Single Player Trailer - Nintendo Switch

Before signing off, Nintendo revealed an extra trailer for Splatoon 2. This time, the trailer focused on the new single-player mode. Callie, one of the Squid Sisters from the first game, has gone missing. Her best friend Marie tasks the player to find her and the Great Zapfish. Just like in Splatoon, players will use different weapons to fight enemies, tackle bosses, and overcome obstacles. Splatoon 2 launches on Switch July 21.

Are you excited for Arms, or are you more interested in the games Nintendo has planned for the Switch down the road? What are you playing on the system right now? Let us know in the comments!

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Nintendo Direct June 2023: how to watch and what to expect
Pikmin 4 release date

There has been a lot of online debate about whether or not Nintendo would host a full-fledged Nintendo Direct this month. Well, we don't need to argue about it anymore: It's true.

Nintendo announced that a full Nintendo Direct presentation will take place on June 21, giving us more insight into upcoming exclusives like Pikmin 4, as well as other games in the works for the system. We don't know much about Nintendo's fall game lineup right now, so this showcase should be quite exciting.

Read more
Don’t expect a Switch Pro or new Nintendo console within the next year
preorder legend of zelda tears the kingdom nintendo switch oled gameplay

If you were hoping that a new Nintendo console was right on the horizon after the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, think again. Nintendo has confirmed that it plans to release no new hardware over the next 12 months.

On May 9, Nintendo shared its financial results for the last fiscal year with investors. Console and software sales both lagged by a bit compared to the year before, with Nintendo crediting a semiconductor shortage and a weaker holiday season for that. Looking to the next year, the company hopes to sell 15 million new Nintendo Switch consoles on top of the 125.62 million that are already out there. Those forecasts are all based on existing hardware, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Read more
Don’t expect Zelda’s $70 price to become the new Switch standard, says Nintendo
Link looks at his hand in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be Nintendo's first Switch game to be priced at $70. News that Tears of the Kingdom, a sequel to one of the bestselling and most critically acclaimed titles on the system, will have an increased price compared to its predecessor came as a surprise over three-and-a-half years after its announcement. It also raised questions about what the future of pricing for Nintendo games will be, especially as Sony, Microsoft, and third-party publishers all upped the cost of their new games in recent years. 
While Nintendo will release Tears of Kingdom at $70, a spokesperson for the company tells Digital Trends that this will not always be the case for its first-party games going forward. 
"No," the spokesperson said when Digital Trends asked if this is a new standard. "We determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis." 
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Official Trailer #2
To get more insight into the price shift, I spoke to Omdia Principal Analyst George Jijiashvili, who explains what has caused the price of games to go up in recent years and how Tears of the Kingdom demonstrates that Nintendo will "remain flexible about first-party title pricing." Ultimately, Nintendo fans are finally starting to feel the impact of inflation that's been sweeping across the game industry, even if it's only "on a case-by-case basis" for now.
The price is right
Nintendo claims that not every one of its significant first-party game will be $70, and we can actually already see that in action. Preorders just went live for Pikmin 4, which launches on July 21, after Tears of the Kingdom, and it only costs $60. Still, Zelda's price tag indicates that going forward, Nintendo will at least consider raising the price of its most anticipated games to $70. But why start with Tears of the Kingdom?  
When asked why it chose Tears of the Kingdom as its first $70 Nintendo Switch game, a Nintendo spokesperson simply reiterated that the company will "determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis." Still, it's a surprising choice for Nintendo to make that pricing change to just one exclusive game almost six years into the Switch's life span. Jijiashvili thinks the choice to do this with Tears of the Kingdom was a pretty apparent one for Nintendo, although it won't apply to everything going forward.
"If you are going to make a game $70, it's going to be the follow-up to one of your most critically acclaimed and bestselling games ever," Jijiashvili tells Digital Trends. "I don’t think that this means that $70 will become the standard price for all major Nintendo releases. It's worth noting that Metroid Prime Remastered is priced at $40. It's clear that Nintendo will remain flexible about first-party title pricing."

It makes basic financial sense for Nintendo to ask for a little bit more for a game it knows will be one of the biggest releases of 2023. But what factors in the game industry and world's economy at large caused Nintendo to make this decision? 
Priced Out
For more than a decade, people got comfortable with AAA video games being priced at $60. Of course, there were occasional exceptions to this rule, but it was seen as an industry standard until the dawn of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Publisher 2K was one of the first to announce a price increase, and companies like EA, Sony, and Microsoft have all followed suit. Jijiashvili chalks this up to inflation-related pressure on game publishers.
"The games industry has already been experiencing a lot of inflationary pressure," he explains. "AAA games are much more expensive to make now than they used to be, but prices have actually been declining in inflation-adjusted terms -- if prices had risen with inflation since 1990, they would now be over $90. On top of that, we’ve had a big burst of general inflation, meaning that publishers are looking at big increases in everything from salaries to tools. It’s going to be really hard for most publishers to avoid passing on all those extra costs at some point."
Jijiashvili provided us with a graphic created by Omdia that "shows what the typical price points for each generation would look like if you adjusted for inflation." As you can see, the inflation-adjusted prices are only exponentially growing, and the big game pricing shifts the graph highlights were all technically not even enough to keep up with inflation when they happened. 

Read more