• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

ARMS Global Testpunch Thread: Let's see if this has LEGS

And both of those are confirmed.

Awesome!
goodjob.gif
 
The items are not inherently bad at all
they force people to come out of cover or corners by always appearing centrally in a stage, provide only an overwhelming benefit if you remain in the range for the whole duration unopposed / undamaged / unthrown
they can work on both or all players simoultaneously
and the bombs have to be manually tapped or they fly around for ages and have plenty of time to see where they are and they allow players to attack/shoot the bombs to pressure opponents out of defensive spaces

and then when you get hit by the bomb its not really any worse then getting hit by a throw, the damage bomb is like throw damage and the arm disabling bomb allows the opponent to raw super you but so does the opponent landing a grab allow them to raw super you during the off the ground bouncing animation
 
The items are not inherently bad at all
they force people to come out of cover or corners by always appearing centrally in a stage, provide only an overwhelming benefit if you remain in the range for the whole duration unopposed / undamaged / unthrown
they can work on both or all players simoultaneously
and the bombs have to be manually tapped or they fly around for ages and have plenty of time to see where they are and they allow players to attack/shoot the bombs to pressure opponents out of defensive spaces

and then when you get hit by the bomb its not really any worse then getting hit by a throw, the damage bomb is like throw damage and the arm disabling bomb allows the opponent to raw super you but so does the opponent landing a grab allow them to raw super you during the off the ground bouncing animation

I agree from a design perspective, they are good, but from the randomness of it, I don't think they are. Imagine one guy just happens to be throwing a punch, and mid-flight, a bomb is brought down. The other guy didn't even have a chance to react and the guy that punched the bomb just got lucky.
 
They are fine, but it's still important to have a mode where you don't have to deal with them. That's where Ranked comes in. Everybody wins.
 
I agree from a design perspective, they are good, but from the randomness of it, I don't think they are. Imagine one guy just happens to be throwing a punch, and mid-flight, a bomb is brought down. The other guy didn't even have a chance to react and the guy that punched the bomb just got lucky.

The bombs don't really work that way, though. They fly around a bit before they come down so they can't really surprise drop on you unless you're not paying attention, which would be a weakness on your part. They also don't immediately explode. I imagine in competitive matches, their biggest boon will be zoning the enemy.

Still, I can give or take items. I think they're cool and interesting and have no problem with them not being in ranked.
 
I agree from a design perspective, they are good, but from the randomness of it, I don't think they are. Imagine one guy just happens to be throwing a punch, and mid-flight, a bomb is brought down. The other guy didn't even have a chance to react and the guy that punched the bomb just got lucky.

Yeah, that shit's not gonna fly in competetive play unless the bombs are on a set timer and always spawn in the same place. I imagine they're disabled in Ranked.
 
whats the consensus on this games depth as a competitive fighting game thus far?

There's evident potential, but there's only a fraction on display because we don't have access to every stage (which does matter for a game like this because unlike most fighters, the kind of stage really matters and influences depth, you learn both the characters and stages), every character (Kid Cobra, Twintelle and Bite and Barq could throw notable wrenches into strategies that the other characters could rely on) and every arm combo(which is important for understanding potential gameplay styles and strategies for each character as well).

There's a good bit we don't understand quite yet. So it's a difficult call, as for whether it's entertaining as a test of skill within this limited set? I'd say yes overall. Even side modes like V-ball have their quirks to learn which is satisfying.
 
I agree from a design perspective, they are good, but from the randomness of it, I don't think they are. Imagine one guy just happens to be throwing a punch, and mid-flight, a bomb is brought down. The other guy didn't even have a chance to react and the guy that punched the bomb just got lucky.
You can toggle off items in the final game. I posted a screen from the Direct earlier that shows an option for toggling off items, as well as options for adjusting HP and rush gauge, time limit and number of matches, CPU difficulty and number of CPUs, etc.
 
I agree from a design perspective, they are good, but from the randomness of it, I don't think they are. Imagine one guy just happens to be throwing a punch, and mid-flight, a bomb is brought down. The other guy didn't even have a chance to react and the guy that punched the bomb just got lucky.
you can hit the bombs back
they act just like a more fragile volleyball
and ive never seen any situation where an arm inflight had a chance of connecting. the bombs fall in really slowly

i destroyed basically every free for all, team battle and 1v1 i played earlier today and strong item usage was key to that

heres the closest thing i have to credentials
ey7PatX.jpg


if anything the volleyball mode seems completely busted as i have a strategy that commonly guarantees me quick and easy 5-0s long before the time limit is up
 
Is your strategy: Grab to spike, jump, then hit it at the net?
its a mixup between an optimization of that, having the grab prefired so it lands, having a lan adapter so i have the most accurate view of the ball spawn, having the followup hit ready because the prefired grab is going out AT the net midjump so the followup is coming out at the apex of that jump

and a couple other simple strategies to get the ball in the back corner if the opponent challenges the net spiking, and awful stalling tactics if i have anywhere near enough of a lead
 
Although I haven't felt it as strongly myself, there's definitely a steady increase of player competency across the test punch sessions. Andre from GameXplain was winning easily in the first test punch and now in the fourth one he's losing a lot of games.

Weren't those mostly the 3 and 4 player ones? He still won most of the 1s on 1s that I saw. But the opponents did seem tougher for sure. I didn't even crack 60 pts today :(
 
All of this sounds very familiar. I was a Ribbon Girl...were you Min Min perchance?

Yeah, if that was you then it seemed like you were more of a threat so I was hoping the Master Mummy would have helped me gang up on you. I noticed the Master Mummy player kept healing but I was having trouble disengaging from you.

Good match, um, if that was you.
 
Wow, I had even more fun with this session! More things I noticed:

Spring Man: The more I play as him, the more I grow fond of him; the Second Wind mechanic is super handy. I've grown attached to the Toaster/Trident combo! I also panicked a Ninjara who had been dominating the Lobby by going Double Trident and giving him the Bullet Hell treatment. Serves ya right for dodging and throwing ad nauseum!

Ribbon Girl: I'm... not too good with her. That said, the Popper/Slapamander combo proved to be rather handy for dodgy folks like Helix. The Slap's ridiculous whipping motion really seems to throw people off...

Master Mummy: Still one of my favorites so far! All of his gloves have their uses, but I found myself sticking to the Megaton/Retorcher combo. I've found that the best way to handle Ninjara is to break out the Double Revolvers and start air-dashing over everything he does. Pepper him with charged bullets and he'll be Swiss cheese before ya know it! Also, I can confirm that Mummy can damage both opponents with a throw in 2v2. If he throws his victim onto their partner, they will both take damage. I'm not sure how helpful this will be, but I found it interesting. Are there any other throws that work this way? One more thing: the best match I had this session was a 1v1v1 match with all Master Mummies. It was a blast. One of my opponents tried to hide and heal, and both me and the other Mummy threw him back to back as punishment.

Ninjara: He's really growing on me, much like Spring Man! I love his mobility, and the Chakram/Triblast makes for a nasty combo. Nothin like warping over a grab and firing off a barrage of missiles! By the way: is it possible to control which way he warps on block? I assume so, but never actually tried it myself...

Minmin: I had a bit of trouble getting the hang of her Lefty mechanic, but once it clicked, she proved to be an impressive fighter! I gotta get the timing on her kicks right... The Megavolt Left/Dragon Right proved handy, as the supercharged Megavolt becomes comically large and slow, allowing me to pressure the foe into dodging into a charged beam. Managed to snag a Helix who tried to Squash his way under the Megavolt with this method!

Mechanica: I figured out her Hover mechanic and immediately began winning with her much more consistently. She's a real terror in the air; the Revolver/Whammer combo is nightmarish from above! Also, Camo alt is the best!

Helix: Still loving his whole play style! My non-gaming family loved watching him too; I imagine he'll prove very popular in local multiplayer once the game launches. Interestingly, it seems that Mechanica's Homie targets his feet, making it easy to dodge it with his Stretch. I've found Blorb/Guardian to be my favorite combo so far, but I saw several nasty Helixes rocking Double Blorbs. I got smashed early in a 1v1v1 with a Helix and a turtle Mummy who healed to full before dunking me down the stairs at Ninja College. The Double Blorb Helix proceeded to absolutely demolish the Mummy. It was glorious!


I'm ludicrously excited for launch day; really hoping the last three characters will be available next weekend! By the way; I saw a screen in the tips section that showed the full character select screen. There was a grayed out ? icon at the end. The Champion, maybe? Or just Random select? I don't recall seeing a Random icon in previous footage...
 
Looking at the stage tips in the help screen, I get the feeling verticality is going to play a big role in higher level play.

Unless I've forgotten something, literally every stage allows for elevation, and a lot of characters have abilities that center around jumping or flying. Right now, it doesn't seem like a majority of players are making use of these abilities or stage mechanics.
 
Played it for 20 minutes, decided I had changed my mind and was going to buy it and stopped there. It is way more fun than I think anyone imagined from the reveal.
 
Out of curiosity - are people making use of the fact you can curve punches? I find myself moving around enough that I typically end up in line with the opponent and using straight punches most of the time. That and the timing of curving is such that they typically get out of the way by the time I make any real arcs.
 
Out of curiosity - are people making use of the fact you can curve punches? I find myself moving around enough that I typically end up in line with the opponent and using straight punches most of the time. That and the timing of curving is such that they typically get out of the way by the time I make any real arcs.
Absolutely, I can be facing an opponent head-on with Ribbon Girl/Min Min and curve the Slapamander/Chakram around to hit them from the sides; otherwise our punches may just continually negate each other. You can also attack from behind cover (the tubes in DNA Lab) in this fashion.
 
Out of curiosity - are people making use of the fact you can curve punches? I find myself moving around enough that I typically end up in line with the opponent and using straight punches most of the time. That and the timing of curving is such that they typically get out of the way by the time I make any real arcs.

What I do, say with Ribbon girl, you dodge, and then throw a punch that will curve, and then the slap at the end, so even though I've dodged well to the right of them, the curve punch and slap is hitting them where they still are. Get people a lot this way.
 
Out of curiosity - are people making use of the fact you can curve punches? I find myself moving around enough that I typically end up in line with the opponent and using straight punches most of the time. That and the timing of curving is such that they typically get out of the way by the time I make any real arcs.

Yeah, I've used a lot of curving. Seems really important with Min Min if you have the dragon on one hand since the beam is more about lockdown while you try to curve something.

The Helix stage also lets you curve around the tubes and use them as quasi-cover. You can also hit the volleyball while it's on the opponent's side through the gaps in the left/right part of the net with a curved punch.
 
Any newbie guides to read?

Would like a few tips to practice the next test with.

For instance does blocking do anything aside from block? Feels better to dodge and just block specials


Another example. The one girl can do a dive bomb by holding dodge after jump. But it seemed to do nothing
 
Any newbie guides to read?

Would like a few tips to practice the next test with.

For instance does blocking do anything aside from block? Feels better to dodge and just block specials


Another example. The one girl can do a dive bomb by holding dodge after jump. But it seemed to do nothing

Blocking can be better than dodging sometimes. It's a way to avoid damage from curving attacks and to actually bait people to grab.

Ribbon girl's drop is more about mobility and reposition quickly for opportunistic attacks than any kind of overt effect.

I don't think any comprehensive guides exist yet, but in my experience it's good to: Move more, attack less. Wait for opportunities while watching how your opponent moves and attacks. People often show their tells early on.
 
Love rippon girl. Her slapmander regular punch combo is great. Slapmander from the side make people dodge right front of the punch. You just need to know your distance. When to fight from far and when to jump dash to face and do fast grap.
 
I've noticed people don't know or bother using their arms charged up effects
I've defeated many opponents just by taking advantage of those.
 
Blocking can be better than dodging sometimes. It's a way to avoid damage from curving attacks and to actually bait people to grab.

Ribbon girl's drop is more about mobility and reposition quickly for opportunistic attacks than any kind of overt effect.

I don't think any comprehensive guides exist yet, but in my experience it's good to: Move more, attack less. Wait for opportunities while watching how your opponent moves and attacks. People often show their tells early on.

Great response thanks

Do charges up punches just do extra damage
 
Great response thanks

Do charges up punches just do extra damage

No, it also activates each punch's special effect: wind, fire, shock, augmented size and damage, etc.

Just to add to this, charged attacks also have different interactions with certain characters.

For instance, when hovering, Mechanica receives a 50% damage reduction against uncharged attacks, and doesn't flinch. Charged attacks bypass those defences.
 
Managed to get a few games in during one of last night's testpunches. Have to say I'm really underwhelmed. I'm not going to force myself to like it but I'll give it another try this afternoon.
 
Anyone playing with the thumbs up grip? (One joy con in each hand), I tried and it's impossible to win , especially to dogde or move, the rest are ok and the game feels nice, didn't notice any lag or anything wrong, and the waits on the lobby where really short.

Personally I'm not getting it, I'm not too much in MP only games.
 
Anyone playing with the thumbs up grip? (One joy con in each hand), I tried and it's impossible to win , especially to dogde or move, the rest are ok and the game feels nice, didn't notice any lag or anything wrong, and the waits on the lobby where really short.

Personally I'm not getting it, I'm not too much in MP only games.

I briefly tried handheld mode and spent the rest of the time using motion controls (thumbs up grip.) I found motion controls far easier to use and had difficulty when I tried the handheld mode. I imagine I can get used to the traditional controls but for playing at home I'll probably be using motion controls all the time.
 
There's evident potential, but there's only a fraction on display because we don't have access to every stage (which does matter for a game like this because unlike most fighters, the kind of stage really matters and influences depth, you learn both the characters and stages), every character (Kid Cobra, Twintelle and Bite and Barq could throw notable wrenches into strategies that the other characters could rely on) and every arm combo(which is important for understanding potential gameplay styles and strategies for each character as well).

There's a good bit we don't understand quite yet. So it's a difficult call, as for whether it's entertaining as a test of skill within this limited set? I'd say yes overall. Even side modes like V-ball have their quirks to learn which is satisfying.

hmm, i guess ill have to wait to find out
needing a reason to get a switch. Already played Zelda on wiiu and mario isnt out.
 
wth people got 1v1v1v1 matches? the game never gave me one ;(

I got it only once (and won, woo!). It was actually less chaotic than the 3p FFA since it at least started as 2 x 1v1.

Do both players on one console get to do 1v1v1? Cause that sounds like it'd be unfair, lol.
 
Guys, I know Switch is region free but I've never done this before so is it OK if I buy the download code for ARMS on Amazon.jp?

Will I have to create a Japanese profile on my Switch? Is the game gonna be in Japanese if I buy it there?
 
I definitely got into the game a lot more this time around. Deflected more grabs than usual, made it a habit in 1v1v1 to constantly shift targets which resulted in me managing to distract opponents.
Also adopted a new strategy for 1v1v1 or 1v1v1v1 fights, just switch targets constantly, keeps one person from getting ganged up on so it feels good, but also throws people off cause they are expecting a gang up and you turn on em.

That's how I play them, too. I love 1v1v1. All the haters need to use more skill. :)
 
At first sight 1vs1vs1vs1 or 1vs1vs1 could appear totally random, but after lot of fights start to be really strategic and super fun.

Yesterday I won all my 4 and 3 people fights, even if in my first hour of gameplay I didn't understood about nothing. I suggest to don't leave these just after some tries, because when you understand them, are all but random.
 
Just to add to this, charged attacks also have different interactions with certain characters.

For instance, when hovering, Mechanica receives a 50% damage reduction against uncharged attacks, and doesn't flinch. Charged attacks bypass those defences.

How are you guys learning this and why isn't the game teaching this stuff.

What the heck do things like wind even do
 
Just to add to this, charged attacks also have different interactions with certain characters.

For instance, when hovering, Mechanica receives a 50% damage reduction against uncharged attacks, and doesn't flinch. Charged attacks bypass those defences.

Basically Mummy has super armour always which can only be bypassed by charge and Mechanica gets super armour when hovering.
 
Bomberman
Mario Kart
Soon arms
Right after splatoon


Man, this console is SO GOOD for the multiplayer with my friends
 
Anyone playing with the thumbs up grip? (One joy con in each hand), I tried and it's impossible to win , especially to dogde or move, the rest are ok and the game feels nice, didn't notice any lag or anything wrong, and the waits on the lobby where really short.

Personally I'm not getting it, I'm not too much in MP only games.

The only way to play. Hated traditional controls.
 
I really enjoyed playing ARMS, and I think motion is clearly the best way to play. A big issue though is people just spamming grab attacks to win, I hope they balance that somehow.

Also, as much as I enjoyed the minute-by-minute gameplay, the fights are SO short and I'm wondering if there's enough depth to sustain an entire game. With Splatoon a lot of the depth comes from the stages themselves rather than simply the mechanics, and also the fact that each game is three minutes long.
 
I really enjoyed playing ARMS, and I think motion is clearly the best way to play. A big issue though is people just spamming grab attacks to win, I hope they balance that somehow.

Grabs are so easily countered. You can interrupt one with your own punches, or dodge and punish. A whiff leaves them wide open for a long ass time.
 
Top Bottom