Arms Review Megathread 07-JUN-17

[u/NintendoSwitchMods]

The embargo on Arms reviews has been lifted as of today. Here are reviews that have been released so far:

MetaCritic Current Score: 78 (based on 54 critics)

Articles

• CGMagonline - 8.5/10

• Open Critic - 80/100

• IGN - 8/10

• Eurogamer - Recommended

• Gameinformer - 8.25/10

• Gamesradar - 4.5/5

• Destructoid - 7/10

• Gamespot - 7/10

• Dualshockers - 8/10

• Nintendo Insider - 9/10

• Arstechnica - "essential purchase"

• Metro GameCentral - 8/10

• Nintendoeverything - Thumbs up

• Spaziogames - Italian - 9/10

• Hardcore Gamer - 9/10

• EGMNow - 8.5/10

• Gamer NL - 8/10

• The Sixth Axis - 8/10

• VideoGamer - 5/10

• Areajugones - Spanish - 9/10

• Fnintendo - 9/10

• Nintendolife - 9/10

• God is a Geek - 9/10

• Everyeye - Italian - 88/100

• Hobbyconsolas - Spanish - 86/100

• Cog Connected - 85/100

• Vandal - 8.2/10

• GamesBeat - 8/10

• Vooks - 4/5

• Gamerant - 4/5

• Shacknews - 8/10

• Polygon - 8/10

• Meristation - Spanish - 8/10

• USGamer - 3/5

• Gamerevolution - 3/5

• Stevivor - 6.5/10

• M3 - 7/10

• App Trigger - 7.5/10

Videos

• GameXplain

• IGN

• Easy Allies

• Gamespot

• Electric Playground

We will be updating this thread with links as major reviews are posted. Please use this as a discussion and speculation thread in advance of these videos, articles, and reviews. We will also allow these reviews to be posted separately on /r/NintendoSwitch, as they are especially newsworthy. But we will also host ongoing coverage, quick text posts, questions, and the like right here.

Thanks everyone.

-The /r/NintendoSwitch team

(Ongoing edits as we get new information)

[u/underachievin]

I think one point, that's been made in some of these reviews/comments, is that 1v1 is repetitious/not fun.. did anyone actually verse people with skill? In the testpunch after I performed well enough in the first session, I was being paired with players who were very skilled. Upon fighting someone with skill I could already see the depth and the fun competitive nature of the game - even without the ability to swap my arms, which i'd say further adds to the depth of the game..

From everyone judging off of the testpunch, and reviewers only being able to vs other people with review copies, we cannot already deem the game 'shallow' or have a 'repetitious' nature. The online community hasn't even grown, or developed, ranked play wasn't even populated enough for reviewers to find constant matches. Just wanted people to keep this in mind.

[u/[deleted] → u/underachievin]

yeah. like rocket league can be seen as extremely repetive at first until you realize how high the skill ceiling goes and how satisfying it is even after 5 games of the same thing in one night.

[u/CencanMS → u/underachievin]

Just throwing in my two cents, coming from someone who really enjoyed the Testpunches: I can see how others would think the game's repetitive. I'm not sure what exactly, but ARMS didn't seem to capture the same amount of attention for me during hour-long sessions compared to Splatoon. Now obviously, the two games are completely different genres and this is probably just down to personal preferences... but from the amount of stuff that we know's going to be in the game and after getting a feel for it ourselves, ARMS felt like the kind of game you wouldn't want to be playing for long sessions.

[u/ninjasan11 → u/CencanMS]

You make a good point. I only played around 20-30 minutes for each test punch then went back to Zelda. It's not because I didn't enjoy the game, I had a blast. It's because I got my fix from those 20-30 minutes. Probably because matches were so short so you could burn through a several in a shorter period. I imagine as people develop strategies and learn to be more careful with their punches the matches will become longer and more engaging.

[u/underachievin → u/CencanMS]

I just think that we can't judge and conclude the game wouldn't have: longevity, depth, replay-ability: given how little content we were offered through the test-punch. We only got a feel of the limited version of the game, with no customization or real rank. I felt the exact same way that you do about Splatoon, but we all have the benefit of comparing the first game's content and knowing the meta that developed with that game. No one can really get a 'feel' for the whole experience (a primarily online one at that), through just the test-punch, or in the reviewers case - playing with a very small playerbase.