Arms Reviews

Arms is ranked in the 75th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
5 / 5.0
Jun 7, 2017

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. I would not be surprised to see it spawn multiple successful successors.

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Rice Digital
Kitsumeda
Top Critic
Jul 1, 2017

Since the Switch's launch, Nintendo has been showering us with an excellent new game every month and ARMS is no exception. Its tactical but accessible gameplay offers something for both the players seeking a challenge and those just looking for a bit of fun with friends. The plentiful online modes and equally impressive offline multiplayer mean this is one game you will be coming back to for a very long time. Now just don't forget to bring us LEGS Nintendo.

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9.5 / 10.0
Jun 21, 2017

Arms is an amazing game and a break out from standard Nintendo titles. It accommodates a wide range of players and play styles, and has enough in it to make you keep coming back to it daily. Arms, while competitive, is accessible by everyone and anyone. People old enough to remember the Virtual On series will be right at home, and new players will soon follow. This is a must buy.

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Jun 7, 2017

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

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9 / 10.0
Jun 7, 2017

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

Review in Spanish | Read full review

9 / 10.0
Jun 7, 2017

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

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9 / 10
Jun 7, 2017

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

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9 / 10
Jun 6, 2017

From the successful mixing and blending of several styles comes ARMS, a creative and original action game that turns out to be one of the most welcome titles so far to land upon the Nintendo Switch. Ditching the most orthodox labels assigned to most games, ARMS proposes a never-ending flurry of action and content across several different modes, with a wide variation in the control systems and in the use of multiplayer to deliver what is one of the essential games on the library of Nintendo's newest system.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

GamingBolt
Top Critic
9 / 10.0
Jun 7, 2017

In ARMS, players will find the same texture of game design that has made Mario Kart and Smash Bros. so beloved and enduring worldwide. For a brand new multiplayer game, there can be no higher praise than that.

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4.5 / 5.0
Jun 7, 2017

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.

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9 / 10.0
Jun 7, 2017

ARMS is the first new Nintendo IP on Switch, an unusual fighting-game 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 offer, which is not as interesting as the multiplayer one.

Review in Italian | Read full review

9 / 10.0
Jun 22, 2017

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.

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9 / 10.0
Jun 7, 2017

ARMS is one of my favorite games on the Nintendo Switch so far. With a large slew of ARMS and fun gameplay options, it leaves me very happy. While I wished that I enjoyed the button controls and Helix more, there is still enough to keep you engaged.

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9 / 10
Jun 7, 2017

ARMS can be seen as the boldest move that Nintendo has made in some time, and an absolute knockout experience to play.

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8.9 / 10.0
Jun 6, 2017

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.

Review in Italian | Read full review

89 / 100
Jun 23, 2017

It’s the third round of a tight match-up in ARMS. My Ribbon Girl’s life meter is dwindling away, dropping close to the 25-percent mark after my opponent — a particularly adept Kid Cobra — catches me with a throw. Ribbon Girl shakes it off and charges up her ARMS. She’s rocking two standard boxing gloves right now, one with the ice power and one with electricity. Jump. Air-dodge. Jump again. Let the electric glove fly, and it connects! She throws a paralyzed Kid Cobra to the ground, and now both competitors’ special meters are filled.

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8.8 / 10.0
Jun 7, 2017

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.

Review in Italian | Read full review

8.8 / 10.0
Jun 8, 2017

Creative, unique and just plain fun first-party games continue to be the best reason to have a Switch. This is the beginning of a new franchise, and an excellent starting point for this fresh new idea. "Arms" is poised to appeal to kids who are new to games, experienced gamers and can even support a competitive esports scene. There's room for "Arms" to grow, but this is already the new big thing for the Switch.

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86 / 100
Jun 7, 2017

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

Review in Spanish | Read full review

8.6 / 10.0
Jun 15, 2017

ARMS is an excellent example of a mechanically excellent title, focusing mostly on the actual gameplay more than anything else.

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