Nintendo's new IP, Arms, a fantasy-style fighting sports game, as one of several exclusives on the Switch.

Arms features a roster of characters with different skills, each united by their stretchy, extendable arms. Although the combatants move and jump around the arena, their stretchy arms allow them to make from a great distance. Each arm also has a special move that can be activated when the special gauge is full and you press both ZL & ZR. This can do up to 400 damage.

“It’s like boxing, but it’s also like shooting, where you aim and fire at distant opponents,” the game’s producer explained.

The game is played with the Joy-Con controllers’ physical controls. It uses motion, meaning players will actually have to punch and twist to make their characters do the same. Tilting the controllers moves the characters in the same direction of the tilt, fully making use of the Joy-Con’s unique control scheme.

Characters

The game features 12 playable characters, all with a special ability, with more coming soon. These include:

-Spring Man

-Ribbon Girl

-Ninjara

-Mechanica

-Master Mummy

-Min Min

-Kid Cobra

-Twintelle

-Byte & Barg

-Helix

-Max Brass

-Lola Pop

Stages

ARMS has 11 stages, all with their unique gimmicks. Like with characters, More are coming soon. The current stages include:

-Spring Stadium

-Ribbon Ring

-Ninja College

-Ramen Bowl

-Scrapyard

-Snake Park

-Buster Beach

-Cinema Deux

-Mausoleum

-DNA Lab

-Sky Arena (Grand Prix only)

Fight

As you may have guessed, fighting is the main mode in ARMS. This is where each character chooses 2 extendable arms and fights to KO his/her opponent(s). There are two types of fights; the first is just regular every man/women for himself/herself. This mode can be played with 2-4 players, including computer players.

Team Fight

Team fight has the same mechanics as regular fighting, but this time, it's always with 4 players, and always team based. Two people per team, and two teams face off at once. Teammates are tied together with a ribbon, so if one teammate gets thrown, the other gets dragged along. Whichever team has the last man/woman standing wins.

Volleyball (V-Ball)

Volleyball, or V-Ball for short, is one of three minigames in ARMS. This can either be played 1v1 or 2v2. Players must make an explodable beach ball land on the ground on the opponents side to blow the ball up and gain a point. Whoever has the most points after 90 seconds or whoever gets to 5 points first wins.

Hoops

Hoops is another minigame in ARMS. The objective is to grab the opponent, which automatically throws them into the basketball hoop. Hoops is always played 1v1. The game is played on a half a court, meaning there's only one hoop to score in. If you grab the opponent past the 3 point line, you'll get 3 points for your shot instead of 2. Special moves are automatic 3 pointers if successful. Whoever has the most points after 90 seconds or whoever reaches 10 points first wins.

Skillshot

Skillshot is the third and final minigame, but this one isn't based off of a real sport like Volleyball and Hoops. The objective is to hit targets that pop up between the two players/teams. Like V-Ball, this can be played either 1v1 or 2v2. If a player hits an opponent with an arm, they will fall and probably lose a hit. Whoever has the most points after 90 seconds wins.

Grand Prix

Grand Prix is the primary single player experience of ARMS, though it can also be played with 2 players. The goal is to defeat 10 other characters, the 9 that you don't use plus the evil boss, Hedlock, to gain tons of ARMS money and more. If played single player, it will be regular 1v1 matches, but when playing with 2 players, it will be team fights. You can play with a range of difficulty, with level 1 being the easiest and level 8 being the hardest.

Unlocking Arms

I know what you're asking. Can't I use different arms than the 3 default ones on each character? Smart thinker, you are correct! You can obtain arms that ate default to a different character than the one you use for this mode by racking up points in a single player version of Skillshot. You can spend your ARMS coins that are obtained by playing matches either online or offline to do a short, medium, or long timer. The longer the timer, the more points you can get. A short timer costs $30, a medium costs $100, and a long costs $300.

Party Mode

Party mode is the primary online mode. In this, you are put in a room with up to 19 other players to play various modes that are selected at random, including 2, 3, and 4 player fights, team fights, Volleyball, Hoops, Skillshot, and even 3vHeadlock battles, where Headlock has 6 arms and a ton of health.

Ranked Matches

Ranked matches are for more competitive players who want to duke it out in competitive online 1v1 battles only. No potions or bombs, it's all strategy. Your rank goes up or down if you win or lose (respectively). You unlock this mode by completely Grand Prix at level 4 or above difficulty.

ARMS will feature free updates, just like Splatoon 2. The first will come out in late June that adds a Spectator Mode, and the second will come out in July that adds an 11th character. I will update this when needed!