Nintendo is not really known for fighting games besides Super Smash Bros. and yet the company has released several over the years. There was Urban Champion, though that was closer to a brawler, and Joy Mech Fight, which still holds up today. The most notable fighting game from Nintendo besides Super Smash Bros, at least in recent years, is the unique fighting game Arms.
Arms is an 3D fighting game that sees players take control of various characters who have extendable arms and duke it out. There was a bit more to it though, as the characters are all unique and have interesting abilities, such as some having their Arms abilities manifest in areas other than their Arms for more variety and having the option to equip various augmentations to your character for a fight. It also helps that each character feels unique and realized, making it ripe for more story potential.
Arms is often thought to have been a sales failure, but this is not the case. The game actually sold over two million copies, which is extremely good for a new IP, especially one in the fighting game genre. Nintendo did a lot to support the game for a long time after release, and excellent online play and updates kept the game alive for a while, but eventually the momentum dried up.
Arms showed there is potential for more fighting games from Nintendo besides Smash, and the game even impressed folks at Capcom who were open to Street Fighter crossover content for the game. There was a strong push initially behind the game, with a planned tie in comic that was cancelled, which begs the question. Why did Arms lose its momentum?
That would partly be due to the unconventional gameplay of Arms, which made it a harder sell for many. The focus on aiming and dodging was a bit much for casual players while the gameplay didn’t seem enough for fighting game enthusiasts in terms of technique and expression, at least on the surface, and thus found itself in an awkward position. The thing is, Arms actually had a lot of deep mechanics and there was a lot for hardcore fighting game fans to enjoy, but these aspects of the game were never marketed right.
So what can be done? Well, I would love to see a sequel happen that could learn from what went wrong there and perfect the gameplay to properly find the audience it deserves, in terms of the mechanics and marketing. When it comes to the characters, we have already seen fighters who use their arm abilities in non-traditional ways, such as Twintelle, whose arm ability involves her hair. Perhaps a sequel could further build on this idea and introduce new mechanics, and even Legs as a function. To be specific, characters whose limb extensions would be focused in their legs and would provide a different variety could be a feature.
Of course, we still need to acknowledge that there were various modes from the game that didn’t connect with fans, such as the volleyball mode, free-for-all mode and short rope mechanic, which could be taken and redone to address the various complaints. In addition, to go back to the characters, they could have used a bit more of a story than they had, and this ties into the other point that needs to come up. More single-player content was needed, as that helps to sell a game just as much as the online, which incidentally did function very well in Arms, and matches across continents were smooth and without major issues.
Another issue is that while new characters and a couple of modes were added for free over time, it still felt like some more modes could have been fleshed out and overall, that Nintendo just abandoned the game too soon. Rather than release a major paid DLC for the game, Nintendo ended support after just six months. Many fighting games get support for at least a year if not longer, and the lack of long-term support hurts the game. Nintendo had tried to position the game like Splatoon, with the way the updates rolled out, but a fighting game has to be approached differently. This is especially upsetting as there were planned characters and other content that were not added to the game due to Nintendo deciding to cease support early.
Once again this comes back to how Nintendo marketed the game, and now we needed to talk about the motion controls. Nintendo heavily featured them in the advertising, but competitive players found that standard controls worked better. However many seemed unaware standard controls existed, and thus skipped out, while those who bought the game for motion controls, found themselves overwhelmed when playing a competitive fighting game and not something like Wii Boxing or Super Smash Bros. Even something like changing out the arms for the different characters could take players off-guard and overwhelm them, while more competitive players would not have as hard a time, showing again that the game was marketed badly.
Another issues with the marketing is that while, Nintendo made a game that while marketed to casuals, needed the eSports scene, while Nintendo stopped promoting tournaments for Arms sooner than expected. Arms may have been a bit of a mixed bag in terms of whom it was made to appeal to, but there was a lot for the competitive scene to enjoy and it still has a small but dedicated scene that participates in small events. If Nintendo had gotten behind tournaments, they could have really pushed the game forward competitively, yet never seemed to want to go that route. Nintendo briefly tried to push Arms again when Min-min was added to Super Smash Bros, but without really getting behind the tournament scene or adding any major new content, it was always going to be a challenge since there was not enough single-player content to keep casuals as hooked, and Nintendo was not marketing the game to fighting game enthusiasts, especially since the competitive scene Arms did have is very different from the competitive Smash Bros scene.
All this being said. Arms was a great fighting game, with surprisingly deep mechanics when not using motion controls (which honestly got in the way of the game more often than not) and while it was rough in some areas, it is an IP with so much potential. If Nintendo were to truly work at making an amazing sequel that addresses the fan complaints, then it would no doubt be a hit. But to get there, Arms needs to be appreciated by players who wrote it off too quickly, and It would be amazing to see the game get more attention from streamers. Maybe we can all take some time and give it a second chance.
