Is Nintendo's ARMS TOO hard(core)?

Nintendo’s unique new fighting game, appropriately titled ARMS, has been out for 2 weeks now. Upon first glance of this game, it is easy to see it as a kid-friendly, casual fighter. Upon second glance, you may see a casual fighter with a surprising amount of customization and depth to it. However, after spending nearly 30 hours with the game spread across 14 days, it has become evident to me that ARMS may not be a casual fighter at all, but is instead a family-friendly, Nintendo developed game, that was actually made for a hardcore audience. Now, maybe to those of you who haven’t played the game, or maybe even to those of you who have, that statement might seem crazy. Let me explain.

First of all, ARMS is HARD! I consider myself to be a seasoned player of both video games and fighting games. While I am admittedly not the most talented gamer, my experience typically makes me competent with almost every game I pick up. However, with ARMS, I found myself struggling to get past just Rank 4 (out of 7) of Grand Prix mode (the games single player “story” mode). Even though I am a seasoned gamer, I struggled mightily just to get past the half way point of the difficulty scale of Grand Prix mode. This made me wonder, was I just exceptionally bad at ARMS? With this thought in mind, I searched the internet for other people’s experiences with the game. What I found was that there were actually several people mentioning that they began to struggle at just rank 3 of Grand Prix! Not even half way up the difficulty scale! With this evidence, I concluded that it wasn’t just my lack of skill causing the problems, ARMS is just a genuinely tough game with a steep learning curve.

The difficulty of ARMS is just the tip of the iceberg for why I believe the game is intended for a hardcore base. Most games do have a difficulty scale, with the lower end being for casual gamers, and the higher end being for the more hardcore fans. Any good game can scale to a variety of players in this way, and is something that Nintendo often specializes in. The real evidence for my conclusion is based on the lack of content there is to be found for casual gamers. In no way am I saying that there is a lack of content to be found in ARMS. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The game has both online casual play, and online ranked matches. Some incredibly unique modes for a fighting game can be found, such as volleyball and basketball. Like most other Nintendo Switch software, the game offers local multiplayer. Also, to top it all off, all (current) characters are unlocked from the start. There is also the prospect of countless combinations of arms to experiment with, which could keep any gamer busy for hours and hours. So no, the game is not lacking in content overall. Where it is more lacking is with content specifically for CASUAL gamers. A lot of the content I just mentioned is primarily going to be utilized by hardcore gamers only. For example, I mentioned earlier that I found that many players are finding difficulty getting past rank 3 of Grand Prix. Well an entire game mode (ranked play) isn’t even unlocked until clearing rank 4 of Grand Prix! That goes to say that a number of players will never even unlock ranked play! I acknowledge that rank play tends to be for more hardcore gamers in most games that offer it as a game mode. However, the problem with difficulty being a barrier doesn’t stop there. The party mode (casual online play), which is unlocked from the start, suffers from a bit of steep difficulty as well. It seems that the less talented players have ALREADY been weeded out of this mode as it is rare to find a match where you can easily defeat your opponent.  Many less talented or experienced gamers (casuals) will likely struggle to win 1 out of 5 or 6 matches and may often times find themselves being dominated. With both the party mode and ranked play being so difficult or completely inaccessible, that only leaves casual gamers with the offline features. To be clear, ARMS is very clearly an online focused game, much like, and even more so, than the original Splatoon was. That being said, without playing online modes, there is very little left to do in ARMS. It essentially is leaving the casual or less talented/experienced players with the first 3-5 ranks of Grand Prix and local multiplayer.

With all this being said, I am still not trying to criticize ARMS. I absolutely ADORE this game. Each character has so much personality and depth (feeling very much like Overwatch in that way) and the battles experienced both online and offline are almost always intense and incredibly rewarding when won. Despite the aforementioned difficulty, the game and its controls (whether traditional or motion) always feel tight and fair. If you lose, you always know it is of your own faults, which means winning is always from your own strengths! This game is exceptionally great and is another fantastic addition to Nintendo’s legendary list of IP’s. I would recommend this game to anyone! Especially people who are lovers of unique gameplay, Nintendo’s quirky charm, or fighting games in general. However, I must warn, this game is, in my opinion, a hardcore fighter. By all means, give it a try! But you may have to come to grips that ARMS is just TOO hardcore for you.