Welcome to ARMS, Part 1: Motion Controls

Let’s do this thing.

Sup ya’ll!

I’m JC Rodrigo, and if that name sounds familiar, it might be that you’ve seen me get the best of someone like Bill Trinen in a game of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U or make a complete fool of myself on Nintendo Treehouse: Live.

To truly milk the cow, one must become the cow.

I’ve had the good fortune of working on lots of great projects here at Nintendo, like Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. When I’m not talking smack or milking virtual cows on a livestream, I’m often busy creating partnerships within the fighting-game community and helping out with social, competitive-gaming events like the Super Smash Bros. Invitational and the 2015 Nintendo World Championships. You’re…probably noticing a bit of a thematic trend here, right? And with good reason!

For the unfortunate few who’ve met me in person (haha!), you guys know I’m not shy about talking about the games I love and why I love them, and you know that one of my BIG obsessions is fighting games. There’s just something about this particular genre that enchants me in a way that’s almost… Well… Let’s just say that unleashing the full force of my enthusiasm here would probably be a bit much.

The feverish clicking of the candy-like convex buttons, the almost inhuman physical dexterity required to execute each move, the constant invisible mental dance as you try to stay one step ahead of your opponent—I dig all of the little details. One of my favorite things about spectating a high-level match is watching, right at the start, how players control the “neutral space”—that empty space between two fighters—to put themselves in advantageous positions before even a single attack button is pressed. In this regard, a top fighting game player is very much like a champion boxer—there are no wasted movements. Every little feint, step, and jab is intensely and fascinatingly deliberate.

So, yeah. I’m a fighting game fan. And after my last project wrapped up, I was handed ARMS.

Every fighting game needs a wicked lineup of fighters, and ARMS does not disappoint.

At first, I got rocked by the CPU over and over again. It was so different from the 2D fighting games I’m used to playing. There was the over-the-shoulder POV, the three-dimensional neutral space, the unique style, the unconventional controls… Really, I had to rethink my usual tactics from the ground up. But I could tell right away that the game was seriously fun and I was hungry to learn more.

Since then, I’ve spent hours “in the lab,” if you will, with other Treehouse staff members, figuring out what makes this game tick. And I think we’ve found some pretty awesome stuff. We’ll be going into more of that here in the coming weeks, but for now, let me give you a quick rundown of what I’ve gleaned about the different control schemes, to give you some additional foundation for what you saw in our recent ARMS Direct (which you can check out here if you missed it). It should help you get ready for this weekend’s demo event, the ARMS Global Testpunch!

Right. Let’s talk motion controls, shall we?

If you’ve seen someone play ARMS in any of the footage we’ve released, you already know that the game supports motion controls and that a quick flick of a wrist is all it takes to throw a punch. But what you might not know is how much nuance there is in controlling your fighter this way. For example, take throwing a punch…

At its most basic, what you want to do is keep the back of your thumb towards the ceiling and flick your hand forward a bit.

Here’s a basic forward jab, executed by Master Mummy.

This, by far, is the best way to execute a punch, both in terms of accuracy and speed. A big superhero-style windup, while fun, means a lot of wasted movement before your punch actually sails forward—and I don’t know about you, but when it’s time to react to an opening in my opponent’s defenses, I want to take advantage of every fraction of a second I can get.

But executing a punch doesn’t stop there—if you want to become a true ARMS master, you’ve also gotta learn to control its trajectory.

So your hand is flicked forward? Good. But don’t draw it back into your body right away—instead, keep it flicked out in front of you for however long your fist is in flight. While it’s out there, rotate your wrist to the 9 o’clock or 3 o’clock position to guide its trajectory to the left or right. And keep in mind that those rotations are analog—the more you turn your wrists, the more your punches will curve.

See what happened there? Pretty cool!

Now, let’s be crystal clear: this one small detail—mindfulness of punch trajectory—is what separates a good puncher from a great puncher. Try to punch where you think your opponent is going to be rather than where he or she is currently standing (against good players, this is, of course, WAYYYY easier said than done). Be strategic in where you aim your blows. And when you’re on the receiving end, pay attention to your opponent’s targeting, too.

The same goes when you’re executing a grab-and-throw, except that to perform this move you’ll need to flick both hands forward at the same time. As with punches, the trajectory of a throw can be steered. (Protip: To widen the area between your fists when you try for a throw, flick your hands forward and then turn your thumbs outward in opposite directions. This makes it a bit easier to grab fast-moving targets.)

A side-by-side comparison of a normal and widened grab area, featuring Ribbon Girl.

Going the motion-control route, executing punches feels a bit different than it does when you trigger them using defined button presses but, on the flip-side, you have subtle and intuitive influence over your strikes that feels really smooth, and you’re able to execute complex combinations of attacks and directional movements—like, say, a string of punches to the left while you dodge to the right—with greater ease.

Getting used to motion controls in a fighting game definitely takes some practice if you’re an old dog like me, but the payoff is worth the effort. (Incidentally, if these motion controls intrigue you and you want to see them in action, I’d recommend checking out the Nintendo Treehouse: Live segment from back in January, which is available over here.)

—JC R.