ARMS 2.1 update is live, Master Mummy’s gotta go fast

Also proves author wasn’t crazy

Nintendo has dropped a surprise update for Arms, bringing the game up to version 2.1. This continues with the company’s promise of free content and support. However, while nothing new was added, the team has been changing a lot under the hood, effectively changing the balance for most of the game.

In addition if you thought “Hey, the hitboxes aren’t working right,” turns out you were right all along.

To begin with, here’s a list of the more general changes to the game.

• Moved “Training” to the top menu.
• Added five exercises to “Training”, and added difficulty level indications.
• Adjusted the way the rush gauge fills, decreasing the amount gained for punches that do not connect with the opponent.
• When 3-4 players start a battle, instructions on how to switch targets will now be displayed. A cursor will also be displayed above the current target for a set time.
• Adjusted hitbox sizes for fighters, improving issues where hits were not registered despite looking like hits.
• Changed the pause, results, and replay menus in “Training” to be more convenient.
• For “Best Stage” in Stats, made it harder for less frequently played stages to be selected, even if you have a high win ration on them.
• Corrected issue that caused the game to hang-up when the ending was skipped at a particular time.

Overall, while menu adjustments and bug fixes for convenience are always good, and adjusting and building on training options is always a plus, it’s the rest that are the real highlights. The adjustment to the rush gauge is a notable one, as it will potentially mean less rushes in a match, and possibly a problem for players that are facing off against more skilled opponents. The change for lock-on is a huge one, as the controls were never really explained before, and the lack of a target indicator was one of the biggest complaints many had for the game.

However, that hitbox note is the biggest one. Since the Global Testpunch, it’s always felt like my punches weren’t consistently landing, or my grabs were going through people. My favorite memory during the demo was watching my throw attempts go straight through Master Mummy and Mechanica while being told it was probably lag that caused it. The fact that it’s been an issue all this time makes me feel right, but also extremely salty at the same time, since god knows how many matches were lost because of it. Nintendo hasn’t specified which characters were affected or if it was the entire roster, likely to avoid the entire player-base losing its mind.

After that, we start going into more specifics. Master Mummy is picking up some much-needed mobility, with an increased dash speed, and along with Mechanica is receiving an increase in movement speed when jumping. Kid Cobra is having his floatation adjusted when he performs a jump attack, although it’s not clear what they mean by this. Byte & Barq have received a big one with Barq having a reduction to how long it takes him to get back up after being knocked down, however it was not specified how fast it would be. Finally, a large number of Arms were adjusted, with mostly buffs across the board.

Overall the patch looks to do a lot of good. Some much-needed adjustments to the hitboxes and multiplayer modes, as well as buffing the weaker cast members and Arms. It will help keep the game healthy, especially from a competitive standpoint. It will be interesting to see if any new files are added in regards to the leaked content found by dataminers in version 2.0. We may not need to wait for the dataminers however, as the official Twitter account is announcing that they are planning to add in a new fighter and Arms in the next update, so we should be hearing something soon.

How to Update ARMS [Nintendo Support]