Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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I feel like I should probably apologize or something:
twitter.com/yuugijoou
discord.gg/bKT9pRW

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This game is pretty neat. But it's also pretty hard to control. I only really have so many concrete thoughts about the game because I only realized the (first) demo period was about halfway over before I even remembered to install the thing.

It's also pretty rough on your arms. And potentially your legs if they're uncovered. (Wear pants, I guess?) Trying to use just about any other surface just adds to the strain, because you'd be reaching further... maybe you can sti on the floor with a pair of mousepads at your sides?

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If I'm being honest, the whole "you can only play this demo at these prescribed time periods" phenomenon probably makes sense to SOME people making the decisions, but this is not a Splatoon. Heck, it's not even an ARMS, so you're NOT going to have the immediate intuitive appeal for people to. (Nor the kickin' main menu theme, for that matter. :P)

I honestly predict most people will try the tutorial, find it unsatisfyingly lengthy and tiring even before the match against computer players, and then bounce off. Hard.

Which is a shame. This game is super polished. MANY of the ideas it's based on are sound. It could PROBABLY be played much more immediately satisfyingly with a dual analog control scheme, but then that would utterly defeat the whole purpose upon which the entire experiment was predicated and the whole thing was titled after.

At least they kenw to price it appropriately to people's probable expectations?

It's a shame, because I think it's actually a lot of fun.

... ... ...but you definitely can't play it for very long.

(or maybe I just need to hulk up my ARMS?)

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The game feels like at least 80% drive control in terms of the alarmingly high skill ceiling. There's a LOT of subtlety in execution... and some decided unsubtlety in maximum drag threshold.

Given that knocking the ball loose seems to be entirely based on colliding with your opponent from the front, I'm not entirely clear what the strengths of the slower two sizes of player types actually are... whereas there are plenty of unassailable boons to be derived from just flat out being faster than others. Smaller, too!

Trying to steer effectively and efficiently into someone's vulnerable zone is challenging enough when they're stationary, though. I can definitely see a certain degree of dunk meta setting in easily, although the maneuver involved isn't entirely trivial... you even get bonus point fractions for it! (Feels powerful enough that maybe they ought to have considered subtracting 0.1 points for it instead.)