Small Arms
Added February 2nd, 2007 by Dakota Grabowski
I am always one to accept original ideas on the Xbox Live Arcade. I love innovation and uniqueness. When Small Arms was officially announced, my interest level sky rocketed. When it was showcased in videos, my lust for this niche title soared. At E3, my infatuation rose even more. I couldn’t gather enough information on Small Arms even after extensive research on the net.
If you have ever played Smash Brothers, then you’ll feel right at home with Small Arms. Even though the shoes are too big to fill, Small Arms does a decent job holding me over until Smash Brothers comes out for the Nintendo Wii. The genre of this game is a beat-em brawler; you’ll be pitted against opponents until the time runs out or you are the last one standing. You may have heard this already, but it needs to be said -- this is basically a Smash Brothers clone without licensing and the addition of guns.
It’s not a bad clone of Smash Brothers by any means. The rich history of Smash Brothers is enough to make you want something similar since nothing has ever tried to follow the same formula. Maybe it’s because nothing can hold a candle to the beloved series, but Small Arms at least tries. The part I didn’t necessarily enjoy with Small Arms was that it focuses on the gunplay. I’d much rather have the gameplay revolve around beating each other up using powers and magic.
The combat is all two dimensional with 3d characters. Weapons are scattered throughout the levels to pick up and blast your friends with. The action is all over the place at a frantic pace, so be prepared to take in a lot of platform jumping. The winners of the matches are decided by whoever has the most points at the end of the match. Points are scored by killing your opposition. Be forewarned, you also lose points if you fall off the map since it counts as suicide.
If you have ever played Smash Brothers, then you’ll feel right at home with Small Arms. Even though the shoes are too big to fill, Small Arms does a decent job holding me over until Smash Brothers comes out for the Nintendo Wii. The genre of this game is a beat-em brawler; you’ll be pitted against opponents until the time runs out or you are the last one standing. You may have heard this already, but it needs to be said -- this is basically a Smash Brothers clone without licensing and the addition of guns.
It’s not a bad clone of Smash Brothers by any means. The rich history of Smash Brothers is enough to make you want something similar since nothing has ever tried to follow the same formula. Maybe it’s because nothing can hold a candle to the beloved series, but Small Arms at least tries. The part I didn’t necessarily enjoy with Small Arms was that it focuses on the gunplay. I’d much rather have the gameplay revolve around beating each other up using powers and magic.
The combat is all two dimensional with 3d characters. Weapons are scattered throughout the levels to pick up and blast your friends with. The action is all over the place at a frantic pace, so be prepared to take in a lot of platform jumping. The winners of the matches are decided by whoever has the most points at the end of the match. Points are scored by killing your opposition. Be forewarned, you also lose points if you fall off the map since it counts as suicide.
I truly wish there was more to the game than what was provided. The guns aren’t diverse enough to keep my attention and there are only eight levels to play through. Character selection is limited at the beginning and new characters can be won by playing the single player game. The characters will not be recognizable since they are just different animals that remind me of what the artists of Kung Fu Chaos created for the original Xbox. Each gun comes equipped with the primary and alternate fire functions, with the alternate function being the most powerful out of the two.
Small Arms wasn’t exactly the classic game I was looking for. This could be due to the fact that the characters don’t reach out and pull me into the game. Small Arms is missing that flavor that draws gamers in for countless hours of gameplay. Every character’s start-up weapon can be found within the levels, so there isn’t a huge advantage of picking one character over another. Some players may stress that every character has a different look to them, but that only goes so far since the characters are of the same mesh. There are 8 characters available from the start of the single player mission mode. Playing through the single player mission mode will unlock another four characters.
Outside of the single player mission mode, there is a training mode, shooting range mode and a challenge mode. Challenge mode is of the gauntlet variety where you kill as many characters as you can until you die. The training and shooting range mode shouldn’t be too far removed from predicting what they consist of. These basically are there for practicing and refining your skills as a player.
The number one reason to pick up Small Arms is its multiplayer. You can go into combat with up to four players on Xbox Live wielding different weapons through various levels. Small Arms’ entertainment is based around the online experience. Ranked matches are easy to set up and the lag is minimal when battling online. For all those players who hate jumping back to the start screen after a match is completed, there are player and private matches open so you can continuously play with the same group of friends without reopening a lobby every time.
Summary:
Small Arms is a noteworthy game for any Xbox Live fanatic that needs the next best thing online. There is nothing like this game currently offered in its genre and Small Arms’ online portion may even offer more replay value than Dead or Alive 4. Though, I still dream of a day when Microsoft puts together their own brawler with their own motley crew of characters. I stress that Small Arms is only for the multiplayer players out there that enjoy fragging their friends and hate playing games by themselves.
Small Arms wasn’t exactly the classic game I was looking for. This could be due to the fact that the characters don’t reach out and pull me into the game. Small Arms is missing that flavor that draws gamers in for countless hours of gameplay. Every character’s start-up weapon can be found within the levels, so there isn’t a huge advantage of picking one character over another. Some players may stress that every character has a different look to them, but that only goes so far since the characters are of the same mesh. There are 8 characters available from the start of the single player mission mode. Playing through the single player mission mode will unlock another four characters.
Outside of the single player mission mode, there is a training mode, shooting range mode and a challenge mode. Challenge mode is of the gauntlet variety where you kill as many characters as you can until you die. The training and shooting range mode shouldn’t be too far removed from predicting what they consist of. These basically are there for practicing and refining your skills as a player.
The number one reason to pick up Small Arms is its multiplayer. You can go into combat with up to four players on Xbox Live wielding different weapons through various levels. Small Arms’ entertainment is based around the online experience. Ranked matches are easy to set up and the lag is minimal when battling online. For all those players who hate jumping back to the start screen after a match is completed, there are player and private matches open so you can continuously play with the same group of friends without reopening a lobby every time.
Summary:
Small Arms is a noteworthy game for any Xbox Live fanatic that needs the next best thing online. There is nothing like this game currently offered in its genre and Small Arms’ online portion may even offer more replay value than Dead or Alive 4. Though, I still dream of a day when Microsoft puts together their own brawler with their own motley crew of characters. I stress that Small Arms is only for the multiplayer players out there that enjoy fragging their friends and hate playing games by themselves.
