Nintendo is finally, thankfully embracing sports and eSports

Nintendo has positioned ARMS as a launch title alongside heavy hitters like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, so it's safe to say that they have high hopes. In a nutshell, the game is an arcade-style boxing-slash-fighting game. Combat revolves around jumping, dashing, dodging, and pummeling your opponent with stretchy, springy arms.

In action, the game is a bit less Punch-Out!!, and a bit more like a standard fighting game, albeit with a foundation solidly rooted in boxing.

The game can be played either with or without motion controls, though playing with motion controls allows for a bit more precision when curving punches around your opponent. Matches usually follow a certain cat-and-mouse pattern, with each combatant jockeying for position, trying to force their opponent into making a mistake. Since each character has different abilities, and since each character also has different fists they can equip, there's a lot to juggle between keeping track of possible attack vectors, keeping your guard up, and maneuvering around an arena to stay on the offensive. The rhythm of the game is tense, and though it is very, very arcade-y, the gameplay is almost exclusively based on reacting to your opponent, reading them, and constantly changing your plan of attack.

Sound familiar? That's because those underpinnings are the underpinnings of boxing, mixed martial arts, and every single other popular fighting game on the market today. And Nintendo seems to know it. They hosted an ARMS tournament at the event, and appear to be positioning the game as a competitive fighting game that could show up at huge tournaments like EVO and others.

The game attempts to strike a balance between a kind of satisfying simplicity and deep strategy, and it takes some getting used to. And because the game only features a few different characters and maps, the competitive potential of the game might be limited when it launches.

Splatoon 2

Launching in Summer of 2017, Splatoon 2 might not look like anything resembling a competitive eSports title. It's a sequel to a game that is ostensibly about painfully fashionable anthropomorphic squids shooting ink all over a map to claim territory.

In effect, however, the first Splatoon was one of the few bright spots for Nintendo's ill-fated Wii U console. It was Nintendo's attempt at making a team-based competitive shooter, and the way it blended advanced movement options with endless customization and specialization options ensured that it would carve out a cult following in the eSports scene.

The sequel iterates on all of this, adding weapons and game modes, but the biggest and best change here comes not in the game itself but the console it is on. The Nintendo Switch can link wirelessly with other consoles, even without an internet connection. This means that tournaments will be extremely simple to set up – all players will have to do in order to compete with their customized player is just, well, bring the console. It harkens back to the days of Counter-Strike and Mechwarrior 4 LAN parties, with the added bonus that these matches can happen anywhere: on the bus, in the back of a car during a road trip, or while you're tailgating.

And though NBA 2k18 and the upcoming FIFA title were not at this event, one can easily imagine what this kind of thing would mean for sports gaming. Images of in-person 11 on 11 soccer matches dance in the aether, with 22 people gathered in the same room discussing strategy, formations, and plans of attack. If the way Nintendo is positioning ARMS and Splatoon 2 is any indication, sports fans have a whole lot to look forward to come March.