{"id":29870,"date":"2018-07-02T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/07\/hands_on_going_into_battle_with_arena_of_valor_switchs_new_moba_sensation"},"modified":"2018-07-02T16:30:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-02T16:30:00","slug":"hands-on-going-into-battle-with-arena-of-valor-switchs-new-moba-sensation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/07\/02\/hands-on-going-into-battle-with-arena-of-valor-switchs-new-moba-sensation\/","title":{"rendered":"Hands On: Going Into Battle With Arena Of Valor, Switch&#8217;s New MOBA Sensation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/07\/hands_on_going_into_battle_with_arena_of_valor_switchs_new_moba_sensation\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/07\/hands_on_going_into_battle_with_arena_of_valor_switchs_new_moba_sensation\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<aside class=\"picture embed centered picture-900x img-900x\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a title=\"arena main.jpg\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/07\/hands_on_going_into_battle_with_arena_of_valor_switchs_new_moba_sensation\/attachment\/0\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/07\/hands_on_going_into_battle_with_arena_of_valor_switchs_new_moba_sensation\/attachment\/0\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"arena main.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Nintendo Switch hasn&#8217;t even hit the 18-month mark and it&#8217;s already been acquiring all manner of popular new genres. It&#8217;s jumped onto the hero shooter bandwagon with the excellent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/paladins_-_founders_pack\"><strong>Paladins<\/strong><\/a> and ticked the battle royale box so hard with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/fortnite\"><strong>Fortnite<\/strong><\/a> it&#8217;s gone right through the paper and snapped the pen for good measure.<\/p>\n<p>So now it falls to a genre that&#8217;s long been one of the most impenetrable, a PC mainstay that&#8217;s become a crown jewel of the eSports scene &#8211; the MOBA. Known as a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena to its friends and family, the classic MOBA template remains incredibly popular on PC thanks to the success of <strong>Dota 2<\/strong> and <strong>League of Legends<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/arena_of_valor\"><strong>Arena of Valor<\/strong><\/a> &#8211; a new, previously mobile-exclusive instalment in the genre &#8211; shares a publisher with the latter (Chinese giant, Tencent Games, no less) and it&#8217;s that shared gene pool that&#8217;s helped take an often intimidatingly deep concept and turn it into a fast-paced and rewarding experience that&#8217;s just right for the &#8216;pick up and play&#8217; ethos of a handheld-friendly console.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/07\/hands_on_going_into_battle_with_arena_of_valor_switchs_new_moba_sensation\/attachment\/1\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/07\/hands_on_going_into_battle_with_arena_of_valor_switchs_new_moba_sensation\/attachment\/1\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"arena1.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>In fact, the free-to-play Arena of Valor takes more than inspiration from LoL. It outright copies many a character, right down to their costumes and abilities, but considering both games are aimed at very different markets, it&#8217;s a cross-breeding of ideas that&#8217;s unlikely to cause the industry to capsize. If anything, building on the solid foundation of a game like LoL only helps build AoV&#8217;s authenticity.<\/p>\n<p>The concept is mercifully simple. Select a match type &#8211; they come in 5v5, 3v3 and 1v1 variants &#8211; select a hero from the 34 available then head into battle. Only a handful are available from the start, but if the unlock system from the mobile version follows suit on Switch, you&#8217;ll be unlocking new characters every few days through log-in bonuses, in-game challenges and special events. With skins and skills also dolled out regularly, it promises\u00a0to keep you coming back for more.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, back to the action. Much like LoL, each map is divided in half, with three channels linking one end to the other. Each team has a core they need to protect &#8211; destroy your enemy&#8217;s core and the game is over. However, you&#8217;ll need to destroy towers along the way &#8211; which serve as a line of defence along each route &#8211; as well as engaging enemy heroes. It can be a little overwhelming at first, especially if you&#8217;re new to this genre, but its top-down view and myriad abilities soon start to open up.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/07\/hands_on_going_into_battle_with_arena_of_valor_switchs_new_moba_sensation\/attachment\/2\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/07\/hands_on_going_into_battle_with_arena_of_valor_switchs_new_moba_sensation\/attachment\/2\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"arena2.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Each hero has a unique set of abilities tied to &#8216;L&#8217;, &#8216;R&#8217; and &#8216;LZ&#8217;, &#8216;RZ&#8217;, &#8216;B&#8217; and &#8216;A&#8217; and a number of these can be upgraded throughout a battle. To do this you&#8217;ll need to get in among the action, killing enemy heroes, taking out minions (AI-controlled fodder that follow you into battle) and increasing the credits you can spend. Soon you realise respawning back at your own core isn&#8217;t a punishment, it&#8217;s simply a way for you to upgrade\u00a0a given power, making it far more potent by the time you rejoin the action. The controls also map over surprisingly well. The mobile version was a pure touchscreen affair, so being able to use the analog sticks on the Joy-Cons is instantly more tactile and responsive than a digital joystick on screen.<\/p>\n<p>Many of your attacks also have cooldowns, so there&#8217;s a tactical nature of knowing when and where to use them. Many of the heroes also complement each other. It&#8217;s not as strictly team focused as Paladins and its objective-based action, but heroes are still divided into distinct categories &#8211; Tank, Warrior, Assassin, Mage, Marksman and Support.<\/p>\n<p>Having a powerful heavy character such as the Viking-esque Ormarr ploughing into battle with his giant hammer is a great way to cause mass havoc near a tower, but his life expectancy can be dramatically increased if you have a Marksman such as Violet taking powerful potshots outside the AOE of a tower, or a Support such as Alice with her helpful shield abilities. Matches may only last around 10-minutes long each (regular MOBA matches on are usually around the half-hour mark), but there&#8217;s still a pleasing amount of depth once you stop aimlessly hacking and slashing.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/07\/hands_on_going_into_battle_with_arena_of_valor_switchs_new_moba_sensation\/attachment\/3\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/07\/hands_on_going_into_battle_with_arena_of_valor_switchs_new_moba_sensation\/attachment\/3\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"arena3.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Performance-wise its mostly good news. Designed to run on the same mobile processors found in Nintendo Switch, Arena of Valor usually only stutters when a match begins, with a short but frustrating drop in frames. Load times between matches are also painfully long, but once you&#8217;re into a match you&#8217;re only kept waiting by a cooldown timer between deaths. Its character designs look a little muddy on screen compared to their much higher-res cousins shown off in menus, but the in-game experience is still clear enough to keep the action discernable. The controls also map well to the Joy-Con or Pro Controller, offering just as much dexterity in handheld mode as it does tabletop\/docked mode.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, Arena of Valor&#8217;s short yet sweet beta has left us surprisingly optimistic for its eventual release. It looks and plays much like its genre counterparts, despite being of mobile origins, and there&#8217;s still plenty to enjoy and earn through in-game achievements for those not looking to spend real-world cash. With tweaked graphics and support for both casual and ranked play, Arena of Valor promises to be a huge new addition to Switch&#8217;s handheld library when it arrives later this year.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"object object-youtube\">\n<div class=\"youtube\">[embedded content]<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><em>Have you played Arena of Valor on Switch? Are you a big MOBA fan? Share your thoughts on the game in the comments below&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nintendo Switch hasn&#8217;t even hit the 18-month mark and it&#8217;s already been acquiring all manner of popular new genres. It&#8217;s jumped onto the hero shooter bandwagon with the excellent Paladins and ticked the battle royale box so hard with Fortnite it&#8217;s gone right through the paper and snapped the pen for good measure. So now [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}