Does anyone really remember Arms anymore? You know, that fighting game from 2017 where everyone had super stretchy arms? Considering Super Smash Bros is literally the only fighting series that I care to play, Arms was never a particular priority for me, even though I had to admit that I was somewhat intrigued by the game’s…bizarre roster of characters.  I mean…was Ribbon Girl born with ribbons instead of arms? Did she amputate her arms and replace them with ribbons? Am I thinking too much into it…because these are questions that need answers!

Ahem, getting to the point, I finally decided to try Arms for myself once I realized the game had a demo and no money would have to be sacrificed in the process.  A small handful of the fifteen available characters are playable, and I chose to fight as Twintelle (who actually has regular arms and instead fights using her long hair) and the aforementioned Ribbon Girl.  Each time, I had to complete the tutorial before facing two rounds each with Ninjara (a ninja with chains in place of arms) and Lola Pop (a strange clown woman with candy arms).

For someone who’s not normally a fan of these types of games, Arms was surprisingly fun.  It’s a simple enough concept.  You can dodge and block and jump, and most importantly, punch and grab people from across long distances with your elastic arms.  Plus, each character has three unique attachments for your arms (or hair, in Twintelle’s case) that you can mix and match.  I don’t remember them too well, but I liked Twintelle’s parasol the most, and I decided to stick with Ribbon Girl’s boxing gloves when slapping people from across the room turned out to be more amusing than actually effective. 

But is it worth buying Arms all these years later? It’s hard to say.  Various reviews online said that the game lacks content and was not as fleshed out as it could have been, while others really enjoy the game and believe it deserves a bigger fan base than it got.  As for me, I’m just not particularly into this genre of game, even though I think Arms has a unique concept with a variety of interesting characters.  Even when the game was initially released all those years ago, I remember being rather interested in the range of ideas they managed to come up with when creating characters with elastic arms, from springs and ribbons to snakes and mummy wraps to…whatever the crap Helix is!  In classic Nintendo style, Arms is still a whopping $60, in case you’re still interested.