‘Arms’: Meet the cast and weapons of the upcoming Switch fighter

When Arms first appeared at the Nintendo Switch press event in January, it was easy to draw comparisons to both Punch-Out! and Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots. Arms, however, may have a bit more depth. Nintendo released two new overview trailers that show off the various styles of brawling featured in its upcoming fighter.

The character trailer detailed the game’s five announced fighters.

• Spring Man: A well-balanced fighter perfect for beginners. When sprinting, Spring Man has the ability to create a shockwave which parries incoming attacks.
• Ribbon Girl: A nimble fighter whose arms are literally made of ribbons. She can jump repeatedly in mid-air, but also has a quick-drop skill to help catch opponents off guard.
• Ninjara: With arms made of metal chains, and frisbee-like discs attached at the ends, Ninjara differentiates himself from Spring Man and Ribbon Girl. His dash ability makes him disappear for a moment via a smokescreen. In guard mode, he can warp up close to opponents to hit them with a haymaker.
• Master Mummy: One of the two tank characters of the lot, Master Mummy moves slower than other characters but inflicts heavy damage. In guard mode, he replenishes health.
• Mechanica: A tank based on the fact that she wears a giant mech suit, Mechanica can hover in mid-air thanks to her jetpack. She has a resistance to stun attacks.

From the weapons trailer, while the fighters have default weapons, it seems that each character can equip multiple sets of gloves. Fighters can also mix and match sets, as you aren’t tied down to using the same type for both arms.

• Toaster: Default Spring Man/Ribbon Girl arms. The toasters are a pair of spring loaded gloves that catch fire when charged.
• Megaton: Default Master Mummy arms. These wrecking ball-type arms grow in size when charged.
• Sparky: When charged, Sparkies are infused with electric currents that shock opponents.
• Boomerang: The Boomerangs travel in an arc that can be guided around structures to weed out opponents from cover. When charged, they have the power to send opposing characters backward.
• Revolver: Default Mechanica arms. The revolvers shoot a trio of tethered rockets from each arm
• Slapamander: These elongated arms extend in an arc like the Boomerang, but hit like a whip. When charged, the Slapamanders ignite.

Interestingly, Ninjara’s coiled arms don’t appear in the weapons trailer, but the clip briefly showed two additional unnamed weapons: a torpedo-esque arm on Master Mummy, and a spiked glove on Spring Man. Additionally, the fighter handling the Sparkies was not named in the character trailer. Bottom line: While these two trailers gave us names to faces and weapons, they aren’t all encompassing. It seems as if we can expect at least six characters and nine sets of weapons, but probably more of the latter.

The game does not have a firm launch date, but it’s still slated for spring, exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.