Nintendo have revealed the next fighter coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is Min Min from ARMS. She will be out on 29th June, available separately or as part of Fighters Pass Vol. 2.
Game Director Masahiro Sakurai has given us a look at the addition, starting off with an explanation of the game’s state of development with working at home in effect – he’s got one heck of a gaming set up at home, as well. The video was actually recorded back in early May.
Having teased that an ARMS fighter would come to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate back in March, Min Min was picked over “main” character like Spring Man quite simply ARMS Producer Yabuki-san said he wanted it to be so.
Her spring-like arms are a key part of her ability set, able to curl and having different ranges depending on movement and tilt, but quite uniquely, her arms are controlled independently using the A and B buttons. This can be used to punch in two separate directions, or press A + B for a combined smash attack. Her weakness is that her punches are quite low by default and very directional, meaning that a short hop can get above them, even if you curl her punch.
You can swap out her right arm with down+B, switching to the Ramram, a lower powered boomerang-like attack, while Megawatt is strong, but rather slow and short-ranged. You can also set her arm to Dragon and match her right arm. In this paired form, if you hold down the smash attack button, she shoots out a laser, and with both arms as Dragons, these can be extended and shot at different angles.
Though she’s really all about range, she also has short ranged attacks in the form of kicking. These are achieved by a quick tap of the A button, instead of holding, with a somersault kick allowing her to deflect attacks, slide kick, dive kick and more.
Up and B lets Min Min use her arms to leap high up into the air, the length of time you hold the button determines how high she jumps.
Her final ability is ARMS Rush, her Final Smash attack that brings in all her fellow ARMS characters for a cinematic pummelling with Min Min delivering the final blow.
Spring Stadium is the new stage to fight in, with a central arena that has jump pads on either end. ARMS Drones will sometimes carry items in and a spring platform can appear in the middle of the arena as well. There’s a whopping eighteen tracks being added to the game as well.
Alongside this are some new Mii Costume fighters, including Ninjara from ARMS, Heihachi from Tekken, Maria and Callie costumes from Splatoon, and Vault Boy from Fallout.
Two new amiibo were also revealed, with Joker from Persona 5 and Hero from Dragon Quest 11 two DLC characters receiving amiibo this autumn.
Coming out in the summer of 2017, ARMS was a great 3D fighter that really innovated on what the genre could while making use of the Nintendo Switch’s various capabilities. Dom wrote in our ARMS review:
“Bringing motion controls back with a bang, ARMS can feel surprisingly retro, yet it also fits in perfectly with Nintendo’s modern twist on gaming and the Switch. ARMS exhibits Nintendo’s flair for game design to its fullest, confidently taking a well-known genre and injecting it with colour and character to craft something that’s inimitably their own.”
Though the game sold well, it lived in the shadow of Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Odyssey, all of which made for an incredible first year of exclusives for the Switch. Still, it sold over a million copies and enjoyed a good year of support with regular game events and additional characters. Having ARMS characters in Smash Bros. will do for now, but we’ve really got our arms crossed for a sequel to this overlooked classic.
