[dropcap]J[/dropcap]ust recently, Nintendo gave us a heaping helping of Arms details in the form of the Arms Direct. It was a general rundown, but the information we were given revealed plenty about how the game will play. So we felt it would be a good idea to run through some of the choices players will be faced with. This may give us some insight into what may happen early in the competitive scene. If not, it will at least give us an idea of what setups we’ll be seeing most often.

With that in mind, this post is going to focus on the characters that were covered in the Direct. Specifically, we’ll be analyzing the five characters that were revealed when the game was first announced. This includes both new and old characters since the presentation talked about every character’s abilities. Because the signature arms mentioned in the Direct appear to only be what each character starts with and we know there will be more for each character to use, it seems unnecessary to talk in detail about the signature arms in this context. However, they will likely say a lot about the character that uses them. As such, they may come up when discussing the niche a character may fill.

Spring Man

Naturally, it only seemed right we started with the two faces of the series. One of these two, Spring Man, appears to be a very basic character, as you might expect. Even his signature arms support this role. The three arms Nintendo showed off with him cover three very basic options. One for direct punches, one for heavily curved punches, and one for multi-hits. Aside from that, he has two main abilities. When his health is low, he gets stronger, allowing for comebacks for players that can keep a level head. On top of that, when he charges up his arms Spring Man can deflect attacks by dashing to create a shockwave.

What these likely mean is that Spring Man will be a very aggressive character.With his abilities, it may be a good strategy to approach with a charge, deflect an attack, and counter with whatever you like. Spring Man players might hold back a rush attack until they’re low on health, then use this dodge-counter strategy with a rush in order to deal absurd amounts of damage fast. Needless to say, Spring Man will not be a character to sleep on, especially when he’s low on health.

All in all, Spring Man appears to be a character that’s well suited for teaching newcomers how to play. In that sense, he’s this game’s Ryu (Street Fighter), Jago (Killer Instinct), or Mario/Kirby (Super Smash Bros). We might suggest everyone learn the basics with this guy before getting acquainted with a more difficult character pick. However, that decision is entirely up to the player.

Ribbon Girl

Ribbon Girl is actually a far more interesting character than most likely gave her credit for. Most likely, people wrote her off as another basic fighter like Spring Man, but that doesn’t seem to be entirely true. Sure, her signature arms are a reasonable variety, similar those of to the other face of the game. However, they don’t vary the direction far less and the style of punishment far more.On top of that, her abilities double down on her aerial mobility, making her really hard to hit.

On top of that, her abilities double down on her aerial mobility, making her really hard to hit. Ribbon Girl’s multiple mid-air jumps and her ability to drop immediately to the ground will create some heavy mix-ups. Smart players will be able to bait opponents into a bad punish, which will give Ribbon Girl a chance to push back.

Most likely, Ribbon Girl will be popular among Smash players and other fighting game veterans who already understand how mind games work. Her aerial mix-ups and decent punish game will very likely result in a lot of newer players getting crushed.  Since mobility is her middle name, it definitely seems like she’ll at least be a difficult character to hit reliably, so long as the player in question actually avoids flow charting their aerial movements.

Unlike Spring Man, Ribbon Girl does NOT seem like she’s going to be a good pick-up-and-play character for newcomers. Ribbon Girl will be difficult to use properly until you get the hand of the game’s mechanics, so try to really learn the game before you jump into the ring with her.

Ninjara

It should come as no surprise that Ninjara is going to be a fast-and-light sort of character. None of his signature arms are very heavy, and one of his abilities is his sheer speed. Ninjara’s active ability is his warp technique. When dodging in the air or out of a block, Ninjara disappears for a second. This could very well thwart homing attacks or horizontal strikes that were intended to cover horizontal options. Without a doubt, this character fits into the fighting game niche of rush-down character. This means he wants to get in your face and keep you from doing much of anything.

We’ll likely see Ninjara become a favorite counter-pick character for arms that strike multiple places at once or slow characters that prefer to keep enemies at a distance. If different characters have different amounts of health, Ninjara’s will likely be low, but considering the game’s tank character can heal, we think it’s unlikely that he’d have that AND a larger health bar.

Ninjara is going to be best for players who want all-out aggression. Defensively, he’s going to struggle, but if he can keep the opponent from locking him down, he may be able to gain the advantage.

Master Mummy

Slow and heavy are the words to describe this character. Master Mummy is definitively a tank. This guy’s big and slow and based on his signature arms, so are his attacks. It seems that the mummy’s main combat strategy is going to be playing defensive until he has a chance to get in close and completely overpower the opponent.

Master Mummy has two abilities, like anyone else. His passive ability makes him ignore knockback from regular attacks, meaning you’ll need to charge your arms to keep him at bay. Secondly, he heals whenever he’s blocking. Naturally, this means that character that can’t keep up the aggression or have slow attacks will likely find themselves at a disadvantage.

We think this big lug is gonna be one of the early favorites online. That’s because his ability to completely overwhelm the opponent by getting in close and directly negating their attacks will inevitably cause newer players some pain. However, more skilled players will start to get into the online, soon after. When a Master Mummy user joins them in the upper ranks, they’ll likely start to get zoned out or pressured. Remember to play patiently with this guy.

Mechanica

Mechanica seems like a much more complex fighter, at first. He’s bigger and bulkier, making her an easier target, but she’s not especially slow. Her signature arms, unlike Spring Man’s for instance, have a more focused application and may require a bit more strategy. Note that the arms Nintendo showed off all have a focus on negating movement and general counterplay.

Aside from this, Mechanica has two abilities, although, they were almost presented as just one in the Direct. Most notably, she can hover for some period of time and can seemingly land whenever she chooses. That’ll be good for some landing mix-ups. On top of that, the Direct said that her handmade combat suit has high durability. Now, it’s not 100% clear what this means, based on the Direct alone. Thankfully, the original character overview trailer helps us with this. It turns out that Mechanica doesn’t get stunned by regular punches, allowing her to counter. This is different from Master Mummy, though, as she still takes knockback.

All of this comes together to suggest that Mechanica will be a more difficult character to use and will likely be based heavily on zoning opponents out and staying defensive. (Spoiler alert: she won’t be the only one.) Her signature arms work well against high mobility opponents, by either locking them in place or chasing them. Also, her abilities allow her to play more defensively. Her hover makes it harder to punish landings while her durability means that punishes don’t get as much mileage on her.

With that in mind, it’s suggested that players who choose Mechanica try to play patiently and block enemy movement. It’s best that players fighting a Mechanica try not to get too aggressive. She’ll capitalize on that painfully.

More to Come

With so much to cover, we didn’t want this article getting too lengthy. So there will be a part 2 to this article, which will be linked here as soon as it’s up. Please check back for it, as we’ll be posting it very soon! For info on battle modes and the global testpunch, try these articles.

ARMS Character Discussion – Part 2 right here.