Since the January announcement of a second fighters pass for Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Nintendo fans have been eagerly anticipating the unveiling of these new additions to the games already impressive roster. Later, at the end of March, it was announced that the first of these new fighters would be from ARMS, however the development process was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This afternoon, Smash Bros director Masahiro Sakurai finally presented the long-awaited details of this new character in full. Read on to find out more.
Those who follow Smash Ultimate reveals religiously will be used to seeing showcases taking place from Sakurai’s own offices but instead today’s announcement took place from Sakurai’s own home in footage recorded in early May. Sakurai shared a look at his living room, featuring a seriously impressive gaming setup containing consoles both old and new, hooked up to two TV’s so that he can game and watch TV at the same time! Following this little showcase, Mr. Sakurai launched into a brief explanation of ARMS, explaining that he had discussed the fighter’s abilities with the developers behind the game. Then, as is customary with Smash reveals, he moved on to the reveal trailer.
This delightfully animated trailer begins with Kirby and Captain Falcon enjoying ramen in a noodle bar as a waitress looks on, before zooming out to reveal an Arms stadium where an intense battle is raging between Spring-Man and Ribbon-Girl. A Smash invite drops from the air with various ARMS fighters grappling with each other to catch it and take the invite for themselves. After a short scene plays out we see the waitress from the ramen bar pick up the invite and reveal herself to be none other than Min Min, the latest Smash Ultimate fighter!
As we returned to Masahiro Sakurai it was explained that the character of Min Min was chosen specifically by the director of Arms, Mr. Yabuki. Sakurai explained the difficulties of adapting an ARMS character to Smash due to their unique style but had successfully managed to create a character that was most effective on the ground against heavier fighters, he then went on to elaborate on Min Min’s move set. This move set incorporates some new ideas, with each arm being controlled individually using the A and B buttons instead of the typical Smash controls which differentiate between standard and special attacks. Different arms can also be equipped to the right arm; the dragon, the megawatt and the ramaran, all of which have different ranges and power levels. Min Min’s final smash was also revealed and is named Arms Rush. This special attack incorporates all the other ARMS characters who attack with a flurry of punches, this is based on the move performed by the Spring Man assist trophy.
Min Min’s stage was also revealed as Spring Stadium, a single platform arena with an excited crowd in the background. This stage has several unique features, including jump ramps (at either side of the platform) which allow characters to jump much higher than normal, and a ceiling arch which players can bounce off when hit. Arms drones will also float overhead with items but must be attacked in order to drop them. In addition to this, Sakurai revealed that this DLC will include 18 tracks, almost the full track-list from the original game. The DLC was confirmed to be available on 29th June and can be bought individually or as part of Fighters Pass V2.
That wasn’t all though, with Sakurai also revealing several new Mii fighters including Ninjara from ARMS, Heihachi from Tekken and perhaps most surprisingly, Vault Boy from Fallout. Sakurai also mentioned some changes to Spirit mode, with Mii costumes now being used for certain spirit battles. The example was given that when fighting for the Cuphead spirit players will now fight Cuphead’s Mii fighter, rather than Mega Man. In addition to this it was also revealed that you will now be able to challenge spirits to a rematch with new objectives. Video guides will also be available to help fighters with particularly difficult spirit battles. As a final reveal, Sakurai confirmed that Amiibo are being produced for DLC fighters and showed off prototype Amiibo for the previous DLC characters, Joker and Hero, these looked fantastic and will be available in the Autumn.
This was just a quick summary of the presentation, with Mr. Sakurai going into so much detail that this article could easily have been three times as long. If you’d like to find out even more about Min Min then check out the video below.
I have been gaming for 30 years, starting mostly with PC Gaming, where I developed a penchant for classic point and click games. Over time I discovered Nintendo, starting with the Game Boy and the Super Mario Land games. Here, my love for Nintendo grew as I discovered many of their other franchises, from Zelda to Pokémon. These days I play a bit of everything but Nintendo and their unique creativity always keeps me coming back for more.
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