Popularitywise, we have a few clear frontrunners, but there are some other factors to consider as well

Apr 04, 2021 From SmashWiki, the Super Smash Bros. Wiki This is a list of music tracks pertaining to the ARMS universe in Super Smash Bros. All tracks listed here are available to play on Spring Stadium and, as of the 8.1.0 update, Battlefield, Small Battlefield, Big Battlefield and Final Destination. ARMS Grand Prix Official Theme Song. An ARMS character is coming up next in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — but which one of the stretchy fighters will it be? Popularitywise, we have a few clear frontrunners, but there are some other. Smash.gg Empowering esports communities.

It was announced earlier this week, albeit in a slightly unceremonious manner, that the next Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character to be added to the game, and thereby kicking off the game's second Fighter Pass, will be from Nintendo's fresh Switch intellectual property ARMS.

What wasn't mentioned at all though was just who it will be. All that was said was that the fighter will be able to extend their arms — a universal trait in the game, since that's how you fight. Let's take a look at some of the most likely candidates for being the next Super Smash Bros. fighter releasing in June.

First of all, Nintendo went against the grain with this announcement in a big way by not showing any trailer or any hype buildup but simply telling everyone straight that the next character will be from ARMS and that we will be seeing them in June instead of right now.

What this means for the identity of the character is really anyone's guess — I have my own personal theory which I'll be outlining towards the end of the article, but the fact of the matter is there are some quite popular fighters to choose from in the game of ARMS who could be the Smash Bros. candidate we're looking for, so let's see which characters stick out as most likely from the roster and why they do.

The poster boy of ARMS, Spring Man seemed like most people's natural choice for a representative of the game when roster discussions were being done before the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

After he showed up in the game as an Assist Trophy, any discussion about not just him but ARMS in general died off in a big way, with many people assuming that ARMS had simply been deemed not important enough or too new to be a part of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and that the fledgling franchise might get its shot next time around.

Now that we know that isn't the case, though, it's hard to gauge what situation Spring Man is in, exactly. My colleague Justin 'AdaptiveTrigger' Gordon wrote a piece the other day outlining the case for Assist Trophies becoming playable via DLC and while we certainly have seen such promotions in the past between titles (Little Mac and Isabelle both started out as Assist Trophies before being promoted to playable in the next Smash installment), I'm not going to be holding my breath unless we actually get specifically Spring Man confirmed.

Looking past the whole Assist Trophy issue, the arguments for Spring Man are easy to make — he's on the box, he was the first character we got to see for ARMS and he's essentially framed as the main character.

However, the counteragument is that ARMS is pretty thin on story even as far as fighting games go and since its release we've gotten a good look at which characters are actually popular with fans, which means arbitrarily shoving Spring Man in the game when other characters have much bigger fanbases could come off as a pretty tonedeaf move.

Spring Man is a fine representative for ARMS when the game has nothing but an Assist Trophy in Smash, but when you're making a playable debut it's not like he's a Mario or a Link where his presence is the lifeblood of the series — he's just one of a bunch of fighters who happened to be on the box.

Personally, I feel like making it Spring Man 'just because' would be a mistake since at least to us out in the public this isn't a franchise centered around him in the way Street Fighter might be centered around Ryu, but who knows how Nintendo view the franchise and its characters.

As far as virtues go, Ribbon Girl actually shares many of them with Spring Man, with the only notable one being that she wasn't picked as an Assist Trophy for the launch version of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

She's also featured on the box art and essentially used as a mascot or face character in the same way Spring Man is. Early promotional materials for ARMS featured specifically these two characters battling it out.

One thing that separates them though is that Ribbon Girl's unique trait, being able to jump four times in mid-air, seems much more fit to Super Smash Bros. than Spring Man's would. Characters in ARMS largely battle the same way, though they all have unique abilites to them and can equip different ARMS to change your attacks up.

It's also notable that Ribbon Girl and Spring Man were the ones to get Mii Costumes when ARMS-themed ones were added to the game.

Conversely, though, this could also point towards the mascot characters for ARMS already being adequately represented with someone else being more likely as the actual fighter pick.

Nintendo

The whole argument comes down to whether you believe Ribbon Girl (or Spring Man) are the main duo of ARMS and have to be represented. The game is new enough, and light on story enough, where that doesn't have to be a necessity. But if Nintendo see it differently, there's still a good chance that Ribbon Girl takes precedence over Spring Man as a playable character, even if she didn't as an Assist Trophy.

My personal pick for an ARMS representative (as documented two whole years ago and also fairly universally accepted as the most popular character to come out of the game, Min Min has so explosively spicy of a personality and design that when Nintendo let the cat out of the bag that ARMS was going to be joining Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's playable roster, Min Min started trending on Twitter.

A character whose entire design and even her backstory centers around the concept of ramen, those delicious noodle dishes that all of Asia (and at this point, the rest of the world) adores, she dons a knit cap which looks just like an upside-down ramen bowl and when coupled with her blonde hair makes the noodle imagery even more convincing.

Min Min's stretchy arms in particular have a noodley texture to them and as earlier mentioned, her backstory even refers to her as 'Ramen Royalty' from the famed Mintendo Noodle House.

Whoever designed this character clearly had only one thing on their mind, and it landed. Min Min has won Party Crashes in ARMS itself and popularity polls all across the web since ARMS came out. While she seems to be the clear frontrunner in Asia as far as being beloved goes, she has some solid competition for that #1 spot in the west, though, in the next character we'll be detailing...

•Bayonetta

Bringing up the rear (I know you see what I did there) we have Twintelle, referred to in-game as a 'mega celeb' and is apparently a famous and rich actress in the world of ARMS who just isn't content with being a star on the silver screen but wants to be a winner in the ring as well, therefore joining in the ARMS tournament.

Twintelle took the itnernet by storm when she was revealed for ARMS back in 2017, in no short part due to her ... well, let's be frank, her ass. Twintelle's backside made headlines back when she first came out, and she continues to be an extremely popular character today — and is currently in the lead in our poll here at EventHubs, slightly edging out the expected frontrunner Min Min.

While most characters in the game fight using stretchy ARMS, Twintelle is too busy sipping tea and making sassy poses with hers to be flailing them around and instead equips her weapons to her pigtails, being a hair-based fighter in the world of ARMS which makes her stick out quite a bit as far as her fighting style goes.

Filled with attitude, a great design and a fanbase to back her up, Twintelle is definitely not someone to be slept on as far as ARMS representation goes, and I'd honestly expect the internal race at Nintendo to be between her and Min Min with anyone else a distant third, if not for this other idea I thought of when I saw the reveal...

The way that Nintendo just casually told us that the next fighter is going to be from ARMS and that we'll see them (and have them released) in June just went so far against how they usually do things with Super Smash Bros. reveals which are usually shrouded in the utmost secrecy that even when the trailer begins, you can't be quite sure who's going to be showing up.

That's when I started looking at what little we'd gotten from them — namely the picture showing the full cast of ARMS under the Super Smash Bros. text.

This may be a long shot of course, but I've started suspecting that given the heavily customizable nature of ARMS gameplay where you pick parts and put them together to make your best version of an ARMS fighter, that the Smash character will in fact be one where you pick your favorite ARMS character and they fight practically the same with only their models and animations really setting them apart — basically a more expanded version of the concept we've already seen with Bowser Jr. incorporating the Koopalings.

The only thing that puts a dent in this idea is the fact that you have fighters like Mechanica and Barq & Byte who have such different gimmicks from the others that it'd be hard to imagine them being functional in the same framework as the others with Mechanica having her mech while Byte & Barq are essentially a duo fighter of a policeman and his guard dog.

Even if they can't incorporate the full cast of ARMS in one fighter, I am expecting us to get several character in one slot at this point — probably one where they'll cover their most popular bases, thereby certainly having Spring Man, Ribbon Girl, Min Min and Twintelle as parts of it.

One way to expand the moveset of an ARMS character in Super Smash Bros. would be to simply incorporate abilities from many different fighters anyway, meaning that they'd have Ribbon Girl's four mid-air jumps even if you aren't playing specifically as Ribbon Girl. This makes sense within Smash since borrowing moves is nothing new — Ness, for example, borrows basically half of his moveset from his party member in Earthbound, Paula.

This could very well just be my mind working overdrive trying to reconcile the strange way Nintendo chose to reveal ARMS inclusion to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to us, and perhaps we'll end up having just one specific character picked and made to their utmost. But I really think there's something to showing the whole cast by the text, and I'm expecting that we'll be in for several characters in one slot (though likely with identical movesets).

So, who are you guys hoping to see join Super Smash Bros. Ultimate from ARMS? I know we have at least one loyal reader who is very hype about the prospect of Max Brass joining the fray, and I know my personal vote goes to Min Min, so please share yours as well in the comments.

Nintendo teased the next fighter that will join the Super Smash Bros. Ultimateroster as a part of its DLC Fighters Pass 2 during a Nintendo Direct Mini broadcast Thursday. In a surprising twist, the new fighter will be from its quirky boxing franchise Arms. Not only do we already have a rough estimate of the release date (June), but we also have an inkling as to who the character might be.

While there aren’t any playable characters from Arms in Smash Ultimate yet, there are already six Arms-themed items and four Arms Mii Costumes included already. Nintendo traditionally doesn’t add characters to the roster who are already featured in the game as Assist Trophies, Spirits, or Mii Costumes. For example, even though Waluigi has been one of the most requested DLC characters, Nintendo has already made him an Assist Trophy, seemingly squashing his hope of making it to the roster.

That means Spring Man, Ribbon Girl, Min Min, Twintelle, and Ninjara most likely won’t be in Smash Ultimate since they all appear in the game in other forms. That leaves Master Mummy, Mechanica, Byte & Parq, Kid Cobra, Helix, Max Brass, Lola Pop, Misango, Springtron, and Dr. Coyle as the remaining contenders.

Fans react to Arms

Smash Ultimate fans are notoriously difficult to please when it comes to DLC fighters. The most recent addition of Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Housescaused an uproar of disappointed gamers who were hoping for another third-party, non-Nintendo exclusive series, as in the case of Joker from Persona 5 or Banjo & Kazooie. Surprisingly, many initial reactions to Thursday’s announcement were positive even from people who have never played any of the boxing games.

“I haven't played Arms, but I think the character will have a very interesting and fun moveset,' wrote Redditor u/mrcoolj90. 'I'm looking forward to this.'

Other fans enthusiastically tweeted who they’d most want to see as the first Arms representative in Smash Ultimate.

“I’m so hyped the next fighter is an ARMS character,” wrote Twitter user @mana_chan__. “I DO hope it’s still Springman (since he would be the first character in smash bros history to have an assist trophy & fighter in the same game), but tbh I think Dr. Coyle would be so HYPE omg.”

But realistically, who will the DLC character be?

The Inverse Analysis

Twintelle

Nintendo has yet to go against its precedent of not adding characters already represented as items, so we’re going to assume this will be the case this time around as well. Out of the remaining options, Dr. Coyle does seem like the plausible fighter to make it into Smash Ultimate.

She was the latest character to be added to Arms during a December 2017 update, making her the newest face for the franchise. Plus, all of the previous DLC fighters have been protagonists from their respective series. A villain could spice things up a bit. Alternatively, the character might resemble 'Hero' from the Dragon Quest series. His alternate skins resemble different protagonists. This Arms character could be the same, with options to look like a multitude of Arms characters with the same movesets regardless.

ARMS (universe) - SmashWiki, The Super Smash Bros. Wiki

For now, these are nothing more than educated guesses, but the first Fighters Pass 2 character should be revealed and added to Smash Ultimate in June. This release date window could be subject to change because of the global coronavirus pandemic, but as far as we know, they'll stay on schedule.