The most recent Nintendo Direct revealed that a character from the ARMS franchise would be the next fighter joining the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster in June, though it didn’t specify who the representative would be.
There are some obvious choices based on the rather limited roster that ARMS boasts, since there’s only a single entry in Nintendo’s relatively new franchise. But producer Masahiro Sakurai has made it clear that anything can happen.
As of now, there are three big theories that are being talked about, with two of them potentially changing how Nintendo adds characters to the game.
None of these ideas will simply be focusing on another character being added to the game, such as Ribbon Girl, Min Min, or Twintelle. There’s a good chance that it will be that simple and Nintendo will just add in another rep that’s just another character from the game, but the speculation is always part of the fun.
Simply Spring Man
The blue-haired brawler that is the titular character for ARMS, Spring Man was the one character most people thought would be added into the base roster of the game alongside the Splatoon Inklings to give Nintendo some fresh faces in the game. Like Splatoon, ARMS was one of the company’s first attempts at a new IP in several years, so that would have made a lot of sense.
Instead, Spring Man was added to the game as an Assist Trophy, removing him from the running for a spot in the game—until now.
There has never been a character from Smash that was put in as an Assist Trophy and then made into an actual character throughout the franchise’s history. If Spring Man is added to the game in this way, that opens the door for other characters like Knuckles, Isaac, or even Waluigi to finally get a chance on the main stage.
It’s unlikely that this will happen. But Spring Man is the face of ARMS, so most people think of this idea first.
Multi-character representation
Much like how Sakurai and his team introduced Bowser Jr. as a character with multiple costumes that represented the various Koopa Kids, a popular theory budding over the last week is asking why the same can’t be done for ARMS.
This would be a fun idea, but the characters from ARMS all have unique abilities and distinct body-types that would make it hard to keep their moves and hitboxes consistent throughout each costume. There’s a chance that the developers could focus on keeping specific similarities in mind and only pick a few characters to use, but that would likely be underwhelming compared to just a single character being fully fleshed out.
It’s far more likely that we see Ribbon Girl, Min Min, or Twintelle (maybe even Ninjara) pop up in the roster as a regular character.
A new ARMS fighter
Nintendo has used Smash DLC as a way to push players towards other games in the past, most recently with Byleth being added to the game right as Fire Emblem: Three Houses was getting a new expansion. But ARMS has been in a sort of limbo for nearly two years now, making it hard to see why this DLC is happening now —unless news about a sequel is finally about to drop.
The last major update for ARMS was released in September 2018. Since then, the game has essentially been kept alive by the small, yet thriving community it has built. No new content has been added to the game in more than two years, so it seems like Nintendo and the developers behind the game might finally be ready to move on.
Producer Kosuke Yabuki, who’s in charge of both ARMS and Mario Kart, has talked about his hopes for a sequel several times since the original game’s release, even teasing that there’s a deeper story that he wants to tell in the world of ARMS. Specifically in an interview with Japanese publication Famitsu in 2018, Yabuki revealed that Spring Man was the third person to hold that title.
“There are still many more deep world setting aspects in ARMS that haven’t been revealed yet,” Yabuki said. “For example, the current Spring Man is the third to hold the name. I would like to reveal more of these unknown stories if there’s the chance.”
This might seem to point more towards Spring Man’s conclusion, but it could also be the perfect time to bring in a new character. Either that of a villain or new protagonist that would be a main factor in ARMS 2, which Nintendo could reveal in the coming months to tie into the DLC character.
Even if Nintendo does want to include Spring Man, it doesn’t have to be the current one we know about. As Yabuki said, the current Spring Man is the third to hold the title, which means we could see a new version of Spring Man appearing in Smash.
Whatever the case, we know that more information about the next Smash DLC character will be revealed in June, since the character is set to be released by the end of the month anyways.
Published: Mar 28, 2020 07:21 pm