The game is quite obscure due to not seeing much distribution outside Japan. There's also a popular story that the game was forced off the market due to being too strong, to the point players got injured by it. In 1992 it received a much more well-known sequel Arm Champs II, which features the same premise but against nine opponents, the last of which appears in four forms: Trixie (a female bodybuilder from Russia), Chang (a street performer from Taiwan), Atlas (the Prince of Planet "Amusement" from the Universe), Turk (a retired soldier from Egypt), Duke (an ex-champion professional boxer from The U.S.A.), The Rock (a fast-footed wrestler from England), Goliath (A bodybuilder from France), Shibayama (the strongest sumo-wrestler from Japan) and Specks (a Robo-Arm-Wrestler from The U.S.A.)
This series features examples of:
- Anvil on Head: For some inexplicable reason The Rock from II gets hit on the head by a green 1000T barrel upon being defeated.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": Atlas from II is dressed like a superhero, with a large A on his forehead.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: There are in total 5 different versions of Specks in II. The four you need to wrestle have the colors blue, purple, green and red. There’s also a golden one, but you don’t face him as an opponent. Instead, he appears in a minigame that measures the players strength.
- Cyborg: Specks from II is a cyborg. Only the lower part of his face is still flesh, everything else is metal, and he speaks with a robotic voice.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: All versions of Specks explode upon being defeated in a series of explosions that damages his armor and fries his head.
- Difficulty Levels: The computer controlled opponents present different difficulty level, with the machine generating more pressure with each opponent.
- Excuse Plot: Defeat all opponents to win an arm-wrestling tournament. That’s as far as the plot goes.
- Human Aliens: Atlas from II looks like a normal human, but he is advertised as "the Prince of Planet 'Amusement'".
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: the red armored Specks is the strongest opponent in II.
- Mother Russia Makes You Strong: Trixie is from Russia and an arm-wrestling champion. Downplayed in that she’s the weakest of all opponents in II.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Turk in II is blatantly visually modeled on Saddam Hussein.
- Ocular Gushers: Shibayama will unleash these upon being defeated.
- One-Sided Arm-Wrestling: Can happen with a strong enough player beating the computer opponent in mere seconds.
- Retired Badass: Turk is a retired soldier.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Atlas from II is an alien Prince who participates in arm wrestling.
- The Smurfette Principle: Both games have only a single female opponent, and they both serve as the starter opponent.
- Sore Loser: Turk from II will start angrily smashing the table when he’s defeated.
- Sumo Wrestling: One of the strongest opponents in II is a sumo wrestler named Shibayama.
- "Test Your Strength" Game: II has a bonus game where the robot arm will not fight back and instead just measure the amount of pressure the player can unleash.
- TV Head Robot: Unlike II, Arm Champs I had a console where the robot arm is attached to a torso, with the screen on which the face of your opponent is displayed as a head. Watch it here
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