Arm Wrestling is a 1985 spin off of Punch-Out!!. It was only released in arcades in North America. The game focus on the player trying to win an arm wrestling tournament. It was also the last original first-party arcade game developed by Nintendo before moving focus onto console games.
The game is mostly known for its bizarre control scheme. The player moves the joystick to the left to attack. Pushing the button increases the power of the attack. Pushing the joystick right allows the player to counter attack. Pulling the joystick up from the panel will help in certain circumstances.
The game cycles through five different opponents, with the difficulty increasing on each pass. After beating them all, the cycle repeats on a harder difficulty. If the player manages to win 20 rounds, the game ends.
This series features examples of:
- Americans Are Cowboys: While the setting of the tournament is ambiguous, the cowboy hat wearing Texas Mac is the only confirmed American character.
- Artistic License – Sports: During their matches, several of the characters do things that obviously wouldn't be allowed in an arm wrestling tournament, such as Ape III using a magnet or Mask X headbutting the protagonist.
- Breath Weapon: Frank Jr. breathes fire.
- The Cameo: With Punch-Out!!'s Bald Bull. He's Mask X.
- Child Prodigy: Alice seems to be one since she can operate Ape III.
- Depending on the Artist: Texas Mac has black hair in his portrait, but blue hair in the actual match.
- Excuse Plot: You are trying to become the world arm wrestling champ. That's pretty much the entire plot.
- Finger Gun: The referee holds her fingers up before each match before firing literal or metaphorical bullets to signal the start.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Each of the opponents telegraphs their attacks by making a strange face before attacking.
- Frankenstein's Monster: Frank Junior, the final boss, is a purple version with fire breath.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Alice. She built an arm wrestling monkey robot.
- Game Over: Happens if you win 20 matches in a row. The tournament host declares the event closed because he's run out of prize money.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Arguably, Ape III and Frank Jr are this because the contestants prior to them are normal humans.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Ape III tries to cheat by grabbing a magnet in his left hand and using it to attract the metal in his right one. In order to win the match, the player must take the magnet away and disable Ape III with it.
- Let X Be the Unknown: Mask X is a mysterious contestant who even the announcer has no idea who he is. He is Bald Bull.
- Magnetic Weapons: Ape III will use one to try and defeat you, unless you grab it first.
- Mini-Game: After beating Kabuki and Frank Jr., you can catch a bag of money for extra points.
- Ms. Fanservice: The referee is a pretty blonde wearing a pink one-piece swimsuit.
- No Fair Cheating: If you try to start wrestling too soon, the referee will warn you. Do it again, and you get a Non-Standard Game Over.
- Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Like its sister series, the opponents have a trick or two they can use to edge out a win. Unlike Little Mac, though, you can cheat back:
- Mask X repeatedly tries to headbutt you. Winning requires pulling his mask off when he goes for another headbutt, then pinning him down while he's in shock from the crowd frenzy over his unmasking.
- Ape III will pull out a magnet when he's on the verge of losing. Fail to grab it, and he will use his left arm to pull his right hand back over to a winning position; succeed, and you scramble his circuits long enough to pin his hand down.
- Oddball in the Series: This is the only entry in the Punch-Out series to focus on, well, arm wrestling rather than boxing. The game also has much more of a Reality Is Out to Lunch feel even than the other Punch-Out games, exemplified by the opponents including a robot controlled by a pre-teen girl, along with a Frankenstein's Monster.
- Puzzle Boss: Mask X and Ape III have to be defeated in unusual fashions.
- Rugged Scar: Bald Bull has two scars that form an "X".
- Shout-Out:
- Frank Junior is clearly supposed to be based on classic Universal Frankenstein movie.
- The announcer uses voice clips from the film Enter the Dragon.
- Ape III's victory laugh sounds very similar to that of Woody Woodpecker.
- The Smurfette Principle: Alice is not only the sole female opponent in the game — and even then, only via technicality, as Ape III is the one your character is actually wrestling with — but the only female opponent in any game relating to the Punch-Out!! series.
- Stout Strength: The second opponent is Kabuki, a sumo wrestler.
- Un-Installment: The game never explained what happened to Ape I and II.
- Use Your Head: Mask X is fond of using this.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Frank Junior, Texas Mac, Mask X and Kabuki don't ever wear a shirt in the game.
