YMMV / ARMS

• Adorkable: Lola Pop is very precious with her silly, humorous mannerisms as she performs; including her animal impressions and little giggles when she's enjoying herself, and bowing with a big smile when she wins.
• Angst? What Angst?: Once the player beats Hedlok off Max Brass' head, he just goes back to flexing and posing as if nothing happened. Not even getting socked out of his own arena by Dr. Coyle gets him down; he just floats into the arena after you defeat her and Hedlok using a pair of Parasol ARMS and flexes like normal.
• Awesome Music:
  • Grand Prix, aka the main title theme, is an incredibly catchy tune that is sure to get you pumped to start punching. It's notable for having an incredibly upbeat and downright heroic One-Woman Wail persisting alongside a jazzy, Brazil-inspired battle anthem. The song also has a number of variants heard throughout the game, such as one preformed by Ribbon Girl, a medley that incorporates the themes of all the fighters, and the calming, triumphant credits theme.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • While Max Brass was originally met with praise as the first post-release character, many complaints arose gameplay-wise; Is his ability to automatically buff up at low health unique, or is it too similar to Spring Man to border on Replacement Scrappy levels? Should he have been in the game originally, or was having him later on a good way of keeping newer players in the dark?
  • Lola Pop has seen mixed opinions with her reveal on an aesthetic level. Fans either think that she's one of the more charming designs ARMS has put out and love her motif, or she's a creepy addition to the cast, and her inflation ability (which people believe will appeal to... certain interests) doesn't help her in the long run.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: Much of the game's popularity pre-release came from the attractive designs of most female characters, with Twintelle sticking out the most.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • The first Testpunch had Master Mummy as the most popular character by a longshot on its first half. On its second half, however, Master Mummy's usage dropped off severely with Ninjara taking his place. By the end of the May Testpunch, some lobbies had over half of its players maining Ninjara. There were also some really good use of Mechanica during the Testpunch.
  • In Party Match, Ninjaras are common for their potential to win matches and get the upper hand through fake-outs and grab-spamming.
• Creepy Cute: Helix could qualify for this. He's a weird Blob Monster, but he's so weird that it's hard not to appreciate him.
• Cult Classic: While it didn't sell poorly, selling over two million copies in its first year, the game was heavily overshadowed by other first party titles on the Switch (most notably sister multiplayer game Splatoon 2, which released only a month later and eventually managed to sell over 10 million copies). But despite quickly losing buzz amongst the wider Nintendo fan community and many forgetting about it, ARMS still managed to earn a surprisingly sizable and loyal fanbase, with many hoping for a sequel, and the series would gain fighter representation in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate through Min Min's inclusion in that game's second "Fighters Pass".
• Evil Is Cool: Dr. Coyle, a Mad Scientist who gave herself the ARMS ability, as well as the ability to levitate and turn invisible. She's also the inventor of Helix, Springtron, and Hedlok.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • The ARMS fandom has a minor rivalry with that of Splatoon 2. A vocal minority of Splatoon fans like to mock ARMS for being a newer and less popular multiplayer IP; at the same time, a vocal minority of ARMS fans have come to resent Splatoon for becoming more popular than it. It's important to note that this is generally a minority of both fandoms, as most fans generally regard themselves as Friendly Fandoms.
  • The Punch-Out!! fandom has been skeptical of ARMS ever since its announcement, with many fans worried that ARMS was going to replace Punch-Out!!. This seems to have mostly cooled down, and the two fandoms are now mostly Friendly Fandoms.
• Fanfic Fuel: Mechanica, a huge fan of Ribbon Girl, and Helix, who has a Precocious Crush on Twintelle, finally get to meet their idols face-to-face. Many a fanfic have been written about them meeting.
• Fan Nickname: Max Brass is very commonly called "Max Ass" by fans due to his very large butt.
• Fanon:
  • Most people tend to interpret Min Min's noodle hair as blonde locks. They also like to joke that her rear is actually as big as it seems instead of it just seeming large due to her loose-fitting shorts.
  • Twintelle as a Cool Big Sis towards Ribbon Girl, and often Mechanica too. This might also involve either girl crushing on Twintelle as a result.
  • A lot of people like to assume Lola's pants aren't baggy, but that her legs are just that big.
  • Many fans believe that Dr. Coyle and Max Brass are Spring Man's Missing Mom and Disappeared Dad respectively.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • ARMS and Splatoon 2 are commonly bundled together during Nintendo Directs, leading to the two fandoms commonly mingling and becoming this. It also helps that ARMS was marketed in the same manner that Splatoon is: an alternate Earth with a surprising amount of history and lore which serves as window-dressing for a quirky take on a standard multiplayer game genre set to vibrant visual aesthetics, catchy music (J-Pop for Splatoon, Brazilian Music for ARMS) and wacky character design.
  • Upon its reveal, people immediately imagined the characters competing in Super Smash Bros. Most fans of Smash Bros. are fans of ARMS, and mini-ARMS tournaments are usually included in Smash tournaments. Min Min was eventually selected to be the 7th DLC character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which was celebrated by fans of both franchises.
  • ARMS fans tend to get along decently well with Punch-Out!! fans, as ARMS is often considered a spiritual successor to Punch-Out!!. In fact, many fans like to think Spring Man is related to Little Mac in some way, and a lot of people wanted Little Mac to be a DLC fighter.
  • The fans of ARMS surprisingly became fans of Crash Bandicoot since the reveal of Min Min being a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate came out the same day as the official reveal of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. Fittingly, there's fanart of both Min Min and Crash hanging out together.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: When Min Min fights Ribbon Girl, Biff comments that Min Min is jealous of Ribbon Girl's fame and would like to be famous herself. Min Min later got to be included as a fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, one of the highest honors for any Nintendo character.
• High-Tier Scrappy:
  • Ninjara's ability to teleport a few feet instead of dash gives his grabs a much higher chance (grabs are supposed to be very easy to disrupt) of successfully connecting without being swatted away. Since a grab automatically deals 150HP of damage the second it connects, many Ninjara players were able to spam teleport and grab and rack up huge win counts, leading to a Broken Base about whether the combo was overpowered. Since each test character was limited to their three starting arms, by the time people had developed effective counters, a large part of the test period had ended.
  • Kid Cobra excels on both the ground and the air, having a Flash Step and little-to-no jump delay. His weaknesses are clear (his normal ground dash is the slowest in the game, and his quick dash requires and uses up punch charge), but most players can't land any good hits on a skilled Kid Cobra. He was the first fighter to get an outright nerf, having his jumping distance decreased in version 2.0.0.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The concept of the game being based around Brazilian music is a large one. There's another character famous for his stretchy limbs and is said by Word of God to be Brazilian if translated to Earth nationalities— Monkey D. Luffy would be right at home here.
  • Min Min's grab attack ends with her punching her opponent with her dragon arm. In other words, you must defeat her dragon punch to stand a chance.
  • Mechanica is voiced by Ayumi Fujimura who voiced Niche in the Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee anime. Niche is a girl who is able to use her hair in battle due to being the Child of Maka similar to how fellow ARMS fighter, Twintelle has her powers manifested in her hair rather than the body part most of the other current battlers are known for and game title.
  • Jokes about Lanky Kong being in the game are this with the introduction of Lola Pop, who can inflate herself, just like a balloon.
  • Lola Pop was added into the game around the same time It came out.
• Ho Yay: Biff's comments about Max Brass' huge muscles make it sound like he's got the hots for the Commish. A post on his Twitter also might translate to him saying the technically married man Master Mummy has a sexy shoulder.
• I Knew It!:
  • A small camp of the fandom proposed the idea that the fighters could switch between ARMS and regular arms when off the ring, which was confirmed in official art on Biff's twitter. Technically, those are just very compressed versions of the fighters' extendable ARMS power, but it's functionally identical.
  • One person on the Fridge page for the game figured that the 1-On-100 enemies were Helix prototypes before the game revealed it to be true.
  • The teaser for Version 5.0. gave enough information, combined with the tweets about a "Doctor C." for people to guess that the fighter with Tesla coil ARMS was "Dr. Coil." Though they didn't predict it would be spelled "Coyle."
• It's Hard, So It Sucks!: Most complaints about the game come from how tough the computer players are at higher difficulties.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: Some critics have constructively pointed out that the biggest weakness of ARMS, at least at launch, was the lack of replay value. They played it for at least two weeks after purchasing it and simply had no more interest in playing it again.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: About half of the characters get shipped at one point or another. But the most prominent are Spring Man, Min Min and Twintelle. While Spring Man's funny personality can lead to some of the meaningful ships, Twintelle's beauty and poses led her some of the ships early on. Min Min has been shipped quite alot thanks to her inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• Les Yay:
  • Mechanica seems to be very fond of her idol Ribbon Girl. There are Ribbon Girl stickers all over the Scrapyard, and there's constant mention of how big a fan she is of Ribbon Girl.
  • In this official artwork, Ribbon Girl, Mechanica, and Twintelle all seem a little too interested in watching Lola Pop stretch. The caption in the game's gallery doesn't change this.
  Looks like the ladies of ARMS were just as fascinated as the fans when they found out Lola Pop was joining their ranks!
• LGBT Fanbase: Best Known for the Fanservice as it is, the amount of good-looking ladies in the game has caught the attention of lesbians and bisexual women alike.
• Memetic Badass: The producer of the game, Kosuke Yabuki, was subject to this treatment following the post-tournament exhibition match at E3 2017, where he took on the tourney's winner, pro fighting game player Zerk, and handily kicked his ass six ways to Sunday. His lack of hair and extreme fighting skill has even been compared to Saitama.
• Memetic Mutation: Immediately upon being revealed, the game has been subject to quite a few memes.
• Moe: Mechanica, the small and cute Brainy Brunette who always has the happiest victory dance.
• Narm Charm: Some lines sound really weird in an amusing kind of way, such as Spring Man joyfully shouting "Spring!" Twintelle's Gratuitous French also sounds jarring if you actually speak French, especially her "Femme Fatale!" win quote.
• Older Than They Think: One of the ideas that served as the backbone for ARMS was Kosuke Yabuki wondering why every fighting game seemed to use a 2D side view, even in 3D arenas. So he decided to place the camera behind the player character. While such a setup is rare, ARMS is far from the the first fighting game to do this; 2003's One Must Fall Battlegrounds is one example, as are the Gundam Extreme VS series.^note However, if we were to label fighting games with the distinct label "格闘ゲーム" (a term that Japanese developers specifically use for games they truly consider to be "Fighting Games" as intended, more often than not for fighting games that simply has two fighters in an arena), then ARMS is indeed a special 格闘ゲーム/Fighting Game that does not follow the trend of 2D/2.5D views in fighting games
• Presumed Flop: The game is often thought of as a failure, with people comparing its performance to Splatoon 2, in part thanks to Nintendo positioning the two games as sister titles. While it certainly didn't become a juggernaut like Splatoon 2, which quickly established that series as one of Nintendo's biggest, ARMS still did well for itself. It managed to sell over 2 million copies in its first year; impressive for an experimental new IP (especially a fighting game), and on-par with smaller Nintendo franchises like Pikmin and Xenoblade Chronicles.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The free-for-all fights were a point of contention with many fans who played them in the Global Testpunch, largely because of how easy it is for two fighters to gang up on one, or for one player to hide away in the sidelines and wait for the others to wear each other down. The second week of the Testpunch saw this mode swapped out in favor of the better-received Hedlok battles, though it remains in the full game.
  • The volleyball mode was received this way as well, with many complaining about unintuitive controls, resulting in it swapped out for a basketball mode in the second week.
  • The short rope used to tie players together in 2 vs. 2 battles. It makes dodging more difficult than necessary, especially if you and your teammate are dodging in opposite directions. Worse, if one of you gets grabbed and thrown, the other player gets thrown as well, taking 100HP of damage. This makes it much harder to carry a match to victory, especially if you get stuck with a teammate of low skill. Not to mention, your attacks can get disrupted by and can even knock down your ally, and they can also interrupt grabs and Rush sequences, decreasing the total damage a target takes.
  • For whatever reason, a ranked match will not count as a win if the opponent disconnects from the fight. This has led to the problem of players deliberately disconnecting to deny an opponent the win, despite the loser still taking a loss in rank. This is made more baffling considering the unranked party mode automatically gives the win to a player if their opponent loses connection.
• Scrappy Weapon: Helix' default ARMS (namely, the Blorb and the Guardian) are considered some of the most bizarre available ARMS. The former has an awkward bouncing mechanic when a punch is thrown, making hitting airborne and jump-heavy targets an issue (alongside being hard to aim) and the Guardian requires a second punch to launch- making it a slow offensive option despite its defensive potential. As such, default Helix players tend to stick solely to his much more competent ARMS choice, the Ice Dragon, which can make him rather predictable (though not entirely, considering Helix is the resident Confusion Fu specialist).
• Self-Fanservice:
  • While Twintelle's derrière is very prominent in the game, it is nowhere as large as most of her fanart makes it out to be.
  • Lola Pop is only able to inflate herself like a balloon, but if you were to go by fan interpretation she seems able to inflate very specific parts of herself.
• Shocking Moments: Grand Prix Mode's changes in Version 5.0 sure can be this with the following happening.
  • The cutscene where Dr. Coyle usurps Max Brass, while the two briefly fight, Dr. Coyle manages to strike Max Brass from behind, sending him flying into a building.
  • After Dr. Coyle is defeated, she actually summons Hedlok to take over her body as a last-ditch effort to defeat the player, and unlike when Max Brass' body gets stolen, Dr. Coyle can be heard laughing maniacally as Hedlok latches onto her, implying she's partially in control.
  • At the very end of all that, Hedlok doesn't launch off of Dr. Coyle's head, and instead just deactivates, and in a fit of rage, Dr. Coyle removes Hedlok from her head like it's nothing, and then proceeds to destroy him before teleporting away. Damn.
• Spiritual Successor: Manages to feel like a sci-fi version of the Punch-Out!! series, as well as the natural evolution of the "Boxing" mini-game from Wii Sports.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The Temple Ground music sounds very similar to the Wild Wood music.
• That One Boss: Springtron. If you're doing good enough in the Grand Prix (Level 4 and up) to avoid any losses, Springtron will more than make up for that. The main thing that makes him so difficult compared to other boss characters is his EMP attack that can disable your ARMS if you aren't careful, and that leaves you vulnerable to his attacks.
• That One Level: Snake Park, Kid Cobra's home stage, features spinning tops for players to ride on. The problem is the tops give clear advantage to some fighters (Kid Cobra, Master Mummy) while negating the abilities of others (Ninjara, Byte and Barq, Mechanica). Some players will jump over the tops at the start to communicate to other players not to use them. The developers would quickly acknowledge the general dislike for this stage, as Version 2.0.0 removed the stage from the ranked mode lineup, replacing it with Sky Arena.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Data miners found several unused ARM types, such as "plant," "scroll," and "sumo." These were removed in the Version 1.1 update, leaving many wishing that they could've seen what these fighters would be like.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Despite the tantalizing bits of lore communicated by the developers on official accounts and in interviews, there is a surprising lack of such in-game. There is little difference in the endings for each character after completing Grand Prix mode, with the most variation that occurs being a minor change in what Biff says to congratulate the champion, and a brief end card that shows what the player's character did after winning. And you only get it for beating Grand Prix at Level 4 or higher.
• Uncertain Audience: ARMS runs into this owing to its very unconventional gameplay. In theory, the game was meant to attract casual players with its variety of modes and relatively simple controls and more hardcore gamers with its depth of customization and deceptively complex gameplay rewarding bait-and-punish and attack-block-grab RPS play. In practice, it hit a bit of a sour spot where the focus on aiming and dodging can be too overwhelming for casual players while not providing enough room for technique and player expression for fighting game fans. Thus, while the game wasn't a flop by any means, it didn't become the "hot new property" that Nintendo EPD was hoping it would be, instead gaining a small, devoted fanbase that appreciated its weirdness.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Kid Cobra's spine moves in a very snake-like manner. While it matches his snake motif, it looks unnatural for a humanoid to bend like he does.
• Woolseyism:
  • Helix is called "DNA Man" in Japan. Presumably, he was renamed Helix because Gratuitous English names like "DNA Man" don't pack nearly the same punch in English, and "Helix" still fits the genetics theme (since a strand of DNA is typically depicted as a double helix).
  • The sport Kid Cobra participates in is called "komaboarding" (with koma meaning top, IE the spinning child's toy)." In English, it's called "snakeboarding", a Pun on "skateboarding", which usually is in reference to the South African pivot board, but in this case acknowledges his reptilian motif.

---