Last Topic: 5:05:41pm, 12/24/2023
Last Post: 1:53:01am, 10/24/2022
Min Min - ARMS
ARMS is an interesting little experiment of a game. Taking the basic elements of boxing in reading your opponents movements, limiting and predicting their options, and going in for a flurry of punches, then translating it into an arena fighter and not making the ability to move around freely a detriment to the fighting. Its honestly a more accurate interpretation of boxing than the Punch-Out series, if one I personally find less enjoyable, and is one of those really neat Nintendo has a unique and novel idea that theyll never do something with ever again games that the Big N tends to throw out once or twice a generation. I did not play enough ARMS to tell you if Min Min is better than the goofy clown girl or the mad scientist lady I gravitated toward, but I can tell you that it was at least a really nicely realized time that managed to separate itself from other fighters by changing the way movement affects a fight. Its a unique little experiment that ends up being pretty damn fun, if not a great deal more than that.
Best Smash Appearance: Ultimate - The fact that Min Min works at all in Smash Bros is surprising. ARMS is so antithetical to most fighting games, removing the simple idea of approaching from the equation a vast majority of the time and instead making yo block this mix-up an almost permanent focus. Smash Bros is an environment where that should NOT be transitive, movement is the major draw of Smash compared to other fighters, and its generally too simple to throw out as many quick commands as ARMS would allow for. But the simple two-arm layout mixing up specials and normals really does create a very elegant solution, a lot of great flow to Min Mins arms. There is no question that the design challenge of implementing Min Min was handled very well. Now, whether that was a good idea in the first place is less clear-cut, and I tend to lean on the no side for that. Min Min is pretty notoriously boring to watch, fight against, and even occasionally fight as, as a lot of her best options are more a rhythmic auto-pilot than anything. While the design decision to give her two identical arms allows her to function, it also makes Min Min an incredibly linear character, as the same options will cover a VAST majority of situations. I wouldve liked her arms to be a lot more situational, hitting more specific angles, be more based on conditioning and reads rather than haha chakram at ledge. Would it have made her a worse character competitively and less friendly to newcomers? Most definitely, but ARMS was never a game that had a great and immediate casual appeal, it was getting hooked onto what was under the hood that made it special. I really do respect the technical work and considerations put forth to make Min Min actually function in Smash. Things like her up smash being a reflector to further let her play her own game, a focus on kicks in short range, and just not being Spring Man are all greatly appreciated and smart decisions. I just find, of all the characters who can unga bunga, she is by FAR the least engaging, and one of the most your character is invalid now because of my basic gameplan characters on the whole roster. D+
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