ARMS producer on the toughest character to create, and the potential for an appearance in Smash Bros.

ARMS was a big part of Nintendo's first stage presentation of the Switch, and it aimed to show all the different things the Switch could do. Now the game has sold over a million units, which by all accounts, is a great consumer reaction for a new IP. Following his GDC presentation on the creation of ARMS, director Kosuke Yabuki sat down with Polygon to talk about the toughest character to create, and the potential for an ARMS combatant to appear in Smash Bros..

The most difficulty character to create

“...one character that maybe took a bit more time and we were more worried about was Twintelle. The starting point for that, the initial concept was just ‘someone who fights with their hair.’ Ninjara was a very straightforward character for us to make, but Twintelle came out of a desire to purposely do something different... We didn’t want to just make a character that had a very Japanese background, we talked to people in Nintendo of America and Europe, people from different regions, to create this character who would have a different background.

We spent a lot more time on Twintelle’s character and worked a bit harder, but when we put that first video out and saw those reactions, that made me very happy and gave us a lot of energy as we were making the game.”

On the potential for an ARMS character in Smash Bros.

“I think the correct reaction is to say ‘I can’t answer that!’. Another thing I’d say is that Arms is so young — it’s only a year old — that maybe it’s too early to think about that. But I think it’s absolutely fantastic that there are people out there talking about Arms characters in that way.”