Nintendo at GDC 2018 - 'ARMS': Building 'Mario Kart 8' Insights into a Showcase Nintendo Switch Fighter by Kosuke Yabuki (full panel)

Spring-loaded fists hurled like rockets. Body blows from boomerangs, parasols, and robot birds. Up to four players juking and jiving in kaleidoscopic arenas. 'ARMS' is anything but run-of-the-mill. How do you make a family-friendly fighter that's also rich and rewarding for serious players? Craft motion controls to excite esports pugilists? Nintendo's Kosuke Yabuki, who directed 'Mario Kart 7' and 'Mario Kart 8' and served as producer on both 'Mario Kart 8 Deluxe' and 'ARMS', will talk about the challenges of creating a genre-bending fighting game for a brand-new platform. What lessons can a kart-racer offer a brawler that has players throwing corkscrew punches like tennis players volleying missiles? How do you ensure function follows form, using the Nintendo Switch system's motion controls in ways that feel as natural and responsive as tapping buttons? And what's the story behind a world where protagonists' fists come unglued from their forearms anyway?