Arms review: Nintendo's springy limbed fighting game is ridiculous fun

Lack of story and some dodgy characters don't spoil this physical Switch game's immensely playable core

The premise of Arms requires a substantial suspension of disbelief. The characters in Nintendo's new fighting game mostly seem to have ended up immersing themselves in this sport because their arms (or, in one case, hair), instead of regular arms, are capital-A Arms - springy and extendable and ending in interchangeable weaponry. This raises some questions: How do they eat? How do they pick their noses? How do they wipe?

Of course, a game like this doesn't need to make sense, and the marketing makes it clear that Nintendo is perfectly content with the ridiculousness of it all. But given the popularity of the Switch and the focus on multiplayer, Arms could become a hit with a huge online fanbase, and it's a shame that the lore and characters are lacking the kind of treatment received by games like Overwatch. There will still be fan fiction and fan art, obviously, it just won't be as compelling.