Arcade Longplay #36: Arm Wrestling

Arm Wrestling is a 1985 arcade game developed by Nintendo and released only in North America, and is a spin-off of the Punch-Out!! series. Since it was created by the same development team that made the Punch-Out!! series, Arm Wrestling features many of the same features, such as a dual-monitor system and quirky computer opponents. It was the last arcade game Nintendo independently developed and released before switching over to third-party arcade developers. The arcade game's announcer uses some voice samples of Han (Shih Kien) from the 1973 film Enter the Dragon, as well as original ones.

The goal of the game is to become the World Arm Wrestling Champion by defeating as many opponents in arm wrestling as possible. In order to achieve this title the player must compete against five different computer opponents and pin them in a timed match. The opponents are:

Texas Mac, a stereotypical Texan in a cowboy hat
Kabuki, a Japanese sumo wrestler
Mask X, actually Bald Bull from Punch-Out!!
Alice & Ape III, a little girl controlling a monkey robot via remote
Frank Jr., an homage to Frankenstein's monster as popularized in the 1930s films

A match begins when the player taps left on the joystick. During the match the player must attack the computer character by pressing right on the joystick and tapping the button to increase the power of the attack. The game foreshadows a counterattack when computer character makes a strange face. In order to win a match the player must move the joystick back and forth and "surprise" the computer player before it has a chance to counterattack. After Kabuki is defeated, the player plays a bonus game which requires the player to catch a sack of money for extra points by pulling up on the joystick when the bag is near the protagonist's head. After the player defeats the fifth and final opponent the game begins again with increased difficulty.