Ever since 1985, many people always had some sort of difficulty with this game,
where most guides only end at the start of the second cycle of contestants.
On Twin Galaxies, the world record reported for that game is 781,030. This
record has been achieved on 1986, one year after the game’s release. How did
he do it? And how is it possible?
On my road to perfection, I strive as far as I can to make it to become the
world record holder for this title alone. With a score of 590,650 with no
continues, I know basically the entire game at this point...
What? You think I’ll keep it to myself only?
Never, I want this game to have more competition and recognition than before.
This, is the complete game guide for Nintendo’s
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Arm Wrestling
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What is this game?:
At first glance, you’ll think that this game looks really strange. No
mechanical arm or anything remotely close to real arm Wrestling as we know in
real life, just a button and a joystick. Instead of relying on strength and
endurance, it’s all about reactions, execution, and most importantly,
technique.
The Overview:
In Nintendo’s Arm Wrestling the goal is like in real life, beat the opponent
by pushing their arm down to the table. This is achieved by repeatedly hitting
the joystick towards the opponent’s arm (basically speaking, just hit left).
When an opponent performs a counter attack, you’d have to hit the opposite
direction with rapid succession. Once you successfully counter attack the
opponent, they will be briefly stunned while having symbols above their head,
depending on what symbols are shown, you would have to hit the only button on
the machine labeled “Power”. And speaking of Power, there is a meter on top
that is named just that, when it is filled to either red or green, you can land
a ton of damage against the opponent.
Controls:
Pow: “Power” Button
Joystick: Two Way Joystick
Grab: Pulling the Joystick Up will press a button that triggers this.
Mechanics:
Counter Attacks - like before, hitting the opposite direction with the joystick
upon a counter attack will stun the opponent. Upon a stun, there are 4 kinds of
icons to expect: !, !!, $, a red skull, and usually uncommon, ?. Each
exclamation point will require one button press to power through the attack. If
it’s a single ‘!’, use one button press, if it’s ‘!!’, press the
button twice. Every ‘!’ hit will fill up one letter of POWER on top (will
get into it very soon). The cash symbol, taking form of a yellow circle with a $
symbol, is equivalent to a ‘!’, but it gives no power and awards only
points. A Red Skull However, is the worst possible result you can get from
counter attacking, if accidentally pressed on with the button, you will be
instantly dealt with major damage, and sometimes an immediate death. It will
appear for counter attacks that either include all skulls, or one skull with
various other symbols mentioned above. The last symbol being a ?, is a big
gamble. While attacking (or counter attacking depending on one opponent), there
will appear one ‘?’, this is a 50/50 factor that aims for either two
outcomes: A red skull that simulates instant damage, or a max power bonus. I
recommend not taking the chances since a red skuLl will for sure give you an
instant game over. Successfully filling the bar that reads POWER and attacking
the opponent by hitting left will trigger an attack that does a chunk of damage
and had you mash the left direction to acquire bonus points.
Power - There is a word on the top screen that reads POWER. Every ‘!’ you
hit will fill this meter one letter at a time, signaled with a change of color
from blue to red. If you fill it up to red already, you can fill it more to
change the text from red to green. The point of this is that it gives you major
advantage over the opponent by landing a counter attack. The two levels of power
determine how much damage and how long the bonus that can be dealt. Red being
Lv1, and Green being Lv2. Achieving Lv1 will give 50 points each tap to the
left, while Lv2 will give 100 points each tap. With a good hyper arm to tap
super fast, the usual max bonus bonus scoring ranges from 1100-1300 (Lv1) and
2800-3000 (Lv2).
Timer - The timer determines how much time you have left and how much bonus
points you get at the end of the round. If the timer hits 1 minute mid match,
the opponent instantly KOs you. KOing the opponent nearly or right on 1 minute
will award little to no points while achieving times way lower than this will
achieve up to 20,000 if KO’d fast enough. Be careful that time passes much
faster as the game progresses, so finish the fights quick!
Grabs - Pulling the Joystick Up will press the button that does a different
action depending on what situation you’ll be put into, either for one opponent
or the bonus intermissions.
Bonus Round - After a set amount of matches, the man on top will throw money
bags at you that always gives 50K points every time. The first bag can be caught
by waiting for the bag to pass past the bottom of the top screen, and of course,
to catch it, you pull up on the joystick. The money bags after that are very
large and are usually just a bit harder to catch. Once this bag drops, it will
start to grow big fast, right when the bag expands to both sides of the screen,
immediately catch it. Upon succession, the bag will bounce off your hands, and
you’ll have to wait til it drops down and then you catch it again.
First Strike Attack - This is by far a MUST to scoring big or just getting
immediate advantage in Arm Wrestling. Right when the round starts after the lady
says ‘Go!’, inputting left extremely precisely after Go will trigger a
counter attack that gives massive power at the start. With this, some opponents
can be KO’d in a game time of just 2-3 seconds!!
Now that we gone over the gist of the game, now we analyze the opponents!
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Texas Mac
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This opponent is the easiest to beat in the game. There’s no complicating
moves Mac can do to fool with you, only counter attacks. The main tactic is to
just repeatedly attack by hitting left on the joystick and landing those counter
attacks just right.
Tricks: Using the first strike trick explained above, you can cause a counter
attack that is FULL of ‘!!’ symbols, which gives instant Lv2 Power.
Achieving max power brings Mac at a critical state, and hitting left and waiting
until the symbols appear allows you to achieve a power attack again, knocking
him down in 2-3 seconds.
NOTE: The First Strike Attack can be used on anyone and won’t be mentioned
again unless some gimmick occurs.
Best Possible Time: 2.99 Secs
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Kabuki
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This one isn’t too much different than Texas Mac, but getting him into near KO
health, will replace most of his counter attack symbols with ‘$’. Be weary
that you will NOT get power after one counter attack and have to wait until the
next occurs.
Best Possible Time: 10-12 Seconds
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Mask X
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This very familiar opponent has the ability to head butt you periodically, this
can be dodged by hitting left on the joystick when the X on his head flashes
twice. Dodging this attack gives Lv1 Power right off the bat. At his critical
health state, he will attempt to head butt you again, after dodging you will
hear “Pull! Pull!”, this is when you use the Grab command to pull that mask
off! Make sure you mash that button to take it off. Taking off the mask reveals
Punch-Out!!’s Bald Bull?! Then you KO him.
Best Possible Time: 12-14 Seconds
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Alice & Ape III
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This opponent can be a killer for newer players, hitting left will still attack,
but when reaching half health or going past the neutral position, Alice will
attempt a counter attack and signal 3 beeps, during the 3 beep is when you
counter attack the Ape and attack as so. At critical health, the Ape grabs a
magnet from the right and will bring the magnet towards the player after 4 sets
of two tones of sounds for two times. If missed twice, you instantly lose. To
grab the magnet, you have to hit right at the right time. This is achieved by
waiting until the second to last beep (or the first beep of the 4th loop) before
the magnet moves towards you. Successfully grabbing the magnet will have you use
the magnet on the attacking arm on the Ape and break his arm off, KOing him.
First Strike Notes: There are 3 outcomes upon performing this depending on your
timing. If it’s performed latest, you get all red skulls, which inflicts major
damage. Doing it a bit earlier than this will bring all ‘$’ symbols. Hitting
the magic outcome gives all ‘!!’ symbols, giving you max power and
immediately putting him to near KO status. Getting all “!!” is a 1 FRAME
TRICK, so time it very precisely. If unsure what your outcomes are, take a
second to look at the symbols then attack accordingly.
Best Possible Time: 2-3 Seconds
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Frank Jr.
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This is the strongest opponent and clearly the most tricky. The first thing
you’ll notice is that he counter attacks very quick if you attempt to attack,
this can be countered by looking at the stitches on his head, which turn into
two straight lines that indicate it. Another attack he’ll do is that he will
do a waiting attack, where he will shout “Wait!”, watching for his eyes, if
it snaps his eyes to the right, he will for sure counter attack, which again,
countering just right will have you dodge this. At near KO status, he will do
that same waiting attack again, but instead of snapping his sight to the right,
he will attempt to breath Fire at you. If you are hit by this fire, you
immediately lose the match once again. Dodging it requires you to hit left so
the fire goes right above your head. Finishing those attacks will give you the
win as he will just give up.
Tricks: Almost 90% of the time he will attempt the quick counter attack, but if
you just repeatedly hit left then right every attack, you can always achieve a
counter attack super easily.
First Strike Notes: If you attack right after Go, you will get yourself Lv1
Power. Doing it any later will spawn all red skulls.
Best Time Possible: 18-20 Seconds
Now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for the past 10 years...
OPPONENTS CYCLE II
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Texas Mac II
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You’d think he’d be just slightly hard than last time, but oh so wrong. He
doesn’t let you attack at will but will charge up an attack that can be
devastating if done wrong. At neutral position, he will hold that place and huff
smoke out of his nose in a gradually manner, once it hits its max frequency, he
will do an endless series of counter attacks. Don’t be fooled by this and
counter attack every single attack he does! Every counter attack will award one
‘!’ upon each attack, filling the power to Lv1 will KO Mac instantly.
First Strike Notes: Knowing that Texas Mac can be taken down by any Power
Attack, using the First Strike just right will award an instant win. In the
first 2-3 frames after Go, you will get all ‘!!’, which results in Max Power
right off the bat. Doing it only slightly later than this will give your first
question mark, depending on the outcome, it will result in an instant win or an
instant loss. Anything later will just give ‘$’ symbols.
Best possible time: 1 Second!
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Mask X II
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This fight is the same as last time except for some game changing handicaps.
Every counter attack that you land on him will have ‘!’s AND red skulls. The
red skull usually is before one ‘!!’, or two ‘!’ symbols. Waiting a tiny
bit before the red skull will transform into a blue arrow signaling to continue
mashing. Completing the rest of the set of symbols will award 2K points. The
other change being that his head butt now had two swings instead of one, dodge
the first one like normal, but wait til a single flash from his forehead and
dodge again.
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Alice & Ape 3 II
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This fight, again, is like the last but with a noticeable change in speed for
the magnet segment, aim a little more precise and you should be able to get the
magnet.
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Frank Jr. II
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This fight is much harder than the previous, each of his attacks are like Mask X
II where there are single red skulls. But his wait attack is much worse, instead
of doing the eye roll before, it now mixes in with the fire breath too, so watch
his face VERY closely!
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Kabuki II
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You may have been wondering,”Where is Kabuki? Did he quit the second
round?”. Well, the answer is that he’s right after Frank Jr. II.
Kabuki works much different than before, but he can be easy depending on what
attacks he does. Firstly, every counter attack you land will always spawn
‘$’ symbols no matter what. He now has a second attack however. He charges
back and does a wind up position, which if done too late, can do a chunk of
damage instantly. After he makes a noise, wait until his wind up reaches his
final position and attack to the left, this will land damage on him and will
still spawn ‘?’ symbols. On his last attack, he will do the wind up again
but wait longer than usual, when he makes a grunt noise, that’s when he will
be in his final wind up position, attacking successfully will give you 3 ‘!’
each, keep doing so until you hit Lv1 Power and finish him off!
CYCLE III
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Texas Mac III
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Same as Texas Mac II, except timing will be stricter, be mindful that you need
to perform counter attacks very early, or else you won’t get any power from
those attacks. But other than that, nothing much different.
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Mask X III
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Same as Mask X II but counter attacks finish faster.
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Alice & Ape 3 III
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This fight has to be the most troublesome fight I always lose to. Most of the
things are the same as A&A3 II, but sometimes he never uses a counter attack
either at neutral position or at the player’s near KO status. If you do manage
to get to the magnet part, I wish the best of luck, because the timing is super
strict. Ape pulls the magnet so fast that almost 90% of the time you will miss
the magnet and lose the match already. If you can somehow memorize the timing on
this move, you can take care of this fight with no problem:
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Frank Jr. III
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This fight is the same as FJII, but his fire attack now lasts a bit longer, and
this can be troubling since doing it too early can result in a loss already.
Dodge as late as possible without burning from too late of the attack so you can
dodge this attack, trust me, it’s hard.
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Kabuki III
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The same as Kabuki II but sometimes he stalls with normal counter attacks a lot,
so it pressures you into a time out if you stall too long.
CYCLE IV
To sum this one up, everyone from the 3rd cycle has more stricter times in this
cycle and Frank Jr. IV has a really long flame now, so be careful of that.
and... That’s it.
After you complete the 20th fight from Cycle IV, the game just ends.
All it says on the bottom is just “Game Closed”, the man on top also says
that he doesn’t have any more money to hand out.
And that my friends, finishes the ultimate guide to Nintendo Arm Wrestling.
All I can say is to never give up and get as far as you can, if you can complete
Fight 20 even with continues, I can call you a true completionist of the game.
Good luck to anyone willing to beat this game or to achieve score records for
this game.
If you need any visual examples, I highly recommend watching the Tool Assisted
Speedrun (TAS) for the game, as that’s where I learned about a lot about this
game, and I hope it helps you too.
