The arcade game that breaks your arm

September 4, 2007

An arcade game called Arm Spirit has been recalled in Japan after three people suffered a broken arm while playing it - with further unreported cases likely. The game is supposed to be quite easy to beat and its makers Atlus Co. (the company who brought the world Princess Crown and Odin Sphere)can't see how people could manage to sustain such an injury while playing it.All 150 machines have been recalled and will be investigated for possible malfunction.

"The machine isn't that strong, much less so than a muscular man. Even women should be able to beat it," said Atlus spokeswoman Ayano Sakiyama. "We think that maybe some players get overexcited and twist their arms in an unnatural way."

GR reckons the best way to ensure such accidents don't happen again is simply to remove the arm lever. Then it would be quite armless.

Above: Looks a bit sinister now, doesn't it? Don't worry, it's not been distributed overseas

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Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.