What do you do when you're a disembodied arm that's very, very long? Investment banking? Heart surgeon? Or maybe adult movie star (actually, that could work … oh dead god!). Well, if you're the protagonist of My Arms Are Longer Now, you go around stealing things, of course. It's a novel concept, and one that sounds great on paper for a stealth comedy game. I mean, come on, you're playing as an arm! It's the sort of ridiculous premise that immediately grabs your attention, and thankfully, there's plenty of humour to be found here, even if some of the voices and comedic stylings can be a little grating at times. It's very much that weird, deadpan humour that you might find in Bob's Burgers, with a distinctly Australian flavour that reminded me quite a bit of Thank Goodness You're Here!.
At arms reach!
My Arms are Longer Now is a puzzle-platformer-theviery game developed by mad Australian studio Toot Games. It has all the hallmarks of a wacky millennial comedy, with weird yet charming artwork, deadpan comedy, and a core concept that is both surrealistically hilarious and pure nightmare fuel. Yeah, a super-stretched arm that steals goods and animals is both cool and scary.
The preview demo takes us through the first mission, set aboard a metro train. I'm quite fond of train levels (Gears of War’s train level is peak train level), and this serves as a decent introduction to the game's mechanics, as little is meant to go wrong here (even though some bits did for me. More on that in a bit).
The basic idea is to stretch your arm out to grab key items while also grabbing whatever smaller valuables happen to be lying around. You can pickpocket unsuspecting passengers and steal some rather more unusual prizes, including pigeons, dogs and a bicycle. The latter provided some of my favourite moments, particularly when a passenger responds to their bike being snatched with, "Hey, that's my bike ...” and does absolutely nothing to stop me. That wonderful undertone delivery is just pure comedy gold, and the complete lack of urgency, and unsurprise at a gloopy, wriggly stretching arm, had me cracking up quite a bit.
For me, there's something inherently amusing about the sheer absurdity of the situation, especially when the arm itself seems to carry on without a care in the world. But I know some people might not gel with this style of comedy, and that’s fine; I get it.
The ropes are shown pretty well in this demo, with some advanced actions, including tripping up a ticket inspector and stopping the train by moving into the driver’s cabin. Honestly, a great starting level … and, in some ways, also one of the worst ways to showcase the core gameplay loop for me. It also showcases a rather neat art style, which I quite loved.
Wriggly Arm away!
The problem I faced? The controls did take a little getting used to, if I'm honest. The basic arm movement is fine, but the isometric perspective, the seemingly random zooming in and out, and the occasionally janky object-grabbing can get disorienting. It didn’t help that the cramped carriages can make navigating with your ridiculously long arm a little awkward, and I found myself stuck on objects or people several times (thankfully there is an unstuck option to resolve this quickly). The physics can also be a bit hit-or-miss, which doesn't always help.
Still, it’s a solid level, with some good laughs and amusing design choices along the way. And I suspect the mechanics might fare better in larger, more open environments where there's more room to stretch out and experiment. Being caught also seems like a fairly minor setback, which takes some of the pressure off the stealth elements. That's not necessarily a bad thing for a game leaning so heavily into comedy. Still, I would like to see how these mechanics develop as the missions become more involved with elements of danger and risk.
Also, note to make: play on a controller ideally.
The puzzle elements are fairly simple, but they play into the arm mechanics nicely. There's something quite amusing about solving problems and causing absolute havoc when you're essentially just a wandering limb. The demo does a good job showing how the concept can be used for more than just grabbing things from a distance, like tripping up a ticket inspector or pulling larger items to the exit to claim them. I can see potential in using a super long arm to solve ridiculous problems in the full game, like going into a toilet, navigating through a pipe to reach another bathroom past a locked door or something.
The train level/demo was a nice showcase for the basic mechanics, and how detailed the rest of the game might be.
Overall?
I’m quite fond of the short but promising demo for My Arms Are Longer Now.
I love the art style, the humour works more often than not, and the concept itself has plenty of potential. When everything comes together, My Arms Are Longer Now can be genuinely funny, and its absurd world has a certain charm, especially in how it plays everything so straight-faced. Unfortunately, janky physics, occasional collision issues, and camera quirks keep the demo from being as enjoyable as it could be. It's a promising start, though, and I'd certainly like to see more. Hopefully, the full game can build on these ideas, smooth out the rough edges, and give this wonderfully ridiculous arm a little more room to breathe.
I still enjoyed my time with My Arms Are Longer Now's demo, which is out now during the Steam Next Fest until the 26th of October!
