If I could extend my arm forty times its normal length, while also granting it the flexibility of a sock filled with mince, I’d probably just use it to take the bins out without leaving my chair. But what if someone were to use this power… for evil? That’s the gist of My Arms Are Longer Now, a cartoony “stealth-comedy” game about worming a single stretchy limb into people’s valuables, which has a Steam Next Fest demo out now.
The stealth aspect is, in fact, very light. Most NPCs seem unbothered by the meat monstrosity snaking around their feet, wrapping around their shoulders, or repeatedly slapping their heads just for the funny sound effect. Even dragging off a beloved pet in full view of the owner will elicit only the meekest of verbal protests, possibly because they’ve taken one look at this thing and concluded it cannot be defeated by mortal means.
Instead, it’s more a combination of soft puzzler – some target items require you find certain passes or keys first – and Octodad-style physics wrangler. Lifting your hand up off the floor requires you to build some momentum. Combined with the isometric viewpoint and the slightly surreal mix of a 3D arm on a 2D background, this makes precision pickpocketing trickier than it looks. There’s no failure state, mind, so any clumsy hand-wibbling and/or ropes of excess arm left lying around can only add to the laughs. Speaking of which, My Arms Are Longer Now does well to ground its weirdness in a kind of mumbly, matter-of-fact British wit, as Deathbulge or Thank Goodness You’re Here! do, though I’m not sure why your haul is measured in dollars when everyone looks and sounds like they’re from Slough. (Update: Apparently they’re Australian and it’s set in Australia, thus dooming my promising careers in language studies, geography, and international diplomacy. Apologies, mates.)
That aside, this demo – which you can grab on Steam – is a cheery way to spend 15 minutes, and I’ll be keeping a much closer eye on the full game’s progress than my victims did on their stuff.