Fighting Games
Two people, one keyboard, and physics with no interest in a fair contest.
36 games · hand-picked, then filled from the catalogue
A console fighting game asks you to learn something. Sixty moves, a combo list, frame data if you are serious. A browser fighting game asks you to press one button at roughly the right moment, and gets its comedy from the gap between the two.
How this list is put together
That is not a lesser design, it is a different one. Give two players a full move list and the better player wins every round, which is fine at a tournament and miserable on a sofa. Give them one button each and a physics engine that resolves every collision on the spot, and the match stays genuinely uncertain — because neither of you is fully in control of what your own character is doing.
Most of what is here runs on ragdolls: jointed bodies with mass, no animation to fall back on, and limbs that keep travelling after the button is released. A punch lands with whatever speed the arm happened to have. That is why the same knockout never looks quite the same twice, and why these are the games people record and send to each other.
The ones we have written about come first, and they are all two-player. Behind them: one-button brawlers, arcade beat-em-ups, sword duels and boxing.
Questions people ask
Are these like the fighting games on consoles?
No, and the good ones do not try. A console fighter is about a move list you have learned; a browser fighter is about two people with one button each and a physics engine that makes both of them look ridiculous.
Can two people play on one keyboard?
Most of the list, yes. One player takes the left of the keyboard, the other the right, usually one or two keys each. They also appear in our two players on one keyboard collection.
Why do the characters flop about like that?
Because they are ragdolls — jointed skeletons with weight and no idea how to stand. Nothing is animated in advance, so every punch that lands does so with whatever momentum the arm happened to have.