Toe II Toe ties every interaction to four buttons, only giving you options to attack and block. Even so, it still captures the moment-to-moment challenge of fighters.
You’ve got mirrored boxers and only four buttons to use, so this should be simple, right? You can block, duck, throw a jab, or launch a hook. It’s a simple layout that’s tied to buttons on your phone or a handful of keys on your keyboard, so you won’t be forgetting your movement. There’s no special attacks, and you have twenty seconds to wrap up the match. Even so, these four buttons make so many things possible that you’ll still get a taste of the complexity of fighters. Just in a package that makes things simple to understand and remember.
Your jab is fast, so it’s a solid move to use whenever your opponent drops their guard or goes for a hook. The hook does more damage, but you’re likely to get blocked, dodged, or eat a jab for trying to use it. Likewise, you can block, but you’ll still take a bit of damage. It’s faster to put your hands up than to duck, though, which means you take no damage but it’s slow and you don’t have much control of what happens when you’re on the way back up. Seeing as your opponent is a relentless killer, you’ll need to be very aware of the timing of your movements, as well as what your enemy is up to, in order to get a win. It took me more tries than I’d like to admit, especially since you have to do it all in twenty seconds.
Toe II Toe is a distillation of fighting games into a straightforward package, but it still shows off the complexities of fighters during its brief matches. It’s a cool take on the genre, and as simple as it appears to be, it’ll push you hard if you want to be the champ.
Toe II Toe is available now on itch.io.
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