Look, my history with fighting games is pretty hit or miss. I was a pretty decent Scarecrow main in Injustice 2, I got my ass kicked on stream during the MK11 beta by Maximilian Dood, and I’ve messed around with a whole host of other titles such as SkullGirls 2nd Encore, Street Fighter V, and UNIST. I like big boy grapplers and pew pew zoners, but I’ll always choose the weirdo monster on the roster above all else. Blanka, Baraka, Cereballa, Waldstein, and the aforementioned Scarecrow are my peoples. I wouldn’t call myself “good”, but I know enough about these games to know something special when I see it. Tough Love Arena is special.

Tough Love Arena is a free-to-play browser-based fighting game with 6 playable characters, a full tutorial, move lists, frame data, character-specific combo trials, online and local PVP, matchmaking and private matches, practice mode, and rollback netcode. If none of that sounds incredibly impressive or noteworthy, let me reiterate the beginning. This is a free-to-play browser based fighting game. All you need to do is go to ToughLoveArena.com and you’re already in there. It even works on your phone.

For something that you can be playing in 30 seconds by hitting the link above, Tough Love Arena is super impressive. The gameplay is smooth and responsive, but simplified in ways that are incredibly smart. The controls are a basic forwards/backwards and light/heavy/special attack, with jumping only happening by hitting forward and special. Designing a fighting game around not having a controller can’t be easy, but this simplified setup feels really good on both a laptop keyboard and on an iPhone touchscreen. The footsies are real, the combos are real and it’s super easy to pick up and play. There’s definitely an old school arcade feeling to it all. The visuals are bright and colorful, with the characters just being silhouettes. Still, there’s a lot of personality that comes through in the brief moments where they get more definition during certain animations.

Simply put, Tough Love Arena is a real-ass fighting game. It’s free, it’s easy to learn, and it feels really good to play. This is a really great intro to fighting games for beginners to the genre, but it’s also a great one to pick up for a quick match against friends or randoms if you’re a more seasoned player too. Tough Love Arena is dope. Head on over to ToughLoveArena.com and give it a shot.