Toe II Toe
“Fighting games are hard.”
“Fighting games take up too much time and require a lot of dedication.”
“There are too many characters, and it's not balanced.”
“I can't figure out special moves.”
“My opponent keeps running away.”
“I don't have a console or PC.”
"My lemon PC can't run fighting games.”
Ever want to play fighting games but these questions keep getting in the way? Do not fear, Toe II Toe is here.
Toe II Toe is a fast-paced mini fighting game in a retro gameboy style for the 20 second Game Jam! You have your feet planted on the ground, ready for a slugfest. Punch, duck, or block your way to victory!
The controls are very basic, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure things out. All it takes is 20 seconds per fight, no special moves--one move per button. That's it!
You can run the game on your cellphone. That means you can play anytime and anywhere--whether you're in the can, in mom's basement, or in a business meeting. You can strategize or just spam buttons, you're the boss. Play against the computer AI, or side by side on the same device with a friend. It's a mirror match, no roster to choose from, so you can rest assured that the game is balanced.
Who said fighting games need to be difficult and time consuming? (Seriously, punch those gatekeepers!)
Controls
Touch the buttons or if you prefer the keyboard:
You can also customize your controls according to your preference. There are some keys that are reserved, so if your custom key doesn't register, that means it's unavailable.
Or if you prefer a Gamepad:
Buttons 1-4 are the default actions, which varies depending where your player is positioned. Start or Options button pauses the game during a match. The Direction keys or the Left Analog Stick can be used to navigate the menus, and pressing any key in the menu selects.
You can also customize the gamepad in-game controls to your liking. If your gamepad supports vibrations, prepare to feel a rumble.
Frequently Asked Questions
You may view the FAQs here.
Changelog
You may view the game changes here.
To Do
Online LeaderboardsSprite and Animation improvementsSFX improvements and Music(?)Control Pad support- Add More Characters to Single Player Mode
Round time optionsPre-fight and post-fight screens- Better AI
- Uppercut
- Counter Punch
Credits
- Construct
- Aseprite
- Pixly by Gustavo Maciel
- ChipTone by SFB Games
- Audacity
- Early GameBoy font by Jimmy Campbell
- Itch.io
- 20 Second Game Jam
- CG Pixel 4x5 font by Ilmari Karonen
- Modbox/Beepbox by John Nesky, Quirby64, Theepicosity, Fillygroove, and DARE
Donations
The game is completely free, no catch. But for those who want to go further in supporting the development of the game, or if you want to buy me a beer/coffee, you can pay what you want to "buy" the game. For those who want to donate multiple times or recurring, you may do so on my Ko-Fi page.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Exclusive content
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Insert Credit(s)
Donate USD 10 or more, and I will include you in the credits of the game.
- Max 13 characters
- Must be alphanumeric. Special characters are limited to commas , periods , and exclamation points. These are also included in the character count.
- Cannot be racist/sexist/profane, etc. I will be the final judge of what is allowed and not.
- In case of violation of the previous, I will ask you to change it just once. If you don't change it, the name won't appear in the credits, and this Reward will already be fulfilled.
Limited to 100 quantity. If for some reason you can't donate or purchase on itch, you can try my ko-fi page, and then I'll reach out, make it happen.
Also available on
Development log
- Here comes a new challengerOct 02, 2024
- Insert CreditsJan 16, 2024
- Toe II Toe - FAQsJul 28, 2023
- Toe II Toe - ChangelogJul 28, 2023
- Update: New Mechanic -- Parry / Just DefendJul 01, 2023
- Thank the people (and give them what they want)May 11, 2023
- Privacy PolicyJan 16, 2023
Comments
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when update... i love toe II toe i wanna see uppercut and counters and stuff...
WAIT OMG NEW CHARACTERRRR YAYYYAYAYYAYAY
the ai can just attack multiple times without delay
it would be great to actually have a .gb format it’s perfect for emulation devices, amazing art , amazing game. Well done
Got a score of 22,770 and it was pretty easy ngl. Yes I did lose the first few times but all you really gotta do is pay attention to the AI's movements. Good game btw.
cooooooooooooool game
The AI is impossible to beat without a lot of experience(If it even is beatable) and the mechanics are extremely punishing to the player only. When it's pvp, it's fair, but only because a person doesn't instantly react to every breath you take and beat you to a pulp by predicting your movements joseph joestar style. "Your next words are..."
Edit: I managed to beat it 8 times. However, learning how to beat the ai was ridiculously hard. It instantly reacts to almost everything you do. The only way I could even do was block round start to get that first perfect block, then keep countering the whole round. This is a good game with an unreasonably good ai, but I wouldn't really call it a fighting game. Sorry.
TLDR Good game, horribly difficult to deal with Ai.
YEAH
now they have the dummy character to fight, its less hard
Thanks for playing. I know the jojo comparison is meant to be a negative thing, but I'll take any jojo comparison as a compliment! Haha
I'm still working on the ai. If you take a look at the first few comments, the feedback was actually that the ai sucked. I tried to improve it, but now it's too hard. I didn't intentionally make it godlike difficult ala SNK bosses. It's a bit tricky to get that just right sweet spot because people have varying skills, so I'm working on a difficulty setting. Hopefully it will make things better for all.
You mentioned you wouldn't really call it a fighting game. Is it due to the difficulty or is there something else that I can improve on to convince you otherwise?
The Jojo comparison isn't necessarily a bad thing, I'm just kinda commenting on how the AI knows exactly what to do the moment you press a button. I wouldn't really call it a fighting game because, IMO, fighting games ought to be at least a bit more complex. I understand the idea of making it simpler and easier for people to get into, but this is more aligned with punch out or that "chicken" slapping game than what I would think of when I would ask for a fighting game. You can do a simple fighting game, tough love arena is a great example, but there are some complexities that are genre defining.
Idk I got 34 wins and maybe 5 loses with the AI and it's like my first time playing
Totally correct , download this game only if you want to know what it's like to be a punching Bag !!! 😡
hard but fun
horrible game unplayble and multiple bugs wont play agai
Thanks for playing! Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy the game. Do you mind sharing the bugs and your ideas for improvement? I might be able to fix those bugs and maybe implement features when I have some time.
This is so hard. Couldn't get the computer down to half health. Fun game. awesome visuals and feedback.
It gets better when you figure out parry!
is there any possibility of this being a port or a rom?
As of now, sorry, no. I would love to see this run on an original gameboy, but while I used the same screen size and palette limit of the gameboy, I believe I went past the hardware limitations. And even if I was wrong and it was possible to do this on the original gameboy hardware, I don't have the technical expertise to do so. Maybe if I run into someone skilled? Until then, the best case scenario is a better linux port that can run on linux based handhelds. Sorry about that!
P.S. if anybody reading this thinks they can port this to the original gameboy without completely changing the game...please reach out, let's try and make it happen!
Just beat the dummy wt only hooks (so i dont feel like im cheating) but this game is soooooooo good i love the feeling of being on tempo and predicting the opponent's attacks. I would like to see some stamina or stail mechanics.
I'm working in the stamina, just been extremly busy with lifelately.
Pardon the ignorance, but what is stail mechianics?
No need to feel rushed the game is fantastic as is.
From my limited knowledge its from super smash bros where an attack gets weaker the more times in a row you use it.
ah, like damage scaling? I can def look into that, that's a pretty awesome suggestion! Thank you!
It would be awesome to see this on PortMaster for portable handhelds! :)
same!!
yo! why stella look like Chell from portal
Hello Paolo. I came across your game yesterday and I really liked the visual style and gameplay, as I wrote in the review, it reminded me of old manga about boxers or hooligans, like "hajime no Ippo", "holyland" or "fight class 3". I tried to add a new character using Stella's sprites. Is there any way I can contact you to show it?
Hajime no ippo is awesome. I have not heard of holyland and fight class 3. I will check them out when I have the time.
As for you wanting to share your sprite edits, yes, you can send it to my email so I can check it out, would love to see them. My email is in the FAQs
THIS! JUST! AMAZING! I stumbled upon this game a couple of hours ago and oh my god it's so good, the aesthetics remind me of old manga and gameboy games. It's pretty simple in mechanics but can keep you hooked for quite a while. And I really liked the visual style, it would be cool to add a couple of characters. I also think it would be more convenient in the phone version to put the controls on the edges of the screen, two rectangles on the left and right, and leave the battle itself in the middle, it would be more convenient to play in single-player mode, at least.
Hello! Thank you, glad you liked it. I understand the sentiment about the controls. The current setup is due to me following the actual GameBoy screen dimensions, and last minute I decided to add touch controls so I could play it on my phone (The original design didn't include touch controls).
Currently it isn't bothering me so much since I have a Samsung Galaxy fold 4, and I play it with the inner screen and the current dimensions -- perfect for it.
It will take a while for me to rewrite everything to have that setup you mentioned. Although it's been requested quite a bit, I might just leave it as it is now, maybe add 2 or so characters, add the arcade, then call it finished. Then I'll make a sequel with better utilization of the screen when on mobile.
stella for the win!!! amazing visuals, game, and music <3
THAT GIRL IS A BADDIE.
This is a really nice arcade-like fighting game. Nice work.
Incredible art direction, awesome animation, and UI. Congratulations on such an amazing creation.
I have really high hopes for this in case you intend to update it further.
Just an important feedback: I believe the way the game is right now you can win 100% of matches by spamming jabs.
Thank you for the feedback!
I do plan to update this. Right now, yes, you can spam jabs, but that won't be the case in the future. I have a wip test fix for that, actually, but I just got busy with life so I haven't gotten back to updating this game.
I don’t know if it may help, but you can take a look at framedata, and make a max “”combo” number to avoid spam.
The parry could be used to break combos if well timed.
Holy shit, the fucking cpu is ACTUALLY in my walls, he is predicting my mooves like he's fucking Dexter!!!
Anyway, good game, very original, only problem I personally have is that I find the commands very unresponsive; I have to destroy my keybord for anything to happen, but maybe it works great on pad.
Good game.
The trick is, it's not the cpu behind the walls. I'm actually behind your desktop. That's why commands are unresponsive, I pull the keyboard when I see you punching.
Kidding aside, I'll look into that. Would you mind sharing your browser version, os, and specs? Or are you playing on mobile?
I use a chromebook (that's why I play browser games) so chrome OS and chrome is the browser, couldn't tell you any more though
I was supposed to be making dinner and this distracted me for a good 20 minutes lol. Love the art style and how simple the game play is. Would love to see more of this for sure.
Thank you, glad you had. Who needs dinner anyway (when there's cereals) am I right?
I enjoyed this game. I really wanted to set the music as ringtone.
This could have been a hit in the '90s. The sound, art, and gameplay are amazing. Looking forward to seeing more characters.
Timestamps - 7:44
Thank you. Glad to get some praise on the music. I'm not a music guy, gave it a shot, thought I did well, but realized I might just be biased. It's nice that someone took notice and liked it.
I'm gonna be the first one to say it in this comment section!
I wanna grind on them abs! (Stella). Yes, I'm down bad for athletic and muscular women.
I was't able to play long but game is polished but I can't beat the bot :(
Great game. Really polished, really cool menu. Keep it up!
cool XD
I WON A 4 MATCH ROUND I FEEL SO ACCOMPLISHED
Lol
Nice, glad you enjoyed! Congratulations!
finally got some time to properly play and after improving both at sf 6 and at parrying on this game, i could beat the cpu more than get beaten!
some random thing ive notice that would be cool to see is a cheering/frustration or anger animation for when the time runs out and no one goes to the canvas.
just like, the character raising its arm cheering victory or making a sad or angry face when losing by time
That's actually such a good idea yk, and also on the round where both players need 1 more win to well win it should display final round
That is actually a great and simple idea that can be implemented without too much work! Thank you!
Congrats! Parry is quite addictive, but maybe that's just me because I love street fighter 3rd strike.
I am also working on the win and lose poses, just got a bit busy, but you can definitely count on that being implemented, sooner (hopefully) or later.
Parry is cool, and luckily you made it more accessible than on Sf 3 lol. I love parrying on SF 6
Hope you can work anytime soon and can’t wait for more characters
Bruh, this game is unfair, I dodge and they still hit me not giving me time to able to attack, and even if I block a jab I still get hit, and sometimes I just can't do anything and the bot just keeps punching me, and I die too quickly, and nothing works for me, and I everytime I try anything the dodge it and counter me but It doesn't work for me, this game looks fun but it's just unfair.
I won by just spamming jab, that's the only way for me to able to win, I did nothing but spam jab.
Never mind, I just tried it on the human and it didn't work, it even seems she's faster, like I think there's gonna be needed to balance things out.
Yeah I just tested it and the human is faster than the dummy, like you need to balance this out, I tried it with two player, that I control, and I pressed both the jap and hook at the same time and the human was faster.
Hello! Yes, the human is way faster, but the dummy hits like a truck! It's really difficult to balance different characters, as they'll have their own strengths and weaknesses. It wasn't an issue before when there was only a single character making everything a mirror match, but now there's a new character and some more coming. I'll probably do some balancing in the future, but that's probably after I add another character.
If you want it to be a simpler alternative to fighting games you should definitely explain what's going on, because as a long time fighting game player I have 0 idea how to improve, so I lost interest after 3 matches.
The guard break(?) happens at times I wouldn't expect, blocking a jab and then attacking is apparently still unsafe, there seems to be a parry mechanic that didn't give me much of an opening either, and like everyone else pointed out the AI is insanely aggressive. The game really needs either a tutorial or way more feedback on when it's advantageous to perform which action.
Thank you for playing and giving feedback! Yes, I am working on the tutorial mode and a difficulty adjustment so as not to overwhelm people.
The guard break, there is a guard meter below the lifebar. If you're still thrown off, it might be because of Hoyka, who does insane damage and can easily crush guard breaks.
Gotcha, yeah I was mainly playing against Hoyka.
The pixel art is great and the concept is promising, but it would definitely benefit from more feedback whether the player is at advantage or disadvantage (maybe stun animation?).
I love fighting games! Aesthetics are sooo great...
so happy to see this game get updated again!!
it's still so fun and addictive, i come back once a week at least just for a few games, ngl :p
AYYEEE nice to see u still updating this game after the 20 second game jam, can't wait to see more development bro!
Thanks! It took a while, but I'll try to keep updating it.
The 20sgj this year should be coming up soon. Hope to see you there again. The Beast needs a companion!
yesssirrr that should be fun fr!!
time over losing? too quick
Hi @dyenamix! You can adjust the round time in the options! I left it at 20 seconds by default because this was initially made for the 20 second game jam.
Incredible game. Learning the parry into counter feels so cool. Peak Hajime no Ippo type beat.
I'm a big fan of parries in fighting games, so I had to throw that in!
I keep getting beat up but this game looks great. The illustation and animation of Stella are top notch! I tried it cos it looked great.
Thank you! (Hoyka is crying in a corner.)
Okay I just tried Hoyka as I felt bad and they pummled me (I won 1 match) but looked great while doing it! Nice game mate.
Where is toeItoe????????????????
Sorry, it was a limited edition-- capcom, snk, sega sammy had a bidding war, but no one would back down, so they just decided to pitch in for a spaceship and sent it to space, where it will orbit until the people are ready for it.
Toe II Toe is a weak sequel, but that's what we are stuck with.
😔😔😮💨😭
Now, now, no need to cry. It should be back here around 2088. Stay tuned!
Haven't played a street fighter-esque in ages because of the classic ''My opponent's character has this overpowered move - GOD MY OPPONENT KEEPS RUNNING AWAY RAAAAAH"
But this absolutely fire game just made fighting games seem more about just no-bullshit action to me. Thank you for making this.
Thanks BroZen! Yep, I know that footwork and circling away are good and essential techniques to reset and break tempo in a fight, but sometimes it's just nice to watch people fight with no strategy, caveman style fights.
i am so weak i can't punch the cpu
The difficulty level adjustment is part of the next few updates!