Stickman Clash

A fighting game whose rounds are defined by what you are holding. Weapons are assigned rather than chosen, they differ enormously — reach, speed, whether they work at all — and a round is therefore a fresh problem about how to use something you may never have held before. That randomness is the design and it works because the weapons are genuinely distinct. A long reach wins a standoff and loses a scramble; a fast weapon punishes commitment and cannot break through a guard; several are deliberately terrible and funny. Because neither player knows the matchup until the round starts, there is no memorised strategy to fall back on, and the skill is adaptation rather than execution. Rounds last seconds, the physics keep the outcomes slapstick, and the two-player mode on one keyboard is the best way to play it — reading a person is the actual game. There is a ladder of computer opponents for solo play. It runs on anything, plays with three inputs per player, and is exactly as serious as it needs to be.