Ragdoll Rumble.

How to play Ragdoll Rumble

1. Play the Warm-up first. Eight short lessons cover walking, jumping, punching, kicking, chaining a combo, guarding, throwing and the Rumble Rush.
2. Find your range before you swing. A blow only lands when a mitt or shoe reaches the other toy, lands hardest at the right distance, and barely counts as a graze at full stretch.
3. Mix quick punches with heavier kicks, and tap again after a hit to chain up to three blows. Kick or punch a toy that jumps at you to knock it down.
4. Guard against blows you see coming, and let go so your stamina refills. Raise the guard just before a slow kick lands to parry it and counter while the attacker reels.
5. If the rival turtles, hold Guard and tap Punch up close to throw it. When your gold meter glows, fire the Rumble Rush from close range.
6. Use the stage: drive rivals toward open edges and walls, kick crates, barrels and snowmen into them, watch the roof banners for gusts and the floor for pillow shadows.

Make your move

About Ragdoll Rumble

Ragdoll Rumble is an original toy fighting game about timing, spacing and weight. Pip, a teal bunny in a padded hood, and the club rivals are jointed toys with round gloves and soft shoes. Each one is an active ragdoll. It has eleven points with real masses: a heavy pelvis and ribcage, a light head, and limbs in between. Bones keep their length, joints bend only as far as a real neck, shoulder, elbow, hip or knee can, and muscles with a strength limit pull the body into its fighting stance. Balance only works while the feet are planted, and in the air a toy flies on its momentum. The solver runs in small substeps inside a fixed clock, so it behaves the same at any frame rate.

Blows are physical. A punch or kick lands only when the mitt or shoe actually meets the other toy, and what happens next depends on momentum: how fast the limb was closing, how much body was behind it and which part it hit. A head hit snaps the head back and does the most damage. The braced torso rocks. A forearm raised in guard soaks the blow. Hitting at the right distance lands hardest, stepping into a blow adds to it, and catching a rival who walks into your punch hurts them more. Planted feet hold part of every blow against the floor, so the same kick slides a toy much further on ice. Big hits overpower the muscles. The toy reels, steps to catch its balance, and falls over when its torso tips past its feet.

The moves are simple to learn and deep to use. A punch is quick. A kick chambers the knee and drives out with more weight. Jump and kick for a flying kick, or jump and punch to hammer down. After a hit, tap again to chain up to three blows; chained blows step in behind the last one. Holding Guard blocks blows from the front and drains a thin stamina bar. Raise it just before a blow lands, before the blow is already arriving, and it is a parry: no damage, and the attacker reels within reach of a counter. A throw beats a guard. Hold Guard and tap Punch up close, and hold back to toss the rival behind you. Two kicks that meet shin to shin clash, and neither counts.

Landing blows and taking them fills the gold Rumble meter. When it glows, the Rumble Rush charges forward shoulder first and knocks down anything it reaches. Knocked-down toys tumble as true ragdolls and cannot be hit on the floor. Hard landings, wall splats and throws do a little extra damage, up to a limit for each knockdown. Tap any button to get up sooner. A toy rises from where it actually lies, once it has landed. A round lasts sixty seconds, and a knockout or a ring-out ends it at once. At the buzzer the toy with more health wins, and a tie becomes sudden hit.

Each stage has its own hazard and its own props, and every prop follows the same physics as the toys. Lantern Yard has padded walls and training crates that splinter when someone is slammed into them, and the afternoon turns golden as you fight. The Skyline Roof has open edges for ring-outs, traffic cones and wind gusts: the banners stream a second before each gust, and a gust carries a flying toy toward the drop. The Toy Workshop conveyor switches direction every seven seconds while a hopper drops toy blocks onto it. On Frost Pond every step slides, the snow thickens, snowmen burst into rolling snowballs and hard falls crack the ice. On the Harbor Raft, barrels roll as the deck rocks and a storm builds round by round, with rain, bigger waves and lightning. At the Midnight Club, spotlights follow the fighters and pillows drop from the rafters after a shadow warning. A crate, barrel or snowman kicked into a rival hurts it, and the hit counts for whoever kicked it.

The Club Tour is the main adventure: six clubs with three bouts each, eighteen rivals in all, from Rook in Lantern Yard to The Duchess at the Midnight Club. Every bout offers three stars: one for winning, one for winning without dropping a round, and one for a goal such as a throw, a three-hit combo, a flying kick, a ring-out or dodging every pillow. Stars unlock eight toy species, twelve colours and ten hats in the Locker. They are cosmetic only, so every toy fights exactly the same. A rival who would wear your colour switches to a contrasting one, so the two toys never blur together.

The computer rivals read the same stage you see and press the same buttons you do, with no extra speed, reach or damage. Harder rivals react faster and guard more reliably. They space for the distance where their blows land hardest, read slow kicks and parry them, punish a reeling toy, kick a crate into you when one sits between you, and hop out of the way of flying props. Each has a style: Brawlers press forward, Boxers guard and punish, Hoppers attack from the air, Walls wait for mistakes, Grapplers love throws, Kickers keep you at leg’s length and Tricksters throw you toward the nearest edge. Beyond the tour there is a Quick match with four skill levels, the eight-toy Toy Cup, endless Survival with your health carried between bouts, Local duel for two people on one keyboard or touch screen, and oddball rules such as moon gravity, giant gloves, big heads, a slippery floor and bouncy toys.

The crowd reacts to the fight: it murmurs louder as the match heats up, raises its arms at big hits, gasps when a toy teeters at an edge and snaps photos at a knockout. All the sound is synthesised in the browser. Impacts change with the force and the body part, whooshes follow the speed of the limb, the toys grunt in their own voices, falls sound different on boards, ice and a raft deck, and each stage has its own ambience. On slow phones the game lowers its own quality, using fewer physics substeps, fewer particles, lighter weather and a smaller canvas, so it stays smooth. Reduced-motion settings turn off shake, flashes and the punch-in zoom. Tour stars, cups, the best Survival streak, your toy, settings and lifetime stats are saved in this browser, and older saves carry over.

A little help for your next high score

• Punch, punch, kick is the most reliable combo. Start it from close range; each chained blow steps in, so the kick still reaches.
• Aim jabs at the head. A head hit at the right distance does about half again the damage of a body hit.
• Walk into your own blows rather than waiting: stepping in adds momentum, and catching a rival walking at you hurts most.
• A rival who guards a lot is asking to be thrown. Parries beat strikes, throws beat guards and parries, and a quick jab beats a slow throw attempt.
• On the Skyline Roof and the Harbor Raft, fight with your back to the middle. A toy teetering at the edge goes over on any clean blow, and a gust can carry a flying toy off.
• On ice, planted feet hold almost nothing, so kicks send toys much further. Use that toward the snowbanks, or keep your own back off them.

Good questions