Fighter Legends Duo

Fighter Legends Duo is built for the second chair. There is a tournament to work through alone, but the game is at its best with two people on one keyboard and a stage neither of you picked.

Each fighter gets three attacks — a punch, a kick and a special — which is enough to give a match texture without turning it into homework. The punch is fast and safe, the kick reaches further and commits you, and the special is the one that ends close rounds. It is not always ready, though. A yellow bar under the health bar has to fill first, and the screen tells you when the button will work.

Stages change more than the backdrop. Temples, military compounds, deserts and caves each give a different amount of room, and a fighter who wins comfortably in the open can be far easier to corner somewhere tight.

The roster is drawn from familiar fighting-game archetypes rather than a single style, so picking a character is picking the range you are comfortable at. Each player's score sits along the top throughout the match. Two players share a keyboard; one alone works through the tournament against the computer.