How do you play Boxing Ring?
Walk toward the rival and press a punch button when your glove can reach; press guard or dodge the moment the rival winds up to block or slip the punch. Empty the rival's health bar first, or lead on points after three rounds, and you win.
The ring is seen from the side. The left fighter is you, the right one is the computer or the second player. Fighters are faceless round glove dolls, so there is no blood or bruising, only sweat drops and stars circling the head after a knockdown. The two bars at the top are health, the thin yellow line under each is stamina, and the clock in the middle shows the round and the time left.
Every punch has its own reach. Too far and you hit air, too close and the long punches feel awkward. The basic rhythm is to measure the distance with jabs and follow up with a straight or hook the moment the rival flinches.
What is the difference between the four punches?
The jab is fast and light, the straight reaches farthest, the hook is slow but hits hardest, and the uppercut is short but goes straight through a guard. Any punch gets slower and weaker when your stamina runs low.
| Punch | Damage | Speed | Reach | Against guard | Stamina |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jab | 5 | very fast | long | only 25% lands | 6 |
| Straight | 10 | medium | longest | only 25% lands | 10 |
| Hook | 16 | slow | short | 35% lands | 14 |
| Uppercut | 14 | slow | shortest | breaks the guard, long stagger | 15 |
A punch has three phases: wind up, impact and recovery. During the wind up the rival can still guard or dodge, so the bigger the punch the easier it is to read. During recovery you can do nothing, so a missed hook or uppercut leaves you open.
When should I guard and when should I dodge?
Guard means standing and absorbing, dodge means stepping back and avoiding the punch entirely. Guard cuts jab and straight damage to a quarter and hooks to about a third, but it cannot stop an uppercut, and it drains 7 stamina per second while held.
- Guard: when stamina hits zero the guard drops and you are left tired for a moment. A rival who sees a long guard comes in with an uppercut, so do not just hold it.
- Dodge: of the 0.36 second step back, the first 0.27 seconds cannot be hit at all. If the rival's punch whiffs during that window a counter marker lights up for 0.9 seconds, and any punch thrown in that time does 1.6 times damage with a 35% faster wind up.
- Distance: simply walking back makes everything but the longest punches miss. Against the ropes, though, there is nowhere left to go.
Stamina: every punch spends some and standing still brings back 15 per second. Below 40 your punches get up to 1.8 times slower, and below 60 the damage also drops, down to 60% at the bottom.
Flurries look strong, but after four or five punches your gloves slow down and you eat the counter instead. Two or three punches, one step back to breathe, and repeat lasts much longer. Stamina also refills while the rival is down and being counted, so use that time.
How do knockdowns and KOs work?
Health at zero is a knockdown. While the referee counts to ten, tap any button rapidly to fill the gauge and get back up. Failing the count, or a third knockdown in the match, is a KO.
| Situation | Result |
|---|---|
| Gauge filled by tapping | up from the count of 3. Health restarts at 40 after the first knockdown, 32 after the second, stamina at 55 |
| Still down at ten | KO loss |
| Third knockdown of the match | immediate KO loss |
| Bell rings during the count | saved by the bell. Next round starts with 25 health |
| While the rival is down | no attacking, stamina refills |
Whether the computer gets up is decided by its level. Easy stays down about four times in ten, Hard almost always rises.
How is a decision scored?
Each round the fighter who dealt more damage gets 10 points and the other 9, minus one more point for every knockdown suffered. The higher total after three rounds wins on points, and equal totals are a draw.
The round clock reads 3 minutes but runs on game time, so a round takes about 75 real seconds. The short break between rounds restores 14 health and refills stamina. Blocked punches still count a little toward the score, so if you are behind in the last round, hiding behind the guard will not turn it around.
What changes between the computer levels?
Easy is slow and mostly jabs, Normal mixes guards and counters, and Hard throws feints and breaks a long guard with uppercuts. Reaction time drops from 0.5 to 0.3 to 0.17 seconds.
| Level | Habits |
|---|---|
| Easy | jab heavy, occasional guard, almost never dodges. Sometimes fails to get up after a knockdown |
| Normal | guards about half your wind ups, follows a jab with a straight or hook, counters right after being hit |
| Hard | guards 60% and dodges 30%, hunts the counter bonus after a dodge, baits your guard with short feints and breaks it with an uppercut |
Tips for winning
- Measure with the jab. A missed jab costs little. If the jab reaches, the straight reaches too.
- Watch the wind up and dodge. Hooks and uppercuts have long wind ups and are easy to slip; a counter hook after a slip does over 25 damage.
- Uppercut a turtle. The Hard computer thinks the same way, so do not hold your own guard for long.
- Push to the ropes. A rival against the ropes cannot open distance by walking or dodging.
- Breathe after a knockdown. The rival comes back with little health but 55 stamina. Charging in with empty stamina can get you dropped instead.
Controls
- Keyboard (solo): A·D or the arrow keys move, S or Down guards, W or Up dodges, J jab, K straight, L hook, U uppercut. The keys , . / ' and numpad 1 2 3 5 do the same, Space also jabs. Enter starts right away.
- Keyboard (two players): the left fighter uses WASD with J K L U, the right fighter uses the arrows with , . / ' (or numpad 1 2 3 5).
- Phones: guard, dodge and move buttons sit at the bottom left, jab, straight, hook and uppercut at the bottom right. In two player mode the left half of the screen belongs to 1P and the right half to 2P. When down, tap any button rapidly.
- Mouse: tap the screen once during a match and the same buttons appear for clicking.
- Colors: pick your fighter's color and the rival's color from eight options on the title screen.
Your record and fastest KO time are stored only in this browser and never sent to a server. All graphics and sounds are generated in code, so nothing extra is downloaded.