Best Free Fighting Games to Play Online

Fighting games translate to the browser in two distinct flavours. The serious 1v1 takes — Street Fighter-style timing, special moves, combos — and the goofy ragdoll brawlers where the entire game is one unstable physics simulation. Both work surprisingly well via keyboard, and the browser is a friendly place for both.

What's below: tight 1v1 fighters, side-scrolling beat-em-ups in the Streets-of-Rage tradition, sword and stick-figure duels, multi-fighter party brawls, and the comedy ragdoll subgenre that always somehow ends with bodies tangled in a heap.

All HTML5, all free, no downloads. Drop in for a five-minute round or stay for the tournament mode — depends on the picks you settle on.