Looking to get into the world of fighting games? Footsies may be the place to start. Now, before you assume you’re being asked to find someone you’re attracted to and twiddle your feet under a table, that won’t be necessary.

All you need is a PC or Android device in order to learn the fundamentals of a game genre growing more and more complex with each newly released title. There are no Brutalities, Hadoukens or even color. Just two pixelated dudes in headbands with an old school computer-generated soundtrack that plays on a loop in the background.

Easy to learn...

The game itself is so simple that all mechanics were laid out in bullet points:

-There is no health bar. The round is lost after being hit by special moves.

-There is, however, guard bar. You can block opponent attack up to three times. After that, every attack will cause guard break.

-There are two type of normal moves, neutral attack and forward/backward attack.

-There are two type of special moves which can be performed by holding and then release attack button. One can be performed by neutral release, and forward/backward release for the other one.

-If normal moves connect with the opponent, whether on hit or block, it can be canceled into neutral special move by pressing an attack button again.

-Forward and backward dashes can be performed by pressing forward/backward twice.

Hard to master.

While the rules may be simple, implementing what you’ve learned can take time for a player new to the genre. Spacing, timing, predicting your opponent’s moves and punishing them when you see an opening is the name of the game. Footsies allows you to play against a CPU or another individual if you have a friend (or foe) nearby and want to share a keyboard.

Even the most complex and storied games in the fighting game community (FGC) rely on executing the fundamentals, feeling comfortable with a character and understanding the basics of combat mechanics, which this pixelated creation helps master. Sometimes before you run, you need to learn to play Footsies.

The full game can be downloaded here.