Martial arts, as taught by robots.

Move with the arrow keys, the joystick on the stage or a gamepad. Strike as often as you like and chain kicks and punches into combos; Uke blocks and dodges a move it has just seen, with the same defences you have (watch what it does), so mix them up. The combo buttons (Shift and a digit, or Shift and - = [ ] \ for the advanced ones) throw a whole combination with one press, each move following straight on from the last. The master moves are on the numeric keypad, with Num Lock on. Every few seconds Uke attacks: the stage names the strike and says where it goes (“Head kick!”) as Uke steps in, and the Block, Dodge and Bend buttons light up, so there is time to read it and pick a defence that works against it. A defence pressed while the strike is still coming waits for it; press so early that it can’t be in its window and the stage says “Too early!”, with time to throw it again. Block high for strikes to the head and Block low for the body or legs, any time before the hit: it takes a little damage, but a third block in a row gets broken. Cover up stops anything, but lets through twice as much. Parry turns a punch or an elbow aside, not a kick or a knee, at the very last moment. Just before the hit, Step back gets you out of reach of anything; Duck goes under a strike to the head, but not an uppercut; Slip steps off the line of a strike that comes straight in, but not a hook or a roundhouse; Bend over goes under a hook or a roundhouse to the head (the most points); Lean back takes your head away from a strike to the head that comes straight in or up, but not one that swings. A parry, duck, slip or bend that works makes your next strike land for sure, and a wrong one lets the hit through. Uke notices the defence you use most. Every block, dodge and bend works whenever you press it, even with nothing coming. Hits, blocks and dodges score points. Each round lasts a minute of fighting: knock Uke out to win it at once, by K.O. When time runs out, three judges at ringside hold up their scorecards: each looks for something a little different (clean hits and the damage they do, knockdowns, strikes blocked or dodged, strikes thrown), and the round goes on points to the fighter at least two of them give it to. Win two rounds to win the match. Levels: Uke wears the level’s belt, from white to black; up the belts it is tougher, hits harder, attacks sooner, gives you less time to dodge, learns flashier kicks, punches, elbows and jumps and strings more of them into combinations, often ones it makes up on the spot, so defend each strike of one. From the yellow belt up it also fights each round to a game plan (the prompt says which: boxing, kicking, in close or flying) and changes it when your defence keeps working, hits straight back when it blocks or dodges your strike, and now and then waits a beat in the middle of a combination, so don’t defend too soon. Win a match to go on to the next level. Practice has no health, rounds or score, and Uke doesn’t attack on its own: choose Uke attacks whenever you want to practise blocking and dodging, or, under Train with, No opponent to train on your own, striking into the air, or a punching bag: a heavy bag, a Thai bag for low kicks, a standing bag, a double-end bag, a speed bag or Bob the dummy. Walk round the bag and strike it: it swings, rocks or rattles, and the stage shows how fast and how hard each strike was. Every match opens with the walk to the ring, each fighter with its trainer and team, a weigh-in and a weapons check, Ref patting each fighter down after Hugh puts his mouthguard in (press a strike to skip them). Your health bar is your battery: a round ends with whatever is left in it, and between rounds your trainer comes over with advice while your crew plugs you in (Hugh gets a drink) and charges it back to full. After the match the two fighters hug and talk before the medal. With the stick at rest the fighters keep circling each other. The fight runs at three times the pace of the step-by-step lessons — moves, strikes and footwork alike — so the Speed chips and Slow motion are there to slow it down.