I'm a complete beginner at arena fighters (if that's even what you call this genre), so take everything I'm about to say with a mountain of salt.
TOUGH LOVE ARENA
Abstract: For a first experience in the genre, relatively welcoming and surprisingly good at teaching you the basics. However, in the game's current state, the basics aren't going to get you anywhere. At all. At. All.
Visuals:
-- Pleasing, simplistic art style that still has a unique "homegrown" flavor to it
-- Character designs are memorable and tell you a lot at first glance (for the most part)
-- Move hitboxes clearly and fairly adhere to animations
-- Backgrounds serve their purpose; not especially engaging or stylish, but not distracting as a result
-- Just really fun!
-- 9/10
Audio/Atmosphere:
-- Takes pride in being pretty simplistic
-- Music, while not anything to write home about, keeps the energy going fairly well ("Supermarket" and "Playground" are my personal favorites)
-- Really not that much to note, good or bad (far more good than bad, though)
-- 7/10
Gameplay:
-- Relatively simple (I expected a much steeper initial learning curve)
-- Only six buttons govern the moveset, and only 6 characters fill the roster
-- Focus is more on memorizing interactions/combos than being inventive or "doing your own thing" (I don't know if that's the norm for the genre though)
-- I have a feeling this game becomes a lot less fun the better you try to get
-- 6.5/10
Offline (and Offline-related) Activities
-- With active player counts consistently under 100 (including when I initially played the browser version), your opponents are likely to be either 5-year veterans or 5-day newbies like you. The former isn't very fun.
-- Waiting for matches is less than exciting because the CPUs aren't very advanced
-- If you only have 5 minutes to find a match and you're in the US, don't bother; wait times are often high (for apparent reasons)
-- Every CPU uses the same 3 or 4 moves, even on "Hard" difficulty, and can be cheesed (by Beef, at least)
-- The Bosses are either disappointingly easy or flat-out sadistic. You could open the game, skip all of the tutorials, immediately load into the Cryptic Carb boss, and still win Double-Perfect as long as you go Beef and spam Lemon.
-- Mystery Meat and Secret Spice might as well be anime protagonists the way they TRAMPLE you. However, this can be fun in an Elden Ring, "I don't care if it takes 100 hours or 1,000 tries" kind of way.
-- 5/10
Characters
-- Noodle is somewhat annoying and has a really strong anti-air, but can be beaten with patience. Overall, not especially bad to fight, and interesting to play. Noodle's bowl is a unique trap/setup move that adds a lot of tension and excitement to fights as long as they don't just juggle you in the corner.
-- Rice is far more interesting solely due to the Teleport they have. Having to rely on mid- to long-distance poke when most of the cast specializes up close is a cool challenge.
-- Beef is MY FREAKING GOAT. Big, hulking brute, simple combos, but with a nice sprinkle of mind games and one of the best moves in the game (in my opinion). Lemon, a rolling, fullscreen projectile, creates substantial pressure and punishes lazy dodges (for example, using a slow aerial to avoid the damage). It leads into very oppressive loops, can be canceled to juke players, and is overall a really neat thing to add to this game.
-- Pork is the true grappler, and grapple they do. Their chop is less annoying of an anti-air than Noodle's, despite being arguably better due to its versatility. Getting grab combo'd into high hell can be quite discouraging due to how Burst works, though.
-- Onion is fun. I've played them the least, but their style of in-your-face, flurry attacks is satisfying to see pulled off - by you or your opponent! If they lose momentum, it's hard to get back, and a bad Onion can be very easy to predict, which helps to offset their inherent strength as a character.
-- Garlic is a stupidly strong, suffocating spammer that can take one mistake and turn it into an 800-damage combo (in a game where characters have ~ 1000 HP). They literally have a teleport like Noodle's (except it attacks by default) AND multiple commanding moves to close distance and increase pressure. I hate this guy.
-- 6/10
Particular Critiques
-- Adjusting Burst fill rates such that, if a character is getting combo'd to death off rip, they have at least 1 guaranteed Burst opportunity, would be nice (this is probably just a skill issue though)
-- All of the "Dark Heart" variants of the cast (Rice, Pork, Garlic) feel noticeably stronger than their partners and it makes the game feel lopsided
-- Sheer lack of content makes me fear that this game could be/has been "solved"
FINAL VERDICT:
This game is really fun despite my gripes with it; I hope to be able to come back and change this review in due time as I improve. If you have at least a decent bit of patience and dedication, you'll enjoy this. If not, well... I warned you. I wouldn't buy it yet if you aren't already a fan of the genre; go to ToughLoveArena.com to test the waters and then come back to support these guys!
