Martin: No Filter Fighters help
Most problems with this game come down to three things: the game canvas does not have keyboard focus, the browser cached an old build, or the device is in portrait. Work through the list below in order — it is sorted by how often each one is the actual cause.
The game will not start
It shows a loading screen and never finishes
The browser build loads its engine and assets after you press play, so the first visit is always the slowest. On a wired or fast Wi-Fi connection it takes a few seconds. On mobile data it can take noticeably longer, and on a throttled connection it may appear stuck when it is simply downloading.
What to do: leave the tab alone for 30 seconds before assuming it failed. Background tabs get throttled by browsers, so do not switch away while it loads. If nothing happens after that, reload the page once — a single reload clears most partial downloads.
It works on my phone but not on my work laptop
Locked-down corporate networks frequently block game hosts. If the page itself loads but the game frame stays blank, the block is almost certainly on the game host's domain, not on this page. The usual sign is that the frame is empty but the rest of the page — text, images, layout — is completely fine.
Test it by opening the game directly on the developer's itch.io page in the same browser. If that is also blank, the network is the problem and there is nothing on this side to fix.
It used to work and now it does not
The game is in active development and ships builds every few days. A new build occasionally breaks something temporarily. Open the developer's listing and check whether a newer version has been posted since the last time you played. Version numbers are visible on the page.
Keys do nothing
Click the game once first
This is the single most common complaint and it is not a bug. The game runs inside a frame, and a frame only receives keyboard input after it has focus. Until you click once inside the play area, your key presses go to the outer page — which means the page scrolls instead of your character moving.
Click anywhere inside the game picture, then try again. On mobile, tap once for the same reason: the touch layer needs focus before it responds.
The wrong keys seem to be bound
Key remaps persist between sessions. If you changed bindings earlier — or someone else did on a shared computer — the defaults no longer apply. Open Settings from the pause menu and reset the bindings.
Player 2's keys are not all registering
Two players on one keyboard can hit a hardware limit called ghosting. Cheap membrane keyboards can only register a few simultaneous key presses, and when both players are mashing, some presses are simply never reported to the browser. It is not a game fault and no software setting fixes it.
Workarounds, in order of effectiveness: give player 2 a controller; move player 2's attack keys further away from their movement keys so fewer keys are pressed in the same matrix row; or use a keyboard with n-key rollover, which is standard on most mechanical boards.
Sound problems
No audio at all
Browsers block autoplaying audio until the page has received a user interaction. Pressing play counts as an interaction, but if you navigated straight into a match, the audio context may still be suspended. Click inside the game once and the audio should start.
If the tab is muted — the small speaker icon on the tab itself — nothing inside the game can override that. Check the tab first, then the system volume mixer.
Volume is too loud or too quiet
The game has its own volume control in Settings, separate from the system volume. Use the in-game slider first; it is the one the developer tuned against the music.
Controllers
My controller is connected but the game ignores it
Press any button on the controller once, after the game has loaded. The game listens for a first input event to identify the device; until that happens it does not know a controller exists. When detection succeeds, the on-screen touch buttons hide themselves — that is your confirmation.
The controller works in menus but not in a fight
Some controllers report a different profile once a match starts, particularly in browser environments. Remap the attack buttons inside Settings rather than relying on defaults, and test in Training mode where a mistake costs nothing.
Phone and tablet
The layout is cramped
Rotate to landscape. The game is built for a wide screen, and the touch overlay in portrait overlaps the play area. Every phone and tablet layout in this game assumes sideways.
Touch buttons are missing
They appear automatically on touch devices, but they hide when a controller is detected. If you paired a Bluetooth pad earlier and it is still connected, the game thinks you are using it. Disconnect the pad or press a button on it to switch back.
Online versus
The room code does not connect
Online play uses a room code you share manually — there is no lobby list. Three things break it in practice: the code was typed with a character missing, one player is on a network that blocks peer connections (many corporate and school networks do), or one player is on an older build than the other.
Check the version first. Two players on different builds cannot see each other. Then try both players on mobile data as a test — if that works, the problem is one of the two local networks, not the game.
More Martin: No Filter Fighters guides
This page is one part of a set: the Martin: No Filter Fighters game page is where you play it, the control list maps every key, the Android guide covers phones, and the help page fixes what breaks. The II Turbo page explains the version naming if you have seen it elsewhere.
Still stuck
If none of the above matches your problem, the developer's listing is the place to report it — the comment thread there is read and answered, and it is also where character requests are collected. You can reach this site at tangjei414@gmail.com, but we cannot fix the game itself; we only embed it.