The whole "brony" craze seems so long ago now. It came from a different era where the worst we had to worry about was someone liking a kid's cartoon slightly too much. And yet Them's Fightin' Herds—a project that started life as a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fangame—is finally being released from early access next month.
In a statement posted to the game's Steam page, developer Mane6 confirmed the game would finally be coming out of early access on April 2, after over two years of testing. The "full" release on April 2 will include just the first part of the story mode, which may feel somewhat lacking until you see just what it entails. Instead of being just a series of fights connected by cutscenes, Them's Fightin' Herds is hoping to include a top-down dungeon crawler element, minigames and even branching dialogue options.
Them's Fightin' Herds started out as Fighting is Magic, a fan-made fighting game based on Hasbro's My Little Pony series. After the notoriously cease-and-desisty Hasbro did its thing, the studio that was going to become Mane6 went away and came back with Them's Fightin' Herds.
It retains the cute art style of Friendship is Magic, but features a wholly new cast of characters designed by Friendship is Magic's creator Lauren Faust. Them's Fightin' Herds takes the usual 2D, combo-heavy fighting found in games like Skullgirls, but feels significantly different thanks to an entirely quadrupedal roster. It's not just ponies, either: coats, sheep and dragons are also playable.
Even if you were aggressively against bronies and My Little Pony back in the day, Them's Fightin' Herds is worth checking out when it launches on April 2. If nothing else, the brilliant pun in the name is worth it.
