Them’s Fighting Herds – Review

Our Score: 8/10

Them’s Fighting Herds is a 2D fighting game with a cast of charming creatures created by renowned cartoonist Lauren Faust. A dangerous warrior is hiding under those charming and fluffy exteriors.

Hoofing It To Success

The battle system of Them’s Fightin’ Herds, an indie fighter, has always been well thought out and satisfying. Four buttons are available to you in battle for using light, medium, heavy, and magical strikes. Your straightforward strikes may be paired with launchers or anti-airs to create complex combinations with ease. The game truly starts to shine after you understand each character’s special attacks and powers.

Although there are just six fighters on the roster, each one is incredibly distinct. And has fascinating mechanics and attacks that seldom ever overlap. Arizona is a close-range rushdown star with a whip strike that can catch opponents at a distance. While Pom calls hordes of dogs to rip into you while she watches from a distance.

Each character’s attack and ability include smooth animations and precise, hand-drawn graphics. With each gratifying strike you land, hit-sparks shoot across the screen in the form of jaw-dropping particle effects and bright bursts. Although some players may find it simple to identify the influences each character draws from the original version of the game, Mane6 has nonetheless created a universe for Them’s Fightin’ Herds that is wonderfully polished and unique and can stand on its own.

 

The game looks fantastic; it’s crisp, vibrant, colourful, and exquisitely animated. Each character in Lauren Faust’s drawings is full of personality. And fits well against backdrops that depict the fictional planet of Foenum. It seems like a genuine spin-off. Because it was created in a manner that is nearly comparable to My Little Pony.

Mixing Story and Gameplay

The Story Mode is the best way to truly explore the game’s distinctive universe and cast of characters. intended to include several chapters, each of which would enable you take on the role of a different player on the roster.

As overconfident champion-to-be Arizona, you spend the first half of this game exploring top-down pixelized settings, cities, and even dungeons. You won’t constantly be up against the same six roster players. Instead, as you explore the realm, you’ll encounter a variety of special opponents created for the narrative mode. You learn different game elements from each of the various creatures you battle, such as how to use anti-air strikes against the wolves that constantly charge at you.

In the campaign, there are also platforming sections that show you how to properly perform short hops and long jumps. Effortlessly fusing RPG-style exploration sequences with creative twists on classic fighting game concepts.

Boss battles in Them’s Fightin’ Herds’ narrative mode are very thrilling. Your abilities will be put to the test in multi-stage encounters where you’ll have to avoid toxic blasts and jump over a big cobra’s lightning-fast tail whips. You’ll ultimately come up against opponents who are on the main roster, but these fights don’t follow the usual first-to-two-round format. In these encounters, your opponents utilise a range of unique, narrative mode-only techniques and abilities, providing you with a distinctive and fashionable experience that you would never get to have in a regular versus match.

Train to Win

You can control any one of the six major characters in arcade mode. However, training mode is our suggested first stop. Because it enables you to practise the game’s enormous collection of combinations, which range from easy to advanced to master. The four-button system’s complexity and breadth clearly demonstrate how serious this endeavour is. Massive combo building has become standard practise in today’s fighting game genre, and this game has it all: tech jabs, air juggles, counters and recoveries, and dazzling combination-building explanations. Them’s Fightin’ Herds is a respectable fighting game that aspires to compete with the best from Arc System, and it shows.

Final Verdict

Them’s Fighting Herds is a phenomenal fighting game that rivals the most polished 2D fighters out there. It teaches you the basics of 2D fighting in an innovative way and while some might feel its small roster is a problem, I think it’s a fantastic way to get used to each arcehtype. If you’re a fan of 2D fighters, especially anime fighters then this game is a must play.