I’m a huge fan of fighting games. At least the old-school type of fighting games, where you’re just choosing, fighting, and having fun. In the competitive gaming world of Street Fighters and Tekkens, it’s nice just to be able to sit down and enjoy a fight that is simple as it is entertaining. This is where Mane6’s Them’s Fightin’ Herds comes into play. It’s a game where a four-button mechanic system makes the experience simple, and the whack-a-doodle animation makes it amusing yet beautiful. While it may not be the most perfect fighting game in the bunch, it still brings a lot of personality and pizazz that might overshadow some of its shortcomings.
And on that note, let’s get into it.
Simplicity can be good
The big plus for Them’s Fightin’ Herds is that it’s remarkably easy to get into. It doesn’t require hours/days/years of training. There is no future Esporting competitive gaming for it. It just wants you to jump in, enjoy, have fun, and come back again. It establishes this type of personality through its fighting mechanics. It has a standard combination of four-button-based fighting, where it’s easy to land punches/kicks/specials without much thought or effort. All you must worry about is timing and positioning. You might poo-poo on that idea of fun, but consider this, Soulcalibur II established that simplicity with its own arcade-like controls where a smaller amount of buttons could be mashed together in specific combinations rather than worrying about eight buttons. During this time, Street Fighter and other games of its type relied on six buttons, but Soulcalibur II seemed to do okay with that set of simple mechanics. Them’s Fightin’ Herds is no different in execution and pick-up-and-go.
Now, before you go on Reddit and establish a post where you’re pointing out some dumbass wannabe game journalist comparing a whacky game like Them’s Fightin’ Herds to a Dreamcast/Arcade classic like SCII, please do understand that it’s a structural comparison. While SCII created a new way to have fun in a 2D/3D environment, Them’s Fightin’ Herds doesn’t quite push the genre forward as much as it serves up the same meal with a different set of fighters. That’s not a bad thing, as it relies more on its unique characters, story mode, and refined online fighting than it does on breaking new ground. If anything, it goes back to a more fun time period of fighting rather than trying to reinvent the genre. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
As simple as it is to figure out mechanics in this game, the real show of this title is the personalities that come with said mechanics. Each fighter is uniquely crafted with a unique personality that shows there was a lot of thought and love put into the game. You come for the visual show and the character development, stay because of the mechanics. Anyway, the characters help to drive the gameplay up a notch. For example, Oleander, an evil unicorn of sorts, comes with a talking book that is grumbling the entire time they are fighting. The book is key to most of their moves, and it plays a part in creating a good personality for them. The super they can pull off is outstanding as it is powerful. More importantly, it’s simple to pull off. That’s the catch with these characters, as Mane6 seems more focused on giving you an entertaining experience than establishing a complicated mechanics system for only the best of the best.
Anyway, there is also another character called Paprika, a Chuck Jones-esque llama. While I didn’t play Paprika, I enjoyed getting my ass handed to me over and over by this crazy character. Your introduction to Paprika is them popping up and out of every corner of the screen. Their moves are outrageous and stupid, but their speed is something special that helps with their unpredictable mechanics. I had a hard time handling the fight against Paprika because I was too busy appreciating their personality and wackiness. Craziness aside, this is how most of the characters work in the game. They’re unique, they have their own styles, and they separate themselves from each other. Nothing feels repeated. Every character in the game looks like they were meticulously designed.
The characters are the reason you want to play this game and the folks at Mane6 make it easy to get into the fighting with their simple mechanics. Both work together to create a fun fighting experience that might be shallow on the surface, but still entertaining in short stints. I could see myself loading this up a few times in the future to have some dumb fun.
A hiccup
While I appreciate the simplicity and the personality of this game, I did feel at times that it was a tiny bit sluggish in the speed of its giddy-up. While the controls were easy to master, the gameplay at times just felt a bit slow. Movement can feel a little dragged down when you’re trying to pull off a move, or at least position yourself to get the best of your opponent. I don’t know if it was the Street Fighter 6 beta that I partook in during this same reviewing period that made it feel this way, but regardless, it just felt like it was running through the mud at times. Does that ruin the gameplay? Not at all, but it does affect the speed of the game and even the most insane Paprika can’t make up for getting right into a game and then out of it. This was my biggest problem with this title, and, honestly, it’s not that big of an issue. A younger set of gamers wouldn’t even blink or notice this, as was the case with my youngest daughter who fell in love with it because of the characters. For a more seasoned veteran like yours truly, it was noticeable but manageable.
Visually stunning
As previously mentioned, the game relies on the unique personalities that were created for Them’s Fightin’ Herds. The animation you see looks like it came from the creators of My Little Pony, as it’s sharp, full of life, and a big reason to show up for this show. I thoroughly appreciated the amount of effort, time, and work it took to make these characters different from each other and create a unique fighting experience because of that effort. From an icy reindeer named Velvet to a beautiful, fiery dragon creature named Tianhuo, you’re going to get a solid variety of fighters that look like there was plenty of time poured into their creation. I’ve seen plenty of fighting games where you could see 1-5 fighters truly being worked on while the rest were thrown in with the same design (looking at you, Dan), but Them’s Fightin’ Herds makes the characters unique experiences. They look cool, they move in their own manner, and they’re just plain fun to play.
Equally as visually fun, the environments are stunning. They go hand-in-hand with the characters, as they are well-designed and lively. They seem to have more effort put into their creation than most fighting games in this day and age. I really enjoyed them, as they complemented everything perfectly.
On that note, let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
Them’s Fightin’ Herds from Mane6 creates a beautiful and unique fighting experience through their fun characters, simplistic mechanics, and gorgeous environments. While the game does run slow in the scheme of fighting, the rest of it makes for a fun time.
