As an almost total newcomer to fighting games, I can't recommend this game enough just from the quality of its tutorial alone.

I've always been curious about fighters and have bounced off more than a few of them, and never really understood any of the terminology or mechanics, but TFH taught me so much, and most importantly how to put it into practice as well. Beyond just the basics on combos, juggles, how to control your character etc, advanced concepts like hitstun, blockstun, negative edge, frame advantage, push blocks, armor, techs, cancels, resets, what '-2 On Block' means and so on are all explained in real, practical terms, with visual and playable examples that teach you how to actually use that information. In just a short time with the game, I've gone from knowing nothing about fighters to what feels like a really solid set of information, and in a way I don't think I could have gotten from just a guide, and definitely not from just bashing my head against CPU matches.

It even encompasses character specific tutorials for each member of the cast, how to get the most out of training modes or understanding frame data, with the icing on the cake of being wrapped in a charming and approachable format. It feels strange having so much praise for a tutorial, but it was the most effective and thorough one I've seen in any game, ever.

In my experience, as a newcomer to the genre you won't be immediately ready to jump right into online,CPU matches, or the story mode. This game does require patience and a willingness to learn, but I found it more than earned it, and the learning experience itself has been really compelling. It's a great feeling putting what I've learnt into practice against friends in online matches after going through its tutorial systems, and actually even being able to win matches faster than I ever thought I was going to during my time with the game.

Netcode is absolute perfection, I'm an Australian playing with friends mostly in America, and I've never had such a smooth experience in any game with them, even at pings of over 200. Part of why I never played fighters was struggling with a lack of local community for them both on and offline, and the online experience being ruined by the quality of netcode across higher pings, but this game was such a pleasant surprise in that regard. I've seen GGPO praised a lot, but it has never been more apparent to me how much it earns it.

As for the actual game itself, I'm so completely charmed by it, both aesthetically and mechanically. The world is unique and compelling, and I'm a huge fan of the character design and art style. Gameplay feels fluid and intuitive, the characters have a great combination of some universal inputs for basics like launchers or anti air, but beyond that could not be more different to each other. Even with a small cast size, it feels offset by just how varied and unique each character feels to play. Likewise, there is only a small set of stages, but each one has dynamic musical themes for each character, blending their own theme with the stage theme, and every matchup of characters has unique back and forth dialogue at the start of the fight. In general, the game gets a lot out of what seems like a little, and the level of polish on each element of it is incredible. The online lobby system stands out as wonderfully executed.

I've never written a review on Steam before, but I really want people to give this game a chance, especially if you are new to fighters like me. It doesn't feel like a simplified version of the genre, but instead puts in the work to teach you how to play it for real. I don't want to see the developers work on this game overlooked, because I really think its doing something special. Also hey, it's only fifteen bucks.

EDIT: Review switched to recommended for the sake of the original developers, Mane6, not being penalized in searching for future employment. Do not buy this game in its current state regardless.

I would love to recommend this game to others, but I can't in good conscience. Maximum Entertainment, the company that purchased TFH a few years back, laid off nearly the entirety of Mane6, the developers who brought this game to life. Furthermore, they did so in the middle of a season pass, leaving the final 2 characters added to the game buggy and broken. Do not purchase this game. Do not purchase anything from Maximum Games, including the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender fighting game. Do not support a publisher that favors hiring ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Mike Zaimont over keeping a passionate and excellent team of developers on board for one of the best fighting games ever made. Find another way to play it if you're interested. Maximum Entertainment deserves nothing but bankruptcy for what they've done to TFH and other past titles.

Shakey 8/10.

The game itself, for what's left of mane6's original vision, is amazing. Perfect, even.

However the publisher, Maximum Entertainment, outright murdered the game by firing almost the entire Dev team and taking most of the profits that the Devs were using to make the single player story mode.

The last character added(who is going to be the absolute last character added as there's only like 3 developers working on this game after the layoffs) uses mostly reused sprites from a different character that have been creatively recolored and repurposed to make Baihe play differently from Tianhuo.

That in it of itself isn't bad, as it's just a consequence of there being close to no developers on the game anymore. They are scrunched enough as it is just trying to keep the servers alive, keep balance in the roster relatively even, and fix bugs.
And I stress this so much that I need to repeat:

I stress that because those three devs are doing an amazing job for the team that they have, but it's clearly not enough to keep the game afloat.

And sadly, due to the lack of developers, a lot of people who backed this game on kickstarter will never get the single player story content that they specifically paid for. Not so much as an arcade mode with text at the bottom of the screen that gives the story of each character.

As such, I can recommend this game, for what it is, but just know that this game is mostly abandoned, minus the few developers left that try their damnedest to keep the game running.

In the tutorial, your teacher summons an actual demon to reveal that the world consists entirely of squares known as "hitboxes."

It also shows you how to read frame data.

In-universe, the public would not be able to handle this forbidden knowledge.

Really sound fighting game. Great tutorial. The art style reminds me of something though.. Something from my past I think I locked away. It's probably nothing.

This is a great 4 button fighter. I never watched MLP, so I am looking at this game as its own thing.

It got a pretty good entry range when it comes to mechanics, tho the story can be quite frustrating.

Story mode asks allot from the player. And has some weird difficulty spikes. Even at casual the boss/character battles can combo half your health bar down on the first round.

I hope the devs looks into the difficuilty so its isn't as frustrating or at the very least make it easier to jump back in, instead of dealing with a short cutscenes and game over screen each failure. Cause how it is currently it feels very unfair with 3 rounds without health recovery. Regular PvP battles gives you a new set each round like any fighter. But in story they expect the player to go through 3 rounds with only one health bar and learn new boss exclusive moves on top of that.

Certain fight even does some nasty tricks that feels incredibly cheap (Paprika on Round 2 is a good example on that). So it can feel very trail and error. Which is not fun when they are already so difficult.

Tho maybe I just me needing to*git gud* which I can admit to, if no one else has a hard time with it.

Still tho, if you are more interested in the PvP elements I can recommend this one to any fan of 2D fighters. Don't let the MLP skin discourage you if you think it looks fun.

I was not meant to like this game. I've dabbled into more than my share of fighters but, on a mechanical level, I will always be held back by poor execution skills, a reason why I tend to stay away from combo-heavy brawlers. Cute critters isn't what I'm usually seeking in my games and, moreover, I'm certainly no MLP enthusiast (sorry Ms. Faust). Yet...

What Mane6 managed to do here is absolutely bluffing. Those guys get what it takes to make a good fighting game.

Built on the same engine than Skullgirls, the animations are slick, the combo system competent with universal safeguards implemented to prevent being chained to death without any opportunity to reset. The duels are tense and with its implementation of the GGPO rollback netcode, the game runs pretty smoothly online even with 100+ ping.

Those things are to be expected in a modern fighter but Fighting Herds goes far beyond the basics by offering some excellent tutorials, certainly amongst the best on the market; very didactic they don’t shy away from more advanced notions like hitboxes and frame data, things that are central to the genre but usually hidden from the public eye. Even better, very complete training options allow the player to lab extensively. All in all very good things that make for a very accessible and beginner-friendly fighter.

All of this would already be great but the game totally took me by surprise with a rather ambitious story mode at the crossroads of an early 16-bit era RPG (lite) and a fighting game, not unlike what we’ve seen in recent years with the Smash Bros series.

So yeah, those devs made me a believer. There’s one big downside that prevents the game from reaching true greatness though : the core roster is very, very, small by today’s standard, with only six playable characters (seven very soon!). That’s even smaller than the original Street Fighter 2! Really not enough when most games in the genre won’t launch under 12 characters. Hopefully this will be addressed with future updates.

This is one of the best fighting games I have played, unfortunately bought out by a scummy company that fired almost the entire development team, released a unfinished patch and characters and scrapped story mode.



We Don't Like Maximum Entertainment anymore.



(it also has ♥♥♥♥♥♥ controls that dont work half the time)

Made it into EVO Online! Rollback netcode matters! Take note Japanese devs.

Congrats Mane6 team! Thank you for the great game.

I'm not a mlp fan by any means.
But truly this is a great game and worth checking out.

If you're a fan of skullgirls and fighting games in general you will surely have fun with this game.

Congrats on the game's release and I hope for a great future for manesix's company!