Them's Fightin' Herds

**Publisher** | Humble Bundle (2017-2021)

***Them's Fightin' Herds*** is an indie 2D fighting game developed by Mane6 and published by Modus Games. The game features a roster of ungulates, who are fighting to determine the Key Keeper who will save their world, Fœnum, from the return of the Predators.

## Synopsis

In the world of Fœnum, sapient ungulates used to live in fear of carnivorous animals known as the Predators. The Horned Prophet was able to seal the Predators away in an otherworldly realm called The Hold, but they have found a way to escape it. To prevent them from returning to Fœnum, the various ungulate species selected champions to find The Prophet's Key and reseal the Predators. Each champion must face each other in a competition to determine who will be the Key Keeper and face the Predators' champion, The Devourer.

## Gameplay

*Them's Fightin' Herds* utilizes a four-button fighting system, each button controlling, light, medium, heavy, and magic attacks. There are seven playable characters available as a base roster, with different fighting move-sets and movement options such as flight, short hops, double jumps, and air dashes. The game supports local versus and online multiplayer - via the near-isometric Pixel Lobby, classic lobby, casual matchmaking and Salt Mines mode, - as well as offers single-player content such as Story Mode, versus against CPU, and Arcade Mode.

Players who own a Steam copy of *BlazBlue: Centralfiction*, *Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2*, or *Skullgirls* will unlock special Pixel Lobby cosmetics based on characters from those games.

## Characters

### Base Roster

* Arizona (voiced by **Tara Strong**) - a young cow with unusual physical strength. She's a sole volunteer as the champion of the Prairie.
* Velvet (voiced by **Tia Ballard**) - a narcissistic reindeer who possesses unmatched Winter Magic skills. As a winner of Reine City's grand tournament, she was determined to be the most fit to be the Tundra's champion.
* Oleander (voiced by **Alexa Khan**) - a self-proclaimed unicorn champion from the Woodlands. She wields a Unicornomicon, which is possessed by FHTNG (voiced by **Keith Ferguson**) - a demon she formed pact with. Using dark magic, she's determined to prove that it can be used for good.
* Paprika (voiced by **Marieve Harrington**) - a highly affectionate alpaca coming from the Highlands. Her passion to share love with anyone - regardless if they like it or not - makes her for a dangerous creature.
* Pom (voiced by **Allie Moreno**) - a young sheep who was voted as champion of the Meadow against her will. She's accompanied by a pack of dogs who help her to move along, despite her resistance.
* Tianhuo (voiced by **Kay Bess**) - a noble longma and a captain of the Imperial Guard, selected by Empress of Huoshan as Huoshan's champion.
* Shanty (voiced by **Afi Ekulona**) - an aspiring goat pirate, who wants to earn her place in the Capricorn's crew by stealing the Prophet's Key. Formerly a DLC character.

### DLC Fighters

* Texas (voiced by **Patrick Seitz**) - a bull leader of the Prairie's Cattlekind race and Arizona's father.
* Stronghoof (voiced by **Christopher Sabat**) - the jarl of Reine City, leader of the Deerfolk, and Velvet's father. He is joined by his Winter Sprite helper, Vetr (voiced by the game's production manager **Aaron Stavely**), who is a part of many of Stronghoof's moves in battle.
* Nidra (voiced by **Anjali Kunapaneni**) - a tapir with an unknown past. Not yet released.
* Baihe - a longma and Tianhuo's friend. Not yet released.

### Other characters

* The Announcer (voiced by **Jessica Gee-George**), who calls out character names, round beginnings, and round endings, among other things.
* Subito dal Segno (voiced by **Aaron Stavely**), the pirate goat captain who appears in Shanty's Level 3 super attack.

## Creation and Development

The title is a rework of ***Fighting is Magic***, a fangame featuring the main characters of *My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic*. On February 8, 2013, the team received a cease and desist from Hasbro for violating their intellectual property rights. Mane6 had to discard their original premise, game engine and art assets. Lauren Faust offered the team help to make new characters for the game, and that's when the work on the new title began. On September 21, 2015, Mane6 launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, which was ultimately successful, reaching all stretch goals - Linux and macOS ports, 7th playable character, her homestage, bonus Story Mode chapter and musical themes.

Game's beta was launched for the backers on May 25, 2017. Public early access version was released for Microsoft Windows on February 22, 2018. Shadow Palettes pack, the first DLC of the game, was released on February 21, 2020.

Version 1.0, featuring Chapter 1 of Story Mode, went live on April 30, 2020. Version 2.0, featuring new DLC character Shanty and capability with Linux, became available on March 25, 2021. Version 2.2.0, including macOS port's beta, went live on October 27, 2021. Zombie Palette pack, the second palette pack DLC, was introduced on December 9, 2021.

Humble Bundle was the game's publisher from late 2017 and until December 2021. In January 2022, Modus Games acquired Mane6, thus becoming their new and current publisher, and expanding the developer team to help working on the game. On June 12, 2022, 3.0 version of the game became available, introducing new universal gameplay mechanic - Level 3 Supers, - as well as Shanty's DLC content became part of the base game, expanding the base playable roster from six up to seven selectable characters. On July 7, Shadow and Zombie palette pack DLCs have been removed, remaining unlockable via in-game condition.

Texas, the first DLC character of Season 1 Pass, was released in a 4.0.0 update of the game on December 19, 2022. Stronghoof, the second DLC character, was released in a 5.0.0 update of the game on April 12, 2023.

On November 22, 2023, game version 5.1.0 was released, which introduced new universal mechanic for all but Texas - Armor Break. At the same time, Mane6 announced they would be ceasing any further development of the game, including Story Mode, new Season Pass DLCs and other content, after they release update 6.0.

## References

1. ↑ Wood, Austin. "Years later, My Little Pony-inspired fighting game Them's Fightin' Herds gets a release date", *PC Gamer*, Future plc, February 9, 2018. Retrieved on May 15, 2020.
2. ↑ https://twitter.com/Fyre\_flye/status/300098640150687744
3. ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey. My Little Pony: FiM creator launches brony fighting game crowdfunding campaign. *Eurogamer*. Retrieved on January 13, 2010.
4. ↑ https://forums.themsfightinherds.com/index.php?threads/backers-beta-started.856/
5. ↑ https://forums.themsfightinherds.com/index.php?threads/thems-fightin-herds-release-date-announced.1461/
6. ↑ https://forums.themsfightinherds.com/index.php?threads/early-access-patch-25-02-21-20.2268/
7. ↑ https://forums.themsfightinherds.com/index.php?threads/1-0-release-delayed-by-one-month-now-april-30th.2277/
8. ↑ https://forums.themsfightinherds.com/index.php?threads/2-0-release-date-shanty-dlc-info.2366/
9. ↑ https://forums.themsfightinherds.com/index.php?threads/patch-notes-version-2-2-0.2396/
10. ↑ https://forums.themsfightinherds.com/index.php?threads/patch-notes-version-2-2-1.2399/
11. ↑ https://www.forums.themsfightinherds.com/index.php?threads/humble-games-partnership-concludes.2398/
12. ↑ https://forums.themsfightinherds.com/index.php?threads/mane6-modus-games-dev-update-6.2401/
13. ↑ https://forums.themsfightinherds.com/index.php?threads/patch-notes-version-3-0-0.2407/
14. ↑ https://forums.themsfightinherds.com/index.php?threads/texas-has-arrived-version-4-0-0.2420/
15. ↑ https://forums.themsfightinherds.com/index.php?threads/stronghoof-is-ready-for-battle-version-5-0-0.2423/
16. ↑ https://forums.themsfightinherds.com/index.php?threads/patch-notes-version-5-1-0.2424/
17. ↑ https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/574980/view/3882727783056476087