What’s nice is that there’s still a bit of universality between them thanks to how the fighting system works. Each character is wildly different, from a sheep that summons dogs to do her bidding, to an Alpaca that loves hugs and throws broccoli and apples. TFH is a four-button fighter, much like Dragon Ball FighterZ and BlazBlue, with light, medium, heavy, and magic attacks. Its biggest sin is its small roster of only six playable characters, but the ways in which developer Mane 6 has managed to do so much with so little is exemplary in a genre where other games have done much less with much more. It checks almost every major box on a fighting game fan’s checklist: it looks fantastic, there’s a great story mode, deep mechanics, GGPO rollback netcode, and an in-depth training mode. Them’s Fightin’ Herds isn’t just good in the relative context of its origins as a fangame for a children’s TV show, it’s exceptional by any measure.
