Trademarks Forced a 'My Little Pony' Fan Game to Become Something I Want to Play

I never thought I'd say this, but Bronies, a community of grown dudes who are fans of the most recent incarnation of the My Little Pony cartoon, have announced a game I actually want to play.

What was once Fighting is Magic, an unofficial 2D fighting game like Street Fighter, is now called Thems Fightin' Herds. The name change comes after Hasbro, which owns My Little Pony, put its hoof down and sent the developer Mane6 a cease and desist in 2013, forcing them to halt development of a game that was weeks away from release.

"It took longer than we expected, but we have conquered the trademark system with our mighty battle-lawyers," wrote Mane6, who worked on the game since 2011. "Losses were heavy, the cost was high, but we're finally ready to announce the big news."

The big news is that their cancelled fan project has reemerged as an original property, and is preparing to launch an Indiegogo campaign. The original game, which would have seen combat between Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and other official My Little Pony characters, will now feature an original cast of cartoon four-legged animals like cows and deer—all magical in their own right, I am sure. Images of the new incarnation seem pretty slick, with quality and vivid animation reminiscent of another fan-aided brawler, Skullgirls. (Herds actually uses Skullgirls' game engine.)

Lauren Faust, who developed the runaway reboot of My Little Pony in 2010, even designed the new characters, after admiring the effort of the original fan-game, which should be a comfort to most Bronies. Though you can't please 'em all.

"This is awesome. But should we really be interested - I mean it's not ponies, after all?" asked a dissenting Brony named FoalDuke. "Not wishing to sound cynical and the best of luck, but I have to ask this, because it feels like, I don't know… like we're just cheering and patting ourselves on the back, saying, 'See, it's not so bad, they still succeeded, right?' even though of course they'd be free to do something like this anyway because it doesn't contain ponies… It just feels like we're settling for the crumbs left by those venal legal hounds and calling it a five-star meal."

Hey, FoalDuke, shut up. Quit being a butt. An Indiegogo campaign for the new, way more interesting looking game

Thems Fightin' Herds

launches later this month.