Fighting is Magic

My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic is an upcoming fan-made fighting game inspired by the animated television series My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. It is under development by a team of nine volunteers who call themselves Mane6. Being of a fan-made nature, this game is neither licensed nor endorsed by Hasbro.

Features
The final version of the game will feature seventeen playable characters in all with the six major characters from the show playable from launch. Eleven more characters will follow in semi-regular updates. The game will be downloadable and free to play. Both local and online multiplayer modes will be included as well as a story mode. Character specific moves will also be present in-game. My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic will feature various stages that represent places from Equestria. The Everfree Forest and Canterlot are mentioned.

Development
The game uses the Fighter Maker game engine. The team has released early pre-alpha gameplay footage that displays basic game mechanics such as launches, juggles and hyper combos as seen in existing fighting game franchises such as Marvel vs. Capcom and Guilty Gear. So far, they have only released footage showing how Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack play. The last main character, Rainbow Dash, is still under development.

Though an unlicensed work from Hasbro, the holders of the My Little Pony franchise intellectual property, the Mane 6 team has not received any cease and desist notices from the company to date. Like much of the rest of the Internet phenomenon surrounding Friendship is Magic, Hasbro has allowed episodes of the show along with parodies and mash-ups of the works to be redistributed freely across the Internet, helping to create a participator culture that has drawn a broader audience to the show.

On January 30th, Prominence left the development team for personal reasons.

A test build was leaked by a member of the Quality Assurance team on August 2, 2012. As a result, Mane6 announced it was cancelling all plans of external testing and suspending video updates about the game's features for the foreseeable future. However, they released a clarification and FAQ the next day, saying that they overreacted some, and that while they were still replacing their entire QA team (to ensure no further leaks), they don't hate the fans for downloading and playing the leak. Also, they stated that the Canterlot Gardens con "is still go".

Gameplay
Fighting is Magic is a traditional one-on-one fighter that takes place in a 2-Dimensional plane. The gameplay borrows the dial-a-combo system made popular by renowned fighters such as Capcom's Versus crossover series. Standard fighting game fare is incorporated in the game, from character lifebars to a 'super' gauge to a round timer to special and super attacks. Characters engage in a 'best-of' battle, where one must fully deplete the other's lifebar or have more health remaining once the timer reaches zero for a set number of rounds. The character who wins the most number of rounds is declared the winner of the match.

The button scheme of Fighting is Magic is a four-button layout: Light, Medium, Heavy and Magic. According to Mane6, the latter button is an original mechanic that differs with each character, much like the Drive system from BlazBlue. This function is yet to be showcased, however.

Characters
Fighting is Magic is slated to have a roster of 17 playable characters. Since game development started prior to Friendship is Magic's second season, there will be no characters introduced in Season 2 on the roster.


 * Twilight Sparkle
 * Applejack
 * Rarity
 * Pinkie Pie
 * Rainbow Dash
 * Fluttershy
 * To be announced
 * To be announced
 * To be announced
 * To be announced
 * To be announced
 * To be announced
 * To be announced
 * To be announced
 * To be announced
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 * To be announced

Cast

 * Meredith Sims as Twilight Sparkle
 * Kira "Rina-Chan" Buckland as Mayor Mare
 * Karen as Applejack
 * Emily Fajardo as Pinkie Pie
 * Hnilmik as Rarity
 * Lilypichu as Fluttershy
 * Aeva as Rainbow Dash

Music
The music of Fighting is Magic is composed by RainbowCrash88 and WhitetailMusic. The themes for Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash have been released on Mane6's website.

Gallery

 * Fighting is Magic image gallery