Only in M.U.G.E.N can Shin-chan fight Lelouch in The End of Evangelion
I’ve always dreamed of a fighting game where anime characters from many different titles can duke it out. Unfortunately, the licensing costs and coordination required for such a game would be astronomical. So in the meantime, a fan creation would be the next best thing…
M.U.G.E.N is an unofficial 2-D fighting game engine – once you install it, you manually add your own characters, stages, and music. You can even add your own theme design for the menus, and basically alter any part of the engine to suit your taste.
Fans all over the Internet create and distribute their own M.U.G.E.N characters, themes, and stages for others to download and use in their M.U.G.E.N engine. Most of them include a full range of correct voices and sound effects for the characters as well. There are hundreds of characters and stages available, ranging from anime, video games, comics, and other forms of media entertainment. Thus, like the picture below, you can have major crossover battles.
Haruhi vs Onix on a street in Bakemonogatari
The character sprites (and stages) used in M.U.G.E.N are either ripped from official games or completely fan created. In the picture below, the Inuyasha sprite is ripped from an official Playstation1 game while the Shana sprite is fan made…
Inuyasha vs Shana
Just like doujin fighting games, characters in M.U.G.E.N who don’t have special attacks in their respective anime are given amusing, creative attacks by their creators. Often times, their attacks will involve some quick assistance from other characters. In the picture below, one of Kyon’s attacks is to summon Kunikida, who throws books at the opponent.
Kyon vs Shaoran
For one player, there’s an arcade and survival mode, and for two players, you can battle against each other or as a team. Up to four characters can battle on the screen at once.
Bleach characters Byakuya and Ukitake vs Higurashi characters Mion and Keiichi
So far, M.U.G.E.N is the closest thing to my dream game of battles between characters from a variety of anime titles. Of course, since it is a free, unofficial software, it has its share of flaws.
Sprites of Naruto and Kagami. Notice the size and quality difference
As the picture above shows, one of M.U.G.E.N’s bad points is the inconsistency of the sprite quality. Since the character sprites are created and distributed by many different people from all over the Web, it’s natural that their design and quality is not going to be consistent. The quality of some sprites will be just plain bad, though creators do try to update their sprites. Also, since the character sprites come from many different unofficial sources, there’s a possibility that the creator made errors and they won’t work properly when you use them.
Haruhi summons a Mikuru beam!
The general look of the characters and stages in M.U.G.E.N resemble those of fourth/fifth generation games, with Playstation1 and Sega Genesis quality graphics. So those of us used to the pristine quality of current systems like the PS3 and Wii may be turned off by the old-school graphics of M.U.G.E.N. But the compromise is that the simple graphics make M.U.G.E.N take up relatively little space on your hard drive. Each character that you add is usually less than 10MB, which allows you to add many without using up too much space. If each character was high-quality, it would take up a lot more space and make the system unable to function on anything but fast computers.
Konata vs Sasuke
I haven’t been playing M.U.G.E.N for very long – right now I’m just trying to get better at it and add all the anime characters and stages I want. As of now I have 41 characters from Naruto, Haruhi, Pokemon, Lucky Star, Higurashi, Bleach, and others.
Little Kon punches big ‘ol Snorlax XD
Even though it’s not perfect, a fighting game with the potential to battle as any anime/game/comic character you want is M.U.G.E.N’s main appeal. It’s actually very easy to use in terms of gameplay and adding characters and stages. The ability to alter just about everything about it to suit your taste and to create your own characters, stages, background music, etc., makes it one of the most versatile unofficial games I’ve ever played. The fighting game of my dreams featuring anime characters from many different genres and creators will probably never happen, so at least there’s M.U.G.E.N =)
This is what I like about computer games, they are pretty easy to add custom content. Like with Mugen, I spent hours playing Sims 2 in a similar fashion as a life simulator and they have a lot of content that can keep you playing for hours. I also tried making custom characters in Soul Calibur IV, but it ends up getting pretty boring since you can’t add custom content and the DLC costs money.
However, I do remember a fighting game that had characters from Key called “Eternal Fighter Zero” that is pretty much in the same fashion as Mugen as it is a 2D fighter.
@ chikorita157
Cool, I don’t know enough about software programming to actually go into games and edit things. M.U.G.E.N, however, is all about editing the game yourself and makes it very easy for even a novice like me to do =P
I have Eternal Fighter Zero too, which I wrote a little about on a previous post about doujin fighters. The gameplay is very much like M.U.G.E.N except with only Key characters and I don’t think you can alter it yourself without special know-how. I love playing as Misuzu~ ^^
M.U.G.E.N. is pretty much one of the most addicting fighting game makers out there. So far, it’s only place where I can make Haruhi fight a Kamen Rider (who is the real master of flying kicks?!). :P Gurren Lagann vs. Goku might also be possible, heheh.
@ Mikoto
Heh, yeah, the random crossover fights you can have provide endless fun. My favorite is pitting characters against random pokemon XD
How does one get M.U.G.E.N.? Each time I type it in, all I get is porn. Is there a porn-free way of getting it? Please?
@ Ashley
You must be looking at the wrong site. Try this site. Select “Download Mugen” on the right side bar and then pick the version that matches your computer.
Cool! It’s stuff like this that makes me want to spend more time playing video games. The closest official dream fighting game for me is the Super Robert Wars series, in which you can fight using characters and mecha from different series, but due to licensing issues with some series (like Macross) the ones I’d like to really play can’t & probably won’t be released in North America. Ah well, that gives me more time for anime-viewing. =)
@ f0calizer
Heh, I’m not much of a gamer myself and only stick with a select few series, like Pokemon and Smash Bros. But M.U.G.E.N is really accessible for even non-gamers since it’s free and on the computer, so you don’t need an expensive game platform. Plus it’s simple and easy to use.
There have been similar games like Super Robot Wars, for example, there was a Shonen Jump fighting game where you can fight as shonen characters from different series. But there’s never been one where you can fight as characters from all genres of series like with M.U.G.E.N. The licensing costs would make such a release nearly impossible of course, but at least there are similar games available.
@ Yumeka
Incidentally (and kind of off-topic), have you heard tahtf Viz going back into translating the Pokemon Special manga? I would love it if I could pit Tsuruya against Sapphire in M.U.G.EN. Fang battle ftw! :P
@ Mikoto
Cool, though I’ve never read the Pokemon Special manga =P
This actually sounds really fun. I wouldn’t mind kicking ass with my favorite characters.
@ Yi
It is quite fun for that exact reason =) Let me know if you decide to give it a try.
hahahahah!
I wish I could punch out a very big opponent like that.
wait where does it found?
@ ~xxx
If you’re asking where to find M.U.G.E.N, I posted a link to where you can download it on the sixth comment above. Anime characters can be downloaded from various sites, Mugen-Infantry being one of the best.
Just emerging from editing two manga books, and then four light novels simultaneously, while finishing the final edit on my own yaoi novel. Not a recommended schedule. This is my first free day in 16 straight days of work. Hello again!
This Mugen game sounds completely insane – I love it. I want to see all the roles a seiyuu has played fighting each other, like Mamoru Miyano (Light vs. Kida vs. Tamaki vs. what’shisname from Wolf’s Rain, etc.) and Jun Fukuyama (Lelouch vs. Yumichika vs. the guy from Spice and Wolf, etc.), or maybe big vs. little (Komamura vs. Honey from Ouran) or angry female tsundere mecha pilots vs. whiny male mecha pilots (Asuka and Kallen vs. Shinji and the annoying lead kid in Rahxephon). The possibilities are endless! :0
@ Jan
Welcome back~
Yeah, seiyuu battles would be fun, especially since fans who create the character sprites for M.U.G.E.N somehow manage to input dialogue by the proper seiyuu. Only problem is, not every character from every anime has a sprite available. From what I’ve seen, only the most popular series and characters do, so I don’t know if I can find Lawrence or Tamaki for example. The other kinds of battles you mentioned however, are quite possible, like my screenshot of Kon vs Snoralx for “big vs little.” Next time we meet up, I’ll show you XD
cool, someone should make an anime mugen character pack, just so people do not have to go around looking at all the sites to get the best characters. If there is such a pack or if one is to be made please reply.
does anybody here have an idea where can I get characters from the tenchi muyo anime? thanks