It was indeed a shitty game made for the sake of ponies. If the bronies stopped caring about it when they got rid of the ponies and kept calling the gameplay mediocre, then this game must of really been a shallow turd. Bronies are known for eating a lot of shit so them calling something mediocre means ''that something'' is utter shit.
Fighting Is Magic started off as a joke attempt on /v/ at creating a pony fighting game, they had mock-up images of the game, but no actual game. Unfortunately the game creators were all faggots which played too much Blazblue and Skullgirls, rather than Mortal Kombat.
Even if I was Hasbro I wouldn't have hired these faggots, not even if I was Gaben himself.
The game was more for the sake of making a pony game rather than a quality product, the only quality it has are the animations for the ponies. The rest is shit. It was really funny and sad to see the team's delusional beliefs ''we care about quality'', sure you do buddy, that's what they all say.
Like fighting games weren't tiresome enough, you had to make an even shittier one based on anime fighters. Anime fighters are like the dubstep of the fighting games, it's the reject of the rejects, so imagine going below that and making a poorly made reject game.
Plus the team behind this game work very slowly, all of these pony game designers take 8 months to make something which looks like it was made in 5 days. They were planning for 17 characters and couldn't even finish their first 6.
Then the Tribute edition came out in March 2014 after FiM got cancelled in February 2013, so it took the fandom 13 months to add 2 extra pegasi which still look badly animated and don't even have half of their move set completed. That about shows how much animators and most artists give a fuck about fighting games, which is zero.
The ponies only have around 6 abilities and the overall gameplay is just you baiting your opponent to miss his attack so you can combo his ass into oblivion. Every attack is a combo starter, so one slip and you'll get combo'd in the air for at least 22 hits.
Not even a Devil May Cry fan would find this exciting, you're basically mashing your buttons like crazy and silencing your opponent for the entire round. Effectively turning the game into a crappy kick the training puppet and tire up your fingers(you have to press much faster than any other game). Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat did not play like this at all.
The game becomes more of a dodging match like you're playing a boxing game, you have to carefully try to hit and retreat so your opponent doesn't block and counterattack you into a combo hell. Most pros play it like a dodging game, hence the Rainbow Dash matches at the tournament.
Using the movement keys for the abilities is unreliable and ends up glitching a lot of the time.
Most special moves are done by inputting a button sequence insanely fast, the game was originally designed for a joystick where you could roll the stick in a direction, so tough luck for keyboard users. FiM is very punishing if you don't check your button press timing.
Pinkie's moves are a bit different and counter intuitive. Most of them are done by holding in one direction for a couple of seconds, then quickly pressing in the opposite direction and pushing attack. It's very easy to screw up.
Block is just holding back, but it's trickier. It matters whether you're blocking high or low(down+back makes you duck and block, just back by itself makes you stand and block).
If you're standing and blocking, low attacks like sweeping kicks will still hit you.
If you're ducking and blocking, jumping attacks will still hit you.
Throws aren't particularly more damaging than regular attacks, but they're useful because you can't block them. Unfortunately you have to get very close to your opponent to use it.
The arenas are small even for a fighting game. For the running you have to tap twice in one direction just to jump a little distance, while in MK you just have to hold it pressed to run all the way to the other end of the screen. There is no blood and no finish blows which is weird considering how difficult and competitive the game is made to be. There's too many AoE(splash,area damage) abilities from Rarity and Twilight considering this is a fighting game.
If they really wanted to do the mlp cartoon any justice then they should have made a fun 3D fighting game like Tom and Jerry, something which anyone can pick up and play, and find it enjoyable after repeated plays.
In conclusion Fighting Is Magic is a badly made, frustrating, boring game that gives no satisfaction for mastering it. It has the pretentious gall to want you to master it's floaty controls and cringe-inducing gameplay mechanics which you'll never use in any other game. I recommend you all the other fighting games out there, just not this one.
