M.U.G.E.N.

Some men like to watch soccer or boxing matches during their free time. Others enjoy their time in the presence of stand-up comedians.

Sometimes, I like to combine both and start up M.U.G.E.N. and literally laugh myself to death at the wackiest chaotic fights this engine can provide based on the input by the crazy fan programmers around the world.

To achieve this satisfaction, one must know the resources, the histories, the tendencies of the characters and whatever surprises the programmed A.I. brings towards another round of ultimate randomness as far as 2D fighting goes.

M.U.G.E.N. was first designed a decade ago by ElecByte, a website that was offline for many years, but seems to have returned once more, presumably because of the passion the independent fan programmers left behind on the game engine throughout the years.

It allows you to create your own 2D fighting game basically. You can tweak plenty of stuff, including the overall look(screenpacks), selectable stages, selectable characters, music, sounds, unique rules, handicaps and even things like mini games, stories, credits and game over screens.

This should satisfy most, right? ElecByte wasn't done yet though, as they implemented 2 of my favorite features in it; up to 4 characters fighting at once and Watch Mode. This is where the whole chaotic nature comes for me basically. Once you have installed/unpacked M.U.G.E.N. and adjusted your needs, as well as either downloaded your favorite content or designed it on your own(this could take a lot of time or not though), you are set.

Now what I mean by this random appealing chaotic nature personally is that there are some characters out there that REEK of INSANITY as far as their programmed A.I. goes. These characters are so unmatched by their "martial arts" that there is hardly anyone else to defeat them. And they are definitely not beatable by human players.

I am not even interested into designing a conventional and traditional "balanced" fighting game anymore, because now I have seem to found the real reason why M.U.G.E.N. remains somewhat popular in it's cult community. Just type in YouTube something among the likes of "M.U.G.E.N. god characters, M.U.G.E.N. cheap characters or M.U.G.E.N. boss characters" and you will probably see why. If not, you will have to dig deeper.

However, if you have found an equal match for the CPU's, and multiplied that by 2, then you are truly ready for an occasional good time, depending on your interest and the input you gave on the engine itself.

One hit K.O.'s, invincibility, invisibility or other obvious cheap advantages is not what I look for when speaking of characters who can combo their way in through a lot of situations, set up finishing moves, play mind games with others or unexpected in the most unlikely way.

And if their frames, hit box detection, recovery time and adaptations towards others are above average, then you have found my favorite M.U.G.E.N. based characters, designed to fight to the death and be the one or two last men standing.

Should you be interested into trying M.U.G.E.N. out, be it for my chaotic reason, or for designing stuff, or for creating a traditional fighting game, then by all means start at ElecByte's own site, and then delve into the internet, where you will find several huge sites dedicated towards the engine and the community: M.U.G.E.N.