Full FeedImportant Importables: M.U.G.E.N.
As we saw a few weeks ago, sometimes the best games are either created by fans or free. Since import games are typically a premium item for people, due to the fact they can cost almost double the price of a domestic game, it’s always nice to see a cheaper alternative.
That’s where M.U.G.E.N. comes in. If you’ve been cutting back on your video game purchases lately, but still want something exotic and new to play, perhaps its time to start playing this free PC game. Maybe, if you’re artistically inclined, you could even learn to create content for the game.
Be forewarned! The hunt for M.U.G.E.N. characters and stages is addicting! I started learning about the program and researching it just for this column, and found myself addicted to searching websites from all around the world, looking for more characters to add to my game. At each site I’d visit for research, I’d inevitably end up downloading at least three or four new characters or stages. Make sure you have an afternoon to devote to preparing your game, if you decide to play.
What’s M.U.G.E.N.?
M.U.G.E.N. is freedom. If you love fighting games, it’s something you have to check out. The program was originally created by Elecbyte for DOS back in 1999, and has since blossomed.
It’s a freeware program that lets users customize everything about it. It comes with one character (Kung Fu Man) and one stage. If you want more, players have to either create or download additional stages, characters, menu skins, lifebars or sounds. Fans have taken it upon themselves to create a wide variety of characters, both original and inspired by famous fighting games or media, to appear in the game.
M.U.G.E.N. isn’t just a fighter game. Some people who are particularly inventive have even managed to use the program to create action, shooting and puzzle games, which they then share online for others to marvel at and enjoy.
It’s available for DOS, Linux and Windows. Win Mugen Plus is the most recent official release, and is compatible with High Resolution backgrounds and characters. There are also two new and improved forms of M.U.G.E.N. in the works, known as ShugenDo and xnaMugen
Where can I find characters for M.U.G.E.N.?
Once you’ve installed M.U.G.E.N., you’ll find you only have one character to fight with - Kung Fu Man. He’s nice and all, but when you have the ability to have practically any character people are willing/able to create as a fighter, you’re not going to be satisfied with just one. That means, it’s time to search for more characters.
Installing new characters into M.U.G.E.N. is incredibly easy. If you’ve ever played Stepmania, it’ll feel very familiar. You just copy and paste or drag and drop the character’s folder into the CHARS M.U.G.E.N. folder.
After that, you go into the data folder. Find the file called select.def and open it with Notepad. Then, just type the name of the character’s folder there. Say, for example, that I found a Kingdom Hearts Sora character someone created. I already copied and pasted the Sora folder into CHARS, so I open the select.def file with Notepad and type in Sora on the line after KFM, stages/kfm.def. You can also add in custom stages in the same way, or even assign stages to characters in a similar manner.
The best way to go is to visit some of the largest, established M.U.G.E.N. sites:
Be sure to have Babelfish ready! Many of the characters or stages you’ll find will be on foreign websites, and you may need a translation tool to find them. Typically, all sites with M.U.G.E.N. content will have them on a page titled M.U.G.E.N., so you shouldn’t have too much trouble.
Helpful M.U.G.E.N. tools and programs
As I’m a M.U.G.E.N. beginner myself, I’m probably not the best source for information on all of the various programs created to help people customize the game. A good place to check for information about creating your own M.U.G.E.N. characters and stages would be The Mugen Fighters Guild forum. There’s a whole section of the forum that offers Development Help, and you’d probably be able to find not only program recommendations, but information from people proficient in using them.
Carnificina’s Fighter Factory, available at the VirtuallTek Systems site in the downloads section, can help you make and edit characters. http://virtualltek.mgbr.net/inicial.php?page=downs&lang=en-us
Random Select is a great site to visit, as it has collected multiple M.U.G.E.N. tools, or links to tools, in a single place. It also tells you right away what the tools do and what version they are.
COMING NEXT WEEK: Important Importables talks about the bit Generation games.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Last week Important Importables reviewed Your Memories Off: Girl’s Style for the PSP.
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Important Importables
Jenni Lada brings us information about all of the groovy new gaming imports from around the world.
I know I should be commenting about M.U.G.EN. but what really caught my eye is that next week you’re covering the bit Gens. Yay! I have been collecting and playing them recently (have five of the seven, hoping to score the last two this weekend) and they are a fascinating lot. Really simple on the surface and yet incredibly cerebral (for the most part; Boundish sucks). But, um I guess I should wait til next week to talk more in depth about them. ;-)
on May 22, 2009 at 10:06 AM - LINK