For the vast majority of gamers out there who don’t know what M.U.G.E.N is, let me break it down to you like this: It’s a 2D fighting game emulator for characters and gameplay. If you still don’t understand, let me break it down to you like this: M.U.G.E.N allowed users to import fighters (if they are available) from any 2D fighting game ever made. So it was actually possible to have Fatal Fury’s Terry Bogard go against Street Fighter’s Ryu (and Terry wins by a milestone, I watched the CPU simulations on the hardest difficulty setting) or it’s possible to have King of Fighter’s Kyo take on Mortal Kombat’s Raiden. The possibilities are as endless as a user’s imagination.
Well, things are about to change. Elecbyte, the popular underground designer who originally released M.U.G.E.N, has made a comeback after the controversy erupted over the unethical and unapproved release of M.U.G.E.N for Windows. Now that the site is back up and running, what can gamers and M.U.G.E.N afficionados expect from Elecbyte? Well, expect none of your previous M.U.G.E.N characters to work on their latest rendition.
In a F.A.Q recently posted up on the recently re-opened site, they comment that there will be one final update for the latest build of M.U.G.E.N before the project takes a drastic turn. According to the F.A.Q, none of the characters from any previous build of M.U.G.E.N will work with the secret M.U.G.E.N project Elecbyte plans on releasing.
As it reads on the site, regarding the new version of the project, “There will be no official support for characters designed for previous M.U.G.E.N. betas. Please consider one of the many M.U.G.E.N. clones.”
This leaves me to believe that Elecbyte could be taking the whole M.U.G.E.N movement in a completely different direction...possibly 3D. Why else would none of the characters work on the newest build? If M.U.G.E.N does go 3D and support many (if not all) the features the previous builds had (including two-player co-op), then Namco, Tecmo and Team Ninja will be well out of work.
You can visit the Official Elecbyte Website to read the F.A.Q for yourself. There’s also a YouTube video for those of you who need a little eyes-on to understand the software. Alternatively, you can brush up on your M.U.G.E.N knowledge (or download characters) by visiting one of the following fansites:
