Two fighters lock eyes and charge at each other, both wielding their swords with the intent of murdering the other. One stabs low, the other high, and one becomes the victor as the other is disemboweled. As the champion runs, the defeated reappears with a dagger that he lobs, but misses. The sword is thrown in kind and stuck through the combatants head. The victor picks up his sword as he continues on and no sooner has to deflect a bolt that’s quickly shot from a bow, which inadvertently pierces the archer’s heart. It’s here that the winner is crowned with fame after being eaten by the Níðhöggr.

If you’ve played Nidhogg, you can pretty much expect the same experience from Nidhogg 2. The largest differences are the amount of weapons available, and the graphics. The latter is quite a large jump from the original, which served its purpose well, but you can’t help but love the Sega feel that is brought about in 2 thanks to Toby Dixon. I highly recommend checking out his Tumblr that goes into the design of the game with Plasticine, as many games don’t make use of this animation method anymore. The game features extravagant backgrounds as you pierce your way through each level, running and jumping to safety. The music is also quite varied between the stages, creating a fun sense of ambiance.

The game offers a few modes, including a single-player arcade, online, local versus (2 players), and local tournaments (3-8). The game has the ability to run indefinitely without a time limit, although it’s there for those that would rather not have the game end in a stalemate. This is almost impossible in the likes of the arcade mode, as the game has certain styles to learn as you play. My first time through the game I beat it in 21 minutes, and there’s a trophy for beating it in 20, which is more than doable once you understand the fundamentals.

For those that have never played Nidhogg before, the arcade mode is a great place to learn how everything works. There is no tutorial, but the control scheme is hardly difficult. You run, jump, and attack. Attacks are dependent on how you move directionally, so you can be at a low, mid, or high stance. You are also able to throw your weapon, as well as go hand-to-hand or perform a dive kick. You’ll learn what works and what doesn’t while playing against the computer, as the characters more or less showcase the different things you can do with the weapons as you come across them. Some favor high stance, while others are insistent on going for your knees.

While the arcade is a fun tutorial of sorts, the main focus of this game is the multiplayer. There’s nothing quite like sitting on the couch next to your buddy and yelling at them as they throw a sword and miss as you curb stomp them out of existence, only to have them stab you in the head as soon as they spawn. It brings back the joys of a simpler time, and it’s just as addictive as the old co-op/competitive games you used to play on Nintendo; just a bit more violent.

There are plenty of strategies to playing this game, namely killing your opponent and running. But there are many intricacies to these, as you’ll learn by playing against others. What works well on one person will undoubtedly have a different result on someone else. In some instances, you may only have to kill them once the entire match and run through the rest of it, jumping over them and dodging their attacks. Others will hunt you down and be expert marksmen forcing you to kill them every time they’re on the screen if you hope to make any progress. Finding what their pattern of play is can be difficult, and almost a form of rock, paper, scissors when dueling. Note that whoever has the last kill controls the screen, and moving off of it as the loser means death.

In addition to the danger that your opponent brings, the levels also have their own dangers that you must be careful of – many times after winning a duel I ended up falling to my death from rolling to pick up a weapon or just being clumsy. It’s rare that any of these events ever end up in frustration while playing against the computer, but it can mean life or death when going against a human.

Nidhogg 2 brings what people loved of the first and amplifies it on every level. The game takes the competitive nature of old games and modernizes it, keeping the controls simple but the gameplay addictive. If you never played the first, don’t worry, this is the perfect game to jump into.

10 out of 10

Pros

• Fun Art Style
• Super Addictive Gameplay
• Competitive

Cons

• Single Player Depth

Nidhogg 2 was developed and published by Messhof, LLC. The game launches on PC and PS4 August 15th, 2017 for $14.99. The game was provided to us for review on PS4. If you’d like to see more of Nidhogg 2, check out the official site.

 

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