Game details Developer: Messhof

Publisher: Messhof

Platform: Windows PC (reviewed), PS4

Release Date: August 15, 2017

ESRB Rating: E

Price: $15/£10

Links: Steam | Official website Messhof: Messhof: Windows PC (reviewed), PS4August 15, 2017: $15/£10

Of all the fighting video games I imagined might ever get sequels, Nidhogg was pretty low on my wishlist. The 2014 sword-duel game was a masterwork of simplicity, and it benefited from looking and playing like something from an early '80s home console. Two-button controls. Minuscule color palettes. A simple directive to stab and run. I had seen too many zillions-of-buttons, zillions-of-commands fighting games, and Nidhogg, even more than its one-button contemporary Divekick, served as a delightful palate cleanser.

When its sequel was announced last year, fans—including myself—wondered what the heck was going on. Where was the refreshing simplicity? What was up with these new weapons? Why did the fighters transform into grotesque, mutated Homer Simpsons?

Once I went hands-on with Nidhogg 2 last December, I instantly changed my tune. That love has only grown since playing its preview builds in bits and pieces—and it's grown more since getting the final version. Nidhogg 2 is everything a great sequel should be: an opportunity to build on a solid foundation, a successful gamble on updated mechanics, and a better game for fans both old and new.

Patience, Highlander







The basics remain nearly identical this time around. You and your opponent land in a 2D, side-scrolling arena with swords in hand and a directive to run to the opposite end of the arena. You can only progress to your goal point if you landed the last kill, which simply requires striking your opponent once. This brings up an on-screen arrow in your color and direction, and so long as you control the arrow, you don't have to do any killing. (You probably will, anyway.) Dying takes you out of the action briefly, and both players respawn over and over until someone wins the match.

The first major difference becomes apparent after your first respawn, when you come back to life... it's with a different weapon. Nidhogg 2 has four weapons in all: the fencing blade, the broadsword (which I have taken to calling the Highlander), the dagger, and the bow-and-arrow.

Each has obvious strengths and weaknesses, and my months of on-and-off Nidhogg 2 play have proven to be delightful specifically because of their distinct tunings. The fencing sword (from the original game) has the longest forward reach and is otherwise balanced well for things like stabbing speed and throwing speed. The broadsword has the greatest range of rotation and can knock other swords out of fighters' hands, but in addition to its slower swing, it also cannot be held in a "central" defensive position. Like last game, most swords can be held in a high, medium, or low stance, which you'll want to mind when trying to duel and block other swipes.

That stance matters when facing off with a bow-and-arrow owner. If a sword wielder stands still and deflects or strikes an oncoming arrow, then that arrow shoots right back at its shooter—which is a brutal counter for the distance-weapon's obvious perk of shooting from afar. The dagger rounds out the list with a surprisingly deep strike and serious quickness (not to mention laser-fast throwing speed).

There's also a strategy in minding the weapon spawning order, as weapons will always appear in a predetermined order. You can change it from the default of fencing-broad-dagger-bow if you'd like, but Nidhogg 2 doesn't let you choose "random weapons" as an option. After playing the game a while, I appreciate why. Maybe you'll run into one room jump-kicking like crazy, since you know your opponent will spawn with a slow-to-cock bow, while in another situation, you'll opt to commit suicide just to respawn with a certain weapon (this strategy is somewhat similar to walking a batter in baseball).

With new weapons come new tuning for other basic movements, and while I wouldn't dare declare the exact math of what's been changed, I've noticed an appreciable increase in jump floatiness. Nidhogg 2 wants its players to consider jumping more often, because there's something a little more Mario-like about how you hop now, and thus, you have more control and time with your in-air approaches (even if it's only a few frames). That's countered by weapons like the dagger and broadsword having attack speeds and ranges designed to handle this increased mobility. And the game rounds all of that out with an aggressive new "stomp to kill" move, which unarmed players can use to attack and overpower any opponent no matter what they're bearing so long as they are not actively swinging. If you can rush in with a stomp before your foe hits a "lunge" button, you'll crush them. This makes early sessions with Nidhogg 2 feel a lot more aggressive, but you'll quickly learn to respect and counter unarmed rushes—and it's a cool, subtle addition to the game's myriad rock-paper-scissors systems of countering.

In short, Nidhogg 2 gives you more to do and consider doing with the same basic control suite of "one joystick, two buttons." It feels absolutely elegant.

Whispers of the great, bonkers John K



















At first glance, however, the game sure doesn't look elegant. Nidhogg 2 opted to throw out its Atari-appropriate, low-color, low-pixel aesthetic in exchange for what looks like a barfy mess of clashing colors and bulbous characters. This can be a tough one to swallow for anyone who projected their own visual assumptions onto the tiny, pixelated fighters last time around—like, "that is not what I imagined they'd look like in the instruction manual!"

There may never be a way to placate anybody who feels burnt by the aesthetic shift. I personally love it as a fan of distorted and gross animated cartoons (Ren and Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life, Perry Bible Fellowship, Aeon Flux/Liquid Television, Paprika, etc.), and I'm fully aware of my bias. That being said, I invite curious onlookers to at least appreciate the tech and artistic design on display in Nidhogg 2. This game happened to launch on the same day as the incredible Sonic Mania, and I would argue that N2 is actually more successful at looking like a lost Sega Saturn classic.

That's because the game's busy, colorful arenas—now eight of them, up from the original game's four arenas—make sure to include consistent, starkly colored content right on the combat horizon, which Nidhogg 2's bubbly characters pop off thanks to their high-contrast designs and bold outlines. This is only further emphasized when environmental lighting effects explode on your fighters' edges, whether thanks to bursts of crepuscular rays from behind or direct illumination from torches, neon lights, and other bright level elements.

The game's art design is so much easier to visually appreciate in motion, as a result, with your eyes glued to the combat while taking in the intricate sprite art all around. Every level is packed with foreground and background detail, but this is done tastefully: minor animations keep the scenes feeling lively yet not distracting. (It's been a while, for example, since I've appreciated tiny animated squirrels in a game's nooks and crannies the way I've liked Nidhogg 2's little critters.)

Levels offer appreciable gameplay updates, as well, as they pack the same basic structural ideas of Nidhogg 1—multiple levels, obscured vision, insta-death pits, doorways, motorized floors—into smaller, more maniacal designs. Every "screen" you move in either direction, you'll find some sort of specific strategy-oriented terrain to consider as either the attacker or defender.

Hope you have friends nearby

Like Nidhogg 1, however, a few caveats remain. The single-player mode is a joke, with weaksauce AI doing nothing to either challenge players nor organically train them. And the online modes are functional but laggy, as they suffer from regular slowdown to make sure both clients operate with the trust that their button presses register appropriately. That's better than the game guessing or losing your own frames of action, and it's totally playable this way in a pinch, but there's just no getting around how tough it is to serve a good online round of ultra-twitchy, frame-perfect combat.

If you roll solo with Nidhogg 2, your fun potential is admittedly limited, and that's no small slight. But in terms of a perfectly tuned, minimal-button way to gather friends on a couch, draw swords, shout in glee, and spill gallons of technicolor-pixel blood, Nidhogg 2 is a worthy successor to Nidhogg 1's throne.

The Good

Original game's solid formula has been intelligently built upon, not thrown out.

New weapons, and mechanical tweaks to accommodate them, expand strategy without complicating the controls or disrupting N1's momentum.

Abrasive art style melts into place once you see the combat—and impressive lighting effects—in action.

I almost didn't finish this review because I kept taking dance breaks while listening to the soundtrack; it's incredible electronic-chiptune stuff.

The Bad

Online mode sacrifices speed for frame-perfect accuracy, so it can feel clunky even on a good connection.

The new stomp-to-kill move can make N2 feel like a stupider, more aggressive game, but learning how to counter it really opens up the game's strategic depth.

The Ugly

Want anything in the way of organic Nidhogg lessons from a single-player mode? Won't find them here.

Verdict: A must-buy for couch battlers. Online players should try.