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Copy of Nidhogg 2 supplied by the game’s developers.

The Lowdown

In a world that is addicted to death and sacrificing yourself to the almighty wurm god known as Nidhogg, your goal is simple, kill and be sacrificed or die and be dishonored. Now I don’t actually know if you will be dishonored if you lose and your family will never look at you the same, but I do know the characters in Nidhogg 2 only want one thing, and it’s freaking disgusting!

SACRIFICING THEMSELVES TO THE ALMIGHTY WURM!



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The Gameplay

Nidhogg plays out like a tug of war dueling game. For example, you have to duel your opponent with various weapons while sprinting across multiple sections of the map, in order to get to the final area in which you will be eaten and completely demolished by Nidhogg. While running through the sections, your opponent will respawn with a new weapon, if they kill you, they will sprint towards the left side of the screen. hoping to get to the final area. Your main objective is to kill them first and hightail it all the way to the right of the screen until you end up in the final area and are greeted with the warm embrace of a wurm chomp from the almighty. A Rapier, Longsword, Dagger, Fists and Bow & Arrow are rotated through with each death, they will help you slaughter your opponents or determine your demise. My personal favorite tactic is to throw every single weapon I get at my opponent and then run over and stomp them out. Everyone in this must have been trained by Bruce Lee or never skipped leg day, as their kicks are deadly and as fast as lightening- not really but you get the idea!



“ENGARDE!”



My character is Purple and is royalty.

Before you start your onslaught of unworthy plebs, you get to decide how fabulous you look whilst you start your fight to the death. There is a wide range of colors, pants, tops, accessories and hair you can choose from. My wife and I used the Mix button to find some colorful characters before we began the duel. This is where I ran into my first problem, it says you can set a timer and change rules with the D-pad but I was not able to figure that out as the d-pad just changed options for my character. I tried before I picked my color, after I chose my clothes set up, after I pressed ready and my wife was still choosing her style. I just could not change the rules or figure out how, I pressed every other button I could to no avail.

Now that we had our characters made and looking all sexy, we were ready to begin. It. Was. A. Slaughter. Weapons and blood were everywhere! As soon as she would get to a new area I would toss my rapier into her cornea and sprint back into the last area. It was a literal tug of war during these rounds. We played 5 rounds on different areas and some were longer than the others. It got to a point where I let her win as I was just ready to move onto the next match. The longest match we played was our last match before I sat down to write this review. It lasted 30 minutes. 30 minutes of complete slaughter. Anytime I would get close to the end she would impale me with her rapier and set me back an area or two. Laughs, chuckles, sighs, gasps, swear words and things we probably shouldn’t call each other as a married couple were all exchanged in these 5 rounds.

That’s me in yellow, exploding from a jump attack from my wife.



I was not able to play online during my time with Nidhogg 2. I’m not sure if this was due to a low player count or an error on my end but I sat on the online screen trying to connect for about 10 minutes before I gave up.

There are a few different modes you can choose from in Nidhogg 2. Arcade, Local, Local Tournament, and Online. I did play about an hour on arcade and the AI is no joke. I died many, many times before claiming my long awaited victory, but man it felt sweet after the long battle to feel the warm embrace and chomping of the almighty Nidhogg. The nice thing about local mode is every level is unlocked at the beginning. My wife and I played a new map every round, my personal favorite being the winter level.

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Art and Music

Speaking of levels, each area has a unique soundtrack and little details within the area to make it feel more alive. The winter level I spoke of before has icebergs in the neutral area that move up and down and will sink almost below the water line if both of you are the iceberg. The iceberg also will bounce up if you jump on it and the new iceberg you land on will sink and bob in the water. It’s a small detail but you can tell the creators, Messhof, put a lot of time into the levels. The backdrops are also beautiful and are completed unique depending on which world you’re in. The volcano map will show lava dripping down in the back or the winter area shows snow sculptures of nidhogg.



You can also see a bird in the tree, snow falling, and deer in the background. These detailed backgrounds earn high regards from me. I’m a sucker for small details and Nidhogg 2 is full of them. The music for the levels fit the setting well in my opinion. None of the levels had music that felt out of place. The volcano has kind of epic music, like a grand battle, while the winter level has more serene tone.

My home boy is contemplating life while my murderer takes aim!

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Final Thoughts

Nidhogg 2 is a fun game and will definitely be a game you will want to play with your friends at a party. It is only $15 in the US eshop store and I would personally buy it just to play it with my wife. You could probably make this your go-to decision maker when you and your SO have fights or don’t agree on something. The gameplay is smooth and responsive. The art and music is pretty solid and nothing feels out of place. The small details in each level really set this game above others in my opinion. My wife and I are left with a bittersweet relationship with Nidhogg 2. But at the end of the day, I can sleep a little bit better as I came out as the ultimate sacrifice on top with 3 out of 5 games!



This was not one of those times where I won.



The only problems I ran into was trying to change the rules in Local mode as well as not being able to find an online game. I would recommend this game for anyone who is looking for a cheap party/couch co-op game or to a psychopath who enjoys murder sprees. I give Nidhogg 2 an 8 out of 10.

What did you think of Luke’s review? Let us know over on Twitter or come and join the Switch Indie Fix Discord server!





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Latest Posts Luke-Anthony Born and raised in Utah, video games have been a huge part of his life. From winning Destiny tournaments to competing in Pokemon Battling, he is no stranger to trying new genres and games! His favorite game series include Pokemon, Pikmin, Zelda, Kingdom Hearts and Ys. He will always have a soft spot for Stardew Valley and Fe. Latest posts by Luke-Anthony see all) Half Past Fate Switch Review - April 20, 2020

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