#Nidhogg review how to

You can fight on four different stages, each of which sports unique features to differentiate it from its brethren.

#Nidhogg review how to

Some strategies may seem to be surefire ways to succeed, but that's only true until your opponent catches on to what you're doing and learns how to defend against it. Nobody starts with an advantage, and your victory or failure depends entirely on your own skill.

There are no special characters to select, and every arena is symmetrical. Nidhogg's battles can be intense in part because the playing field is perfectly even. The floor of this castle has been carpeted by colorful blood. The back-and-forth between two well-matched players is thrilling, and there's a pure exhilaration that comes from being on the brink of a loss, making the right move at the right time, and fighting your way back to win. A single game could just as easily last 20 seconds as 20 minutes, depending on the skill of both fighters. To take the football analogy further, it's like forcing your opponent to fumble and then running away with the ball, until he wrestles the ball back from you and goes their way again until somebody finally scores. If you can come back and kill the other player before he reaches his goal, you gain control of the screen and can make a mad dash for your goal instead. That fight is not the end, however, because you continue to respawn until you have either won or lost. The first person to kill the other gets to run toward his or her goal like a football player dashing for the end zone. Rarely do games with such simple controls offer so much variety in their actions. All with only two action buttons: jump and attack.

If you want to get a little fancier, you can dive-kick, roll, cartwheel, throw your sword, or, if empty-handed, try to pummel your opponent with your fists. Tapping a direction takes a small step, while holding runs. A well-timed change in sword position can disarm your opponent, leaving him open to be pierced through the torso (or head, if you're so positioned). If you and the other player have your swords at the same height, the blades will clash, making the question of where and when to strike a mind game. You can move your sword to one of three different heights (low, medium, and high), and the combat works like fencing: you don't swing you stab. Two fighters enter at the center of a 2D side-scrolling arena, armed with only a sword. Nidhogg is part fighting game, part tug-of-war.