The way to play Nidhogg 2 is still ideally with someone sitting next to you, but it’s nice to at least have some kind of solo option this time around. The AI is fairly predictable and quite generous, often waiting for you to come and fight instead of running off-screen.
There’s also a single-player Arcade Mode, which faces players off against AI opponents across each of the game’s stages. And, yes, the bow and arrow can simply be taken out of the weapon rotation, but it’s a shame not to implement the entirety of Nidhogg 2’s default offering. It’s also the only weapon that doesn’t kill, but merely stuns an opponent, which makes sense, but doesn’t make me any more inclined to enjoy it. I’m sure with more practice I could figure out a way to use it effectively, but it has a slow draw (a serious disadvantage when you spawn right in front of someone) and the possibility of arrows being reflected back at the shooter makes the tactics of combat one step too complex for what I want out of Nidhogg. Still, having praised Nidhogg 2 for its new weapons, I simply do not like the bow and arrow. So, just because one player is on an upper platform and the other below, there’s still risk and the potential for combat. For example, the broadsword can swing through certain ceilings. The implementation of multiple weapons and attack strategies makes the stage design variations much more interesting in the sequel as well. There’s also a greater emphasis on disarming opponents, which leads to manic scrabbling and swinging as one player attempts to recover while the other seeks to finish the job. There’s a bit of a paper, rock, scissors thing going on with the weapons, but anyone can beat the other given the right timing and positioning. Adding to the rapier, there is also a broadsword that swings vertically, a quick drawing dagger, and a bow and arrow for ranged attacks. The look of Nidhogg 2 may be the biggest change from the original game, but the revamped level design and addition of three new weapons also open up the core fencing system into a much more varied possibility space. It’s not shocking that they explode, but the cartoon disembowelment has achieved a new level of visceral eccentricity. The characters in Nidhogg 2 animate like puppets (you can even dress them up like dolls before the match), seemingly built for dismemberment, exploding into piles of goo and bones after taking a dagger in the shin. There was a certain shock value to the minimal look of the original Nidhogg in that even though the characters were stacks of yellow pixels, the brutality of the violence still registered. The game itself is a Ren & Stimpy marionette pantomime of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.
The title screen features the game’s logo set against a hypnotic wall of flat-colored orange grime pouring down the screen with disturbing velocity. In leaning into grossness, Nidhogg 2 is visually transfixing in a way the original never was. And seeing the reveal trailer in a little YouTube window, I thought Nidhogg 2 looked downright ugly. Sure, like the first Nidhogg, it was still a 2D one-on-one sword fighting game, but the Atari 2600 homage visuals had been replaced by what appeared to be grotesque Homer Simpson fanart.
When Nidhogg 2 was first revealed last September, I was one of those folks who was taken aback by the drastic shift in the game’s appearance.
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