Playing Nidhogg is like playing a dozen frantic games of rock-paper-scissors back to back. Like all the best couch co-op games, it's very easy to get to grips with the controls: you have a sword, and you can raise it or lower it across three different heights to try and get around your opponent's guard. There are other things you can do, like ducking, and jumping, and throwing your sword. But so many fights come down to a tense little close-range shuffle where each player stands just out of range of the other's blade, moving their sword higher and lower in a seconds-long game of chicken.
Oh look, now I'm holding rock! Can you switch to paper fast enough? Nope, now I'm holding scissors! Oh, and now it's paper! Now rock again! Now paper! What will you do?... Oh. You can just jump over me and keep running. Fair enough, I suppose.
]]>Welcome back to the third edition of The RPS Time Capsule, a monthly feature in which the RPS Treehouse puts their hivemind together to pick their favourite, bestest best games from a specific year to be preserved until the end of time. In the spirit of keeping you on your toes, this time we've set our sights on the best games from 2014. Which games will make the cut and ascend to the realms of the PC gaming elite? Find out below.
]]>Good news! Chaotic multiplayer brawler Nidhogg 2 just received a free update adding new costumes and two new levels, including one set upon a train. Even better news: the original Nidhogg also received a free update, adding a new battleground and some new animated cats.
]]>It's been an eventful decade for PC games, and it would be hard for you to summarise everything that's happened in the medium across the past ten years. Hard for you, but a day's work for us. Below you'll find our picks for the 50 greatest games released on PC across the past decade.
]]>Hey you, I heard your breath smells like a fart. What are you gonna do about it? Fight me!? Excellent. I was hoping you’d say that, because I’ve put together a list of the 10 best fighting games on PC, and it would be fantastic if you came and had a look, gave your thoughts, and maybe elbowed me in the teeth while you’re at it. Finally, a decent reader willing to dropkick me. Matchmaking is hard.
All right, let’s take this outside, where the top 10 fighting games are waiting. How exciting.
]]>We’re living in a fighting game renaissance. There are fighting games for almost every taste, whether that’s epic family feuds involving demons and bear bodyguards, slapstick platformer shenanigans, Tetris anime crossovers, or cutesy horses kicking each other across the screen. But with so much choice one problem remains: fighting games are an intimidating genre to learn. Even with games like Skullgirls, Guilty Gear Xrd and Under Night giving you in depth step-by-step tutorials, there’s an overwhelming number of options to learn and keep in mind. So keeping that in mind, I’d like to suggest a very different alternative to learning the genre’s core concepts: Nidhogg 2.
Nidhogg 2 might not seem like the obvious choice; in fact, some might not even consider it a proper fighting game. It lacks the flashy combos, technical skills, and diverse rosters that help give fighting games their depth. But look closer and you’ll see that the fundamental skills needed to succeed at Nidhogg 2 are the same as those you’ll use in other fighting games, just at a smaller scale.
]]>This is Brendan, broadcasting live from rumour world, where everything is made of a nebulous candy floss-like substance. The locals call it “hope.” Amid this sticky cloud, a figure has formed. It’s Geralt of Rivia, hero of popular Gwent spin-off, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The monster-hunting swordsman will “make an appearance” in another game later this year, according to CD Projekt Red community lead Marcin Momot. Some have asserted that he'll be a guest character in upcoming fighting game Soul Calibur VI. Which makes sense given the close business ties between the Polish studio and Japanese publisher Namco Bandai.
It isn't confirmed. But it does raise the question: who else deserves a place on the stage of history? I asked the RPS treehouse who they’d like to see. Here’s the list we all settled on.
]]>Aw, hey! I'm so glad you came. You know, I was saying to Alice, just a second ago I was saying to her: "I hope our favourite listener drops in" and now look here you are. That's great, that's so nice. YOU'RE nice. Ha ha. Have a drink. No thank you, I've had twelve. Look, there's Adam. Watch out though, he's gabbing on about Overcooked and those Jackbox Party Packs But never mind, Alice is outside by the paddling pool, talking some chumps into a game of Jelly Stompers. I also think she has a copy of Deadly Premonition with her for some reason. Brendan? He's in the kitchen, probably boring somebody about Gang Beasts. Best stay here. With me, the Electronic Wireless Show.
]]>Abstract multiplayer fencing game Nidhogg didn't need its minimalist style to be buried under a splatter of aggressively grotesque paint and gore. It didn't need extra weapons to upset the perfect balance and precision of its two-button combat. It certainly didn't need its titular wurms to chew the air with stumpy rotten teeth.
All a Nidhogg sequel really needs, to justify its existence entirely, is better netcode and maybe a couple of new modes to play with. By messing with the original formula, particularly with that divisive visual switch, Nidhogg 2 [official site] risks proving that more can sometimes be less. Here's wot I think.
]]>Nidhogg 2 [official site], the duelling sequel to one of the very finest local multiplayer games, is almost upon us. Developers Messhof today announced a release date of August 15th. Let us rend our foes, win glory, and charge gleefully into the waiting maw of the all-devouring serpent Níðhöggr. It's certainly a more exciting victory celebration than dabbing, though the Football Association probably frown on pitch invasions by mythical beasts.
]]>We recently found out that the frantic and melodramatic fencing of Nidhogg would be making a return thanks to the sequel plans of developers Messhof. Nidhogg 2 [official site] is set to include new weapons, levels and a surreal new art style. We talked to co-founders Mark Essen and Kristy Norindr about what can be expected when we roll up our sleeves for the next duel.
]]>And not just axes. Bows and arrows, throwing knives and good old-fashioned fisticuffs will all feature in the sequel to the hectic fencing and neck-snapping game Nidhogg [official site]. Messhof’s original foray into poking people with sharp objects first appeared in the dark ages of 2010 and then vanished for approximately one thousand years before finally being released to euphoric applause. Now, Nidhogg 2 [same official site] is in the works, the developer has announced. It looks both wildly different and comfortably familiar. Come watch the trailer.
]]>The latest Humble Bundle is a good'un, with games including Spelunky, Rocket League, Nidhogg, and Skullgirls going cheap. The first three of those are modern PC classics, I'd say, and Skullgirls isn't half-bad either. The Humble Revelmode Bundle has more games too, obvs.
]]>Bringing a sword to a kickfight seems unsporting, but I'm not sure what a fighting tournament would expect when inviting a warrior who wants nothing more than to be devoured by a giant serpent. The fantastic Nidhogg's Fencer has arrived in Divekick [official site], bringing their big pixel style and flingable sword to the two-button fighting game (guess what those two buttons do). The Fencer is the final character added to Divekick, rolled out in a free update yesterday. The game also scored a price cut.
]]>Nidhogg [official site] is one of the very finest local multiplayer games. The two-player swordfighting duel always drawn some of the biggest crowds at events I've helped run, delighting folks with desperate gambits and deathworm devourings even after it escaped the event scene and got a proper home release in 2014. That version also brought online multiplayer and... well, Nidhogg was not one of the very finest online multiplayer games.
It's in better shape now, though, as developers Messhof have worked with another programmer to improve its latency and desync issues. The fruit of their labour, a new patch, is now out.
]]>Every month, we dispatch Brendan to some of gaming’s best blowouts to schmooze and play games with the partygoers. In part four, some lessons for holding your own shindig.
We’ve been covering a lot of party games at different events over the past few months but what if you don’t want to go out? Let’s say you prefer to sit in your cosy house and have pals over instead. Picture the scene. You’re sipping on a spicy bourbon next to a nice warm fire with a few special friends, enjoying the flow of easy-going conversation and, wait, now that you think about it, you don’t have a fireplace. FIRE. FIRE. SOMEBODY PUT OUT THE FIRE. See, it’s not so easy, is it?
What you want is some sort of RPS guide to party-making, based on our own recent experience. So here you go: how to host your own party without suffering deadly immolation.
]]>Do you Nidhogg? For years, only a few people could answer yes, but now the one-on-one swordfighting game has found its way into public hands. Adam and Graham have been waving their swords at one another, fighting for the right to be eaten alive by the pink worm of success.
]]>Nidhogg is to swordfighting what Sensible Soccer is to foot-to-ball. It's the International Track & Field of sticking people with pointy objects. It's a two-player multiplayer distillation of a swashbuckling action movie, with every extraneous element burned away until all that's left is a couple of buttons, a few moves and twice the concentration of drama and excitement.
This is Wot I Think.
]]>Take up your blade, ye merest of mortals. Though in truth, it's more of a formality than anything, for I shall pierce your heart before it's even able to flutter in fea- oh, you got me. Aha! But I'm back, and this time I shall deliver a blinding riposte tha- right, my organs. A clever place to strike indeed. But not clever enough, for I shall now throw my sword in the wrong direction and cartwheel intimidatingly away from you. Mind games, you see. Nidhogg is a chess match, friend, and I'm so many moves ahead that you-
Win. You win. Maybe I could stand to become a little better at Nidhogg.
]]>Have you been asleep over the Christmas break, like we have? Then you might have missed 2014's most exciting news: Nidhogg is finally being released on January 13th on Steam.
The 2D swordfighting game has been around for over three years - it won the IGF Nuovo award in 2011 - but you'd be forgiven for not being one of the few lucky enough to have been able to play it so far. Now creator messhof has expanded on it and is ready to let everybody have a go.
Come watch the announcement trailer while I prattle a little about why it's great.
]]>According to my phone's GPS, Google Maps, a quick check of my immigration status (I am currently not being beaten nor threatened), and my own keen observations involving my fridge, I can confirm that I am not in Los Angeles. It means I can't be part of IndieCade 2013's glorious festival of games next month. As a treat, for all those not in that part of the world, they've released the list of games nominated for the award ceremony. It is lonnnnng and full of games. We might not be there in practice, but our spirits can at least get a few drinks in. A few PC highlights are below.
]]>We gave Nidhogg a trophy once. We said, "Nidhogg old friend, you're an absolute joy to play and it sure is great that you'll be coming out eventually and not just surfacing at events in musty, magical arcade machines and letting your delightful flavor briefly linger on our lips before receding back into a fog of uncertainty." But then you never showed up. YOU NEVER CAME TO OUR PIANO RECITALS. NOT EVEN ONCE. Tears have been spilled. Tears that run hotter than blood. I'm not sure if we can ever forgi--
Oh, Nidhogg's coming out later this year? Sweet!
]]>Nidhogg! A game of swords and worms. Nidhogg! A combative, shared-keyboard game for two knights. Nidhogg! A game of death, death and forever more death. Nidhogg! A game Rock, Paper, Shotgun liked so much that we awarded it our first-ever real-life trophy.
]]>You know who my favourite indie dev is? Messhof. You know who doesn't get enough coverage on this site? Messhof. This is NOT GOOD ENOUGH, and it changes NOW. Beneath the jump I've enclosed the latest trailer and some rambling on his upcoming two-player duel simulator, Nidhogg. Don't be fooled by the placid screenshot. Nidhogg looks like it'll be as heavily spirited and almost as brain-buzzingly odd as all of Messhof's stuff.
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