Review: NidHogg

Nidhogg is the epic award-winning fencing tug-of-war, full of graceful acrobatics and clumsy stabs. IRL yelling and excitement may occur, in this ultimate two-player showdown of fast-paced fencing and melee attacks. Beware, advantages in Nidhogg are often fleeting, as new opponents continually spawn in your way.

Pros:

• Minimalist graphics that dont over complicate the assignment. Less is more in this case.
• Tutorial section where you can basically go in and practice your moves, See how the game plays and generally brush up on your technique.
• Options allow you to re bind the keys and test them out there and then.
• Full controller support.
• Pumping soundtrack.
• Has Steam Achievements/Cloud saving.
• Game has 5 game modes:

-Single Player, Face off against increasingly difficult AI

-Single Player Tournament

-Offline multiplayer

-Online Multiplayer

Offline variants which is offline mp but with new options like no swords,no gravity etc.

• Handful of well designed levels and back drops.
• Runs silky smooth at 60fps and is not very system intensive.
• Offline variant gameplay is where you make your money back. Epic fun to be had.
• Fast frantic gameplay that does nothing but test your nerve,reward you and destroy you, All in one sitting!
• Gameplay is very much a tug of war affair. Slain your opponent and try and get to the next screen is your goal. Your opponent respawns quickly so speed is crucial. Your opponent is trying to do the same to you.
• Its so much fun to play and so accessible to all types of player. It has so many levels to the game design that you never feel like the game is repetitive.
• Climb up walls to further expand the playing arena.
• Fencing works very much like you press up and down quickly to counter your opponents move, Do it quickly enough and you disarm them.
• Despite its simplistic approach to graphics, You can curb stomp, rip off players heads and disembowel your opponent. Having your opponent stuck on your sword as you wiggle it up and down is a particular highlight.

Cons:

• Single player is very very short. You can fire through all your opponents within half an hour. This isnt and will never be the core of the game. But if your a lone wolf kind of gamer then you will be dissapointed by the length of single player.
• Video settings consist of just gamma and fullscreen. No v-sync,resolution AA etc.
• Online is a bit rocky at the moment, Frequent disconnects, Laggy gameplay and long loading times. It is still early days but worth noting none the less.
• Occasional screen tearing but nothing major.
• The AI can be quite cheap in a few instances and it can feel really unfair. Easily avoided with skill but still.

In Summary, This is Peggle with swords in a way, Its so easy to pick up and play, Time flies by as you find yourself getting sucked into the world of fencing. Its game where when your playing it your happy and when your not, You are thinking about it. It works on so many levels and the variants do nothing but ramp the fun up. For a gamer who has the ability to host offline matches, The game is tailored to your every need. The online once stable will be just as good but the variants really add spice. I want to say that if you plan on playing this solo all the time with no online then it may not suit you due to the shortness of the single player, But I just cannot do it. The game is brilliant and so much fun that every gamer owes it to them selves to not only play it, But master it! All I ask for now is for this game to be ported to other devices, Namely the Vita and 3DS.