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.
It’s a great game. Frustrating if you take it too seriously, but a fountain of fun. My favourite thing was when you crouch all the way down and stay there, and then start moving from side to side. It just looks so funny. It immediately dissolves the tension of a showdown when one of you curls up into a ball and starts shuffling along like a truffle hog, leaving the opponent unsure how best to proceed.
As you get better at the game it actually becomes a tactic. It really gets in your opponent’s head, seeing the truffle hog sniffing and shuffling along the ground towards them, knowing that at a moment’s notice the truffle hog could unfurl and embed its deadly blade in their gullet.
