A special version of Nidhogg II was made with its own cabinet and I decided to give it a try. It’s fun but prepared to get fucking pissed off real quick.

I never played the first Nidhogg but from what I gather it was a type of dueling territory control game with a graphical style not unlike what you would see on an Atari system. Nidhogg II went for a more grotesque, 90s monster cartoon vibe and I think it fits. If everything looks fucking ugly, it feels better to beat the shit out of them.

Nidhogg II pits two players in a territory control game where both players start in the middle of a long horizontal map that is split into 6 screens — 3 on each side. The screens transition just like an old platforming game, but it serves to signify how far you are in taking the game. In order to be able to claim territory, you must kill your opponent so you can earn the right to do so. It will be signified by an arrow telling to run either to the left or the right. A few seconds later, your opponent will respawn (mostly) in front of you so they’ll have a chance to kill you and reverse the process. It’s a constant back and forth, and it’s fun when you get into it.

I’ve experienced this first hand but I have also seen people feel the same way about this game. It’s fun but the rage factor can snowball really hard. One fuck up and you’re set back, and it’s easy to let that get in your head and you’ll start playing worse and fuck up even more. Shit’s crazy.

There are a few strategies I’ve seen involving this game, and I think the most helpful one is to realize that you don’t have to constantly “rematch” your opponent. If you can somehow bypass them when they respawn (good luck) by just avoiding them through jumps or fancy dodging, you can just run ahead while they chase you. Of course, your opponent can throw a weapon or run away from you to force themselves to respawn (if you leave the screen it counts as if you died.)

As for weapons, there is the sword, the bigger sword, a dagger, and a bow & arrow.

The sword is how it was in the original Nidhogg. It has three stances — high, mid, and low, and you can thrust in all three of these positions. Nothing fancy here.

The bigger sword only has a high and low stance, and it also has the longest range out of all the melee weapons. The sheer size of it also means you can disarm any weapon from your opponent if you hit their weapon with a swing. It also has an advantage of swinging in an upward/downward arc, which can help when you end up in a situation where you or your opponent has the “high ground.”

The dagger is like the sword, but shorter range. It is noticeable a lot quicker and you can pull off running stabs without having your character stop. You can also change stance a lot quicker than the sword.

The bow & arrow is a unique ranged weapon where you must press the attack button to load an arrow, then press it again to release it. Arrows can be reflected back at you so take care to pay attention. You can also aim in the normal three stances, and can shoot in the air provided you have an arrow loaded before jumping.

Ignoring the bow & arrow, the other weapons (and technically the bow & arrow if you don’t have an arrow loaded) all have the same universal moves: a jumping kick, a crouching sweep that knocks down the opponent if you attack while crouching down, and a roll that slows you down a bit if you crouch while running. This roll can easily have you pick up a weapon if you are unarmed without coming into a complete stop.

When it comes to weapon interactions, the sword by itself doesn’t really shine against any other weapon, but that also means it’s not weak against any weapon. Jack of all trades, if you will. The bigger sword can outshine the dagger due to range, but falls to the bow as you have range vs infinite range the bow provides. On the other hand, the bow falls to the dagger because it’s very easy to reflect arrows back at the opponent due to how quickly the dagger can change stances. With that, there’s your triangle. Dagger beats bow, bow beat big sword, and big sword beats dagger. The normal sword is neutral to all.

Also, the sword and dagger have an active hitbox by just being out and standing there, so if you run into people who love jump kicking over you or as an approach, just stand there with the sword/dagger out and they’ll kill themselves easily. If they jump over you, just turn around and you’ll catch them.