Pixel art is ten-a-penny on the indie scene. You need to do something really special to stand out. For most, this takes the form of a particularly impressive or fresh art style, something that, hopefully, audiences haven’t seen before. For Nidhogg, on the other hand, a stripped back style that is arguably integral to the gameplay is more than enough to set it apart as a game where form and function are one and the same.
Nidhogg was officially released on Steam earlier than this month, but has been doing the rounds of various game expos for quite some time. Those that got to play the game invariably praised its strange brilliance, a compelling 1v1 multiplayer experience that ends in the winner being eaten by the titular Nidhogg, a giant pink worm-dragon with its roots in Norse mythology.
A game of Nidhogg is very simple. You and your opponent are both trying to reach the opposite side of the screen, whilst simultaneously trying to hinder the other’s progress. You can only make progress when you have killed your opponent most recently, and to make this task easier you are given a sword to fence with. It may seem like a simple enough task, but the range of opportunities open to you are perhaps beyond what you think the minimalist range of inputs summing up to movement, jump and attack might put on offer.
Key to your success in Nidhogg is being able to predict what your opponent is going to do. A thrown sword can be decisive in certain situations, but leaves you rather defenseless should you not properly consider your options. Similarly, when fencing in close quarters, you are able to adjust your attacks to hit high, low or in your opponent’s mid-section. Should you be able to bring your blade down or from above and make contact with your opponent’s blade, then you can disarm them. This, however, takes a great deal of precision and excellent timing—and it’s because of the particular aesthetic that developer Mark Essen selected that the gameplay can be as crisp as it is.
Nidhogg is clearly borne of the fighting game scene, taking familiar elements of the most high-level competition and condensing them down to their most potent form. To compete at the highest level in fighting game tournaments, players have to learn their craft by going to extraordinary lengths. Knowing which particular frames of an animation that a player can take damage on, for instance, is imperative to the sort of precision of movement and attack that can mean the difference between a win and a loss. In a game with the visual pomp of something like Street Fighter IV or Marvel vs. Capcom 3, this can be a quite herculean effort. However, the comparatively restrained visuals of Nidhogg mean that players don’t have to have done this sort of homework before playing to be able to compete; the same technique that fighting game players have used to get ahead has been boiled down and baked into the game itself.
As you can see above, repositioning your sword is a very definite movement, which is crucial to making parrying a decisive bit of gameplay. You either disarm your opponent, or you don’t. However, whilst the aesthetics of the game are often tied directly to gameplay systems, Nidhogg isn’t without the odd graphical flourish.
The most well-known, and probably the best level in the game is the Castle. The centre point of the stage is marked by a huge swaying chandelier. Whilst this is completely appropriate for the grand setting of this stage, it’s also an apt visual metaphor for the balance of power swinging from left to right as either player makes progress. Nidhogg is a game of refined core mechanics, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the very feeling of playing is reflected in your surroundings. Clearly as the game was refined year after year before its coming-out party on Steam, there was plenty of time to reflect on what was at the game’s core, and it’s been weaved in to every fibre of the finished product.
Combined with some of the flights of fancy in the design of Nidhogg—the finale to each match, a lap of honour in front of a rapturous audience before the victor’s journey into the maw of the Nidhogg itself being one such example—there is a real sense of atmosphere and personality to the setting. It’s dark, and it’s foreboding, despite the simple graphics. Your player character has some real personality despite being flat orange or yellow, and it’s all because of the animation. With the level of control over how your player moves, it’s possible to emote using only your stock actions to communicate with an opponent. For instance, when I was first learning how to play, an opponent took me under their wing to learn some of the finer points of attacking and defending. The only way that they could communicate this to me was remaining still as I respawned and cocking their sword so as to invite me to spar with them.
As we stood sparring in one area it soon became awash with a mixture of orange and yellow blood. The prolific bloodletting in Nidhogg certainly lends a sense of brutality to proceedings, but it’s not just there for that effect. As your blood endures, it’s a good measure of the various ‘hot-zones’ of the level, allowing you to see which areas are particularly dangerous for you, or which ones your opponent seems predisposed to slip up in. Needless to say, it’s also an elegant way of engaging the player with their setting, allowing them to interact with their surroundings, even if it’s rather superficial, and documenting the way that this particular bout has played out so far.
Nidhogg is a shining example of aesthetics and gameplay running completely parallel to one another; perhaps simplistic on the surface, but upon closer inspection having a great deal of depth. The way that visuals and gameplay are so tightly intertwined in this game could perhaps only have come about as a result of its extended and rather unique development time—and it is quite a sight to see as a result.
