Nidhogg

Um, we are going to be talking about that for the lion's share of this episode, but I was telling Chase that I have taken a quick little side step away from all the heavy hitters I've been playing this month for a game that we covered on our preview of August, called Blood Dungeon.

This is from the Nidhogg developers, Messhof.

And we were talking about this being a Chase-adjacent video game, and you were giving me a lot of grief about...

Well, wait, wait.

... certainly after we talked about last week when we had our deep dive into games that you played in school, in computer labs and things, that there was definitely a lot of Flash stuff talked about then.

So I can, I can see the comparisons and how they get in there.

Uh, but this game is, is maybe a little bit more interesting than me, interesting to me because it is from Messhof, the Nidhogg people-

Oh, yeah

Yeah

... creator of Nidhogg.

I believe he also created Flywrench, which is a character in Meat Boy.

So people are like, "Oh, okay, so is this gonna be like a Nidhogg-y sword fighting game, or is this gonna be a, a jumping around game, a flying game you, like, uh, Flywrench was?" And in fact, it is sort of all those things and none of those things at once.

What is Blood Dungeon, Ryan?

So Blood Dungeon is a, not a multiplayer game, but it's more of, like, a game where the game auto attacks and shoots for you.

But after a while, after you beat the first boss of any given area, suddenly giant evil birds come that take so much damage to kill.

Eyeballs arrive, and if you get within a sphere of distance from them, they explode instantly.

Everybody should check this out.

This is from mess off, um, who did a Nidhogg.

Okay, dude, this game is like a vampire crawlers side scroller.

It's super, it's bonkers, but it's, it's like it's, It just scratches that vampire crawlers, vampire survivors itch that I've been looking for.

It'll ruin your life." I got...

This, this is from the studio that made Nidhogg, which is one of my favorite games ever.

It is one of the most low-res, weird...

Like, Nidhogg is the most stripped down fighting game.

You could call it that.

It's two little people who have swords and they stab each other, and that's, that's it.

That, and they made Nidhogg 2, which added way more art direction.

This is the same low-res thing as the original Nidhogg.

This crossed my radar initially because it was released on Game Pass, and every now and then I just check to see what's released on Game Pass because sometimes I've actually found some real winners that I wouldn't have even known about, much less paid for, just because they happen to be available for free.

This is the latest release by a designer by the name of Mark Essen, who goes pseudonymously under the name Meshov, who is best known for the 2014 release Nidhogg.

Kaitlyn, have you played Nidhogg?

No, I always wanted to, but my husband and I sometimes struggle with versus games.

So-

I, I didn't have someone to play with and just never got around to, like, trying to bully a friend into playing with me.

Um, but I always wanted to just 'cause it looked silly and fun.

I'm not gonna get into a position where I try to weigh the relative value of Nidhogg versus the health of your marriage, but Nidhogg is amazing.

Wow.

And a ton of people bought the game because it's by Messhof is the, did all the design, and I think all the graphics too, who did Nidhogg, and people have been waiting to see what his next big action game of, of that- ... level of, like, potential hit-making is gonna be, and I think it's this one.

It's, it's pretty incredible.

It is.

And isn't it funny that, w- like, yes, this is the makers of, like, Nidhogg, Nidhogg 2, Flywrench, which I also love.

They also made a game last year called Wheel World, and, like, nobody played it.

[laughs]

These are the guys that made, what was that co-op game?

Nidhogg.

Nidhogg.

This is the Nidhogg people, which if you look at this art style.

It shows in the animation because the animation is really fluid despite the crudeness.

Yeah.

Um, it looks like, you know, this is some kid's fever dream in eighth grade.

Yeah.

No, Messoff previously made Wheel World last time.

They got big from making Nidhogg.

That's the game I'm thinking of.

People are shouting Nidhogg.

Nidhogg came out in 2014.

Nobody has ever heard that word before, Pat.

No one's heard Nidhogg? Correct.

You might have seen Nidhogg before.