By Quintin Smith on August 4th, 2010 at 9:57 pm.
You know who my favourite indie dev is? Messhof. You know who doesn’t get enough coverage on this site? Messhof. This is NOT GOOD ENOUGH, and it changes NOW. Beneath the jump I’ve enclosed the latest trailer and some rambling on his upcoming two-player duel simulator, Nidhogg. Don’t be fooled by the placid screenshot. Nidhogg looks like it’ll be as heavily spirited and almost as brain-buzzingly odd as all of Messhof’s stuff.
Nidhogg’s closest relative in Messhof’s existing stable is probably Cowboyana, his two-player cowboy “simulator” that includes a whiskey-pouring minigame with both players controlling the bottle, frequent reversals of the controls and levels interspersed with randomly generated cowboy poetry. If you’ve yet to play it and have a flatmate or sibling to join you, you’ve no time to waste.
The only reason I say Nidhogg’s probably going to be similar is that it also seems to be a competetive 2D affair. I haven’t played it, so if you just watch the trailer below you’ll know as much as me (and hopefully you’ll be as giddy, too). It seems to involve two players each trying to race in a different direction, with the only obstacle to that being how quickly the other player respawns. There also seems to be a flying snake involved. I’m not sure.
Excellently, Messhof’s being given some amount of money to put this together. Along with Cactus, Messhof’s becoming a bit of a name on the trippy-indie-games circuit, and Nidhogg was commissioned by the New York University Game Centre. He certainly seems to be taking his time with it.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve just noticed the absurd wealth of games on Cactus’ site that I’ve never heard of, let alone played. To work!
04/08/2010 at 22:29 Web Cole says:
That looks soooooooo cool :D
04/08/2010 at 22:35 Quintin Smith says:
Doesn’t it though?
04/08/2010 at 22:40 Nova says:
Yeah it does and the combat seems more varied then it first looked.
04/08/2010 at 22:50 Quintin Smith says:
I’m a bit partial to the slide-to-pick-up-sword at 1:56.
04/08/2010 at 23:38 dartt says:
I do so hope you can swing from that chandelier.
05/08/2010 at 00:09 DarkNoghri says:
Heh. I was just thinking that slide move was my favorite when I start reading the comments, and BAM.
05/08/2010 at 08:00 JB says:
I was just going to post that the section 1:54 to 2:00 was awesome when I saw the above. But it was so awesome it bears repeating. So there.
05/08/2010 at 09:52 Pmeie says:
yeah! it’s awesome
04/08/2010 at 22:40 Coded One says:
I have some excellent memories of me and a good friend playing Cowboyana. Can’t wait to try out Nidhogg.
04/08/2010 at 22:42 mlaskus says:
This looks incredible, any idea when will it be released?
04/08/2010 at 23:17 Dominic White says:
Messhof is from a bizarre parallel world where Nintendo never rose to power, and the world remained enamored with the Atari 2600. All games evolved from that point.
Cactus is from there as well. They are both ace.
04/08/2010 at 23:46 Alexander Norris says:
Okay, that does actually look pretty damn good.
I have one burning question, though: why is there a DEATH WORM in the intro?
05/08/2010 at 00:02 Dominic White says:
That would likely be Nidhogg, the Midgard Serpent.
Norse mythology is fucking awesome.
05/08/2010 at 00:04 Dominic White says:
Blargh – mythology fail.. Jormagund was the Midgard Serpent. Nidhogg was the great worm/wyrm that lived in the roots of Yggdrasil, the World-Tree.
05/08/2010 at 15:42 Jayt says:
You probably could have gotten away with that slip anywho.
04/08/2010 at 23:47 Vitamin Powered says:
I really miss the music that they had with the trailer found here:
http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2010/04/trailer_nidhogg_mark_essen.html
It is also seems to be referred to as “Raging Hadron” in some areas.
05/08/2010 at 00:05 Virtureal says:
Nidhogg is a dragon from norse mythology, so is Jormungand which is the giant sea serpent in the intro.
05/08/2010 at 00:17 CG says:
This looks truly inspired.
05/08/2010 at 00:19 PleasingFungus says:
I want to play this game.
05/08/2010 at 00:34 stevehatesyou says:
This looks very interesting. I miss the “Raging Hadron” title, though.
05/08/2010 at 01:00 pkt-zer0 says:
I’d prefer if the backgrounds were less eye-searingly hideous. The game itself looks interesting, at any rate.
05/08/2010 at 02:33 MD says:
Man, this looks amazing. I’m surprised I’d never heard of this guy; thanks for putting that right!
05/08/2010 at 08:00 Joe Martin says:
I played this at an Intel art exhibition a few weeks ago. Mightily addictive and fun, especially when you’ve been on the free wine.
05/08/2010 at 10:59 Antlia says:
If you browse Messhof’s site, be very, very cautious. “Party boat” may cause narcotic symptoms and potentially paralyze you in front of your computer screen. And the worst thing is that its free and therefore unlimited…
05/08/2010 at 14:09 manveruppd says:
Man, that looks like the original Prince of Persia on steroids!
05/08/2010 at 23:23 Scandalon says:
PoP was more fluid, it reminded me more of the original Pirates! (I hope I can choose rapier, sabre, or cutlass…)
06/08/2010 at 13:32 Rane2k says:
This looks interesting, but the yellow player is clearly overpowered. :-)
07/08/2010 at 03:22 BeamSplashX says:
The stigma of being disarmed is taken away when it lets you perform badass rearming maneuvers.