A demo code was provided with many thanks to JFGames PR.
The deck-building roguelike is enjoying another year as the Indie Niche Most Likely to Succeed, with its grandiose ancestor Slay the Spire still guiding fledgling games on the art of matching balance with frustration to result in victory. Similar to Souls-style ARPGs, the tactical difficulty of a roguelike is the point — but it’s easy to overshoot your goal and wind up with a game that also doubles as mild cardio exercise.
Nif Nif, which has given out a hefty demo as a proof of concept for its fledgling Kickstarter, is looking to take the card-building niche down a different path. Instead of grim and gritty worlds where the iconography of death is key to the aesthetic, our hero instead looks up to gentler heroes like Babe and Wilbur. All this princely porker wants to do is stay clean and help his friends out of the muck, travelling his way down familiar forking paths to collect more gently weaponized wet wipes and pet showers to put in his deck of cards. It’s a cute twist, and it’s key to this game’s family-friendly style.
Nif Nif Waters Down the Genre In a Nice Way
The demo for Nif Nif offers two protagonists to try out, and they’re both early prototypes looking to guide players towards a particular style of play. Nif Nif’s motif is straightforward and currently feels built towards the protective tank style. This fine pig gets lots of cheap defense, and some pretty chunky single-target cards, befitting the sturdy nature of a well-cared-for lad.
Your other protagonist is an adorable orange kitty, and if you think that’s your rogue type, man, you’re good. You’ve played these before, too? Anyway, the point is that the kitty gets a chance at adding 0 cost attacks or reusable swipes to its roster at the expense of fewer options for defense. It’s the classic higher risk-higher reward system, and it’s intuitive to build a deck around it.
There’s also already a system in place to add item boosts to your inventory, and there are helpful cosmetics to choose from at the start of a run, which will be unlocked in a variety of ways. Each one gives your chosen character a small but helpful boost and makes them look even cuter. You know you want to watch an orange cat in a Viking hat slap its way through the dirty fields.
Currently, the balance is tuned to a level far easier than most deck builders, probably on par with a relaxed run on Moonstone Island. You’ll still need to keep an eye on your strategy, and the final boss encounter still packs a punch. But true to the game’s aesthetic, a loss just means you hightail it outta there to try again later. No big deal, and with what you’ve learned, the next run is even easier. I beat a run on my second try, and it didn’t feel cheap at all. It was just… genuinely nice.
I’m interested in seeing what future archetypes are in mind for the game! I expect there’ll probably be some reliance on cozy tropes, meaning the third character is likely to be magical in nature, but who knows? I’m hoping for a farmhand-style crow, honestly, just a real trinket-stealer with some silly and cawful puns.
Nif Nif is Banking On An Adorable Aesthetic
Designed to be approachable and family-friendly from the ground up, Nif Nif adopts a chalky, chunky storybook aesthetic that allows for some funny story gags on the level of Sesame Street’s pop culture takes meant for Mom and Dad to enjoy (it may be 2024, but the Matrix encounter still gave me a smile) and a lot of expressive cartoonishness.
Right now, the dialogue and storywriting are workmanlike and even a little flat in places, but as a vertical slice-style demo, I’m still impressed with the flow and tone coming through. It’s not a game where you’re suddenly going to find spicy jokes, but you might find some characters getting a warm hug. Does it need a subplot fueled by the poetic, nihilistic literacy of Cormac McCarthy? No, Shel Silverstein and Maurice Sendak at their chillest is just fine for a game like this one.
It also seems like it’s already prepared to be a game passed around the family, with three separate accounts built in to choose from. That’s where a couple of early technical notes come in, but honestly, this demo is a winner so far.
Nif Nif Runs Smooth — But Deck Owners, Be Prepared
It’s always terrific to find an early access game or demo that’s polished and ready right out the gate, and overall, Nif Nif sticks that landing. That said, right now, the game’s page says it’s controller-ready, and that may well be true for pluggable controllers. On a Steam Deck, however, there’s a wrinkle.
(As ever, I note that I expect wrinkles in early release, but I feel it’s still important to mention them.)
It’s an interesting wrinkle! I fumbled a little while trying to get my inputs to work, and I did successfully use the Steam – X button to select and name a profile with the pop-up keyboard. But this is where I found out that the touch screen actually works perfectly for this game. Even better, touch controls are intuitive, if possibly a little sluggish. But with a thoughtful, turn-based game like this, that’s frankly zero issues right now.
Final Thoughts
Nif Nif looks like it could have a great future as an entry level deck builder, a game more experienced players can share with the kids or new players in their lives. While it’s not pushing innovation in the genre, its soft, colorful aesthetic and light approach to a losing run makes for a cozy landing for players that don’t have the tenacity for the you’ve-run-into-a-concrete-wall relentlessness of the niche’s better known games.
The early demo shows a ton of promise and polish, giving those interested in checking out its Kickstarter a clear look at what Springfox has in mind for it down the road. For a new publisher, that’s a valuable card to have in your pocket.
For new players, while I can understand the hesitation in backing an unknown game, this is definitely one to keep an eye on. For seasoned deckbuilding roguelike players looking for more, believe me, you want your niche to have welcoming, enjoyable entry points so you can keep your community thriving. Nif Nif is well on its way to being the sweatervest-wearing greeter the genre needs, and I wholly recommend giving it a test drive if and when you can.
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