Dojo Masters Is The Nidhogg Meets Street Fighter

Summary

• Dojo Masters is an incredible, fast, and fun fighting game with unique martial arts-based fighting styles for each character.
• Rounds don't function like in most fighting games - the match ends when a player knocks out their opponent when they're out of energy.
• The game has great potential for multiplayer, but the community is small - additional fighters and stages are already available through mods.

I love fighting games. I might be absolutely terrible at them on any sort of tournament level and I might play them solo far more than any human should, but they continue to be one of my favorite genres. I also love goofy indie games. I’m a sucker for a cheap game that looks like it’s taking a big swing. Weirdly, that’s worked out pretty well for me… sometimes. It’s both how I discovered one of my favorite horror games of last year but also how I ended up spending money on a game where I click on a horse. My idiocy giveth and my idiocy taketh away.

Recently, I was looking for a new game to fill the hole in my heart where friendships and accomplishments should be. I already had a lot of big games on my plate to finish, so I wanted something small that could fill in some breaks while I’m working. A game that took just a few minutes for a session. And since I’d been playing a lot of SNK vs. Capcom (alone) and Mortal Kombat 1 (even more alone), Steam figured that’s probably all I wanted to play. The algorithm, in all its wisdom, recommended Dojo Masters.

Do You Care About Fighting Game Balance?

Considering that the most beloved fighting games ever made have questionable balance, is balance really that important?

And thank God it did, because Dojo Masters is incredible. It’s one of the most interesting, fast, and fun fighting games I’ve played in years. It’s the Nidhogg of fighting games; a smooth, subtle game of one-on-combat hidden behind stylistic chunky pixel art. Wait, is Nidhogg itself considered a fighting game? If so, Dojo Masters is the new Nidhogg of fighting games, both in style and substance. This is good. This is very good.

So! Dojo Masters is a fighting game in which you play one of six characters and can only use two buttons outside of movement. I know, I know. Stick with me here. Each of the six characters have their own unique fighting style based on actual martial arts. Unlike most fighting games, these moves aren’t really exaggerated. There are no fireballs or spinning kicks or super combos.

Each character actually fights like their real life martial art, with some being far harder than the others. The boxer is super easy to pick up; you just sneak punches in where you can. The grappling wrestler is way more difficult, requiring you to wait to be attacked in order to properly counter with perfect timing. Despite the simple controls, button mashing will barely get you past a couple rounds. The two buttons become an advantage because they limit your options and increase your focus on the simple moves at hand.

Oh, speaking of which! Rounds don’t function like they do in most fighting games. Any time a character is knocked down, the round ends and a new round begins. But this isn’t a two-out-of-three situation. There can be five rounds. Six. Seven. Or even just one. You only win the match when you knock someone down while they’re out of energy (represented by a series of bars at the bottom of the screen). This can take forever or you can find yourself stunned to have been destroyed in under five seconds. Again, fans of Nidhogg or even Bushido Blade will feel right at home here.

And while the graphics are designed to evoke an older era, the animation of the characters is as smooth as butter. I can only compare the look to that of Karateka or the original Prince of Persia. Because characters and their moves in the game aren’t elevated to the level of super powers, these animations feel realistic. There’s more Karate Kid here than there is Dragon Ball.

Characters have one or two ‘special moves’, but these themselves are just slightly more powerful attacks, like when one fighter charges a punch and hits very hard. As in more mainstream fighting games, these attacks leave an opening for counters. Also, there’s no jumping, which takes a second to adjust to. As someone who stupidly starts most fighting game matches with a jump kick, I was lost for five minutes.

What about the characters themselves? Empty vessels! As far as I can tell, there’s no backstory you need to worry about. In fact, when you pick someone, there’s actually a simple character creator that lets you change how your fighter looks and what colors they’re wearing. It ain’t Dragon’s Dogma 2, but it is nice to be able to customize the look of a character with no narrative baggage weighing them down. It’s neat. It’s simple. It’s pure.

Maybe that’s what I’m loving so much about this game. To quote Alien, “I admire its purity. A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.” Dojo Masters is just Dojo Masters. It only wants to be Dojo Masters. It feels like nothing else I’ve played in a long while, and matches usually play out so quickly that it carries a ‘just one more turn’ quality. There aren’t any continues in arcade mode, so once you die, you’re done. Trust me when I say it’ll just make you want to do another run.

On the downside, this game just came out and the community is small. Of the five or six times I tried to play online, I only got one game off the ground. The rest of the tries were just spent waiting until I gave up. That said, this is more the type of game you play at parties as people scream at the top of their lungs because a match ended when they suddenly got kneed in the chest by the kick fighter. Even when you’re about to lose, you can turn it into a win within seconds. I just wish it were a little easier to play against literally anyone else - and that’s me talking.

Another reason I’d love multiplayer to take off? Because there’s a four-player mode that seems to only allow human users. If I’m wrong, please email me, because I’d love nothing more than to take on three bots at once. If I’m not wrong, please add it so I can take on three bots at once. I want it. I want it so bad. But, for now, I’m stuck with two fighters.

The great news is that Dojo Masters just came out, and there are already a few mods that let you add new fighters and stages. Hopefully, if the community takes off, we can get even more. That’s part of why I’m writing this: I want that community to take off. I want Dojo Masters to become a party game everyone’s playing. It’s very possible there are a thousand fighting games just like this one I haven’t played. Which is wonderful. I’m happy for those games. But I’m going to be coming back to Dojo Masters again and again until one of you a-holes starts playing against me. And then, when I lose horribly, I’ll never touch it again.

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