Nif Nif takes inspiration from Slay The Spire, but creates a more child friendly, bright, wholesome deck-building game about cleaning up filthy animals.
There are a few playable animals to pick from, but Nif Nif‘s art centers around a cute little pig. Each of the different animals have their own decks, cards that can be unlocked, and ways of play depending on your preference.
The game itself is quite simple at a glance. There is a map showing you some areas you can choose to go next. At most of these levels, an animal will appear who’s covered in nasty ooze. This goop has made them hostile, lashing out at you even though you are trying to help. You’ll need to use your cards to clean off these animals while keeping yourself pristine despite all of the mess flying around from attacks.
Playing cards often costs energy (although there are a handful that don’t) with each card having its own ability. Some have you cleaning the other animal, others have you increasing your shield by cleaning yourself, and some are food-related cards that allow you to increase your strength or draw more cards to see if you can use it. If you successfully clean an animal, you often get to pick a card to add to your deck. There are ways to remove cards (as soon, you’ll end up with more cards than you need), but this is done through going to mysterious encounters or choosing the burn option at camps. The balance of trying to keep cards you want but not having your deck too big is a large part of the game, as it’s easy to just gain loads of cards.
There are a variety of different encounters, including talking to other characters about the goo in the forest, that can result in more cards. Your health itself doesn’t refresh at the end of levels, however you can be gifted soup and create soup at campfires which can increase your health. Nif Nif is a run-based game, so you will need to keep your energy topped up to last through the entire run.
Nif Nif feels like such a fun game where you are just trying to clean up animals. I was able to play the demo at Gamescom this year where I really fell in love with the characters. There are also different hats and skins you can unlock for further bonuses, lots of different characters and levels, and clearly a lot of heart put into this game.
Nif Nif is currently in development, but in the meantime, you can support its development on Kickstarter of add it to your Steam Wishlist.
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