Magicka: Wizard Wars was probably one of my favorite games I got to play at PDXCon 14, and not just because I dominated the competition. Being familiar with the Magicka formula back when the original game came out, it quickly translated into the Wizard Wars gameplay, and I got accustomed to just how the game worked.
One of the newest features of Wizard Wars that we were able to play for the first time there was the new Duel Mode, which the devs stated to be both a competitive and a tutorial mode rolled into one. Competitive because it pits two Wizards against each other each time, and tutorial because it allows you get familiar with the game in an actual battle, albeit only against one person. Also, when you're not fighting, you're overlooking the match, and able to study tactics and spell combos that are happening in the battle arena below.
Each Duel requires a player to get 6 wins in total, and will keep rotating players into the fray after they die. You can hear the frantic tapping of keys on the keyboard, because essentially you have to keep combining spells as fast as you possibly can to send them off on the enemy, or protect and heal yourself.
Check out the clip above to see Duel Mode in action, and me going 6-1. Yeah, I dominated.
