I've been a slacker lately, but I suddenly had an epiphany regarding my personal feature. That being, I don't necessarily have to pull from semi-current games. I can do what I want, especially considering the recent wave of revamped series. Here's some Great Ones who make their game what it is, and deserve to be brought back as more than an in-joke in WoW.

The Lost Vikings
Just about every "classic" console, and the GBA to boot.


Part of what made Lost Vikings so compelling was the three-character setup; you had sway over all three Nordic madmen, each with their own moves, and used their talents in turn and tandem to complete the levels. If you lost one of them, don't expect to be beating the level.

For starters, you have the unofficial leader, Erik the Swift, who was the only jumper, moved faster, and could break things when he ran. He's the redhead. Then you've got my favorite, Baelog the Fierce, who had a sword and a bow, and was your personal Swedish Murder Machine and distance switch-hitter. The sword was more fun, but the bow had pretty infinite range, so that was essentially that. He'd be the super ugly one on the far left. Lastly there's Olaf the Stout, whose shield made him invulnerable from one direction at a time and capable of gliding. By process of elimination, he the fat one on the right.

It was a brutally hard action/puzzle/platformer game, with a lot of character stemming from the dialogue between the Vikings at the start and end of levels. It also remains pretty much my only hardcore gamer claim to fame that I've beaten this game.

There was also a sequel:


It was a good romp, and added new abilities and powers, but never really felt as... incredible as the original. Still, worth playing when you can find it.

In the mean time, I'm pulling for a VC release, or in a kind and just universe, a revival. Unfortunately, Blizzard is now Microsoft's dancing pony and too busy raking in those sweet WoW dollars to bother with this franchise. In my mind, however, these three will always be among the Great Ones.