A rental at my local video store that I just couldn't stop playing. Once I figured out it was a puzzle game anyway. I've been a big fan of solving puzzles in games and I'm a big fan of platformers. Put the two together and you get The Lost Vikings. It has silly dialog between the three characters and an ever changing amount of levels. Seriously, it seemed like every time I turned the game on I could be anywhere. Underwater, in ancient prehistoria, or outer space. Then you'd get really weird candy factory levels too. The gameplay is what attracts me to it, but the storyline is actually humorous enough to keep me paying some attention to it. Your three vikings are just hanging out being vikings when suddenly aliens abduct them. Lost Vikings escape. They bumble their way into a time machine and well, the adventure begins. That is really the plot of the game.
GAMEPLAY
Lost Vikings lets you switch between three viking warriors. Eric the swift, who can run and jump, also rushing in headfirst to break walls. Olaf the stout, who has a shield that blocks enemy attacks that also lets him glide, and Baleog the fierce who attacks with an arrow or his sword. The three of them bicker back and fourth at the start and end of each level. What makes the gameplay so solid is how each of their abilities is used to solve the puzzles, often making you switch between them and combine their abilities. Like having you move the shield above Olafs head so Eric can jump on it. And don't even get me started on all the switches being flipped. Maybe I'm old fashioned, well obviously, but a good amount of flip switch puzzles always makes me happy. I can solve those. And that feeling of "Oh that's how you do it." when you finally figure out how to maneuver your vikings through the level is wonderful. Also wonderful is watching them die horrible deaths. Some of which are particularly jarring like falling a few hundred feet and just splattering. My favorite though is when you just die from regular wounds, your hero turns to bones nad falls to pieces. Keeping their facial hair and helmets.
Lost Vikings had one sequel, Lost Vikings 2. Upgraded gameplay by making each of the Vikings into half robots. Even cooler than that, and slight spoilers even though they're both on the box: You can get two extra friends, a werewolf and a dragon, who switch up with the regular vikings depending on the level your on. Interestingly about the sequel, is the 3D version available for the playstation and saturn. It was renamed Norse by Norsewest and has this cute 3D But that's an article for another time. It seems like Blizzard (or silicon & synapse) hasn't forgotten about their vikings. They appear in World of Warcraft as a mob. Over in Rock N Roll Racing Olaf is a playable character. I'd hoped for an announcement of a new game a few years ago when a GBA port of Lost Vikings came out, but seems like the vikings are lost except for these cameo appearances. It's a shame really. I used to love renting this game and then when I finally got my own copies, I played them to death. I'm going to recommend the super nintendo version if only because you can easily switch with the L and R buttons between your heroes.
I played it on the Sega Channel, but I was too stupid and impatient to spend alot of time with the game. I had a good laugh when I first ran into the Lost Vikings in World of Warcraft, as a member of the Alliance they were friendly towards me and offered a quest. I think that they were hostile toward the Horde though
Yep, still have my SNES cart of this lying around someplace - while the game itself was cool, the main thing that makes it notable to me is that it's the only game (aside from Zelda: OoT) that my dad has EVER felt compelled to play to any notable extent. I don't think he or I ever completely finished it, but we did get a ways in.
Nope, I missed out on this one, unfortunately. I always remember confusing this game with Three Dirty Dwarfs, which, I only had a demo disc of on the Saturn.
This still looks pretty good tho, and reminds me a tiny bit of Braid. I'll have to see if this is around anywhere here for Genesis.
Hands down one of the sweetest puzzle/platformers around! My crew and I throw it in the old SNES every once in a while, for a good challenge or two, lol.
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press living the dream since March 16, 2006
randombullseye's blog
follow this blog
subscribe via RSS
send message
invite to meetup+play
Lost Vikings is awesome. If I didn't have a bunch of shit to do today, I'd totally pop it in (I have it on snes thoguh =\) -_-
I played it on the Sega Channel, but I was too stupid and impatient to spend alot of time with the game. I had a good laugh when I first ran into the Lost Vikings in World of Warcraft, as a member of the Alliance they were friendly towards me and offered a quest. I think that they were hostile toward the Horde though
CAPTAIN, WE HAVE A NOSTALGIABOMB INBOUND, DO WE INTERCEPT?
I used to play this game all of the time! I love it.
Yep, still have my SNES cart of this lying around someplace - while the game itself was cool, the main thing that makes it notable to me is that it's the only game (aside from Zelda: OoT) that my dad has EVER felt compelled to play to any notable extent. I don't think he or I ever completely finished it, but we did get a ways in.
Good ole Interplay.
Nope, I missed out on this one, unfortunately. I always remember confusing this game with Three Dirty Dwarfs, which, I only had a demo disc of on the Saturn.
This still looks pretty good tho, and reminds me a tiny bit of Braid. I'll have to see if this is around anywhere here for Genesis.
Oh hell yes I played Lost Vikings. I was a big fan of Blizzard before I even knew they were Bizzard. LOL
Hands down one of the sweetest puzzle/platformers around! My crew and I throw it in the old SNES every once in a while, for a good challenge or two, lol.