64. The Lost Vikings (SNES)
It's no secret that retro Western platformers have a reputation of being questionable at best. Especially those that existed on consoles. Sometimes, gameplay was diluted in an Amiga-to-SNES conversion; but oftentimes these titles were irredeemable from the get-go. One standout among the slovenly masses was The Lost Vikings (1993). This one was an oddity: developed initially and specifically for the SNES hardware by Blizzard (yes, that Blizzard of Diablo fame, though back in '93 they were called Silicon & Synapse), The Lost Vikings not only revolutionized the fledgling "puzzle-platformer" genre but also managed to outperform many of the established Japanese titans.
Comparisons to Lemmings are inevitable. Both
games are predicated on leading not a singular protagonist, but a posse, from entrance to exit. But while Lemmings saw the player utilize a cursor to assign "jobs" to the mindless hordes, The Lost Vikings gives one full control over a trio of heroes. The rub is that the three vikings have entirely separate attributes. Erik the Swift is the only character with jumping abilities, and thus the only one who can immediately clear a hole or spike pit. He can also run, and subsequently bash his head into walls, ideally revealing an item cache or hidden passageway. Said charges can technically damage enemies, though it's a risky maneuver. Baleog the Fierce, as his title suggests, is endowed with offensive attributes. He's equipped both with a sword-range (sword) and long-range weapon (arrows), the latter of which can additionally be used to trip various switches. Olaf the Stout brings the defense. He carries a shield, which will not only block his own mass from most enemy attacks but can also provide refuge for his bros. Said shield has a secondary use; Olaf can lift it above his head and slowly glide down winding vertical shafts otherwise inaccessible to his compatriots.
These poor vikings are indeed "lost" in the literal sense. While chillin' in their village with hot viking mistresses and helmeted babies, they find themselves abducted by an evil alien lord named Tomator (who looks nothing like a tomato). The first few stages see the vikings attempt to escape from Tomator's spaceship. They are initially successful - sort of, as it's soon revealed that home can only be reached by first traversing several distinct worlds connected via "timewarps." It's a fundamentally silly plot, but one that gave the developers an excuse to showcase some wild and weird environments including a historically inaccurate prehistoric landscape, a hostile Ancient Egypt, a high-tech industrial factory, and a trippy fever dream "Candy Land," before looping back to deep space for a titillating climax.
All levels, save for the initial "tutorial" stage, are structured in the same fashion. Erik, Baleog, and Olaf begin clustered together, and must later reunite at a specific exit point. Vikings are not controlled simultaneously, but separately. Switching between each is seamless, with a simple press of the L and R buttons. Each vikings has three hit points of health, and a limited inventory, though items can be shared between vikings standing in close proximity. Vikings not controlled by the player are simply left standing (or, falling or bouncing) wherever they are abandoned -- either on or off-screen.
The "flow" of the game is perhaps best illustrated by providing concrete examples. The first cluster of outer space stages are simple enough. Use Erik to leap for the occasional key, Baleog is on alien-slaying duty, while Olaf provides the otf-needed cover. There are elevators to descend and anti-gravitational chambers (with insta-death lasers on the ceiling) to contend with -- both pretty self-explanatory. Come prehistory and things are kicked up a notch. The Lost Vikings is brilliant in how it slowly and subtly introduces the player to new gimmicks. There's never any hand-holding, but the game will drop a simple block of text periodically to keep us viking-wranglers up to date. So, a prehistoric stage can see Olaf block a fire-breathing dinosaur maw with his shield while Erik snags a key -- but then Erik can't continue because a duo of long-haired mammals are attempting to steamroll his scrawny behind, so we'll have Baleog steady himself to slay them, but Olaf could be useful here for his blocking abilities, but first we must delicately remove him from fire-blocking duty without getting singed, and then oh no the mammals are continually pushing Olaf towards lava while he blocks, so we gotta switch between having Baleog attack and Olaf move forward a few steps at a time to avoid getting tossed to his doom.
The aforementioned example encapsulates only about thirty seconds of gameplay, by the way. The Lost Vikings is truly an ingenious blend of puzzle and platforming elements (hence the genre tag) -- gray matter is just as essential here as twitchy fingers. The game steadfastly refuses to get stale by ramping up complexity (and sometimes downright insanity) in each sequential stage. Ancient Egypt brings forth climbable tree puzzles, godforsaken jumping enemies, and a downright nasty Tetris tribute where Erik must weave and dodge falling blocks. Factory segments make use of gadgets, magnets, and springs and trampolines that lend jumping abilities to the otherwise grounded duo of Baleog and Olaf. "Candy Land" is where many players will be tapping out for a break, featuring some truly analytical traps and puzzles. As for that last cluster of space stages, consider it a final exam, the culmination of all previously-acquired viking skills. It gets tough here, folks.
And while The Lost Vikings makes no bones about beating the player into submission, it's also strangely forgiving. In short, it features the same sort of life and continue system as Lemmings. Which is to say, there are no lives and continues. Get boned? Oh well, try again. Need a break? Every single stage has a password, each one being vowelless, four characters, and a reference to the environment in question. So, for instance, that stage with the all the bubbles? The password is BBLS. The one with the trampolines: H0PP. You won't even need to write these down. One strange quirk about The Lost Vikings is that, while all three characters are required to reach the exit to finish out a level, if one or two expires along the way the stage can still be explored but not
beaten. It's not quite understood why this is allowed -- perhaps to give the player a chance to explore and learn from his or her mistakes. In any event, there's also a "suicide" option to immediately restart a given stage.
Punctuating the excellent gameplay is a quirky sense of style. All three vikings are cornballs. They joke, rib, jab, and mock. This even breaks the fourth wall occasionally: lose too many times, prepare to be insulted. Each member of the trio has his own personality. Erik is (somewhat) grounded but impatient, Baleog attempts to solve everything with violence ("bashing"), while Olaf is obsessed with food. Dialogue is frequent, though never overwhelming. There are some laugh-out-loud moments, and far too many pop culture references. The accompanying animations and sound effects arguably outdo the dialogue. The vikings flex, pick their noses, burp, and Olaf proudly displays crack upon reaching the apex of a ladder. Enemy designs are similarly silly, as are the cartoony R.I.P. headstones that pop up immediately upon their demise. The juxtaposition of high difficulty and goofy aesthetics is a pretty common retro gaming trope, and is mostly successful here.
Game controls are much more rigid than those of a "pure" platformer, which may be off-putting to some first-time players. Enemies, for instance, are true obstacles. There's no mercy invincibility upon being hit, and no recovery time. Somewhat paradoxically, foes that emit projectiles can only damage the vikings with said projectiles; the enemy sprites themselves can simply be run through. For such a complex game, one that requires the player juggle three protagonists, most everything flows smoothly. "Menus" are rarely utilized, and never obstruct the player's view of the action. The game can be "paused" but it's usually a short-lived affair, used for selecting particular item or transferring it from one viking to the next.
Visually, The Lost Vikings is competent, though not extraordinary. It's colorful, with a gentle soft palette. Backgrounds are well-drawn, though inherently simplistic and nondistracting. There are some really nice larger pieces of artwork found herein, specifically the giant viking portrait that graces the title screen as well as the oddly soothing "Game Over" (resurrection) animation. The original soundtrack is just fantastic. It wastes no time establishing itself -- the title theme begins with regal brass before segueing into a funky techno beat. The other tracks follow suit: plenty of pelting electronics, groovy bass, slick drumlines. The only issue is that there simply isn't enough music to go around. Each world features only a singular theme that repeats in every level. The prehistoric world, for instance, consists of outdoor forests as well as subterranean caverns. It would have been nice to have two different tracks for these varying locales.
Holistically, this is a brilliant game. It's like nothing else before it, and like nothing else since (save for the direct sequel). Forget the niche "puzzle-platformer" tag, this is one of the strongest 2D platformers ever made, period. Technically, it's incredibly impressive. Personally, I just can't get enough of it. Certainly one of the most overlooked retro
games out there, the very definition of a hidden gem.
