The Lost Vikings

"Another new day, another old review."

Interplay is notorious for coming up with strange and new gaming concepts. I mean, let's look at their track record - in collaboration with Blizzard, they came up with the Warcraft series, not to mention their involvement on Starcraft, Diablo, and Diablocraft (sic). One of their first truly ground-breaking games, in terms of creativity and originality, would be the fiendishly clever ''Lost Vikings''.

The Lost Vikings takes trips into the absurd all throughout the game, starting with the plot itself. You take on the roles of Erik the Swift, Olaf the Stout, and Baelog the Fierce. (just wanted to get the names out of the way), 3 Vikings whom live happily in their village. They hunt together, they eat together, they get into fights together...heck, even their women look alike! This motley crew of Nordic ninnies, one night, end up getting teleported an Alien ship without prior notice (of course, Aliens hardly ever give THAT nowadays, what with the Alien Recession and all). In an effort to get away from this strange new environment, our dastardly duo- er, trio has to work together, using their own unique abilities to escape.

That's generally how the game goes. Every stage has an exit and you have to guide all 3 of your characters, alive and well, to the exit. Since all 3 characters have different properties, this means they usually can't take the same path to arrive at the final destination. As each stage gets progressively more difficult, you'll find that you have to start interweaving your characters' paths so that they can aid each other. Why is this? Allow me to explain:

Erik the Swift is the only character who can run and jump, as well as his ability to dash into things (like enemies or walls) with his helmet. Baelog the Fierce has the least mobility of the 3, but makes up for it by having a sword for attacking (close encounters) and arrows for striking things (like enemies or switches) at a distance. Olaf can't attack anything, despite his being bigger than the other 2 vikings (maybe he's a pacifist). However, he is the only one that can truly defend himself by using his shield. He can also glide, using his shield as a hang glider.

Due to their varied abilities, you will most likely have trouble with the game if you try to just send the Vikings through. If Erik comes across an enemy that has to be killed (and he doesn't have enough room to dash at them), you're going to have to either jump over them or get Baelog in to kill them. If Baelog comes across a point where he has to jump over a pit, he's going to have to find another way, even if that means sending Erik over the pit to find a switch or some way to cross the gap safely. Ultimately, 2 of the 3 characters can effectively get around certain obstacles, meaning you'll still have to find another way for the 3rd Viking (Olaf and Erik can fly over obstacles, Erik and Baelog can attack, Baelog and Olaf can cook a mean steak tar-tar and are equally good at heckling Erik for his ''shoe''-things).

The way the game plays isn't the only part of the game, though - your characters' personality seems to drive your characters as much as your desire to get these lost vikkies home. When you begin and end stages (as well as continuing too much), your characters will engage in conversations, poking fun at their surroundings, each other, monsters they've seen, etc. Their humor, while occasionally warped, is loaded with puns and inside jokes (hey, I'm a fan of anyone who quotes Steve Martin) that make the conversations entertaining to watch. It's funny enough to listen to these 3 bicker about where they are or what they're doing here; sitting and watching their ''idle frames'' is just as funny. If you not move the Vikings for a long enough period of time, they'll start to entertain themselves - Baelog starts flexing, Erik ties his shoes, and Olaf...well, Olaf decides to do some snot mining. With his finger.

Ok, so I've discussed how the game works, as well as the characters therein. Let's talk about the sections then, shall we?

Graphics:

The graphics are quite appealing. The Vikings are drawn with a certain cartoonish flair to them, and their animation reflects their personality quite well. Baelog saunters about, oversized jaw waging back and forth in time to his pace. Olaf, ever the goofy one, has to frequently stop and pull his breeches up while carrying his shield overhead. The fact that his eyesight is obscured by his helmet only adds to his innocent-yet-dull-witted look. As I said before, the characters' personality really comes out in their drawing/animation. The stages that the game is built upon might not be as pleasing to the eye, but their design is what really caught my eye. The stages are easy in layout while still retaining a funny design and concept. They are colorful without being difficult to understand, and are entertaining to view without being cluttered or poorly organized. All this only enhances the games' challenge - you know how the stage goes, so all you have to do is figure out how to get through it. Simple enough, yet you'll find that despite the game's simplistic look it is still quite challenging.

Sound:

The sounds for this game are goofy and silly. I find I'm reviewing games that have ''goofy'' sound effects more and more, so describing the ''goofy'' sound effects tends to get a little redundant. How does one describe a goofy sound effect, anyways? Well, I suppose an accurate description would be that the sounds are strange for their applied usages. Now, this can seem a little strange at first - after all, it's not really what you'd expect - but the sounds do seem to match the feel of the game, so it's not altogether bad. The music for this game, interestingly enough, is much akin to the humorous style of the game - that is to say, the music is funny, as is the rest of the game. I don't know what else to say about the music, except for the fact that it's funny, and that my favorite piece is the starting ''Kick It'' piece. Blah blah blah, music is good, blah blah blah, I'm a fathead who can't think of anything descriptive to say about the music. Blah.

Gameplay:

I explained how the gameplay is set up, so how does it all end up working? Well, it's challenging yet not impossible, difficult but not due to problems with the controls or game setup. The challenge is first in finding the goal, then figuring out how to get all 3 Vikings to the goal, alive and well. The challenges arise in the different situations you're forced to deal with, from basic logic puzzles to out-and-out combat. Since your characters' can't all handle combat, though, that means that you're going to be forced to use logic to get out of the situation - in other words, it's a logic puzzle anyways.

Another point of the game that made things interesting is the item section. Oftentimes throughout the game, you'll find that you need a certain item, such as a Key, a Bomb, or even some food (for when you get hurt). Each character can hold 4 items, and they can use them, drop them, or switch them to another player (who has to be nearby, of course). This allows you a little more strategy, since there might be a specific item needed for a specific area that only one of the Vikings can get to...therefore, you have to find a way to get to a point where you can switch the item to the other player. This is a nice variation, giving the game an added depth of logical computation. Plus, it's nifty.

So all in all, the gameplay comes out easy to handle and fun in style. I rate it very highly.

Overall:

If I were rating this game solely on terms of originality, it would get an absurdly high number. However, the addition of truly fun graphics and characters make this game a personal favorite as mine. Technically, it's a great game. Personally, I like it even more.

---Final Score: 9/10---

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/02, Updated 05/31/02