Lost Vikings 2

"A far cry from the original"

Graphics: 7
Sound Effects: 6
Music: 7
Originality: 6
Play Control: 8
Challenge: 6
Replay Value: 4
Overall: 6

The Lost Vikings 2: Norse by Norsewest (clever title, dontcha think?) chronicles the continuing adventures of three Vikings who have been lost (what a surprise). In the first game, the Vikings are kidnapped by the evil alien warlord Tomator and must fight their way through time. In this game, the Vikings are kidnapped by the evil alien warlord Tomator and must fight their way through time. But this time they get a werewolf and a dragon to help them out. And some technological stuff they stole off of robots. And a lightsaber.

Good Points:
For starters, it’s a puzzle/adventure game, and how many of those are there for the Super Nintendo? If there’s a bunch of them, please don’t answer that question. The characters talk to each other, and sometimes to the player, at the beginning and end of each level, and can say some pretty amusing things. The puzzles take some effort to figure out, but aren’t ridiculously difficult, and you get five different characters, each with different abilities, which helps add some variety to the game. The best part, however, is a number of Star Wars references found within the game at various points, and even a reference to the Blues Brother. Just kind of weird.

Bad Points:
Well, it’s just a rehash of the first game, plus a couple of new moves. The new characters are nice, but they don’t really do anything you couldn’t already do. Fang (the werewolf) can climb walls and slash monsters, but Erik can jump nearly as high and Balrog can slash monsters. Combine this with the overall simplicity of the game, and you’ll probably get tired pretty quickly.

Graphics:
The game has a cartoonish feel to it (I swear cartoonish is a real word), which means the characters are big and brightly colored, and have some pretty outrageous facial expressions. However, considering the game was released in 1995, I would have expected slightly better graphics on the Super Nintendo. There are really no details except the Vikings themselves, so the backgrounds all look the same, and the enemies are little more than blocks of color. The graphics are pretty decent, but they could’ve been better.

Sound Effects:
Some of them are good, most of them are not. The sound a character makes when he falls too far is the same sound Wile E. Coyote made when he fell off a cliff, so at least there’s that. Sadly, that’s the best sound effect you’re going to hear. When the evil thorn bushes grow back it sounds like they’re ripping Velcro, and most of the other sounds are even more primitive.

Music:
Aside from the weird techno song at the start screen, there’s not much to say about the music. It’s not bad, but it’s not that great either. At least the songs fit the area they are played in. For example, you hear a “spooky” song in Transylvania, and a more upbeat techno song in the future. The best thing to say about the music is that it doesn’t detract from the game.

Originality:
Since it’s incredibly similar to The Lost Vikings, it’s hard to call this game original, per se. Balrog’s new ability is to grab stuff with his extending arm, which has previously been used by both the Bionic Commando and Inspector Gadget. However, Erik’s new rocket boots are kinda cool, and Olaf (the big fat guy) can still glide by holding his shield above his head. That was always the best part of the original anyway. While this game is hardly groundbreaking, Blizzard added enough new features to make it sufficiently different from the first game.

Play Control:
The play control is surprisingly good. When you press right, your character walks right, and when you press the jump button, your character jumps. The character’s reaction speed is pretty good, and the controls are not overly sensitive or sluggish. The only complaint I have is that there’s a slight lag when you switch characters, which can make certain puzzles difficult to complete.

Challenge:
The first 3/5 of this game are nauseatingly easy, while the rest of the game is only slightly more challenging. Even the first world in The Lost Vikings had tougher puzzles than the third world in The Lost Vikings 2. The fourth world (the Amazon Jungle) has a few mind-bogglers, but mostly it’s just a matter of figuring out which character to use for the task. After I breezed through half the game faster than any other puzzle game, I realized how disappointed I really was.

Replay Value:
Naturally there’s not much of one. After all, once you’ve figured out the puzzle, what’s the fun in doing it again? You already know how to do it. The original didn’t have much replay value, and this game, being considerably easier, has even less.

Overall:
Well, if you’re a fan of The Lost Vikings, then you’ll probably like this game. If you thought the original was too hard, you’ll probably like this game. If you thought the original was too easy, don’t bother with this. Since this is basically the same stuff you found in The Lost Vikings, if you’ve played the first game you already know what to expect from this. It’s not a bad game, but it’s far too easy to be really satisfying, and the fact that’s I’ve already played through the original twice makes me much less eager to play this one any more. If you’ve never played the first game, you’ll probably like this game more than I did, but I recommend the original over this one.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/03/02, Updated 09/03/02