I must admit, that when I owned my Sega Genesis back in the days of youth, this was a title that completely escaped my attention. However, due to the wonders of the internet, I have discovered this game, and I am sorry that I did not know about this game sooner.
The Lost Vikings is a delightful puzzle game that puts you in control of 3 Viking warriors that have been abducted by an evil space being who is roaming the galaxy, collecting various species for his intergalactic zoo.
Your mission is to escape the ship and reunite your errant Vikings with their families. This is done by navigating your characters through a variety of worlds, switching characters and making use of each of their unique abilities. There is Erik, the 'explorer' of the group. Erik is faster than his other companions and posses the ability to jump, as well as head-butt opponents and various things in the game if he gets in a bind. As the only character that can jump, you will often use Erik to scout the levels and get a look at what obstacles are coming up, so you can better utilize your other teammates.
Next is Ragnar, the warrior of the group. As the only
Viking that can attack enemies (barring Erik's head butt, which is only really useful in a pinch), you will have to keep Ragnar close at hand, as the other Vikings will be quite defenseless without his help. As Ragnar cannot jump, you will have to use various machines and techniques to advance him to the end of the level. Ragnar is often in the company of 'the fat guy' who's shield provides a defense for Ragnar, as he choppes his foes into ribbons.
'The fat guy' (who's name I can not remember) is the tank of your group. Possessing a shield that he can angle either forwards or up, he will defend your group from various missiles and enemies, allowing you time to think up a strategy and move forward in the game. He also has the ability to glide with his shield, allowing him to reach places that your other characters cannot. The other Vikings can also use his shield as a platform, which comes into play often with Ragnar, as you will have to cross areas that he cannot reach otherwise (as he cannot jump).
Mixing all of these unique abilities, you can now move your group from level to level, fighting enemies and solving puzzles along the way. This is truly a unique game, in the vein of Lemmings and Oddworld, Munch's Oddysee, but with a comic flare and unique puzzle solving system.
The only thing that could have been improved upon is the musical score, as each set of levels (let's call them worlds) only has one track. In later levels, the puzzles can be quite complicated, often taking several attempts to complete, and you will soon tire of the repetitive ingame music. Once one of your character dies, that's it for the level. You can continue to explore with the other characters to get a heads up for the next go around, but you must restart to complete the level. This can be very tedious, especially in later levels, as it is very time consuming to get all three Vikings to one place. One false step off of a platform and your character is history, and you will end up spending tens of minutes and perhaps even hours getting your characters to the same place, only to have to experiment, and possibly die, all over again. The addition of some way to revive a dead character (say with a rare item) would have helped the game play a lot more fluidly. Still, if you are up for a challenge, and want a unique puzzler to try, the Lost Vikings is worth a look.
