The Lost Vikings asks a simple question: what if a platformer made you play three characters at once, but only one at a time? Silicon & Synapse shipped that idea in 1993, and Interplay Productions put it out. The answer holds up.
Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce and Olaf the Stout get kidnapped by Tomator, emperor of the alien Croutonian empire, for an inter-galactic zoo. They escape the ship and land in scattered periods of time. To get home they cross bizarre locations, then confront Tomator.
Three Vikings, Three Jobs
The Lost Vikings is a side-scrolling platform adventure. You guide each Viking from a start point to an exit, swapping control at any moment. Every level is built so each Viking must contribute his unique skills to get the other two through. All three must reach the exit.
The skills are the whole game. Erik runs faster than the other two, jumps, and bashes through some walls and enemies with his helmet. Baleog kills with his sword or his bow, which carries a life-time supply of arrows and can hit switches from a distance. Olaf blocks enemies and their projectiles with his shield, uses it as a hang glider, and holds it as a platform so Baleog can walk across and Erik can reach higher areas.
Each Viking has three health points, lost to enemies or falls from great heights. Run one out and he dies. Play continues with the survivors, but the level becomes unwinnable, and the player will eventually have to restart. The game offers unlimited continues, which softens the blow without removing the cost.
Items matter too. Keys, bombs and food that restores health points move between characters as long as they stand close to each other.
A Puzzle Game Wearing a Platformer’s Clothes
The pitch sounds like an action game. It plays like a puzzle. Erik’s helmet, Olaf’s shield and Baleog’s bow are not combat tools so much as keys, and the level is the lock. The tension is that a single mistake strands you in a level you cannot finish.
The game was initially released for the Super NES, then subsequently released for the Amiga, Amiga CD32, MS-DOS and Mega Drive/Genesis. The Mega Drive/Genesis version added a two-player cooperative mode where each player controls one Viking and can switch to the third, unused Viking at any point. The Amiga and Amiga CD32 port has slightly different music, no second player, black backgrounds and a wider screen.
The Lost Vikings 2 followed in 1997. Blizzard, the studio’s later name, re-released the game for the Game Boy Advance in 2003 and for Battle.net in 2014. In 2021 it came back for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One inside the Blizzard Arcade Collection.
The Schedule
| Version | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Super NES | 1993 | Original release |
| Amiga / Amiga CD32 | Not stated | Different music, no second player, black backgrounds, wider screen |
| MS-DOS | Not stated | Port |
| Mega Drive/Genesis | Not stated | Two-player cooperative mode |
| The Lost Vikings 2 | 1997 | Sequel |
| Game Boy Advance | 2003 | Blizzard re-release |
| Battle.net | 2014 | Blizzard re-release |
| Blizzard Arcade Collection | 2021 | Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One |
The port differences are worth knowing before you pick a version, but the source does not rank them. What the record does show is a game that kept coming back: a 1997 sequel, two Blizzard re-releases, and a 2021 collection.
7.6 of 10 (IMDb).
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