Lichtspeer throws a single spear and asks you to be perfect with it. That is the whole game, and it is almost enough.
Lichthund’s action game launched in September 2016 for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux and PlayStation 4. A 2017 re-release, Lichtspeer: Double Speer Edition, carried it to PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Switch. The game also lists PlayStation 4, Linux, Android, PC, iOS, Mac, PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Switch among its platforms. It is a side-view, single-player arcade game with sport and adventure in its bones, set in a land of Penguin Vikings, Wurst Zombies and Hipster Ice Giants.
The setup is a joke told with a straight face. You are a Germonaut, an ancient champion summoned to please the gods and restore balance to the universe. Your weapon is the Lichtspeer, a throwable spear, and your toolkit grows to include Lichtpowers. The gods watch. You perform.
Trailer, via Lichthund.
Penguin Vikings and Wurst Zombies
The enemies are the pitch. Penguin Vikings. Wurst Zombies. Hipster Ice Giants. Lichthund built a Germanic mythos and then stuffed it with lunchmeat and irony, and the result is a setting that reads as comedy first and science fiction second. The game’s own summary promises lands straight out of Germanic myths, filtered through a futuristic version of that ancient world.
That combination is the smartest thing Lichtspeer does. It does not ask you to care about a plot. It asks you to look at what is walking toward you and laugh before you throw.
The spear is the mechanic. You aim, you release, you watch the arc. Enemies come in waves. The Lichtpowers expand what you can do, but the core loop never stops being about a single projectile and the distance between you and the thing you want to kill.
A Spear, an Arc, and No Room for Error
Here is where Lichtspeer earns its keep and where it starts to lose it. A throwable spear with a visible arc is a timing game. The arc has to be readable, the hit has to feel earned, and the punishment for a miss has to be sharp enough to matter without being cheap.
The game leans on style. Survive with style, the summary says, and expand your powers for the glory and amusement of the almighty gods. That is the promise: not just survival, but survival performed well. A game that asks for style has to make style possible, and it has to make sloppiness feel like your fault rather than the game’s.
Side-view perspective keeps the action legible. You see what is coming. You see where your spear will land. The comedy of a Wurst Zombie is not hidden behind a camera angle. But legibility is not the same as generosity, and Lichtspeer’s difficulty curve is the kind that rewards repetition more than it rewards improvisation.
The Double Speer Edition and Where It Landed
The 2017 re-release matters for anyone trying to find the game now. Lichtspeer: Double Speer Edition arrived on PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Switch, which means the version most people can still buy is not the 2016 original. The platform list is unusually wide for an indie arcade game: PlayStation 4, Linux, Android, PC, iOS, Mac, PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Switch.
That spread tells you something about the game’s ambitions. This is not a console exclusive built for a big screen. It is a small, sharp idea that Lichthund and publisher Crunching Koalas pushed onto everything with a screen.
| Version | Year | Platforms |
|---|---|---|
| Lichtspeer | 2016 | Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4 |
| Lichtspeer: Double Speer Edition | 2017 | PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch |
What the Gods Actually Get
The framing device is a performance for deities. You fight for the glory and amusement of the almighty gods. That is a clean way to justify an arcade score chase, and it gives the game permission to be cruel. The gods are not rooting for you. They are watching.
It also means Lichtspeer does not need a story. The storyline is the setting: a land of Penguin Vikings, Wurst Zombies and Hipster Ice Giants, an ancient champion, a weapon, a summoning. That is the entire narrative load, and the game carries it without straining.
The risk is that comedy enemies wear out. A Wurst Zombie is funny once, then it is an obstacle. A Hipster Ice Giant is a joke about a type of person, then it is a hitbox. Lichtspeer’s longevity depends on whether the waves introduce enough variation to keep the joke alive, and on whether the Lichtpowers change how you approach a fight rather than just adding another button.
The Score, and What It Means
Lichtspeer holds a published critical score of 6.5/10, aggregated from 7 outlets by IGDB. That number is the honest read. This is a game with a strong identity and a narrow idea, and the two are the same thing.
A 6.5 is not a dismissal. It is the score of a game that does one thing with conviction and does not do enough around it. Lichtspeer is not broken. It is not bloated. It is a spear, an arc and a wave of enemies, dressed in a setting that makes you smile before it makes you sweat.
The comparison that matters is not against other arcade games. It is against the version of Lichtspeer that the setting implies. Penguin Vikings and Wurst Zombies suggest a game that keeps escalating, that keeps finding new ways to be absurd. What the source gives us is a single-player, side-view loop with a throwable spear and a set of powers. The absurdity is in the art. The play is narrower.
Key Facts
- Title: Lichtspeer
- Developer: Lichthund
- Publishers: Crunching Koalas, Lichthund
- Original release: September 2016
- Re-release: Lichtspeer: Double Speer Edition, 2017
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, Linux, Android, PC (Microsoft Windows), iOS, Mac, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch
- Genres: Sport, Adventure, Indie, Arcade
- Themes: Action, Science fiction, Comedy
- Modes: Single player
- Perspective: Side view
- Published critical score: 6.5/10 (IGDB critic aggregate, 7 outlets)
The Part Worth Watching
The Double Speer Edition is the version to look for. A 2017 release on PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Switch means the game got a second life on handhelds, and a side-view arcade game with short waves is a natural fit for a portable screen. If Lichtspeer has a future, it is there.
The single-player limitation is the other thing to weigh. Lichtspeer is built as a solo performance for the gods. There is no mode where a second player picks up a spear. For an arcade game with a score-chase structure, that is a real constraint. Arcade games live on comparison, and comparison usually wants a second chair.
What Lichtspeer gets right is restraint. It does not bury its spear behind a skill tree or a crafting system. It gives you a weapon, an arc and a land of fools, and it asks you to be good. That is a clean pitch.
What it gets wrong is scale. The setting promises a universe. The game delivers a lane. Penguin Vikings, Wurst Zombies and Hipster Ice Giants are a great cast, and they deserve more than one way to meet them.
Lichtspeer is worth playing for the throw. The throw is the game. Everything else is decoration, and the decoration is genuinely funny. But a 6.5 is a 6.5, and this one is earned by a game that nails its central mechanic and then asks it to carry too much.
Score: 6.5 of 10.
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