The Lost Vikings

The Lost Vikings is a puzzle platformer created by Silicon & Synapse (former name of Blizzard Entertainment) and published by Interplay in 1993. It was released for SNES, Genesis, DOS, and Amiga.

Designed by Ronald Millar, the game puts you in control of three Vikings: Eric the Swift, Olaf the Stout, and Baleog the Fierce. Each of them has his abilities, and you will have to combine them, controlling each character in turn, to solve the puzzles. You can, for example, use Olaf's shield to defend your heroes from attacks, while Baleog activates a switch firing an arrow with his bow. If you have played Trine, you know what I mean. Just like the popular Frozenbyte's success, even if the game seems a classic side-view 2D platformer, The Lost Vikings is, in fact, a puzzler. Completing the game will require recurring characters switches and good problem-solving skills.

If you play The Lost Vikings, you will note the difference between the titles of the '80s, where reading the manual was almost always mandatory, and the more refined onboarding and learning curve designed by Silicon & Synapse for this puzzler. You will learn something new at each level, guided by the hints carefully positioned at specific key points. You will probably need those techniques to solve the following levels. And so on, until you finally master all the different skills.

The Lost Vikings was an excellent title on the consoles, but thanks to a superb conversion, it was a fantastic game on the Amiga. Great animations, beautiful music, humor, and brilliant gameplay.

The game received very positive reviews at the time, and it's still fun and addictive today.