The Lost Vikings (MD, 1992)
Graphics-7 Sound-7 Control-7 Challenge-8.5* Story-5
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-8.5* Fun-7* Originality-7
Overall Score-7
*1-player
+ Innovative gameplay (switch between three characters with different abilites and separate inventories, solving various puzzles to get to the exit), fairly entertaining dialogue between the vikings, 3-player co-op (compared to 2 on SNES, A+B+C to switch camera focus), decent animation (expressive characters, several different death animations), password save at the beginning of every stage (short), hidden items and shortcuts, comical (wacky, slap stick, pop culture references), more stages than on SNES (41 in total), good puzzles overall, smart bombs, in-game cutscenes showing new mechanics with some humour before each new world, decent variation, higher resolution than on SNES (makes it easier to react to danger and get an overview of puzzles), headbutt enemies, good final boss (four segments),
+/- Hazards don't affect enemies, need to stand characters close to eachother to exchange items between them, many one hit kill hazards, some of the more advanced maneuvers aren't possible in single player, saved items don't carry over to the next stage, the shield viking can't push enemies back, only one boss, fall damage, lacks the world transition/warp screen of the SNES and Amiga versions (SNES version looks best here thanks to Mode 7) - replaced by in-game cutscenes humourosly showing new mechanics
- Fairly slow paced (switching at a distance is somewhat slow, waiting for platforms/bubbles in single player, simply moving all characters longer distances (when playing by yourself) gets tedious, many enemies are tedious to fight (blue-haired dudes), some annoying enemy placements), trial & error (block types which at one point in a stage can be bombed but require hitting a switch to remove later in the stage, teleporter of no return in candy land, most enemies can be walked through without damage, at one point you need to hold up a platform with the shield while at other times similar platforms will crush the character, fireballs shot from outside the screen, some leaps of faith - can't look down/up), all characters need to survive to get to the next level so it's rather pointless to let the player keep going, co-op mode is a bit cumbersome due to lack of split screen - one problem is that the red-haired viking is much more agile than the other two, difficult parts (and/or puzzles you haven't encountered before) tend to get placed rather late in a stage making the game more frustrating since there are no checkpoints, most jokes are cringeworthy, worse sound quality overall (some annoying sfx such as laser shots or lizard/dino attacks), poor jump height control, so-so use of colour overall, somewhat sloppy hit detection at times, tedious backtracking in the factory, no difficulty options, need to beat three stages in a row before the final boss
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-8.5* Fun-7* Originality-7
Overall Score-7
*1-player
+ Innovative gameplay (switch between three characters with different abilites and separate inventories, solving various puzzles to get to the exit), fairly entertaining dialogue between the vikings, 3-player co-op (compared to 2 on SNES, A+B+C to switch camera focus), decent animation (expressive characters, several different death animations), password save at the beginning of every stage (short), hidden items and shortcuts, comical (wacky, slap stick, pop culture references), more stages than on SNES (41 in total), good puzzles overall, smart bombs, in-game cutscenes showing new mechanics with some humour before each new world, decent variation, higher resolution than on SNES (makes it easier to react to danger and get an overview of puzzles), headbutt enemies, good final boss (four segments),
+/- Hazards don't affect enemies, need to stand characters close to eachother to exchange items between them, many one hit kill hazards, some of the more advanced maneuvers aren't possible in single player, saved items don't carry over to the next stage, the shield viking can't push enemies back, only one boss, fall damage, lacks the world transition/warp screen of the SNES and Amiga versions (SNES version looks best here thanks to Mode 7) - replaced by in-game cutscenes humourosly showing new mechanics
- Fairly slow paced (switching at a distance is somewhat slow, waiting for platforms/bubbles in single player, simply moving all characters longer distances (when playing by yourself) gets tedious, many enemies are tedious to fight (blue-haired dudes), some annoying enemy placements), trial & error (block types which at one point in a stage can be bombed but require hitting a switch to remove later in the stage, teleporter of no return in candy land, most enemies can be walked through without damage, at one point you need to hold up a platform with the shield while at other times similar platforms will crush the character, fireballs shot from outside the screen, some leaps of faith - can't look down/up), all characters need to survive to get to the next level so it's rather pointless to let the player keep going, co-op mode is a bit cumbersome due to lack of split screen - one problem is that the red-haired viking is much more agile than the other two, difficult parts (and/or puzzles you haven't encountered before) tend to get placed rather late in a stage making the game more frustrating since there are no checkpoints, most jokes are cringeworthy, worse sound quality overall (some annoying sfx such as laser shots or lizard/dino attacks), poor jump height control, so-so use of colour overall, somewhat sloppy hit detection at times, tedious backtracking in the factory, no difficulty options, need to beat three stages in a row before the final boss
