Nobody would have imagined that Blizzard Entertainment one of the most respected and famous video game developers in the industry, father of video games like: the Warcraft saga, Word Of Warcraft, StarCraft, the Diablo saga, company that is known for having created the most played and loved RPG video games around the world, started its work in the field with a platform game. Nowadays when we hear or read something related to this development company we immediately associate it with RPG games, so it's quite surprising to know that their first published and developed videogame (although at that time they weren't called Silicon & Synapse) was a quite particular platform videogame and that it's also quite good.
That's why today's Retro Review is about The Lost Vikings.
The storyline of The Lost Vikings is a mixture of two totally different genres that with only the inclusion of large doses of humor is the only way that this union can work, and is that the argument of this video game focuses on Vikings and aliens, two totally different things between, but that were mixed properly so that they created an argument that is quite simple but turns out quite well because they make an excellent handling of humor.
The Lost Vikings tells us the adventures of three very different Vikings, who one day while they were sleeping are suddenly kidnapped by a spacial ship. Our three protagonists were victims of kidnapping by Tomator, an emperor who is in charge of going around planets to kidnap inhabitants in order to expand his collection. But like all good Vikings, our heroes have great willpower and will not be so easily captured, so they will fight through space and time, to return to their homes, but before that they must defeat Tomator.
For the first video game from a company that in the future will be one of the biggest in the video game industry, The Lost Vikings has a pretty decent graphic appearance, it's nothing spectacular, very humble but it looks pretty good and it hasn't aged that bad even though it's been many years since its release.
Although their graphic appearance is very humble, this is compensated by a good character design, our three Vikings have quite good designs, each with their own personality and full of charisma, with animations that are very good for the time and that provide great moments of comedy throughout their adventure.
The scenarios, although you could say that it is the least worked aspect in terms of graphic quality, instead its complexity is very well thought out, because in essence The Lost Vikings is a platform game, but it also has a great level of puzzles that our protagonists will have to overcome in order to advance to other scenarios. In simple terms The Lost Vikings maintains an aesthetic similar to the old cartoons, with the use of bright colors in both characters and scenarios and with a strange aesthetic in some occasions
The sound section is the worst part of this game in my opinion, because even though the melodies are good, they are not the eighth wonder but still fulfill their job which is to serve as a companion in the adventure and to decorate the scenarios and situations, however these melodies tend to be repetitive and sometimes boring when we have to listen to them for so long.
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In general terms The Lost Vikings is a classic platform game in which we must advance through a side-scrolling scenario, overcome certain obstacles, meet challenges and solve puzzles, but also defeat enemies using the skills of our characters, however the differential aspect that this game has with respect to others in the same genre is that we must use three characters, but that's not difficult at all, since the mode of exchange between the characters was developed in such a way that we get used to this mode so that each of them perform certain actions is quite optimal.
As I mentioned in The Lost Vikings we have three characters at our disposal who will have to move through a large number of scenarios of all kinds, even our protagonists will travel in time through different eras of human history, where every place we visit will be full of enemies and puzzles to solve. Therefore the system and mechanics of The Lost Vikings makes us have to play as a team and strategically throughout the adventure, always making use of the skills that the characters have in order to overcome the challenges that await us in the best way.
Our three brave Vikings and their skills are:
Baleog: This Viking is capable of attacking with the sword and is also very skilled with the bow and arrow. Due to his skill he is the main character to be used to eliminate enemies and to be able to solve certain riddles, since with the use of his arrows he can activate switches.
Eric: Of the three Vikings, he is the only one who can jump, but he is also capable of running at high speed, being the most agile of the three. Also, when he takes a lot of speed he can ram enemies or even break some walls, creating new exits.
Olaf: And last but not least, this character is the defender of the group, since he defends his teammates thanks to his great resistance and great shield. And sometimes we can use that shield as a platform for Eric to reach certain places.
The Lost Vikings is excellent proof of how a company can improve and be recognized as one of the best video game developers in the future. Blizzard Entertainment or as it was known at the time "Silicon & Synapse" over the years and after a name change it still stands as an excellent video game company that even revolutionized in big ways what was established. Therefore, having this video game as your first child is a great proof of professional improvement.
