The Lost Vikings
Encyclopedia
The Lost Vikings is a side-scrolling puzzle
/platform
video game series which was developed
by Silicon & Synapse (later Blizzard Entertainment
). The first game, The Lost Vikings, was released in 1992 by publisher
Interplay Entertainment
for DOS
, Amiga
, Sega Mega Drive and SNES among others. The sequel, The Lost Vikings II, was developed by Blizzard and released in 1997 by Interplay for the SNES. The games are considered as classics of puzzle
/platform game
genre and were critically acclaimed by press.
A 32-bit enhanced version of The Lost Vikings II was developed for the Sega Saturn
, PlayStation
and PC
, known in the United States
as Norse By Norsewest: Return of the Lost Vikings and in Europe
as Lost Vikings 2: Norse by Norsewest. It was released by Interplay in 1997, featuring a new super-deformed style for the characters (the original version kept the same art style as the first game) as well as voiced dialogue samples. However, Blizzard was not involved in the creation of these 32-bit ports. Instead, they were handled by Beam Software.
The games' music was composed by Glenn Stafford and Charles Deenen
.
s, Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce, and Olaf the Stout. The goal is to guide all Vikings safely through each level. A major gameplay feature is due to the fact that the player controls three different characters (although only one at any given time), and must make use of their individual abilities and work as a team to solve puzzles and progress. This also means that the characters who are not controlled at the moment remain open to hazards and must either be protected or left in safety. Some levels require precise timing to control the characters simultaneously - in one early level, the player must jump down a shaft with Olaf, using his shield as a hang glider, and as Olaf slowly descends, must use another Viking to clear his path. Each Viking has a limited amount of health which decreases when attacked by enemies, and several environmental hazards (spikes, electricity, water) are able to kill the characters instantly. The player may continue the level after losing a Viking, but the level cannot be completed without all three Vikings kept alive. After losing a Viking and restarting the level, a small cutscene of a Norse funeral plays, with a lightning strike respawning Viking to his remaining comrades.
In some versions, a second and a third player can join and control the other two characters.
The Lost Vikings was originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
, then subsequently released for the Amiga
, Amiga CD32
, MS-DOS
, and Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis systems the next year; the Mega Drive/Genesis version contains five stages not present in any other version of the game. Blizzard re-released the game for the Game Boy Advance
in 2003. The GBA port is identical to the SNES version, but the password feature has been removed and replaced with three save slots, meaning the player cannot replay any level at any time.
The game features infinite opportunities of retries in case the player loses one of the Vikings. Much of the game's appeal comes from the humorous inter-level dialogues of the characters. ("If I [head]bash one more wall right now, my head will explode!" "I got dibs
on his helmet." "Okay, but I get his boots." "It's great to have such good friends.") Art Director Samwise Didier
has stated that the character design for "Erik the Swift" was based on childhood friend Michael Cripps.
. However, to avoid becoming too complex, the game only lets the player control three of the five characters in each level. The gameplay remains largely the same, though the pre-existing characters all have new or modified abilities.
(Erik), Jeff Bennett (Baleog & Fang), Jim Cummings
(Olaf, Tomator), and Frank Welker
(Scorch).
The Vikings have also shown up from time to time in other Blizzard games.
Both Olaf and Baleog make an appearance in the 1993 game Rock 'N' Roll Racing
; Olaf can be unlocked as a hidden character, while Baleog appears on several billboards advertising "Viking Cola" on the planet Bogmire.
In the Sega 32X
version of Blackthorne
, all three Vikings appear in a secret area in the second snow level http://www.gamefaqs.com/sega32x/584357-blackthorne/cheats.
They most recently appeared as NPCs
in Blizzard's MMORPG
World of Warcraft
in the dungeon Uldaman. One of the quests in Uldaman also requires the player to collect the Shaft of Tsol and Amulet of Gni'Kiv, which spell out "Lost" and "Vik'ing" when read backwards. The shaft and amulet are combined to form the Staff of Prehistoria, which fits the theme of Uldaman and also is an area in The Lost Vikings. In the new expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
, they feature prominently in a quest line for both factions in the Badlands area of Eastern Kingdoms.
In the Frozen Throne's "Monolith" scenario, the names for the Dark Troll Commando hero are the same as those for the Lost Vikings: Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce and Olaf the Stout.
The Lost Vikings II contains several references to Blizzard's other games. In the "Dark Ages" period of time, Erik the Swift accidentally gets teleported
to the "Swamps of Sorrow", which is a prominent location in the game Warcraft: Orcs and Humans
(this region was later seen as a ladder
map in Warcraft III and as a zone in World of Warcraft
). Also, one of Tomator’s monitors shows Rock 'N' Roll Racing
playing.
A new unit in Blizzard's recently released StarCraft II is called the Viking, and there is a picture of the unit on their website, subtitled The Lost Vikings http://www.starcraft2.com/features/terran/viking.xml.
In addition to this, repeatedly selecting the Viking unit in Starcraft II makes the Viking pilot mention Erik, Baleog, and Olaf getting lost, as he tries to contact them. He also sets in co-ordinates for Norse by Norse-west.
There is also an arcade console in the Cantina of Battleship Hyperion in StarCraft II called The Lost Viking, which is a playable mini-game http://kotaku.com/5338308/first-starcraft-ii-single-player-campaign-hands+on-with-spoilers.
Computer puzzle game
Puzzle video games are a genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles to be solved can test many problem solving skills including logic, strategy, pattern recognition, sequence solving, and word completion....
/platform
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
video game series which was developed
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
by Silicon & Synapse (later Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher founded on February 8, 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse by three graduates of UCLA, Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce and currently owned by French company Activision Blizzard...
). The first game, The Lost Vikings, was released in 1992 by publisher
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo. The company had been a quality developer until they started publishing their own games in 1988, like Neuromancer and Battle Chess. The company was renamed...
for DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
, Sega Mega Drive and SNES among others. The sequel, The Lost Vikings II, was developed by Blizzard and released in 1997 by Interplay for the SNES. The games are considered as classics of puzzle
Computer puzzle game
Puzzle video games are a genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles to be solved can test many problem solving skills including logic, strategy, pattern recognition, sequence solving, and word completion....
/platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
genre and were critically acclaimed by press.
A 32-bit enhanced version of The Lost Vikings II was developed for the Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
, PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
and PC
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
, known in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as Norse By Norsewest: Return of the Lost Vikings and in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
as Lost Vikings 2: Norse by Norsewest. It was released by Interplay in 1997, featuring a new super-deformed style for the characters (the original version kept the same art style as the first game) as well as voiced dialogue samples. However, Blizzard was not involved in the creation of these 32-bit ports. Instead, they were handled by Beam Software.
The games' music was composed by Glenn Stafford and Charles Deenen
Charles Deenen
Charles Deenen , is a Dutch computer/video game Audio Director, Music Composer, Sound Designer & Mixer. He is also known for his music and sound efforts for games of C64 and Amiga era. He was one of the first demosceners....
.
Gameplay
The main characters in both games are three VikingViking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
s, Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce, and Olaf the Stout. The goal is to guide all Vikings safely through each level. A major gameplay feature is due to the fact that the player controls three different characters (although only one at any given time), and must make use of their individual abilities and work as a team to solve puzzles and progress. This also means that the characters who are not controlled at the moment remain open to hazards and must either be protected or left in safety. Some levels require precise timing to control the characters simultaneously - in one early level, the player must jump down a shaft with Olaf, using his shield as a hang glider, and as Olaf slowly descends, must use another Viking to clear his path. Each Viking has a limited amount of health which decreases when attacked by enemies, and several environmental hazards (spikes, electricity, water) are able to kill the characters instantly. The player may continue the level after losing a Viking, but the level cannot be completed without all three Vikings kept alive. After losing a Viking and restarting the level, a small cutscene of a Norse funeral plays, with a lightning strike respawning Viking to his remaining comrades.
In some versions, a second and a third player can join and control the other two characters.
The Lost Vikings
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
, then subsequently released for the Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
, Amiga CD32
Amiga CD32
The Amiga CD32, styled "CD32" , was the first 32-bit CD-ROM based video game console released in western Europe, Australia, Canada and Brazil. It was first announced at the Science Museum in London, United Kingdom on 16 July 1993, and was released in September of the same year...
, MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
, and Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis systems the next year; the Mega Drive/Genesis version contains five stages not present in any other version of the game. Blizzard re-released the game for the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
in 2003. The GBA port is identical to the SNES version, but the password feature has been removed and replaced with three save slots, meaning the player cannot replay any level at any time.
The game features infinite opportunities of retries in case the player loses one of the Vikings. Much of the game's appeal comes from the humorous inter-level dialogues of the characters. ("If I [head]bash one more wall right now, my head will explode!" "I got dibs
Dibs
Calling dibs is an informal convention to declare a specific right to something that no individual otherwise has any clearly recognized right...
on his helmet." "Okay, but I get his boots." "It's great to have such good friends.") Art Director Samwise Didier
Samwise Didier
Sam "Samwise" Didier is the art director at Blizzard Entertainment. He is responsible for creating much of the artwork for computer games in the Warcraft, StarCraft, and the Diablo series. He is the senior art director on StarCraft II...
has stated that the character design for "Erik the Swift" was based on childhood friend Michael Cripps.
Plot
In the game, the three Vikings get kidnapped by Tomator, emperor of the alien Croutonian empire, for an inter-galactic zoo and become lost in various periods of time. After escaping through the airlock of the spaceship, they must traverse various bizarre locations to find their way home.Character abilities
All three Vikings (Erik, Baleog and Olaf) have three health points which they can lose by getting hurt by enemies or by falling from great heights, and the ability to carry and use items, mainly keys, bombs, and food (which restore health points). Each of the Vikings has a unique set of abilities:- Erik can run faster than the other two, can jump, and can bash through some walls (and enemies) with his helmet.
- Baleog can kill enemies with his sword, or from a distance with his bow (and a "life-time supply of arrows"). The bow can also be used to hit switches from a distance.
- Olaf can block enemies and their projectiles with his shield, use his shield as a hang glider, or as a stepping stone for Erik to enable him to reach high grounds which is not possible without the shield.
The Lost Vikings 2
The sequel takes place after the first game and features the original three characters plus two new playable characters, Fang the wolf and Scorch the dragonEuropean dragon
European dragons are legendary creatures in folklore and mythology among the overlapping cultures of Europe.In European folklore, a dragon is a serpentine legendary creature. The Latin word draco, as in constellation Draco, comes directly from Greek δράκων,...
. However, to avoid becoming too complex, the game only lets the player control three of the five characters in each level. The gameplay remains largely the same, though the pre-existing characters all have new or modified abilities.
Plot
After escaping from Tomator in The Lost Vikings, Eric, Olaf, and Baleog have lived joyous and fruitful Vikings lives. Then one day, after returning home from a fishing trip, the Vikings get captured by Tomator again. Tomator then calls upon a robotic guard to send them into the Arena, which unfortunately falls short when a system failure happens. During the blackout, the three Vikings dismantle the robot piece by piece and wear its parts on their body, thus granting them new abilities. The three Vikings are then sent through time once again when Olaf pulls the switch on the time machine that says "Do Not Touch", which he mistakes for Donuts. Equipped with the new robotic gear from the robot guard they destroyed earlier, Eric, Olaf, and Baleog must fight their way through time once again in order to find their way back home. Along the way, they befriend a wolf named Fang (whom they often humorously mistaken for a different animal continuously) and a dragon named Scorch.Title
All versions of the second game, except the original SNES release, were titled Lost Vikings 2: Norse by Norsewest (Norse by Norse West: The Return Of Lost Vikings in the USA). The SNES version, being produced and released earlier, did not feature the secondary title and was called simply The Lost Vikings 2. Interestingly, the SNES version is highly rare in the PAL region while the PS1 version is quite common. The Sega Saturn version is borderline on rare. Norse by Norsewest versions were done by a different company from the SNES release, commissioned by the original company who wanted Lost Vikings 2 modernised and on modern platforms to evolve from the aging SNES. The Sega Genesis did not get a port of Lost Vikings 2 at all.Character abilities
- Erik now has turbo boots which allow him to jump much higher than before and can smash certain overhead walls with his turbo jump. The helmet also allows him to swim (he is the only of the five characters with this ability).
- Baleog's bow and arrow has been replaced with a bionic arm which can smash enemies from distance. The range is somewhat limited compared to his arrows from the first game, but the bionic arm also allows Baleog to swing in the air using special hooks and to grab some items inaccessible to others.
- Olaf can release gas that propels him upward, giving him limited aerial range, as well as the power to destroy certain floors. In addition to his hang-gliding abilities, he can also shrink and squeeze through tiny gaps.
- Fang can jump, climb walls by clinging to them with his claws, and slash enemies with the claws from close range.
- Scorch has a fireball attack which damages enemies and can trigger certain switches. He can also fly until he gets exhausted, at which point he can glide softly down, like Olaf.
Graphics and sound
The sequel was originally developed for the SNES in 1997, five years after the first game. The SNES version used technology very similar to the original installment, with the same cartoonish graphics and basic 16-bit sound and music. Later releases (PC, PlayStation, Saturn) featured significantly altered graphics, CD music and extensive voice acting provided by Rob PaulsenRob Paulsen
Robert Fredrick "Rob" Paulsen III , sometimes credited as Rob Paulson, is an American voice actor, best known as the voice behind Raphael from the 1987 cartoon of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yakko Warner and Dr...
(Erik), Jeff Bennett (Baleog & Fang), Jim Cummings
Jim Cummings
James Jonah "Jim" Cummings is an American voice actor who has appeared in almost 100 roles. He has appeared in classic animated movies such as Aladdin and The Lion King, as well as taking on roles in more current films, such as Bee Movie, Princess and the Frog, and Winnie the Pooh.-Personal...
(Olaf, Tomator), and Frank Welker
Frank Welker
Franklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...
(Scorch).
Cameo appearances
Both Olaf and Baleog make an appearance in the 1993 game Rock 'N' Roll Racing
Rock N' Roll Racing
Rock N' Roll Racing is a battle-racing video game developed by Silicon & Synapse and published by Interplay for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993. The background music consists of instrumental versions of several heavy metal and rock n' roll songs,...
; Olaf can be unlocked as a hidden character, while Baleog appears on several billboards advertising "Viking Cola" on the planet Bogmire.
In the Sega 32X
Sega 32X
The Sega 32X, codenamed Project Mars, is an add-on for the Mega Drive/Genesis video game console by Sega. Its aim was to increase the lifespan of the aging Mega Drive/Genesis system, which was facing stiff competition from the SNES...
version of Blackthorne
Blackthorne
Blackthorne is a computer and video game, a cinematic platformer, that was developed by Blizzard Entertainment....
, all three Vikings appear in a secret area in the second snow level http://www.gamefaqs.com/sega32x/584357-blackthorne/cheats.
They most recently appeared as NPCs
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
in Blizzard's MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
in the dungeon Uldaman. One of the quests in Uldaman also requires the player to collect the Shaft of Tsol and Amulet of Gni'Kiv, which spell out "Lost" and "Vik'ing" when read backwards. The shaft and amulet are combined to form the Staff of Prehistoria, which fits the theme of Uldaman and also is an area in The Lost Vikings. In the new expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is the third expansion pack for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft, following the last expansion Wrath of the Lich King. It was officially announced at BlizzCon on August 21, 2009, although dataminers and researchers discovered details...
, they feature prominently in a quest line for both factions in the Badlands area of Eastern Kingdoms.
In the Frozen Throne's "Monolith" scenario, the names for the Dark Troll Commando hero are the same as those for the Lost Vikings: Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce and Olaf the Stout.
The Lost Vikings II contains several references to Blizzard's other games. In the "Dark Ages" period of time, Erik the Swift accidentally gets teleported
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
to the "Swamps of Sorrow", which is a prominent location in the game Warcraft: Orcs and Humans
Warcraft
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy game , developed by Blizzard Entertainment and published by Blizzard and Interplay Entertainment. The MS-DOS version was released in November 1994 and the Macintosh version in late 1996. Sales were fairly high, reviewers were mostly impressed, and the...
(this region was later seen as a ladder
Game ladder
A ladder tournament is a form of tournament for games and sports. It is an extended tournament, which can potentially go on indefinitely. In a ladder tournament, players are listed as if on the rungs of a ladder. The objective for a player is to reach the highest rung of the ladder...
map in Warcraft III and as a zone in World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
). Also, one of Tomator’s monitors shows Rock 'N' Roll Racing
Rock N' Roll Racing
Rock N' Roll Racing is a battle-racing video game developed by Silicon & Synapse and published by Interplay for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993. The background music consists of instrumental versions of several heavy metal and rock n' roll songs,...
playing.
A new unit in Blizzard's recently released StarCraft II is called the Viking, and there is a picture of the unit on their website, subtitled The Lost Vikings http://www.starcraft2.com/features/terran/viking.xml.
In addition to this, repeatedly selecting the Viking unit in Starcraft II makes the Viking pilot mention Erik, Baleog, and Olaf getting lost, as he tries to contact them. He also sets in co-ordinates for Norse by Norse-west.
There is also an arcade console in the Cantina of Battleship Hyperion in StarCraft II called The Lost Viking, which is a playable mini-game http://kotaku.com/5338308/first-starcraft-ii-single-player-campaign-hands+on-with-spoilers.