Written by: Stoo
Date posted: April 9, 2025

By 2000 the output from Blizzard Games had coalesced around three series, a mix of realtime strategy and RPG: Warcraft, Starcraft and of course Diablocraft (you sure about that? -Ed). However during the nineties they did create a few other lesser-known titles that for whatever reasons did not go on to become long-runners. I wouldn’t say they’re lost and forgotten – you can go buy them on battle.net right now – they’re just the sort of thing that only aging MS-DOS nerds are aware of. Like the two of us here and quite possibly like you, our cherished readers.

One of these is the puzzle-platformer, The Lost Vikings. Here three brave Norsemen have been grabbed by alien forces, so you must guide them home through the traps and hazards of many strange and colourful places. Each of the three has unique abilities and you can switch between characters on-the-fly.

This may sound a bit like the more recent indie platformer Trine – but there only one character exists in the level at any moment in time, and is then replaced with the one you choose next. Here in Lost Vikings all three are present, with your view shifting to focus whichever one you’re currently controlling. Rik came up with a good analogy, it’s kind of like  zoomed in version of lemmings where you have just three characters, direct control over them and mercifully they don’t walk off when left unattended.

So then we can look at them in more detail.  Erik can run the fastest, and can take big bounding leaps. He also has a charging attack with his horned helm. Olaf has a shield he can hold horizontally or vertically block off enemies, serve as a platform for his friends or use as a hang glider (yeah, I know, just go with it). Finally Baleog is kitted out for a fight with a sword and bow, and he can also use the latter to trip switches from a distance.

Each Viking is defined however not just by his abilities but also his limitations, which can either totally block progress or leave him helpless at a really bad time. For example when I say Erik can jump a long way, way I mean he’s the only one of the three who can jump at all. So if you encounter a pit, or even just a slightly raised ledge, the other two have a problem.

Also, none of them are fully equipped for a fight. Olaf is a sturdy barrier against any attack, but actually has no way of fighting back. Baleog has the opposite problem: he has the tools of war but no defences, he can neither block nor jump over enemies. Erik can in theory both fight and dodge – and in fact he can take out some robotic baddies that Baleog cannot harm – but his charge needs a run-up which isn’t ideal against projectile attacks.

With that established, it’s time to both put your thinking cap on and limber your platforming reflexes, and get ready to guide these three to the level exit. Sometimes they will have to split up to go find switches or keys  – if you see a downward sloping path with a floor of spike, that’s Olaf’s cue to go hang-gliding. Other times they have to work together – Olaf providing a raised platform for Erik to jump higher, or Erik jumping on see-saws to catapult one of the other two upwards.

As well as enemies, you’ll encounter hazards like disappearing floors with deadly spikes underneath, or blocks raining from the ceiling. Simply falling too far is harmful also. My own nemesis was the floating bubbles you must sometimes leap into to cross pits – it’s not immediately obvious how much of their span counts as a platform you can stand on, and they pop after several seconds. (they are probably not that difficult, just the fear of getting it wrong adds to the stress level and likelihood of error).

There is also the possibilty of the dreaded Unwinnable Situation – there was one point where I sent a character down to a lower area, didn’t have what I needed, and took an elevator out of there. Then when I came back I dropped down again, having forgotten about the lift that was now inaccessible at the top of its run. The other two couldn’t help so there was no option but to restart the level.

So be ready for a lot of trial and error, with the Vikings dying either because you made one mistake in misjudging a jump, or something slightly unfair happens. Its especially galling when you know you’re close to the end and suddenly… a moving platform impales you on spikes, or you time a run under a big piston wrongly and get squashed flat. Back to the start with you! There are no savegames within levels, and no halfway checkpoints either. Fortunately levels are not super-long so , after yet another failure it’s not completely demoralising to take a deep breath and try once again.

A couple of asides: all three Vikings must survive for you to finish a level, but you can keep playing as long as at least one survives. This is not as pointless as it first seems: with nothing left to lose, you may as well now send the survivors off exploring for any other threats so you’ll be better informed for the next run through.

Also, if you get that arcade collection on battle.net, you apparently gain a rewind function. I don’t have that version myself, but I’ve encountered the same idea on other retro collections. It lets you travel back in time by up to 10 seconds and then take another attempt at whatever you were doing. So now you can dodge the moving platform. I’d say such things are entirely acceptable for aging DOS nerds with long gaming backlogs and not a lot of spare time. Myself, I used the saved states in Dosbox-X more than once.

After you’ve made it through a few levels, you might feel spurred on to persevere if you grown a little attached to our three heroes. They show a lot of character, helped by their animation – Baleog has a grumpy swagger, Erik sits dazed for a moment if he charges into a solid wall. There’s also a bit of joking around at the end of levels, sometimes breaking the fourth wall in the process – like wondering exactly how waterfalls seem to float in midair.

Incidentally Lost Vikings actually began on the SNES and also appeared on the Amiga. In the past I’ve been dismissive of games ported from earlier formats, but that’s more an issue with earlier generations where you might suffer inferior EGA graphics or awful bleeping noises. Here, powered by VGA, everything moves smoothly and the levels look great with their distinct themes and bright colour schemes. So I’m not aware of any reason to play this on another format; I suppose as much as I like fuzzy jangly adlib, the amiga version might still sound a bit better.

The game received a sequel in 1997 but after that, as discussed, there was no World of VikingCraft a decade later. Most likely because platform games would fall out of the mainstream as 3D action took over. Also, jokey games about cartoon vikings aren’t fertile ground for the sort of deep lore and world-building that Blizzard liked to write for their big sprawling franchises. So the game’s status as a letter known entry in the Blizzard archive can be taken a simple circumstances, and not an indicator of poor quality.

Quite the contrary, rather than some early sideshow to be disregarded, it’s really quite enjoyable. It mostly keeps to the right side of tempting you into one more try, rather than giving up in frustration – “ok, so, this time I’ll send Erik down on the lift first and he’ll jump over that monster…” Also it’s packed full of 16-bit pixelly charm. So if you’re interested in trying a platformer that pushes you to think creatively, this one comes with our solid recommendation.