The Lost Vikings

The Lost Vikings is a side-scrolling platform adventure where the player alternates control of the three Viking characters, guiding each of them one at a time (though control may be swapped from character to character at any point) from a designated start point to the exit. The Mega Drive/Genesis version of the game offers a two-player cooperative mode in which each player simultaneously controls one Viking and is allowed to change control to the third, unused Viking at any point. Every level is designed so that each Viking must contribute his unique skills to help the other two through to the end. Similarly, to finish the level, all three characters must reach the exit point.

Every Viking has three health points that can be lost by getting hurt by enemies or by falling from great heights. Any Viking that runs out of health points will die. Gameplay will then continue with the remaining Vikings, but the level becomes unwinnable, and the player will eventually have to restart and try again. However, the game offers unlimited continues.

Three Vikings—Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce, and Olaf the Stout—get kidnapped by Tomator, emperor of the alien Croutonian empire, for an inter-galactic zoo. They are able to escape the ship, but get lost in various periods of time. They must traverse various bizarre locations, and eventually confront and defeat Tomator, to find their way home.

The Lost Vikings was initially influenced by the popular puzzle-based game, Lemmings. The original concept for the title had players managing hundreds of tiny onscreen vikings with different skills to defeat enemies and conquer enemy territory. However, as the game was to be developed primarily for consoles, developers realized that larger characters would work better for television screens and that players liked having direct control of the game characters. So they decreased the number of vikings down to five, then to three. Console limits on the number of onscreen colors also influenced the game's color palette, with the game's artists favoring more vibrant colors to stand out on a television screen.

Computer Gaming World in 1993 called The Lost Vikings "a clever blend of comedy and role playing". The magazine concluded that "the game is a unique puzzle solving adventure, great for people who enjoy using their cerebral cortex along with their eye to hand coordination". Zach Meston of VideoGames & Computer Entertainment praised the difficult puzzles, humor, distinctive visual style, personable character animation, and upbeat music. He summarized the game as "funny, fresh and challenging enough to keep you playing for hours on end".

Electronic Gaming Monthly in 1994 remarked of the Genesis version that "the music doesn't have the kick of the Super NES version (or the truly colorful graphics)", but it is generally a well done conversion of "a really good puzzle game". AllGame stated it was "methodically paced and intelligently designed" and that "the nice graphics combined with the funny (and sometimes helpful) dialogue gives The Lost Vikings more personality than most other video games. To top it off, the controls are sharp, and the level of challenge is high without being frustrating". Super Gamer magazine gave the SNES version a score of 92%, writing: "A huge variety of puzzles to this Lemmings game. Funny, fun and completely addictive".