The Lost Vikings 2

The Lost Vikings 2

North American SNES cover art.
Developer(s) Blizzard Entertainment (SNES)
Beam Software (Saturn, PSX, PC)
Publisher(s) Interplay Entertainment
Designer(s) Ron Millar, Chris Metzen (additional design)
Composer(s) Glenn Stafford (SNES), Brian Luzietti and Johann Langlie (Saturn, PSX and PC music)
Platform(s) SNES, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, PC
Release date(s)
Genre(s) Side-scrolling puzzle, platformer
Mode(s) Single-player, 2 player cooperative
Distribution Cartridge, CD-ROM

The Lost Vikings 2 is a puzzle platform video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment and published by Interplay The sequel to The Lost Vikings, it features the original three characters plus two new playable characters, Fang the wolf and Scorch the dragon. 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, Erik, 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, Erik, 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 continuously humorously mistake for a different animal) 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 U.S.). The SNES version, being produced and released earlier, did not feature the secondary title and was called simply The Lost Vikings 2. The SNES version is highly rare in the PAL region while the PlayStation 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 The Lost Vikings 2 modernised and on modern platforms to evolve from the aging SNES.

Character abilities

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 similar, cartoonish graphics and 16-bit sound and music. Later releases (PC, PlayStation, Saturn) featured pre-rendered 3D graphics, CD music and extensive voice acting provided by Rob Paulsen (Erik), Jeff Bennett (Baleog & Fang), Jim Cummings (Olaf, Tomator), and Frank Welker (Scorch).

References

  1. http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/562633-lost-vikings-2/data
  2. http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/198212-norse-by-norsewest-the-return-of-the-lost-vikings/data
  3. http://www.gamefaqs.com/saturn/574568-norse-by-norsewest-the-return-of-the-lost-vikings/data
  4. http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/198213-norse-by-norsewest-the-return-of-the-lost-vikings/data