The Video Game Project
A Closer Look At The Prototypes That Became Your Favourite Games!
An earlier "Vikings" Super Nintendo Prototype
The Lost Vikings is a puzzle-platformer style video game developed by Silicon & Synapse (now Blizzard Entertainment) and published by Interplay. It was originally released for the Super NES in 1993, then subsequently released for the Amiga, Amiga CD32, MS-DOS, and Mega Drive/Genesis systems the next year; the Mega Drive / Genesis version contains five stages not present in any other version of the game.
In the game 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 in each level to the exit (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 such 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. The Vikings each have three health points which they can lose by getting hurt by enemies or by falling from great heights. Should any Viking run out of health points, he dies; gameplay will then continue with any remaining Vikings, but the level becomes unwinnable, and the player will eventually have to restart the level and try again (the game offers unlimited continues).
![Vikings Super Nintendo Prototype - PCB Front](images/vikingssnesfront.jpg)