While the game is very much a product of its time, there is fun to be had here. Picking up bombs from fallen foes allows Kyle, or Blackthorne, to blow walls up, and this means there are various routes through the levels. There is a cool “dodge into the background” move that both Kyle and the enemies can pull off, defeating foes relies on pinpoint timing in order to pop out and shoot, and gunfights devolve very quickly into a game of peek-a-boo.
Now, playing this game for the first time in 2021, it feels a little, shall we say, clunky to say the least, and with no rose-tinted glasses to hide the rough edges, I have to admit that this is my least favourite of the three games. It appears Kyle was sent to Earth, as when he is brought back to Tuul, he is carrying a mean shotgun and must now dispense buckshot-based justice to all who stand in his way.
In 1994, Blackthorne told an epic tale of Kyle, crown prince of Tuul, who was sent away as his father was killed to become a man, and then come back and save the world. The final game in the collection is Blackthorne a game I hadn’t played previously so you’ll be glad to know that there are no more rambling reminiscences. The thrill is still there too however, and introducing my 10 year old son to the multiplayer has been a nice option to have, almost handing on the gaming torch moment. The shooting and driving bits are still fun, but winning a race seems to be more by luck than judgement these days. You see, the only way to get round some of the tighter turns in this racer is to slide, and in a more grown up and, importantly, more sober state, the slide mechanics come across as, well, not very good. However, these days, it isn’t as good as I remember, and that’s largely down to the controls. It didn’t matter that Mario Kart was a much better racing game Rock N Roll Racing had the attitude that made up for the lack of the ultimate polish that Nintendo’s title had, and still remains a treasured part of my gaming history. If you can imagine a group of hard working students, sitting around at the end of the day, after some liquid refreshment had been consumed at the Student’s Union, what better way to round off the day than by playing a racing combat game featuring some of the finest licensed music? Yes, shooting your friends to the strains of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid and winning a race while Steppenwolf’s Born to be Wild plays are truly the things memories are made of. Rock N Roll Racing is another game that I played in my youth, this time back in 1993. Long story short, this is as perfect a port of a game from my memory as we are likely to get, with it working really well. Yes, there was co-op in the older versions, but it was limited to just two players. Also included though are three versions of The Lost Vikings: the original SNES version, the version that was released on the Sega Mega Drive, which is slightly different, and the so-called definitive version something which is a bit of a mash-up of the other two, with added features like three player co-op. The visuals look exactly as I remember them and in fact The Lost Vikings plays exactly as I remember – this has been like a nice warm bubble bath of nostalgia. Doubly so given the limited power of those early machines. And this is barely scratching the surface, as the depth on display is impressive, especially when you consider that this was Silicon and Synapse’s (as Blizzard was called back in the day) first console game. So, in this way, the three Vikings must link up and use their powers to help each other. Erik also has a nifty line in charging headbutts, and can take down walls, Baelog’s bow can be used to hit switches that are out of reach, and Olaf is strong enough to work as a platform for the other Vikings to stand on. The Vikings are, in no particular order, Erik the Swift, who can run and jump Baelog the Fierce, who is the only armed Viking tooled up with a sword and bow, and finally Olaf the Stout whose Shield can not only block any hits, but can also be used to glide around the levels if it’s held above his head.
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