Volgarr the Viking

released on Sep 13, 2013

Remember when games were tough? Return to the Golden Age of arcades with an all-NEW hardcore action experience that pulls no punches. Volgarr the Viking possesses all the hallmarks of the true classics - simple controls, high challenge, and meticulous design - combined with hand-made pixel


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The game's difficulty comes mainly from: A) old style jump controls (ie. you can't change trajectory once in the air, except with the double jump), B) somewhat newbie-hostile level design that results in plenty of trial-and-error gameplay, C) unforgiving health system where you lose gear when you take damage, and D) long distances between checkpoints.

And yet... this isn't as rage-inducing as I would've expected.

It kind of reminds me of Celeste, in the way that you first need to figure out a sequence of actions, and then execute it with little room for improvization or mistakes. Also in the way that you will die a lot. The difference is that Celeste has waaay more checkpoints, an interesting story, and actually enjoyable fluid movement.

While I've never beaten this and have uninstalled it several times, it has never made me go "I'm never playing this again".

Yeah I'm not good enough for this crap.

Every once in a while I go back to this and sometimes I get just a bit farther, most times I just end up wasting 1-2 hours playing the same bullshit levels over and over. Fun aesthetic, but the difficulty is off-putting, even as someone who enjoys difficult games.

Simple gameplay kept engaging throughout with satisfying difficulty & level design. I'm a big fan of the very deliberate design choice where most actions are commitments that need to be thought out beforehand & Volgarr does this extremely well. Plenty of cool little details to discover & the soundtrack kicks ass.

I don't know why I torture myself buying these games I see streamed online and think "hey, I'll have just as much fun with Volgarr as these guys are!" Pure foolishness.

A personal fave because it kickstarted the Good Game Design series. Certainly not for everyone but I loved the brutal difficulty because it made it that much sweeter when I finally beat it!