Much like the two-button fighting game Divekick, Vikings on Trampolines manages to squeeze a lot of fun and depth out of the simplest of controls. This is a surprisingly self-explanatory 2D “bounce” game. You are a Viking, bouncing on trampolines and trying to stay alive by dodging the ground like lava. It’s as easy to pick up and play as the game gets and based on the 15-20 minutes in the early build of the game it’s a game I definitely want to pick up and play a lot more The future.
The wild thing about Vikings on Trampolines is that it’s a game played entirely with control sticks. Every level starts with being dropped on a trampoline. From there you can simply move left or right to land on another trampoline and stay alive. Hold down to speed up your fall speed, hold down to slow down your descent speed, and you can jump a little flutteringly. And that’s about it. These are all controls that need to be explained to someone who has never played.
What really makes Trampoline Vikings sing is what lies between you and the life-saving trampoline – other players, enemies you need to bounce off and knock out, soccer balls you need to slam into the opposite goal. The short demo I played alone had a wide variety on display. The main attraction so far seems to be the fully playable adventure mode, both solo and co-op, where you’ll face off against a series of boss fights, challenges, and mini-games. In one boss fight, I had to avoid getting crushed by a giant stone bird. Timed the jump so that the statue bounces back when stepped on.
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Another had to precariously bounce a constantly moving Viking ship. Trampolines slide down the deck as the ship is tossed by the waves, trying to knock down Boss and his pet whale. It swallows water and tries to swallow the entire ship. This is an incredibly dynamic boss fight, with stages changing over and over as the whale continues to gradually destroy the ship, eventually splitting the ship into two of hers, half submerged. there is. Avoid falling ice blocks that threaten to knock us out.
Besides boss fights, there were fun jump rope mini-games, survival missions where you had to face waves of enemies falling from the sky, mini-games played on a world map, and sometimes three balloons for every player. , Mario Kart-style, competing to be the last standing as you attempt to smash your friends over the spiked edge of the map.
Vikings on Trampolines is multiplayer at its brightest, with a co-op adventure mode as well as a competitive multiplayer mode for up to four players. I’ve only been able to play the simplest maps, so I don’t know how wild it will be, but the addition of the power-ups certainly made for some chaotic fun. There are axes that are thrown at enemies and knock out when hit. You can grab the hammer to increase the knockback power. Weight that makes you invincible, but bounces very low. Wings that allow you to fly up and avoid danger for a while.
Overall, Vikings on the Trampoline seems like a blast in the right setting. It remains to be seen if this level of variety will be maintained throughout the campaign, or if the multiplayer enjoyment will be maintained in the solo experience, but in all other respects Vikings on Trampolines is an indie multiplayer with his It has all the elements of Darling. Same lines as Towerfall, Samurai Gunn, and Overcooked.
