Stick it to the Zombie!
Loki is a practical joker. No, not Loki from the Marvel Universe, the other one. That’s right, the one from Norse mythology. He’s only gone and nicked Odin’s good eye. Odin is far from impressed and decides in the dead of night to summon forth from their graves four Zombie Vikings to get back his eye. They go by the names of Seagurd, Caw-Kaa, Gunborg and finally a spikey blue haired hedgehog by the name of … wait for it… Hedgy. Sounds quirky doesn’t it? Well, we are talking about Zoink Games, the creators of Stick It To The Man, and this is their latest offering Zombie Vikings.
Zombie Vikings is a four player co-op hackventure. This story brawler takes you on a stab-you-in-the-gut-athon through over twenty five levels across eight worlds as you try to recover Odin’s eye. There are plenty of weapons and cool abilities to unlock and the four characters each have their own individual signature moves and style. That’s not all; it is absolutely packed full of witty dialogue and references, with tumblr, instagram, The Twilight Saga and classic horror movies all getting a nod early on.
In addition to the single player mode and the standard co-op, the game offers a versus mode and side quests too. Versus mode gives you the chance to challenge your fellow co-op players to a fight. This is a nice touch as it makes a change from the main story and there is so much fun to be had beating up a friend. As for the side quests, well, most are simple affairs that usually involve helping a character retrieve a missing item. These side quests give Zoink Games opportunity to cram in yet more witty dialogue like the Blind Witch’s missing cat quest where the witch talks about it being the only cat in the area and that the internet won’t be invented for a thousand years. If you choose to embark on a side quest you will be rewarded handsomely upon completion.
REVIEW - ps4
BY nelmano
DID YOU KNOW - The Pause Song is performed by Brjann Sigurgeirsson, CEO of Image & Form and self confessed karaoke addict. Taking a break from his latest and soon to be released project SteamWorld Heist, he was able to answer a couple of questions for us.
How did you end up singing The Pause Song?
Well, me and Zoink CEO Klaus Lyngeled are buddies and help each other quite a bit. I guess you could say we're each other's favourite shoulder to cry on, since we're in the same boat: we have the same woes, face similar challenges and hope for the same triumphs. Since I sing in a cover band - which is the best kind of primal therapy, by the way! - Klaus asked me if I could "wail" a bit on the Zombie Vikings final boss battle theme. It's a mother of a theme with extra everything, so I went over there and had a lot of fun with it.
The Pause Song was recorded in the same session, and was a total afterthought: by the time I was taking off the headphones after having wailed on the boss theme, Klaus asked if I could add to the already existing "hockey choir" shouting out the menu alternatives, such as "Fight!" and "Side quest!" (He even had me shout "Unpause!", which I thought was hilarious and very much in line with the rest of the game.)
But I misunderstood the instruction for the "Pause!" shout, and wailed it instead. It sounded really muzak-cheesy, and when Klaus and (composer/sound engineer) Joel Bille were done wiping their eyes from laughing, we did a lot more silly "Pause" takes - probably fifty or so entries.
Are you surprised by the reaction to the song?
I actually thought Zoink would use only one of the fifty takes. That is, when you hit the Pause button my voice would announce the pause, and then you'd have this soft pause music going in the background. But Joel, who's a very quirky guy, decided to overload the bossa nova tune with my various "Pause" wails (and other silly comments). The result is like that strange truth about children telling jokes: it's fun the first time you hear it, they realize you're laughing and they immediately tell it again, which is fun in itself. Then it grows old, then it becomes annoying, then it's unbearable, and when they tell the same joke for the hundredth time in ten minutes it suddenly becomes hilarious.
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