A new ROM hack for the SNES puzzle platformer The Lost Vikings has just been released, which allows players to experience some of the bonus features that were added to its later Mega Drive / Genesis port.
This includes the ability to experience the game with three players instead of two and explore five additional stages that were originally missing from its initial release.
Developed by Silicon & Synapse (the company that later became Blizzard Entertainment) and published by Interplay Productions (the creators of Fallout) in 1992, The Lost Vikings is a game that sees players take control of Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce, and Olaf the Stout after they are kidnapped by the intergalactic zookeeper Tomator to become specimens in his zoo.
Managing to escape from captivity, due to a mistake with Tomator's teleporter, the three Vikings head off on a journey through time & space, to find their way home, using each of their abilities to carve a path through the game's many levels.
According to the readme.txt, the new hack, which is called The Lost Vikings - Ragnarok Edition is the work of an individual going by the name Ragnarok, who decided to make the project as a tribute to his father who was the person who bought him the game from Sears back when he was a child and spent many, many hours playing it. In addition to this, it is also dedicated to his two young sons, with the desire to add a 3-player option to the SNES title, being to let them play together as a family.
Besides the SNES and Mega Drive / Genesis versions of the game we've mentioned, The Lost Vikings was also released for DOS, Amiga, Amiga CD32, Game Boy Advance, and modern Windows PCs as part of Battle Net in 2014.
The SNES and Mega Drive versions of the game were also included in the Blizzard Arcade Collection in 2021, for Windows PCs, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One, alongside a new "Definitive Edition" of the game that, similar to this mod, combined the SNES title's music and visuals with the Mega Drive / Genesis's additional content.
Currently, the only way to download this new patch is via a Google Drive folder linked on romhacking.net.