 There's a seemingly endless number of indie-developed side-scrolling action platformers that are available on Steam right now. And it's getting to the point where they all sort of blend together. There's mega-popular games like Cave Story, Shovel Knight, Battle Block Theater, but then there's dozens and dozens of other games that all look and sound the same. And it seems like you get the general gist of the gameplay just from one glance. Run to the right, jump over stuff, kill stuff. But you know what? That's not unlike how the NES was back in the day, too. Action platformers all over the place, with the popular ones being Mega Man, Contra, and Castlevania. But then there was Metal Storm, Power Blade, Vice Project Doom, Loji Man, Shadow of the Ninja, Little Nemo, Clash of Demon Head, and on and on and on. The same problem affected those games, too, or at least it did for me. They blended together, so when I was able to sit down and play them, they became much more distinct. The same thing applies to a game like Volgaard the Viking. Watching the preview video, it looks like the same stuff you've seen tons of times. So what's the difference between this and, say, Dungeons, the Eye of Draconis, or They Bleed Pixels, or Superhouse of Dead Ninjas or Mercenary Kings, or Gigantic Army, or I could seriously name like 15 more games? One difference is that you immediately start hacking and slashing everything right from the get-go. No story, no nothing, just go kill stuff. What you see is what you get. Another difference is that this game is really, really hard. I'm talking Higane, Ghosts and Goblins, Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania kinda hard. Volgaard the Viking is a puzzle platformer that requires a lot of trial and error. In other words, you have to memorize certain patterns and enemy spawning points, and you're going to die a lot, and let me stress, a lot. The gameplay's closest comparison is probably Super Ghouls and Ghosts. It has a very similar double jump, with the difference being you swing your sword for an attack as your second jump. You also get weapon upgrades for your sword, and you can throw a spear, giving you a myriad of ways to make enemies with high blood pressure burst like blood-filled water balloons. The spear has an additional functionality where you can stick one into the wall and use it as a jumping platform, kinda like Darkwing Duck for NES. You'll be doing that a lot, as the level design is a lot more open-ended here than the games that inspired it. Make no mistake though, it's still mostly walk to the right and kill stuff. The levels are very long, and you get just one checkpoint in the middle of each. So yeah, the hook in Volgaard the Viking is the difficulty, and just like Super Ghouls and Ghosts, the graphics and the sound here are so well done that you want to just keep going, despite the difficulty, just so you can see the next challenge. And once you get there, you die immediately, but still. One additional thing I really like is that there's a speed run mode here, so that gives you one more method to approach the gameplay. The controls are very professional and near flawless, so if you die and you will, it's your fault when you do. And if you're like me, that's gonna grate on your mind, and you're gonna want to get back at this damn game by getting past that part of the level, god damn it. Anyway, I know Volgaard the Viking gets kind of lost in the shuffle in this day and age because there's so many other games that look and sound just like it, but make no mistake, this is a well-main game that will kick your ass. When it comes to games this hard, you either love them or hate them. I love them because when you finally get past a certain point after dying about 75 times, it is really satisfying. It makes you feel like you've really accomplished something. So yeah, if that sounds like your kind of thing, then you gotta check out Volgaard the Viking.