Erik

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Erik's mission is simple: you control a young Viking named Erik through 28 levels of scrolling mayhem, shooting or avoiding enemies and watching for deadly obstacles (like spikes etc). Each level has a time limit so you have to find your way out before everything turns ... fast and furious! There are plenty of jewels to collect and make some serious cash and loads of power-ups to buy from various shops during your quest. The game plays much like Rainbow Islands, moving from top to bottom or vise versa on each level, in order to get the necessary key and open the exit door. You need to jump onto several platforms to get to a higher or a lower platform, which gets rather frustrating at times, as you can easily fall all the way down! Each level is full of traps (like on the Rick Dangerous title). Overall, Erik is fun but also far too simplistic. After the first few levels, some hard to detect and avoid traps -like falling spikes and flying arrows- appear. Then, the gameplay becomes more frustrating than fun, but difficulty level aside, Erik is a cool platformer.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
Technically, the game does not offer stunning visuals or superb sounds. Everything looks simplistic, minimal and moves smoothly. The sound effects are fair but there is no any in-game music, which is rather awkward for an Amiga game. The intro tune is nicely done but it's nothing special! Of note: The Amiga version is identical to the Atari ST counterpart!