Vikings on Trampolines Hands-On Preview | gamescom 2022

ign.com:

Much like the two button fighting game, Divekick, Vikings on Trampolines is a game that manages to squeeze a ton of fun and depth out of the simplest of controls. It’s a 2D “bounce-em-up” game that is surprisingly self-explanatory: You are a Viking, you bounce off trampolines, and attempt to stay alive by avoiding the ground like it’s lava. It’s about as easy to pick up-and-play as a game can get, and based on my 15-20 minutes with an early build of the game, it’s a game that I definitely want to pick up and play much more of in the future.

The wild thing about Vikings on Trampolines is that it’s a game that’s played entirely with the control stick. Every level begins with you being dropped onto a trampoline, and from there you can only move left and right as you aim to land on another trampoline to keep yourself alive. You can hold down to drop faster, and you can hold up to slow your descent and give yourself a little flutter jump. And that’s about it. Those are all of the controls that you need to explain to someone who’s never played.

It’s the things that get between you and the life-saving trampolines that really make Vikings on Trampoline sing - whether that be other players, enemies that need to be bounced on and knocked out, or soccer balls that need to be smacked into the opposing goal. There was a ton of variety on display even in just the short demo that I got to play. The main attraction so far seems to be the adventure mode, which is fully playable both in solo and co-op, and pits you against a series of boss battles, challenges, and minigames. In one boss fight, we had to avoid getting crushed by a bird in a giant stone statue, timing our jumps so we could get above the statue to bounce on it when it stomped