Vikings Row!

Vikings Row! – Row, row, row your boat...

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to row a longboat through fjords and rivers? Well if you have then take a closer look at this little number called Vikings Row!

I must be honest, I was wondering when I first clicked on downloading this title if it was going to be rowing Vikings, as in arguing or rowing as in paddling. I was a little relieved at first to discover that it indeed was the seafaring option, but after using the controls I was questioning if I was going to prefer the other one. It’s a miracle that the Vikings would have got much further than the dock if they relied on the controls that this title tries to use – but more about this later.

The object of the game is to try and row the longboat through a twisty-turny course, collecting gold coins along the way and trying to beat the clock and also not lose all your crew in the process. To do this you must utilise the visual indicators on the screen. The bar along the right side of the screen shows you how far you are through the course. Above this is the clock which you must try to beat or you otherwise lose the game. The amount of gold you collect is marked in bronze, silver or gold shields (which are awarded once a certain amount of gold is gathered). Lastly the helmets indicate how many crew members you have, and these get depleted for various reasons as you go along the course if you’re not lucky – and yes, if you lose all your crew, the ship sinks.

One thing I did like about this particular game is that it actually has a bit of originality and the challenges are certainly no walkover. Indeed the getting through the course in one piece or within the allotted time is quite a challenge that Odin would be hard pressed to achieve.

Thankfully there are other objects you can collect along the way which will improve your chances of a successful voyage. For example, you can gain valuable seconds by gathering the time boost.

Now, back to the rather cumbersome controls. As anyone who’s rowed a boat may know, you have an oar (or more) on both sides of the ship. To go forward, you must push both simultaneously in the same direction, and do the reverse to go backwards. To turn, you can either stroke on the one side or to turn more quickly, stroke in a clockwise or anti-clockwise motion.

After quite an amount of time trying to row in a straight line and making corrections to the direction, the adjustments can be either too much or too little, usually resulting in facing the wrong way or getting stuck sideways – costing valuable time. To be honest, it’s no wonder the Vikings all had such long hair and beards as they probably gained these through being stuck going around in circles for epic amounts of time!

As mentioned before, this game is a novel idea and one that should be commended for its efforts. The controls did let it down somewhat but I’m sure given enough practice it will become second nature.

Rating 68%

Positives

Novel idea and challenging

Quite a few courses to master

You can change the designs on the ships sails

Negatives

You can’t skip the long intro – which is a bit tedious whenever you just want to play the game or replay the failed mission

Controls are not all that responsive at times

No mini-games to pillage villages