I do enjoy a good hack and slash adventure, and have done since I first clapped my eyes on Taito's epic Rastan coin-op way back when I was a wee nipper. Navigating a 2D fantasy world, wielding a mighty sword to do battle with hideous beasts has always had an extremely appealing lure. As much as I enjoy my platforming action involving cute anthropomorphic characters, bright sunny forests to explore and coins / apples / gems (delete as appropriate) to collect, there is something captivating about a darker realm, with volcanoes, temples, graveyards and dragon's lairs. Rastan still remains one of my favourite arcade games of all time, and while many games have attempted to reuse this winning formula, I have never found anything to beat it for satisfying my 2D hack and slash itch. So it was with gratuitous levels of excitement that I approached Volgarr the Viking, after all, it has all the correct ingredients to match or even (gasp) beat Rastan as the chop-em-up 2D platformer of choice.
