Norseman

About

Norseman casts you as a Viking guarding a magical helmet on a grid of hexagons. Enemies pour down the screen in waves, moving only downward or diagonally. You can move any direction, but both you and foes wrap around the screen’s edges. To strike, position yourself in an enemy’s hex before they attack. Since enemies can’t move up, flanking them from above is key. Each fallen foe leaves a corpse that blocks movement, letting you build traps, or accidentally box yourself in. Five enemy types cycle through waves, with each round harder than the last. The game resets after all waves, but with tougher challenges and your score intact. Death or letting the helmet steal ends it. The strategic depth shines through simple mechanics. Calculated use of corpses turns the battlefield into a maze, forcing enemies into dead ends. Difficulty ramps keep things tense, with later waves demanding precise timing and pathing. Though primitive by today’s standards, its blend of real-time positioning and planning feels sharp for 1983. Players who enjoy tactical defenses with a puzzle-like twist will find it satisfyingly rugged.

Storyline

In Norseman the player controls a Viking warrior trying to defend the magic Golden Viking Helmet. The screen shows a courtyard divided in hexagons. The player has to protect the Golden Viking Helmet, which is at the bottom of the screen, from the attack of five different kinds of enemies. Each wave of enemies is composed of 5 of them. The enemies will appear in the top of the screen and will move toward the bottom of the screen; they can only move down (or diagonally down), and once they reach the bottom or the side of the screen they will reappear on the top or the opposite side. The Viking can move in all six directions, and will also reappear on the opposite side whenever he reaches the border. In order to attack, the Viking has to move inside the hexagon the enemy is in before the enemy moves against him first. As the enemies can only move downwards, approaching them from the 3 upper sides is advised. When an enemy dies, the corpse remains in the hexagon, making it impossible to move through it. Well placed corpses can function as a trap for other enemies, as they can only move downwards. The player can also get trapped by surrounding corpses. Once all 5 enemies are dead, a new wave of enemies comes. Each new wave has different enemies, in the following order: giants, octopuses, dragons, skeletons and bats. Once all waves are beaten, the game restarts from the first wave in a greater difficulty, while retaining the player's score. If the player dies or the Golden Viking Helmet is stolen, the game is over.