Helheim Hassle

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Helheim Hassle is a Puzzle-Platformer released in 2020 on PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, with a port to PlayStation 4 in 2021. Players take the role of Bjørn, a Viking who has zero enthusiasm for the battle and death that the rest of his culture holds in high regard, but through a quirk of bad luck he still finds himself dying and being sent to Valhalla to join his kinsmen in glorious battle for all eternity. When a stroke of luck results in a lazy skeleton named Pesto resurrecting him for assistance (I suppose making him Bjørn again?), Bjørn seeks to help out Pesto and hopefully finagle a spot in Helheim, the Norse version of hell, which he believes has to be better than the eternal misery of Valhalla. However, to get there, Bjørn will need to get past a series of puzzles and obstacles caused by some sort of recent “renovation”.

To get past these puzzles, Bjørn must make use of the fact that he’s, well, dead. As such, he can detach his head and limbs from his body and control them independently, making use of them in different ways to hit switches and pull levers to clear his path. It’s a silly concept, but it fits the game’s absurd themes well, and the game keeps things mechanically interesting by adding new elements throughout the game that do a good job capitalizing on this game’s central gameplay concept.

The presentation here uses cartoony 2D visuals that fit the game’s silly theme well, with a forgettable soundtrack and full voice acting for characters that plays a far bigger impact on the game’s comedic characters and storyline.

Overall, I think Helheim Hassle is a solid Puzzle-Platformer that doesn’t revolutionize the genre, but has a good central puzzle element that it does a good job making use of thanks to solid puzzle design, and this is all surrounded by a nice humorous presentation. While nothing here absolutely thrilled me, I found it all to be good without any major flaws, and I think that Puzzle-Platformer fans should definitely give this one a look.

tl;dr – Helheim Hassle is a Puzzle-Platformer about a resurrected Viking who is sick of Valhalla and looking to get a spot in Helheim instead, and to do so he must solve puzzles by detaching his body parts. it’s a silly game that does a good job delivering on its humor and makes good use of its central game mechanic with excellent puzzle design. This one isn’t likely to make any waves in the genre, but it’s a solid Puzzle-Platformer all the same, and worth checking out.

Grade: B

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