OK, I admit it. I love weird, morbid, and strange games. I thoroughly enjoyed Manual Samuel by developer Perfectly Paranormal, with its strange mechanics and morbid theme. I enjoyed it so much, I jumped at the chance to review their newest title, Helheim Hassle.

In Helheim Hassle, you play as Bjørn, a pacifist Viking who hates the idea of dying and going to Valhalla. Of course, he then dies in an accident and gets taken to Valhalla. When Bjørn is resurrected to assist with a task for the mysterious Pesto, he sees a way out. Using Bjørn’s undying corpse’s ability to detach and combine limbs, you must solve challenging puzzles and navigate tricky levels in order to retrieve a magical item. In return, Pesto will try to grant Bjørn a permanent residence in Helheim.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poLiWZM1VOc

Being an undead zombie, basically, Bjørn cannot really die. However, his limbs have the unfortunate habit of falling off. You would think this is a bad thing, but for Bjørn, it’s actually pretty handy because he can control them remotely. You see Helheim is under construction for remodeling, so in order to progress through the levels, you must solve puzzles. This requires a little ingenuity and thinking outside the box.

For example, you might need to detach an arm and throw it to a higher ledge to pull a switch. Or you might need to remove his head and roll it through a small gap to speak to an NPC on the other side. You might need to remove two limbs and combine them to reach a ledge and traverse a gap. That means you’re really going to have to use your noodle to figure out which body part (or parts) you need to utilize to progress. There is an in-game codex that lists all the combinations you’ve unlocked that really helps with this.

The puzzles in Helheim Hassle are not difficult in themselves, once you get the hang of things. What occasionally makes the puzzles difficult is the poorly optimized controls. Sometimes when you detach a limb, if that limb is too close to the torso, control reverts back to the torso instead of staying with the limb. This makes controlling that limb difficult and sometimes frustrating. Despite this, I found most of the puzzles to be extremely fun and challenging, without making me want to bang my head into the wall.

The only time I got extremely annoyed was during chase sequences where you have to solve a puzzle while running from the enemy. I dislike chase sequences in general, but trying to solve a puzzle and executing the solution while dealing with wonky controls made me scream and rage quit a couple of times.

The comedy in Helheim is golden. The dialog and cut scenes are full of laugh out loud moments. The game is fully voiced and the actors have great comedic timing. The cartoony art style is very well done and adds to the comedy. Like the goblin with an arrow-pierced heart tattoo that reads “UR DAD” that made me belly laugh. The jokes do get dark in some places, but never get so dark they are cringey or unfunny. A little dark humor is to be expected in a game where the protagonist is a zombie though, right?

Even with the sometimes wonky controls, I really enjoyed Helheim Hassle. The laugh out loud comedy combined with challenging puzzles and the side-scrolling adventure-platformer gameplay really create a unique and fun experience. I hope you’ll check it out!

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Helheim Hassle was provided by Perfectly Paranormal for this review.

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Helheim Hassel

$19.99

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Creative and Unique
• Fun, Challenging Puzzles
• Lots and Lots of Hilarious Dialog and Cutscenes
• Beautiful Cartoony Art Style Adds to the Humor

Cons

• Poorly Optimized Controls Make Puzzles Frustrating at Times
• Chase Sequences Are Sometimes Rage Inducing