Sail for Valhalla

Sail for Valhalla is a free browser game by VARGA, the Nordic duo behind Neo Viking Rock Trap. You steer a longship down a fjord as the war-band rows for open water, dodging rocks and drift ice, collecting oars for speed and ramming enemy skiffs. It is built on and scored to the VARGA track of the same name, and a single collision with rock or ice ends the run.

The fjord scrolls past in lanes and the ship holds its position while you move between them — four lanes in landscape, three on a portrait screen with the camera pulled in tighter. Rocks and drift ice end the run on contact. Enemy skiffs do not: you ram straight through them for points, at the cost of a little speed.

Oars floating in the channel add speed. Speed also climbs on its own with distance, so the run gets harder whether or not you collect anything, and the lanes get correspondingly less forgiving. There is always at least one safe lane; if a wall looks solid, look again.

A first run typically lasts between thirty and sixty seconds. Stori or Reign stands at the prow — your pick, and cosmetic for now.