Game: Trolls vs. Vikings: Reborn
Genre: Strategy, Casual, Adventure
System: Steam (Windows)
Developers | Publishers: Megapop Games
Controller Support: No
Price: US $5.00 | UK £4.24 | EU € 5,00
Release Date: March 7th 2025
A review code was provided, with thanks to Megapop Games.
The tower defense game is a stately old video game genre, with ‘80s precursors and a true outing for the style in the ‘90s with an Atari arcade game called Rampart. Like all well-founded genres, there are a lot of substyles and niches, from character-focused deep strategy games to simpler grids that require you to manage your resources in order to dissuade your foes. I’m better suited to the former sub-genre, which is why I was fond of Defenders Quest 2, but the latter style, again best exemplified by the approachable Plants vs. Zombies, is a juggernaut for players who want quick games and a lot of options.
Trolls Vs. Vikings: Reborn is very much in that botanic vein. The bulk of your time will be spent managing your mana stone income while choosing which trolls you want to deploy and in what lane, all to fox the invading Vikings who clearly want to relitigate that whole Asgard Vs. Jotunheim thing. And, of course, just so you know, they mean trouble, Loki is there. How’s the game? Let’s take a peek!
Trolls Vs Vikings Vs Loki
Mythology heads know not all Lokis are dark, brooding Englishmen who look fantastic in black leather, green silk, and gold highlights. In tragic fact, that’s not the mythological Loki at all — he’s actually a ginger brat who calls Odin his blood brother. When he’s not causing trouble across the entirety of Creation, he’s also good at Viking rap battles, which I’m delighted to tell you is 100% a thing. So, having him appear early in Trolls Vs. Vikings: Reborn is our cue not to take the story too seriously, and also, don’t take his loyalties seriously, either.
Loki is totally here to help the trolls fend off hordes of big, burly men, guiding you through the early tutorial stages and offering advice on how to deploy your trolls. Because Loki likes his wagers fair (up to a point, because they’re more fun that way), it’s good advice. The rest of your stratagems will rely on how focused you are on mana generation and how good you are at flat, plain tower defense games in general.
Don’t worry if you’re not! Each level offers three difficulty settings, and while Normal is not a synonym for Easy, it’s certainly a nice, even difficulty scale that gives you plenty of wiggle room to figure out your preferred approach.
Defend Jotunheim!
The subtypes of trolls at your disposal are going to be pretty familiar if this genre is your speed. You’ve got the cheap energy generators, the cheap one-shot disposables, the increasingly pricey ranged shooters, and the melee experts with their various quirks, plus a few others. I’m fond of the dragon-troll type that breathes fire. I don’t even know if he’s cost-efficient, but he looks cool as heck.
You’ve even got a few Uh Oh buttons in the form of spells you can fire off once or twice to buy your colorful troops a few seconds of breathing room, and a pause button easily accessible in the corner if you’ve got something in your eye. Or a burning need for a snack.
While I’m no expert, the cost management part of everything is clearly accessible and intuitive when you’re throwing your first squads together. You should know to have a good mix of cheap labor and high-quality offense you can afford when the Vikings start coming in angry mobs. The goal is easy as pie: Trolls are on the left, Vikings flood in from the right, and if they get past the final leftmost line of squares, that’s a ballgame.
The complexity comes as the levels escalate the kind of challenges the Vikings have to offer, and the original edition of this game revelled in having some legendarily difficult optional battles available to players. That’s back and bigger than ever this time out, and with zero shame, I will tell you I did not do that. I’ll take them at their word. That stuff looks as hard as Fenrir’s fangies, and I’m definitely not that sharp.
A World of Ice and Fire
Trolls Vs. Vikings cleans up its presentation with a freshened take on its cell-style Flash animation aesthetic. Colors pop, the line art is nicely enhanced, and individual units seem a little livelier compared to older screenshots. The wheel was not reinvented, and with such a specific art style, it didn’t need to be, but the tread has definitely tightened up. It’s pleasant to look at while you forge through it all, and the developers definitely deserve credit for one major change from its original iterations.
As one might cynically guess from the game’s loading art, replete with a ferocious lady troll giving her best Clash of Clans snarl, yes, this is a franchise that began life as a free-to-play game available on a variety of digital storefronts. Truly one of Loki’s most devious concoctions, and I’ve long seen his trickster hand behind gacha games the world over. But Trolls vs Vikings: Reborn has read the room and seen that players are increasingly tired of these shenanigans, and went with the approach of making their game appealing and affordable upfront. That’s a laudable choice!
A Few Techie Notes
Just to go over how one plays the game itself, it’s definitely a situation where you need quick controls to stay on top of the situation. Tower Defense games like this shine on moderate PCs, where a mouse can help you flick away your attackers, or on mobile touchscreens. As a Steam Deck player, I can report that if you’ve got the finagling down, you’ll have no troubles here, either. The touchpad and shoulder buttons work well in a pinch, and while the Deck’s screen is never quite as responsive as an iPad, it’s still up to snuff in ensuring quick and careful placement here.
The whole package is also pretty trim, meaning it shouldn’t stress most anything you can install it on, and it runs smooth and without any laggy issues that might mean a Viking suddenly appears where you weren’t expecting it to.
Conclusion
Trolls vs. Vikings: Reborn isn’t reinventing the tower defense genre, but for those who love the simple yet complex options of similar games like Plants vs. Zombies, this is going to be a welcome treat. With accessible difficulty and intuitive handling, it’s easy to drop a lot of time noodling around with your tactical options, feeling clever until you’re ready to up the heat on yourself. That makes Trolls vs. Vikings a good contender for your first tower defense-style game, too.
For those who like tougher challenges, Trolls vs. Vikings has your back, too. The Valhalla difficulty challenges are exactly that: beat them, and you can rest knowing that Odin himself might admire your strategic wits. Me, I’ll be in the back playing Normal with the old dude’s ravens, Hugin and Munin. They cheat, but they’re good listeners.
Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot
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