Hours upon hours of StarCraft 2 have undoubtedly been clocked since it officially dropped last week, and within those hours of gameplay, gamers have been discovering Easter eggs and nods to other Blizzard creations - old and new.

The most recent discovery is actually a mini-game that runs within the engine. Within the cantina of  Jim Raynor's ship, the Hyperion, you will find an old arcade machine. Throw in a few coins and you'll launch the mini-game.

The mini-game pays homage to one of Blizzard's original franchises, The Lost Vikings. The title was a side-scrolling puzzle/platformer  for SNES, where you control a group of Vikings through the puzzle levels. However, tribute in StarCraft 2 was conformed to fit the theme of the long awaited real-time strategy title.

In the mini-game you control a Terran Viking craft in top-down fashion and fight your way through groups of Zerg and Protoss ships that fly in various patterns. Throughout the game you will come across various power-ups and bonuses as you fight your way towards new enemies and bosses.

Check out the video below to see the mini-game in action:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stmosRJSYlw

I have to say, this looks great for a mini-game squeezed into an already packed and polished release. The graphics and fluidness rivals many of the titles that are on Steam, XBLA, iPhone, etc. and even seems like it could be a separate casual release on it's own.

StarCraft 2 is available now for PC and Mac, and has been getting some positive reviews.

Have you stumbled across The Lost Viking mini-game yet?

Source: Joystiq