I've never been into 2D sidescrolling games, mostly because those kind of games are generally hard in a "you can't be good at this game" way.
But when I saw Trine i have to admit that I was curious...
So a wizard, a thief and a warrior all touch this stone and become one.
The wizard can create boxes, planks and floating platforms.
The Thief has a grappling hook and some neat physics based bow fighting
And the warrior...well he hits stuff.
This game is fun, the platforming is smart and very open ended since you can attempt things with all 3 characters and they all have their limitations and abilities...
I found myself always favoring the thief for the grappling hook and all the momentum based jumps..theres something to be said when you do something absolutely crazy that even the game developers probably would not have imagined possible to traverse a puzzle.
I found myself doing things in very unorthodox ways...it felt like I was doing it wrong...but damn it if it didn't work and I felt damn good about doing it my way.
The game progresses just fine, and the item collecting and rpg style leveling do give you just enough depth to care about them.
The one thing I will say is that the last level is sort of a slap in the face since it just frustrates you more than anything else..and being prompted to "change the difficulty " at my first failure didn't exactly please me. After 2 more tries I succeeded and all was well..but still that nagged at me...
That's about the only bad thing I could say about Trine..and its nothing compared to the polish and effort that went into making this game gorgeous and smooth.
PLAY THIS GAME.
Its still is 8 bucks on steam due to the holiday sales....don't miss it.