Trollhunters is a game based on a series that I never watched which always makes for an interesting way to play a game. That said, gameplay is always the most important factor here and it looked solid so I figured that I had a winner here. This is a fairly short game. There’s nothing amazing about it and it doesn’t stand out in some kind of special way but it still had something that I needed…a fun experience. Yeah this is just a very retro kind of platformer with no frills to it. You just jump in and have a good time.

The plot starts with a villain managing to steal a relic that allows him to cross space and time. The main character needs to put a stop to him so Merlin lends us a time map that can also allow me to time travel. Pretty handy right? With this I knew that I had a chance. You dash across the various worlds in order to find this guy and repair the damage to the timeline but be warned, he may not be working alone. Time for the biggest sci-fi battle of the ages!

I’m not sure exactly how long I’d say the game is but maybe around 4 hours or so? It felt really short as I was blasting through and that’s considering that I even managed to grab most of the collectibles along the way. In part I did this because they were pretty easy to spot so it wasn’t a big deal going back to grab them and also in part because I was worried that if I didn’t grab them then I would need them to unlock the final level. There are 4 socks and 3 trolls hidden in each level so I recommend grabbing them whenever you can. You definitely won’t regret doing so. They really add up. You can also obtain items for doing this.

Once you complete the game then the platinum trophy is within reach. I dare say you can platinum this game in well under 15 hours. You just have to replay the game a second time and get a few miscellaneous trophies but nothing that is particularly difficult. Just give it the ole go and you’ll be just fine. Now I haven’t talked about the gameplay much so let me take a step back here. It’s a 2D platformer as I mentioned earlier and you defeat any enemies in your way with the sword. Now you will also be doing a lot of jumping as you would expect here. You have assists which let you activate special abilities like making a statue to jump on or a skateboard to ride. You absolutely need these in order to proceed so you should try to get used to them right away.

Beyond that there isn’t much else to describe about the gameplay. It’s made to be as easy as can be so you just jump in and it’ll come naturally to you. Some of the bosses surprisingly don’t have a hurtbox so you can run right up to them and start smashing away with your sword. Most opponents go down in seconds as a result of this but for the final bosses just be prepared to dodge the slow attacks once or twice. Do that and you should be fine and well on your way to claiming absolute victory. There just won’t be any stopping you because this game is really not very hard at all. At the end you even get a random healing power-up which is completely broken so that’s why it didn’t appear until the end. If you had that the whole game then it would have just been plain unfair.

As for the graphics, I wouldn’t say they are anything particularly special. The colors are on point and it all looks good. It’s just your average TV-tie in kind of graphics. The soundtrack is also more on the bland side. You’re definitely playing this more for the impressive gameplay and level designs than anything else. It’s all crafted in a fun way where no levels have boring spots or poorly designed moments. Instead it all flows together really well so you can allow yourself to be drawn into the hype right away. The levels are also fairly short so none of them ever really drags on.

This is where the game shines. It’s simple but knows this and takes that to its maximum benefit. Sometimes it’s good to play a game that is scaled back where you can just relax and have fun. The story is also decent as well. The characters seem fun enough from what I’ve seen of them. Naturally I’d have loved fully animated cutscenes and all but I suspect the budget for this game wouldn’t be nearly high enough for that. It would probably be asking just a little too much out of this title.

The game’s not very glitchy at least but for some reason one trophy didn’t pop for me when I beat the game. I’ll be completing it again soon for a different trophy so I hope it pops up there. It would be a shame for it to have just been lost in the void like that. Just wouldn’t make sense and it must have been a fluke. Glitches are okay as long as there’s a way around them but when it interferes with my trophy hunting then we have a problem.

Overall, Trollhunters is a pretty good game. The gameplay is smooth and there was real effort put into this one. The only thing holding it back is that the game is very short. You will be done with it right away so make sure that you get a good price for it. This is not a game that you should be spending $30 or $40 on. It may have a fairly easy platinum which makes the game more tempting but you should be able to find it on a great discount. Trust me on this one, it’s worth waiting until you find the perfect price and then nabbing it. Hopefully they make a sequel to this at some point. I’d definitely check this out, particularly if the gameplay sticks around as this style.

Overall 7/10