Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince returns to the roots of the fairy tale series

The first and for a long time last official mention of the next sequel to the excellent adventure series Trine appeared more than three months ago, and today it is finally followed by the full announcement of Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince with a magical trailer, images and information. These concern not only the new part, but also the complete collection that will accompany it.

As you can already tell from the title, there is reason to cheer. Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince returns to its roots, which is mainly meant in the sense of abandoning the idea of the third part to convert an excellent platformer into, in this case, worse 3D. So welcome back the good old 2.5D! The gameplay is kept purely in two axes, while the environment is fully three-dimensional.

The wizard Amadeus, the knight Pontius and the thief Zoya team up again to track down the lost prince and stop a sudden influx of night demons that stem from the prince's nightmares. In addition to the heroes, physics-based puzzles, different fighting styles, a very fairy-tale environment and an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack by composer Ari Pulkkinen, who is behind the music in all previous works, return.

I'll count two news so far. First, the combat system has been completely overhauled, and second, the game will support up to four players in local and online co-op. Who will the fourth player play as? A duplicate hero, or are we still waiting for the announcement of some newcomer?

We'll find out this fall at the latest, when Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince is released on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch. We even know the price, which is 30 euros on most platforms, while on Switch you'll pay an extra five for some reason.

As mentioned above, in addition to the fourth installment, the so-called Ultimate Collection will be released alongside it, which will include all four installments of the series (the first two in the versions Trine Enchanted Edition and Trine 2: Complete Story). The physical copy will also be enriched with a printed map (just like the physical copy of the fourth installment itself) and two codes - one to download the artbook, the other to download the soundtrack.

Trine Ultimate Collection is also set to be released on all of the above platforms for a flat 50 euros, but it's a bit odd that publisher Frozenbyte announced two weeks ago that the original trilogy would be released on Switch in the spring. In this case, it's worth waiting until the fall for the complete edition.