To save myself a ton of time, I wanted to start this by stating that just about everything Andrew mentioned in his review of Trine 2 still applies to the Wii U edition. This game looks just as amazing and plays just as brilliantly as it does on other systems, and all of the puzzling adventures contained there are here as well. But that isn’t all, as Director’s Cut includes much more.

For starters, this edition includes six additional stages found in the PC expansion pack “The Goblin Menace” along with the new hero abilities also introduced there, all available right from the start (give or take some leveling up). Eventually having access to abilities like Zoya’s anti-gravity arrow, Pontius’s kite shield or Amadeus’s object magnetization will bring all kinds of new possible solutions to the original levels. Or you could just ignore them (they’re all four-cost abilities, after all) and play the first dozen or so levels like normal. More options is always good, especially in an unstructured game like Trine 2.

The conversion to the Wii U has allowed the team at Frozenbyte to touch things up here and there as well. I didn’t experience any of the wonky physics or clipping issues that Andrew mentioned, for starters. And if possible, the game might be even prettier than it has been previously. But more importantly, now players have access to the GamePad. For Zoya and Pontius, that isn’t actually much of an upgrade, but Amadeus will love it. Now summoning a box or a plank is as simple as drawing a square or line on the touch screen, and moving objects around with telekinesis is just as intuitive. The other heroes can make use of the touch screen as well, which can help when aiming an arrow or hammer, changing heroes out of the normal rotation sequence or if you just forget when button activates certain abilities. But for the most part, you’re probably better off just using them normally.

Both local and online multiplayer are still included in the Director’s Cut, and the ability to post screen shots to the Miiverse community allows for an interesting help option should you require it for some of the trickier puzzles. What was not included, however, is the “Magic Mayhem” multiplayer mode the developers mentioned in a recent Nintendo Power article; that is probably still coming some time down the road, and could be exclusive to Wii U unless the PC controls work out somehow, but until Frozenbyte has more to say on the subject we’ll just have to be content with what we’ve got for now.

And as a reminder, what we’ve got is nineteen gorgeous enemy-filled stages of puzzling adventure and a bonus stage if you manage to find all of the secret treasures, of which there are two in each level. Once you’ve gone through the first ninetee,n you can replay any you’ve already completed to track down the stuff you’ve missed, and adjustable difficulty levels will keep you on your toes for some time. I spent a little under twenty hours getting that far, and that was without even exploring cooperative multiplayer or replaying levels. For twenty bucks, that seems like a great deal. As someone who enjoyed The Lost Vikings way back when, this kind of gameplay is unfortunately something I haven’t experienced in a long time. It was worth the wait.

Pros: Open-ended puzzling, additional replay ability, GamePad wizard controls
Cons: Physics can be a little floaty at times