When the first Trine game came out, I waited forever. It was supposed to release in the Spring, and by the time it actually came out, it had passed. [insert haiku about days of summer passing]

This time, the complete opposite is true: I just found out this morning that Trine 2 is going to be available in less than 2 weeks. With all the time I’m putting into Skyrim, I haven’t yet bought Skyward Sword, and I’m not sure how much time I’ll have for Trine 2, but I’m glad that it’ll be available if I want it.

It took me three evenings to finish Limbo, and I’m glad to say that I did it with no walkthrough and no hints. In fact, I plan to get all the game’s trophies with the exception of that one that would have you complete the game in one sitting with five or less deaths. That’s crazy talk. During my second playthrough when I’d died more then ten times before chapter ten, I realized that making it through the entire game with five or less deaths was just not gonna happen. There’s also a hidden level that has you jump over a bandsaw in pitch darkness so that there’s no way to know where to actually jump. Not sure if I’ll finish that hidden level. But the main game I’ve completed.

So this is the third and final article full of Limbo hints. Once again, this is not a walkthrough. If you want walkthroughs, get ye forth to YouTube. You’ll find many. But playing without walkthroughs is such a rewarding experience, and you will enjoy the game more. But… for those times when you’re absolutely stuck, I bring you hints. Not solutions, just gentle nudges that may help you figure out the solution without walking you step-by-step through every little thing you need to do.

Something else I’ve just figured out: I think the chapters in the XBox version of the game and the Playstation 3 version of the game are numbered diferrently. I’ll bet they added more checkpoints (chapters) to the Playstation version. That said, since there are no actual numbers applies to the chapters, the numbering may be really confusing. I’ve named the chapters so that you can go by the descriptions of the elements within each chapter rather than counting white blocks.

That said, here are a few brief hints.

Chapter 20: Twin Cannons
Notice that the top cannon moves
It can destroy more than just you

Chapter 21: The Slow-Sliding Block and the Elevator
At the beginning of the level, you will have to use the same technique more than once. Probably more than twice.
You need two boxes to climb the sliding platform.

Chapter 22: Giant Blocks and the Zipline
Note what all the controls are doing
Momentum is helpful in slowing its reversal

Chapter 23: Spelunking Neon
Timing is key. You’ll have to jump _before_ it’s safe.
It’s going to take more than one press of the switch to get that block where you need it.

Chapter 24: Sawblades and Anti-Gravity
Timing is critical. Jump an instant before gravity reverses.

Here’s the second part of the Lungfishopolis Limbo hints extravaganza. Remember – this is not a walkthrough. If you want walkthroughs, there are plenty on YouTube. But I urge you *not* to use walkthroughs. Limbo’s puzzles can be very challenging, but if you can suck it up and just spend some time and experiment, you can figure them out. And it’s very rewarding – you’ll enjoy the game more. But for when you’re absolutely stuck, I bring you hints. Not solutions, just gentle nudges that may help you figure out the solution without handing it to you outright. Unlike part one of our hints, this article covers every chapter, since the puzzles get a bit harder as the game progresses.

Chapter 10: The Flood
That broken box doesn’t need to float any higher.
Look closely at the water levels, and look at what the levers do to change the water levels. Think Archimedes.

Chapter 11: The Parasite
Sunlight burns the parasite and makes you change directions.
The rising water will cause floating objects to move upwards.

Chapter 12: The Hotel
You can see when the electricity is on and when it’s off. Watch the letter H.
The glass is breakable.

Chapter 13: The Bandsaw
You can control your speed when under the influence of a parasite. Slow down and look around.
Notice the handle on the end of that platform.

Chapter 14: The Elevator
You do need that box.
Notice the handle at the bottom of the elevator.

Chapter 15: The Fly
You’ve got an analog stick. Use it.
Be sneaky.

Chapter 16: The Gear
You need two boxes to get up there.
Set that rope to swinging before you jump on.

Chapter 17: The Machine
Pay attention to exactly what the magnet does.
You’ll just have to wait while things move.

Chapter 18: The Factory
You’re safe while you’re hanging on the edge.

Chapter 19: Minecart Ride
The gears take some time to reverse directions. Use this to your advantage.
Make sure the minecart is still rolling a bit uphill when you jump off it.

Because I don’t have an XBox, I don’t have access to XBLA games until they’re released on other platforms. This is why I never got to try Braid until it was released on Steam. When I eventually got access to the game through Steam, I found out just how hard its puzzles really were, and I was eventually forced to look up walkthroughs, and found this. It was that page that motivated me to create the Braid Hints pages that I posted on this site back in 2009. Those pages continue to be the most popular posts on this site. So now that Limbo has finally come out on PSN and I’ve been able to play, I find it apropos to write up some Limbo Hints.
This isn’t a walkthrough – I’m not going to provide hints on each and every level. If you’re interested in walkthroughs, there are plenty on YouTube. but I’d urge you not to use walkthroughs. The game’s puzzles are sometimes very challenging, but if you can suck it up and just spend some time and experiment, you’re likely to figure them out. And it’s very rewarding – you’ll enjoy the game more.

But for those times when you’re absolutely stuck, when you’ve spent a half hour and more than two game sessions trying to figure out what the hell to do on this or that damn puzzle and you’re at your wits end… I bring you hints. Not solutions, just gentle nudges that may help you figure out the solution without handing it to you outright.

First, a few pointers about the game in general.

• Remember your controls. Aside from the jump button, there’s also a button that lets you pull things. The game doesn’t present you the controls explicitly, so if you haven’t realized that you can pull things, you’ll never get past the first chapter.
• You can swing on ropes as well as climbing them.
• If you can’t get past a certain part and you keep dying, then you’d might as well experiment. Sure, you might get killed, but if you keep dying anyway then what does it matter?
• A couple of Limbo’s toughest puzzles involve waiting. It’s hard to do nothing, and it’s certainly not the first thing you’d think to do, but if it makes sense for the puzzle you’re on, give it a shot.

Okay, now some specifics. I’m not going to cover every chapter, because while there are plenty of parts in the game that may have you scratching your head for a few minutes, there are relatively few that have a chance to hang you up indefinately.

Damn that spider! I can't get near him without being speared like a fish, and he's blocking my progress! There's not much to my left other than an unreachable bear trap in a tree, so what am I supposed to do?

Firstly, that spider isn’t nearly so coordinated as you might think. Try experimenting. Risk dying. Play around while you’re close to him and see what happens. Stop reading right now and go back to the game. Only read the next paragraph if you absolutely need to.

If you’ve gotten your hands on the bear trap, made use of it, and still are stuck, you should note that repetition has value.

What am I supposed to do here? To the left, there's an odd machine with a lever that does nothing. Then there's a ramp that I can get to if I jump hard enough and a frog-looking thing hiding under a ridge. Over to the right there's a hanging rope that I can pull, but it doesn't do much.

As you may have noticed when you first ran up, that frog really wants the glowing stuff growing on the underside of the ramp. Know what I call that? Bait. Stop reading right now and go back to the game. Only read the next paragraph if you absolutely need to.

Impact will knock that crap on down for the frog. From there, it’s all about you mustering whatever speed and timing you can. Good luck.

Come back soon for a second batch of hints on Limbo.

I should make it clear here that I never got into Super Mario World or Mario 64, largely since I never owned those Nintendo Consoles. I know that those games were huge and everybody and their cat has incredibly fond memories of them, but alas – I don’t. I likewise never played any of the Tomb Raider games. Ever. Obviously, I am defective. Other platformer franchises lacking from my repetoire: Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Laurel & Hardy.

In looking back at my favorite platformers, I’ve got to notice that all but one are 2D platformers. It just seems like the 3D platformers as a rule just don’t work as well. First-person platforming like Mirror’s Edge or the horrible platforming portions in the original Half-Life just don’t work. While third-person platforming in 3D games is generally better, it can fail pretty hard at times. The 3D platforming in games like Super Mario Galaxy and Psychonauts was mostly okay, but the platforming in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed annoyed me so much that I had to stop playing both those games before I’d gotten a quarter into either.

So now, I’d like to share my own favorite platformers, going back as far as the early eighties.

• Jumpman (Commodore 64, 1983)
  
  Jumpman’s great strength was its variety. While in the game’s early levels the premise was as simple as running around, jumping over monsters, and colecting red dots, the later levels got far more complex and varied. In some levels, you had a gun, and the button would fire the gun instead of jumping. One level let you throw lances to kill a dragon. Many levels are very puzzle-like, containing triggers that open or close doors, add or remove sections of floor, or move floating platforms. In one level, you create an explosion each time you jump. And I remember one level that generated clones every five seconds who would follow your exact path in the same way as the shadow selves in Braid – if a clone touched you, you died, so you had to keep moving.All of the above is from memory, but reading through the wikipedia page now, I see that there were 30 levels in the game. I always played on “randomizer” so as to experience the later levels I’d never have reached if I were playing straight through.Jumpman is supposed to (eventually) be released for the Wii Virtual Console, but if you’re impatient, a fan remake is available here.

• The Great Giana Sisters (Commodore 64, 1987)
  The version of this game that my brothers and I always used to play was a hacked version. The sprites had been changed to make them look like Super Mario Brothers. The levels were far far different from the actual Super Mario Brothers game, but they were fun, and they were at some points very difficult. But I was 15 years old. I got very good at the game, and played a lot of it. My brothers and I still have fond memories of inventing stupid names for each of the game’s monsters.

• Kenseiden (Sega Master System, 1988)
  I never owned a Sega Master system, but I borrowed one from a friend for a few months when he’d moved along to some better console – perhaps a Genesis. My favorite game on the SMS was Kenseiden. You played a Samurai, fighting various monsters, spirits, and demons. Each time you beat one of the game’s bosses, you’d get a scroll which detailed a samurai sword technique. You could gain overhead slashes, running cuts, and higher jumps.The game’s sixteen levels also had branching paths – you could skip certain portions of the game and take the path you wanted. I don’t remember seeing this in any other contemporary platformers until Castlevania 3, a few years later.

• Double Dragon 2 (Nintendo, 1988)
  The Double Dragon series is half platformer, half side-scrolling beat-em-up. I’d played the original Double Dragon, and I later played Double Dragon 3, but what I really liked about Double Dragon 2 was the variety of moves available. I suppose I liked the game for many of the same reasons I fell in love with Street Fighter 2. The spinning hurricaine kick was easy. The super uppercut was harder, but still doable 90% of the time. The tough one was the jumping hyper knee.In Double Dragon 2, you could punch your enemy and get him into a headlock. From there, you could give him overhead elbows, knee him in the stomach, or throw him over your shoulder. You could also kick him straight out of the headlock. This allowed you to throw enemies over cliffs, instantly killing even the tougher ones. I used to go through entire levels trying to throw or kick every single enemy over a cliff. It was fun.

• Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse (Nintendo, 1990)
  Maybe it was just because Castlevania 3 was the first game in the series that I really got into, but I absolutely loved this game. Maybe it was because you could pick up extra traveling companions along the way – there were 3 extra characters, and depending on the path through the game you chose, (branching paths!) you could pick up Syfa, Alucard, or Grant. Grant was a pirate character who could climb on walls, Alucard was a vampire and could throw fireballs and change into a bat, and Syfa was a wizard who could cast various spells instead of throwing axes and knives. Awesome.

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Playstation, 1997)
  I played Symphony of the Night on my Playstation and was immediately blown away. Amazing game. The game’s music was better than anything I’d ever heard. And the addition of RPG elements such as leveling and equipment changed Castlevania in a fundemental way that has carried through in all of its successors. Although I hear a lot of hype today about how Borderlands is changing things up by combining RPGs and Shooters, Symphony of the Night did that more than ten years ago when they combined RPGs and Platformers. They also added in Street Fighter like movements in for casting spells and using certain items’ special abilities. The number of secret spells and abilities in the game is huge. And hidden areas are absolutely everywhere. I don’t think there’s any platformer that I’ve put as much time into as I have Symphony of the Night.

• Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo Wii, 2007)
  Mario Galaxy is the only 3D platformer on this list. While games like Trine and LittleBigPlanet run on a 3D engine, they’re still fundamentally 2D in their gameplay. Super Mario Galaxy is a truly 3D platformer, harking back to Mario 64. The levels are incredibly varied, allowing for flying levels, underwater levels, 2D levels, ray surfing levels, and even a Monkeyball level. The power-ups are equally as varied, and you can complete the game without being forced to complete the 30 most difficult levels. Personally, I only got 96 stars.

• Trine (Playstation Network, 2009)
  
  Yes, I rave about Trine quite often. I love the game. It definitely belongs here amongst the ranks of the best platform games I’ve ever played. You’ve got three characters, each of whom go up in levels and gather loot synchronously, and you can play with two or three players should you be so inclined. The game’s puzzles tend to have more than one solution, so if your wizard dies, it’s likely that you can get across that chasm without creating a magical bridge. Plus, the game has some very doable trophies, and it’s fun for me to think that there’s a game out there other than Plants versus Zombies in which I’m actually capable of getting 100% completion. A platinum trophy? Geez – I’ve never yet even gotten a gold one. Sign me up.

First things first: Trine’s graphics are absolutely amazing. Not since Oblivion and Half-Life 2 have I actually had to stop and admire the scenery. These are some serious triple-A graphics – more than you’d generally expect in a $20 downloadable game. The music is likewise very well composed and performed. I’ve had the songs from Trine stuck in my head for the last 48 hours.

I’ve primarily been playing through the game multiplayer with my wife, and we’ve been loving it. Maybe there’s something to this gaming as therapy thing. She’s playing primarily as the thief, and I’m switching back and forth from the knight to the wizard. Although there are certainly frustrating moments, such as when my wizard drops a plank on her head and knocks her down a bottomless pit, or when I get annoyed that she hasn’t spent the past two decades perfecting her platforming skills like I have, it’s generally a really good time. The moments where the teamwork really clicks are immensely satisfying – when she stands on a block that my knight throws upwards to an inaccessible ledge or she pulls off some impossible-looking grappling swing. It’s also really fun to get creative with the structures the wizard can build.

I’d been concerned with how the game’s view would work with two players. It’s not split-screen, so what would happen if the two characters moved too far away from each other? Thankfully, the game handles it as well as I could have hoped – it zooms back just slightly as you move apart, and when you get too far away, it’s actually possible for one character to be off-screen. While that’s certainly annoying, it’s rare and usually easy to fix. If the characters get very far away, one is teleported to the other’s location – a mechanic that we’ve exploited more than once.

Another thing I really like about the game is that the achievements seem difficult yet doable. In my single-player game, I’ve collected all experience in the first three levels, plus gotten the “Whoops!” and “Survivor” trophies. The more difficult achievements include getting all experience on all levels and completing the final level without dying. Nothing tedious or impossibly difficult like playing through Dead Space using only the plasma cutter or winning 10 consecutive ranked matches in Street Fighter 4.

I think I’ll be playing and enjoying Trine for a long time.

It’s funny – I don’t remember quite so many bottomless pits in any of the Star Wars movies. Sure, there was the part in Empire Strikes Back where Luke lost his hand and fell, and there’s always the Pit of Carcoon and the place where the Emperor fell to his death, then there’s the one Luke and Leia swung across in New Hope and the place where Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan fought Darth Maul… okay, maybe Star Wars is actually about bottomless pits. But I’d never really had that feeling before playing Force Unleashed.

I died a lot. And it was nearly always while falling into a bottomless pit. Generally the same one at least 5-6 times. This gets old quickly, especially when you’ve got to wait about 60 seconds while the game reloads your last checkpoint.

Let’s look at one example: I was fighting two junk guardians. I picked one up with The Force and threw him, then carved the other one up with my lightsaber. Jumping up to a platform, I found two more. While I was fighting one, the other hit me. Once. This knocked me back a bit and pushed me over the edge into a bottomless pit. Although I can double jump, I apparently can’t jump in mid-air while beginning to fall into the pit. So I died.

…a minute or two later…

I’m fighting the junk guardians again. This time I defeat them all before falling to my own death. The next jump is a big one, onto a small platform. I get ready, positioning the camera just right, then jump. But while I’m up in the air, I can’t look down – only forward – so it’s hard to see where I’m going to land. I fall into the pit, missing the platform by inches.

…a minute or two later…

Fighting those damned junk guardians. This is the last one, and I’m kicking his butt. While attempting to hit the targeting trigger, I accidentally hit the “dash” trigger and dash over the edge into the pit.

…a minute or two later…

I kill all the junk guardians easily, making sure to stay FAR from the edge. This time, I carefully prepare for the jump, and once again fall to my death because I can’t tell where I’m going to land.

…a minute or two later…

I’m playing Pixeljunk Monsters, having resolved to sell Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on Ebay.

Use Boxmen is a fun little game, reminiscent of Braid in its puzzles. There’s no time-rewinding, but there are some other interesting mechanics, and some damn hard puzzles.

Play Use Boxmen

Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I generally sell a game that I’ve finished, so the only reason I keep one is because I plan to replay the game some day. Classifying a game as a “keeper” is generally a badge of merit.

I was never a huge fan of the earlier Mario games. I played Super Mario Brothers on the NES and the black and white gameboy, but never got past world 3 or so. I played a few of the later sequels, but probably spent even less time on them. Super Mario Galaxy is the first Mario game that I’ve really gotten into, and the first one I’ve completed. I only got 96 stars, so I didn’t really fully complete the game, but I did see the “ending”. I think the last 20 or 30 stars are really only for hardcore completionists anyway.

Mario Galaxy does some very cool things. Even aside from the wacky powerups, the underwater and flying levels, the ray-surfing levels, and the crazy monkeyball level, there are absolutely tons of really creative and fun aspects to the game. Every so often, I’ll go back and try to get an extra coin or two. It’s pretty hard, especially when you’ve put the game aside for as long as I have.