Trolls are really finding their feet as a franchise these days, building up an all-new fanbase through Dreamworks.

And with the latest film now in cinemas, of course there’s an accompanying video game. Albeit with a different title. Trolls: Remix Rescue is a brand new adventure that puts you in the shoes of Poppy and Branch as you once again try to protect the Troll Kingdom.

It has all the bits and pieces you’d hope for and expect – jumping, collecting, colourful environments, whipping enemies with hair and toe-tapping music. All brought together with vintage Trolls charm. But ultimately, Remix Rescue is about as standard as it gets.

Trolls fans may find something to love here, but for others, this is about as generic a platformer as you’ll see. The environments are pretty bare bones, you’ll actually find yourself getting pretty bored of bouncing between mushrooms, falling into ravines and hopping between vines.

But even when you’re not platforming and fighting, the musical mini-games aren’t much to write home about with rhythm-based button pressers that lack energy and drag on a bit longer than needed.

Then there’s the camera, which might be among the worst I’ve seen in a platformer in recent memory. It’s regularly getting stuck on the scenery, blocking your entire view, or breaking up the environment so you can see within and around it. It’s like an additional enemy thrown into the mix to increase the difficulty, frankly.

Remix Rescue just isn’t much fun to play, frankly, though it’s not from a complete want of trying. You can customize your trolls with their own distinct style and GameMill have at least tried to mix things up enough between the environments, safe areas, and dancing.

Over the course of the game, you will unlock new abilities, like wall-climbing, pushing and pulling objects and using hair as a helicopter to hover. This at least opens environments up to new possibilities – both for traversal and puzzle solving.

And from a soundtrack point of view, there’s a few familiar hits in here that might just bring a smile to the face. But none of it is quite enough to really change your opinion of the game or make you feel any better about it.

It does get a little better with friends, letting you and three other buds team up locally to blaze through the campaign. The aforementioned camera issues do get in the way, of course, and can get really chaotic really quickly.

Remix Rescue feels like it would have benefitted from more time in the oven. The environments feel unfinished, the gameplay is rough, and there’s bugs aplenty you’ll keep bouncing into and encountering.

The game really wants to try and feel like its befitting the franchise, but from pretty much every angle, it’s unfortunately really underwhelming. Even for diehard Trolls fans.

Verdict

Trolls: Remix Rescue fails at almost every hurdle. The awful camera and brutal bugs make it borderline unplayable at times, but equally it’s underwhelming and generally boring as you traverse its unfinished looking environments and repetitive, simplistic gameplay. Even its rhythm based action, local co-op and soundtrack can’t really save this one from being a washout, whether you love Trolls or not.