Thank you Arcane Four Studios for sending us this game to review!

Rynn's Adventure: Trouble in the Enchanted Forest is Arcane Four Studios’ first game. It’s a challenging 2D side-scrolling platformer available on the Wii U and on Steam. The developers also wanted it on the 3DS and the Xbox One, but I can’t find the title there. Though Rynn's Adventure: Trouble in the Enchanted Forest is rated E for everyone, it should only be played by those with a lot of skill and/or patience as this game is extremely tough and I found it to be more frustrating than fun.

The story is decent as Rynn, the Enchanted Forest’s princess, must save it from an evil wizard who imprisoned the king and queen in his dark castle. Along with running and jumping, Rynn starts off with a nose dive and a fireball-like attack that can knock out most of the enemies in her way. As each level’s boss is conquered, she’ll unlock new power-ups and skills.

Few of the foes are pushovers as some of them have annoying abilities that can temporarily burn or put Rynn to sleep. There’s a decent variety of enemies, but their sound effects are extremely obnoxious and repetitive. The noise from the wasps/bees literally makes my kids laugh aloud and other creatures emit fart-like sounds that cause my children to snicker even more.

The visuals are a mixed bag. Though the level design is good, the implementation could be better. Many of the platforms are not fully registered and it sometimes takes a couple of jumps to have Rynn land on them successfully. Of course, there are dissolving platforms and some of them only move when she’s on them. I did not like the rotating platform wheels in the sky level. Wall jumping is a required skill and there are several hidden nooks and crannies that need to be explored if you wish to collect all of the gems in each level. Even if I did clear a level without acquiring all of the games, I would have no interest in trying it again due to the merciless difficulty.

Along with gems, you’ll have to collect a specified number of keys too. You can play the levels in any order with exception of the final area. As you begin each level, you’ll only have a couple of lives and a health bar that depletes with every attack or fall made. There are several checkpoints so you won’t have to start from the beginning each time you die.

Despite the checkpoints, I was not able to get very far in this game. Some of my assaults were completely ineffective from enemies that had projectile attacks. Other times I would get past the enemies only to be struck down by a hard-to-avoid wormhole or another annoying obstacle.

If you’re looking for a challenging platformer Rynn's Adventure: Trouble in the Enchanted Forest may be worth considering on sale. It has been discounted as low as 50% off on Steam. The only moral concerns are cartoon violence and some magic use. In all honesty, for the same price, there are many other platformers out there that are more polished and fun to play. The only satisfaction I got from this game was uninstalling it.