Eurogamer’s coverage of Day of the Devs 2026 confirmed what Frozenbyte hinted at over the winter: Trine 6 is real, and it brings the wizard, the thief, and the knight back to their fairy-tale puzzle platforming. The catch is the wait. Trine 5 is two years old, the Ultimate Collection has been on sale for months, and most groups have already cleared every chamber. If the silhouette of a three-class co-op puzzler is what we want for the next couple of weekends, these seven Trine alternatives fill the gap.
Quick comparison
| Game | Best for | Players | Free plan | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| It Takes Two | Two-player narrative co-op | 2 | Friend’s Pass (free for one) | $39.99 |
| Unravel Two | Couch co-op with physics traversal | 1-2 | No | $19.99 |
| Magicka 2 | Chaotic four-wizard spell combos | 1-4 | No | $14.99 |
| Pico Park 2 | Party puzzle co-op for big groups | 2-8 | No | $11.99 |
| DYO | Mythological split-screen brain teasers | 2 | No | $9.99 |
| Biped | Twin-stick puzzle platforming | 1-2 | No | $14.99 |
| Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris | Tomb-raiding four-player puzzles | 1-4 | No | $19.99 |
Why people leave Trine
Three patterns come up over and over in the Steam discussions and the r/Trine threads.
- The puzzle solutions repeat. After five games, players know to summon a plank, box-stack to the ledge, and shoot a rope. The “aha” beats are thinner the longer the group has played.
- The pacing softens in long sessions. Trine’s three-character switching is elegant but slow once everyone knows the moves, and four-hour sittings start to drag.
- The four-player mode never quite landed. Trine 4 and 5 added a fourth slot, but the puzzles were designed for three, and adding a second wizard or thief feels redundant rather than chaotic.
Each of the seven games below answers at least one of those complaints.
The alternatives
1. It Takes Two — best for two-player narrative co-op
It Takes Two is Josef Fares’s two-player puzzle adventure where every level introduces a fresh mechanic that pairs the two characters together. One person controls Cody, the other controls May, and the entire campaign was built around the assumption that we are sitting next to a partner. Hazelight’s Friend’s Pass means only one person has to buy the game for both to play.
Where it falls short: strictly two players. No solo mode, no four-player party night. The story is heavy on its central marriage premise and not every duo wants that backdrop.
Pricing:
- Friend’s Pass: free for the second player
- Paid: $39.99
- vs Trine: pricier but designed for the duo who wants a longer, more varied co-op
Migrating from Trine: completely different feel. Where Trine layers one ability stack per character, It Takes Two reinvents the toolkit every chapter. Expect to relearn controls every 30 minutes.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: the pick when we want a partner-only campaign with the most inventive puzzle design on the list.
2. Unravel Two — best for couch co-op with physics traversal
Unravel Two ties two yarn creatures together with a single thread that handles every climb, swing, and pull. The thread is the puzzle: lock one Yarny in place as an anchor, let the other swing across, then reel back in. The local co-op is split-screen on a single controller pair, which makes it one of the cleanest “hand the controller to a kid” picks on Steam.
Where it falls short: a short campaign, around 6-8 hours. The physics can be picky when one player rushes.
Pricing:
- Free: no
- Paid: $19.99
- vs Trine: cheaper, shorter, and tighter
Migrating from Trine: lighter on combat, heavier on the moment-to-moment platforming. Easier to get a Trine partner into.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: ideal when one of the two players is younger or newer to co-op.
3. Magicka 2 — best for chaotic four-wizard spell combos
Magicka 2 drops up to four wizards into a top-down adventure where every spell is built by chaining elements on the fly. Friendly fire is on by default. Half the joy is teaching a new player how to cast a steam shield, the other half is watching the same player set fire to the whole party.
Where it falls short: the camera and spellcasting take time to learn, and the lobby was always a little finicky.
Pricing:
- Free: no
- Paid: $14.99 (Magicka 2 base game)
- vs Trine: comparable money, much more chaotic energy
Migrating from Trine: less platforming, more combat puzzles and crowd control. Players who want the wizard’s spell-stacking feel of Trine get a deeper version here.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: the four-wizard party game we wanted Trine’s four-player mode to be.
4. Pico Park 2 — best for party puzzle co-op in big groups
Pico Park 2 is the sequel to one of the breakout party co-op games of the late 2020s. Two to eight players solve single-screen puzzles where every level forces a new shape of teamwork. The pixel art and short level lengths mean a group can clear ten rooms in a half hour, and the laugh-per-minute rate is high.
Where it falls short: there is no story, no narrative connective tissue, and the difficulty spikes near the end of the campaign.
Pricing:
- Free: no
- Paid: $11.99
- vs Trine: cheaper, scales to bigger groups, lower production values
Migrating from Trine: the lowest barrier to entry on this list. Anyone who can move a joystick can play.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: the right pick for a group bigger than two or three.
5. DYO — best for mythological split-screen brain teasers
DYO is a free-feeling indie that splits the screen into two minotaurs trying to navigate a Greek labyrinth. The trick is that the two halves can be lined up to share platforms across the divide. It is a two-player puzzle that thinks about the screen itself as a mechanic, and it sticks with us long after most platformers fade.
Where it falls short: only 30 levels, and the camera mechanic takes 20 minutes to click for new players.
Pricing:
- Free: no
- Paid: $9.99
- vs Trine: a fifth of the length and a third of the price
Migrating from Trine: the closest thing on this list to a Trine-style mechanical puzzle, just with a sharper hook.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: a weekend-length puzzle for two with an idea Trine never tried.
6. Biped — best for twin-stick puzzle platforming
Biped has two robots that walk by alternating each analogue stick, which sounds tedious for ten seconds and then becomes the entire game. Co-op leans on coordination, since both players need to plant their feet in sync to cross moving platforms or balance on a beam. The campaign is short, around five hours, and full of small variety puzzles.
Where it falls short: solo play feels lonely. The controls are easy to misjudge in early levels.
Pricing:
- Free: no
- Paid: $14.99 (often on sale for half)
- vs Trine: comparable price for half the runtime
Migrating from Trine: the platforming-first sensibility carries over. The puzzle mechanic is the standout difference.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: the pick when one of us wants a precise, almost-rhythmic platformer instead of the usual rope-and-plank routine.
7. Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris — best for tomb-raiding four-player puzzles
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is the isometric four-player follow-up to Guardian of Light. Each character has a unique tool (Lara’s grappling hook, Carter’s torch, Horus’s staff, Isis’s stone), and the temple puzzles route through every member of the party. The four-player mode is the headline. Two and three players also work, with the missing characters handled by the system.
Where it falls short: released in 2014. The matchmaking is dead, and we will likely be playing it with friends from a Steam group rather than randoms.
Pricing:
- Free: no
- Paid: $19.99 (Gold Edition often under $5 on sale)
- vs Trine: cheaper at sale prices, and the four-player puzzles land more often than Trine 5’s do
Migrating from Trine: the closest match for groups of four. The platforming is rougher, but the temple puzzles are denser.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: the right pick for a four-player group that wants Trine’s spirit without waiting for Trine 6.
How to choose
Pick It Takes Two if it is just the two of us and we are willing to commit to a long narrative campaign. Pick Unravel Two if one player is much newer to co-op. Pick Magicka 2 if the appeal of Trine was the wizard’s spell stack, and we want the four-player chaos Trine never quite delivered. Pick Pico Park 2 for a group of five or more. Pick DYO for the most original puzzle mechanic on the list. Pick Biped if the platforming itself is what we want. Pick Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris for a stable four-player tomb crawl. Stay on Trine 5 if we have not yet cleared the Ultimate Edition, or if we want a fairy-tale aesthetic the other seven do not match.
FAQ
Is It Takes Two better than Trine?
It Takes Two has won more awards and reinvents its mechanics more often, but it locks the experience to exactly two players. Trine scales from one to four. The right answer depends on the group, not the game.
Can two players play Trine 5 together?
Yes, online and locally. Trine 5 supports up to four players in shared puzzles. If we want a Trine-shaped game for exactly two, Unravel Two is the simplest swap.
What is the cheapest Trine alternative on PC?
DYO at $9.99 is the cheapest on this list. Pico Park 2 at $11.99 is the cheapest party-sized pick. Both go on sale to under $5 a couple of times a year.
Is Magicka 2 still played in 2026?
Yes, with friends. The matchmaking is light, so we want to bring our own lobby. The base mechanics still hold up and Paradox keeps the servers running.
Will Trine 6 be on PC?
Yes. Frozenbyte announced Trine 6 at Day of the Devs 2026 with PC as the lead platform. Release window has not been confirmed.
