Starbreeze Studios teamed up with Swedish film director Josef Fares to make Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. The marriage of game and film produced a non-stop cinematic experience in which no time is spent fumbling through menus, button schematics, or overly challenging puzzles. It's a thrilling three hours for the price of a movie ticket.

The game's bubbly character models and tidbits of humor make it appear less exotic than somber influences like Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and Journey, but the solemn story is riddled with suffering and delivered in a fictional language that masks any disastrous voice acting. With its maturity in question, the last thing this game needed was a Jake Lloyd sound-alike.

Although Brothers is an amalgam of gameplay focused on simultaneous activity of two protagonists, the linear action never feels forced. All dual activities melt perfectly into plot events instead of feeling like a loosely connected series of mini-games. The slick environments also suppress the gimmick, even though there are moments when the acrobatic boys can't overcome grossly insignificant roadblocks without first solving puzzles.

Basic movement is similar to Ico but there are no customary jump or attack buttons, only one button per brother that interacts with triggerable objects or people. The brothers meet many troubled characters along the way and help them through their hardships. Some of them will assist in return, like the troll in the first chapter who can throw the boys across big gaps and position himself to be walked or climbed across.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is an instant classic that successfully combines interactivity and cinema. Those concerned about the short length should know it's absolutely worth a second play at minimum.