I should preface this by saying I spent a fair amount of time working in the TorqueX Platformer Starter Kit (PSK) when it first came out (back in the XNA 2.0 days.)
I think it's great that Microsoft included this in the XNA 3.0 release (especially for the bargain price of FREE) and I certainly want to encourage them to continue doing this sort of thing, but I have to be honest and say that I'm not quite as impressed with this as I am/was with the TorqueX PSK. Of course Garage Games support of TorqueX has waned considerably over the last year or so, and maybe that had something to do with why we're seeing something like this now (pure speculation on my part) shipping with XNA 3.0.
One of the good things about the XNA version is that it has Zune and XBox support (projects) baked right in to the starter solution, which is nice.
The demo levels that come with it (and there are a few) are nicely done, though they lack some of the game elements (such as ropes, ramps and conveyors) that made the TorqueX PSK so handy.
The soundtrack and sound effect quality is good, as are the background and character sprites. (You get more of each with the TorqueX PSK, though the style is completely different... more cartoonish.)
