Playing Ruffy and the Riverside has been like jumping back into the past. Like way, way back into the good old days of PS1, PS2, and, more specifically, N64 platforming.
There’s an earworm of a soundtrack that embeds itself in your mind, an expansive world to jump and run through, tons of quirky characters to meet, gorgeous visuals bringing the world to virtual life and, the most important ingredient to stand out in a crowded market, superb gameplay innovation that turns a fun time into a must-play title.
And that is exactly what Ruffy and the Riverside is: a must play platformer for all platformer fans who want the nostalgia of the past running on modern engines and hardware. But Ruffy and the Riverside is so much more than nostalgia-in-a-box, it’s a joyously addictive exercise in taking a simple concept and spinning it into a defining gameplay mechanic.
Sure, the basic action-platforming rulebook is at play here, with melee attacks, a gliding system, and a butt smash to deal with certain enemies to go along with traditional platforming shenanigans. There are platforms to pounce around on, spiked traps to avoid, and puzzle areas to navigate. But what really shines a light on Ruffy’s already colourful world is the main gameplay trick: the “Swap”.
Ruffy has the god-level ability to transform one object into another by swapping textures around – essentially changing its look and properties. This really simple concept elevates a good platformer into a great one, creating a myriad of charmingly inventive gameplay moments. These range from the more obvious uses of the mechanic to think-outside-the-box moments that are always a highlight.
Need to get to the top of a cliff but can’t find a path there? Just copy a vine texture and turn that waterfall in front of you into a giant vine to climb. Stone pillars blocking your path? Turn them to wood and punch ‘em down. Need to cross a body of water? Why not make use of that ice floe just to your left?
These, of course, are the more obvious uses of Ruffy’s power designed to help you move across the world, but you’ll also solve simpler puzzles by changing the markings on rocks or turning a pillar into a magnet to break the chains holding a door closed. The world has been designed to make use of the Swap mechanic at just about every moment, with some changes more permanent than others and some more beneficial.
But it’s really those think-outside-the-box moments that breath such fresh air into the genre with their more elaborate puzzle solutions, such as turning a stone pillar blocking your path into wood and the water spout just beneath it into fire to bring a fiery end to the obstacle, before turning that fire spout back into water and riding it up to your goal. The game is full of these kinds of puzzle sequences which, I must admit, occasionally had me scratching my head. But they were never too tough to figure out in time, and always left me with a “Damn, that’s cool” smile on my face.
Of course, if you are struggling to figure them out, the NPCs are always willing to help you out for a few coins. Though I’d argue against it, because part of the charm of Ruffy and The Riverside is seeing just how much creativity you can get away with. There are obviously limitations to what the Swap mechanic can achieve as, if there weren’t, you’d probably be able to break the game in ways the developer hadn’t conceived. Still, it’s rather surprising at the level of leeway you’re given to play around with the world and its textures and properties.
The world itself is rather large and perhaps a little too full of things to do and collect. Seasoned gamers who love that stuff will find plenty of collectibles to scour high and low for, while the rest of us can focus on every little platforming, puzzle, or racing sequence on offer.
Visually, the game is gorgeous and really looks like a an N64 game presented at an ultra-high resolution. And I mean that in the best way possible. The world and its segmented areas are gorgeously colourful and exude personality. The art style, which goes back to that 90’s blocky aesthetic while using 2D sprites in a 3D world, is just stunningly realised, bringing to mind classics like Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie. It’s all backed up with some wonderful 2D animation for the games oddball characters and a soundtrack (and sound effects) that really stuck around long after I’d finished playing.
If you haven’t figured it out already, I’m smitten by the games infectiously joyous charm.
That said, it’s not a perfect blast-from-the-past as the original Nintendo Switch occasionally struggles when there’s too much being rendered onscreen. There’s some frame rate jitters and a bit of a sluggish feeling in the controls during these sections. To keep the frame rate high, I imagine, distant vistas fade in an out depending on the camera angle your distance from those areas, giving a bit of a fog-of-war feeling to the proceedings, while making sure the zone you’re in gets rendered in full.
Ruffy and the Riverside is easily one of the better, nostalgia-tinged platformers of late. It’s gorgeous visuals and enthusiastic characters are elevated by one of the more fun gaming mechanics in recent years that will have you spending hours swapping around textures and properties just to see what can be done. Performance issues on the original Switch aside, developer Zockrates Laboratories has developed an impressive and fantastic debut title that platforming fans should play.
Pros:
- Super fun texture swapping mechanic
- Gorgeous N64-inspired visuals
- Stunning 2D art and animations
- Impressively large world full of things to do
Cons:
- Some performance issues on the Nintendo Switch
Score: 9/10
Ruffy and The Riverside was reviewed on a Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, PS4/5, and Nintendo Switch 2.
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