Ruffy and the Riverside - Review (PC)

Swap, drop and roll

Ruffy and the Riverside is a new platforming action game by developer Zockrates Laboratories UG.

Ruffy is a full blown nostalgia hit. The game is a 3D open-world action platformer, harkening back to games like Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64 and Spyro.

As per the traditions of those old classics, it’s also a collect-athon, with lots of things to collect and side missions to complete. The graphics are a mix of 2D characters in a low poly 3D world, with old school textures to boot. Looking at the graphics of the game is a real trip back to the past for anyone that enjoyed those sorts of games back in the day.

You are first introduced to the character of Ruffy in a segment that takes place later in the game, falling down the side of a waterfall. You’re introduced to Ruffy’s signature power, the ability to swap textures on objects. You scan some vines from a nearby tree, and swap the water on the waterfall with the vines. You can then climb up to safety.

This is the key mechanic of Ruffy which makes it stand out, the ability to swap textures. It’s the most common way you solve puzzles and complete sections of the game. For instance, you might want to turn a lake into ice so you can cross it. You might want to make some metal boxes wooden so you can smash them. You may need to change a cloud to a raincloud so that water falls on the seeds below it and grows a tree, you get the picture.

It’s a pretty cool mechanic, and what makes it enjoyable is that most of the puzzle solving makes you stop and think, but the eventual answer is usually common sense. You can usually sort of tell what you are supposed to do, and this means when you do solve a puzzle, you don’t feel like you’ve been cheated into something that you stumbled upon just by luck.

Swapping isn’t universal though, you can’t swap anything onto anything. Once you scan a texture you get a limited amount of time to apply it to something, and you can’t always apply it to things you think you should be able too. It’s not always clear exactly what the limitations are, but the more you play, the more you get a feel for what you’re able to do.

In terms of the story that propels the game, it can at times be a little verbose. It’s pushed forward by speaking to various characters, and sometimes, they have quite a lot to say. Perhaps a little too much in my opinion, but tastes on this will vary.

In the game, you are first assigned to investigate some marbles, mystical gems that seem to transform the environment around them. Doing so, you accidently unleash an ancient evil called Groll, a being made of loads of connected black boxes. Groll starts sucking up the marbles, and damages the world core, which is connected to the letters on the Riverside sign (which is a sort of Hollywood sign). Your goal is to repair the damage and beat the big baddy, simple stuff.

The world you traverse to do this though, is packed. And I mean that literally, the game world is very dense with things to do. Wandering about you’ll find all sorts of characters that have something they want to say or ask you to do, puzzles to complete, things to find. There’s a lot of different collectable items in this game, so if you’re the type that likes that sort of thing, you’ll really enjoy this.

I do normally enjoy 3D platformers where you collect stuff, but I think in this case, it might be a little too much. The world can sometimes feel just a little too cluttered, the cutscenes a little zoomed in, and the menu screen just has loads of icons and pictures all over it. It’s a personal preference where I prefer games to be a bit more clean with some more room to breathe, it won’t affect everyone but for me, there was sometimes just a bit too much going on.

Ruffy can also glide around, sprint, punch and of course jump. The platforming is secondary to the puzzle solving in this game, and acts more as a means to help complete puzzles rather than the sole focus. That’s fine and makes sense for the type of game the developers have tried to put out.

There are also some sections of the game where you jump into a wall and have to play in 2D, and usually solve those sections by something you do on the outside - for instance, turning some water into lava to defeat the enemy first. These are fun sections, and it’s cool to see them link it in with the key mechanic.

Overall, I like Ruffy and the Riverside. Apart from some minor personal complaints I have, this is a decent action platformer with a cool mechanic, nostalgic graphics and a good soundtrack. Currently, it’s on sale for £13.23, which I think is a good price for this type of game. If you’re into the type of games I mentioned in my opening paragraph, I think you’ll really get a kick out of this.

Rating - 3.5/5

Game key provided by Keymailer for the purpose of this review.