Ruffy and the Riverside Review – Copy and Pasting the way to Victory

Ruffy and the Riverside, developed by Zockrates Laboratories and published by Phiphen Games, is available now on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

In Ruffy and the riverside, you play as Ruffy, a simple Ewok-looking creature who just wants a normal day with no drama. (same) While you and your mentor are studying mysterious marbles, you accidentally release an evil entity called Groll that has been locked away for centuries. Groll is also after the marbels to increase his villainous powers. Ruffy, it turns out, is the chosen one; he has magical powers that he can use to his advantage. On Ruffy’s journey, you’ll have to use his powers to restore Riverside to its former self. The story, for a platformer, is pretty good; there are a lot of characters to talk to they all have different personalities with unique stories. The story’s characters will explain everything along the way in a way that you’ll follow with ease. I did like how the game had a story focus and wasn’t too much of a collectathon game; however, there are collectathon elements that are completely optional.

Ruffy and the Riverside take many aspects of older platformers from the late 1990s, which adds its own unique magical power, the ability to swap textures on the fly. Ruffy can swap textures through the worlds to aid him in his journey against the evil Groll. You will need to swap textures for many reasons, whether it’s to get from point A to B or solve a puzzle. This can also be a lot of fun. I ended up swapping a whole ocean of water for an ocean of lava, and it made it all look like a hellscape. In other sections, you might need to get to a location that you can’t jump up, so you’ll have to swap a waterfall with vines to climb it. Swapping textures was quite a fun twist; however, I always felt that perhaps more could have been swapped, but perhaps due to limitations, that wasn’t possible; however, there are still a lot of swappable textures. I’ve always said on this website that I’m not the biggest puzzle fan. I enjoy most genres of games, but puzzles, I’m not great at, and Ruffy and the Riverside has its fair share of puzzles, some that are explained fairly easily, but some that I couldn’t wrap my head around. I suffer from brain fog, unfortunately, with a chronic illness, so I didn’t know if it was me not understanding. Once I did figure it out, I felt pretty silly. The puzzle I got stuck on didn’t explain what I had to do to make the dinosaur sleep, and I ran around for a good 30 minutes feeling quite frustrated. While I do feel brain fog is an issue, extra guidance would not go amiss.

Ruffy and the Riverside has those classic tropes we all love from platformers, collecting, platforming (obviously) and exploring. The game manages to do all these fairly well, albeit with a few issues here and there, though nothing game-breaking. I enjoyed a lot of the tasks at hand, like collecting the butterflies and the little fuzzy guys inside different objects to solve the puzzles the world’s animal citizens had waiting for me. There is a lot to do and see, which can be taken at your own pace with a good tutorial to get you used to all of these mechanics. The world mostly feels interactive, but there are a few things that weren’t that I thought could have been quite a lot of fun. You can also customise Ruffy with capes and use a slot machine to upgrade the different capes, which will aid you with extra health, stamina and more. This is useful for the late part of the game.

The graphics and design are where Ruffy and the Riverside shine most. You are thrown into the gorgeously handcrafted world of Riverside, which appears all 3D with cartoon-like textures. The characters are hand-drawn 2D sprites, and they just fit perfectly within the world of Riverside. The animation truly brings everything to life in such a beautiful way, and Riverside is FLOODED with life that truly makes the whole thing alive. Each of these characters is well animated in such fun ways. Exploring this world was an absolute joy and one I can recommend on design alone, for a platformer, it just works perfectly. The music that accompanies the levels is wacky like the game itself, which adds to the overall theme. If you’re looking for a fully voiced story, though, you won’t find that here; it’s more of those grunts you find in other platformers like Banjo-Kazooie, though it still works well and adds to the quirkiness.

Verdict

I enjoyed my time with Ruffy and the Riverside. It is a solid platformer that has a lot to do and see. While there are a few problems, nothing took away from the overall experience, though some of the puzzles could use extra guidance. It is a title that reminded me of platformers of old, which provided some sort of nostalgic feeling. With this being Zockrates Laboratories’ first debut game, I hope the studio has a bunch of success because they have created a wonderful little game that offers something unique in the platforming genre with its swapping mechanic. If you want a relaxing game to play this summer, Ruffy and the Riverside is worth your time.