What instantly pulls you into a large bear hug is Ruffy and the Riverside’s visible fashion. Character fashions closely resemble the Paper Mario sequence, their flatness and white outlines making them appear like they’re animated stickers working around the globe. In distinction, the setting has a chunky 3D fashion that harkens again to stuff like Banjo Kazooie and Crash Bandicoot. Which is smart as a result of that is additionally a easy platformer with a cutesy lead character. However Ruffy has a cool little twist that makes it extra than simply copy-bear.
Out there On: PS4, PS5, Xbox Collection S/X, Xbox One, PC, Swap, Swap 2
Reviewed On: PS5
Developed By: Zockrates Laboratories UG
Revealed By: Phiphen Video gamesEvaluate code offered by the writer
Ruffy is your bog-standard type younger bear: he wears a cape, works a job for his surrogate father determine the place he plies his distinctive ability, hangs out with a speaking bee and solely talks in speech bubbles as a result of his excitable noises are incomprehensible to the human ear. You realize, the standard mascot platformer form of issues.
In the future, although, issues go a bit loopy and Ruffy finds out that he’s The Chosen One, as a result of solely his distinctive present (we’ll get to that, don’t fear) might help defend towards the return of Gnoll, a large floating historical evil dice factor that’s going to vacuum up historical marbles and use them to take over the world. Or one thing like that.
Just like the traditional platformers Ruffy and The Riverside emulates, the story is wacky nonsense for essentially the most half, though this one delivers an fascinating twist towards the tip that may annoy or enjoyment of equal measure. There are some hiccups within the writing and the humour is somewhat hit and miss, which may be as a result of Zockrates Laboratories (that is their debut sport) relies in Germany, so some issues may have been misplaced in translation.
Ruffy has a celebration trick up his sleeves, and it isn’t simply his God-given proper to bear arms: he can swap textures utilizing magical mumbo-jumbo. For instance, a pond stuffed with water could be become lava, whereas a tree could be turned into stone. There are some limitations – not each texture could be swapped round, so you may’t go turning one other bear’s face into wooden, for instance, though that does sound like a wonderful premise for a spin-off referred to as Ruffy And The Mass Murdering Psychopath. Hmm, religious sequel to Naughty Bear, anybody?
Ruffy’s unexplained means to swap textures round – as if he had entry to the sport’s improvement instruments – is the idea for many of the puzzles. Don’t fret, although, this isn’t a sport designed to problem the ‘ol gray matter. No, the puzzles are typically easy, pleasant issues that mix texture swapping and primary platforming. For instance, a waterfall turns into a ladder if you happen to texture swap the water with some close by vines, or some concrete bricks in your manner could be smashed if you happen to swap them to wooden. Perhaps you’re in a event and must do some…artistic alterations of the scoreboard to make sure victory? Though the sport struggles towards the tip with discovering new methods to make use of the swap means, for essentially the most half, the puzzles and platforming combination is enjoyable and well-balanced.
Ruffy additionally has the completely distinctive energy of punching issues within the face, however fight in Ruffy and the Riverside is about as vital because the side-salad possibility at a McDonalds. He can carry out a butt-slam too, a transfer so extremely helpful that I used it roughly 3 times all through the sport, and even briefly forgot about it solely whereas attempting to unravel an non-obligatory puzzle the place buttock smashing was the reply.
It wouldn’t be an old-school impressed platformer with no metric butt-load of stuff to gather, and sure, that it an actual unit of measurement – it’s precisely one half of a bear butt lower than a metric ass-load. To not be confused with an imperial ass-load, which is a unit of measurement solely present in Star Wars.
The purpose is, outdoors of battling Gnoll and saving the world, there’s the much more vital job of doing every thing else, resulting in a fairly enjoyable Platinum trophy, in my case. There a couple of dozen tiny cute critters to be discovered hiding inside bushes, in barrels and each different place they shouldn’t be. There are the particular stone monument the place you must uncover a sample within the setting after which replicate it on the monument. There are butterflies hidden in every single place to seek out. Hell, there are even a few Mario-esque sections the place you bounce right into a wall portray and the sport briefly turns right into a 2D platformer.
Whilst you’re doing all of this, you’re additionally listening to an absurdly bouncy soundtrack. One monitor particularly is caught in my head, bouncing round and refusing to go away. I do have a small nitpick: the sport doesn’t all the time easily transition from tune to tune. In any other case, although, it is a killer soundtrack that sounds each trendy, and old-school.
One side of the sport’s presentation did depart me not sure whether or not it was a deliberate homage to the classics, or an precise improvement problem. You see, Ruffy and the Riverside isn’t a very open world. It has a few areas, and the way in which it divides these areas is…fascinating. For instance, there’s a piece that hyperlinks the principle city to the primary main hub, and it’s very clearly a transitional zone, just like what you may discover within the previous video games, designed to permit the sport to load every thing in. Different instances, you’ll merely stroll into an enormous black void earlier than the following chunk of map pops into existence. And in a single space, there’s an enormous, flat picture of the following part of the map that you just stroll into to set off the loading. A part of me wonders if that is all a nod to how the previous platformers dealt with loading screens, however one other a part of me thinks that is an precise technical limitation.
In Conclusion…
Ruffy and the Riverside cleverly ape traditional platformers whereas delivering a gimmick that makes it really feel contemporary and trendy. In actual fact, its whimsical nature, constructed round an intriguing gameplay mechanic, provides it classical Nintendo vibes. The story units up for future adventures, and contemplating that is the developer’s debut title, they’re future adventures I might like to see made.
