Ruffy And The Riverside Review – WGB

What instantly pulls you into an enormous 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 to be they’re animated stickers operating all over the world. In distinction, the atmosphere has a chunky 3D fashion that harkens again to stuff like Banjo Kazooie and Crash Bandicoot. Which is sensible 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.

Accessible On: PS4, PS5, Xbox Collection S/X, Xbox One, PC, Change, Change 2
Reviewed On: PS5
Developed By: Zockrates Laboratories UG
Printed By: Phiphen Video games

Assessment code offered by the writer

Ruffy is your bog-standard variety 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 understand, the same old mascot platformer form of issues.

Someday, although, issues go a bit loopy and Ruffy finds out that he’s The Chosen One, as a result of solely his distinctive reward (we’ll get to that, don’t fear) may help defend in opposition to the return of Gnoll, an enormous floating historic evil dice factor that’s going to vacuum up historic marbles and use them to take over the world. Or one thing like that.

Just like the basic platformers Ruffy and The Riverside emulates, the story is wacky nonsense for probably the most half, though this one delivers an fascinating twist towards the tip which may annoy or enjoyment of equal measure. There are some hiccups within the writing and the humour is relatively hit and miss, which could be as a result of Zockrates Laboratories (that is their debut sport) is predicated 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 will be become lava, whereas a tree will be turned into stone. There are some limitations – not each texture will be swapped round, so you may’t go turning one other bear’s face into wooden, for instance, though that does sound like a superb premise for a spin-off known as Ruffy And The Mass Murdering Psychopath. Hmm, non secular sequel to Naughty Bear, anybody?

Ruffy’s unexplained capability to swap textures round – as if he had entry to the sport’s growth instruments – is the idea for a lot of the puzzles. Don’t fret, although, this isn’t a sport designed to problem the ‘ol gray matter. No, the puzzles are usually easy, fulfilling issues that mix texture swapping and fundamental platforming. For instance, a waterfall turns into a ladder in case you texture swap the water with some close by vines, or some concrete bricks in your approach will be smashed in case you swap them to wooden. Possibly you’re in a event and must do some…inventive 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 capability, for probably 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 necessary 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 thrice all through the sport, and even briefly forgot about it solely whereas making an attempt 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 way more necessary job of doing every little thing else, resulting in a reasonably enjoyable Platinum trophy, in my case. There just a few 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 atmosphere 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 soar 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 observe 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 track to track. In any other case, although, this can be a killer soundtrack that sounds each fashionable, and old-school.

One side of the sport’s presentation did go away me not sure whether or not it was a deliberate homage to the classics, or an precise growth challenge. You see, Ruffy and the Riverside will not be a totally 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 primary city to the primary main hub, and it’s very clearly a transitional zone, just like what you would possibly discover within the previous video games, designed to permit the sport to load every little thing in. Different occasions, you’ll merely stroll into an enormous black void earlier than the subsequent chunk of map pops into existence. And in a single space, there’s a large, flat picture of the subsequent 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.

Ruffy and the Riverside cleverly ape basic platformers whereas delivering a gimmick that makes it really feel contemporary and fashionable. Actually, its whimsical nature, constructed round an intriguing gameplay mechanic, offers 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.