Ruffy and the Riverside - Switch 2 Review
"A fever dream with original ideas"
Ruffy and the Riverside is the debut title from German studio Zockrates Laboratories. Ruffy is presented in a paper sprite style, similar to Paper Mario, and appears to hark back to the good old days of the late 90s/early 00s 3D platformers. What’s not to like?
After Mario Kart World, this is the second game I’ve played on the Nintendo Switch 2. Zockrates, in fact, recommended this as Ruffy apparently performs much better on the new console than it does on its predecessor. Let’s see if they’re right!
The Good
Ruffy and the Riverside is developed by a studio that began as a team of artists, and man, does it show. The look is fairly retro, but the detail and colour on the environments, characters and props are beautiful. Ruffy is the main character and is a feral animal who bounds around the 3D world of Riverside, which not only looks great but is artfully juxtaposed with the 2D sprites that form most of its inhabitants. Riverside is under threat from the evil Groll, who is threatening to do lasting damage to the world, but fortunately Ruffy is assisted by his sidekick—a cute little bee called Pip—and Sir Eddler, who is one of the many mole-like creatures who inhabit Riverside.
The main mechanic of Ruffy and the Riverside is its SWAP mechanic, which effectively acts as an elaborate copy and paste system. The controls of it take some getting used to but it’s pretty ingenious when you get the hang of it. Ruffy can swap the surface material of pretty much anything to solve puzzles. An early example is copying a wood texture from a tree and then applying it to a metallic container, meaning that container can then be burnt or destroyed. It starts simple but becomes more elaborate as things progress and more satisfying to solve as a result. There are even a number of Super Mario Odyssey-style 2D side-scroller sections where Ruffy’s 2D sprite transitions to a flat plane on a cliff face or similar. Sure, it’s a blatant rip-off but it makes for some memorable and heartwarming puzzle moments.
Ruffy and the Riverside is a collectathon at heart, which is great to see. There are many secrets and collectibles to find and it really feels like Zockrates has revived a long-lost art form. The world of Riverside is structured in a hub-and-spoke system and initially there will be lots of puzzles you’re unable to solve but need to revisit, which this metroidvania fan loved. But fear not, the backtracking is kept to a minimum and doesn’t feel laborious.
TL;DR
- 3D world meets 2D characters sprites art style looks awesome
- Original SWAP copy and paste mechanic
- A must for any collectathon fans
The Bad
Pretty much every 3D platformer has camera difficulties, and it seems no one has REALLY been able to nail it since Super Mario 64. It works well enough in Ruffy and the Riverside but at times the auto-camera lollops around all over the place. In the late 90s I had a game on the Nintendo 64 called Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, which is awesome by the way, but one weekend I played it pretty much non-stop and developed a migraine as a result of its bright colours and wacky presentation… I feel like I wasn’t too far away from befalling the same fate after playing Ruffy because the camera and colourful landscapes are a lot to take in!
As mentioned earlier, Zockrates asked us to play Ruffy and the Riverside on the Nintendo Switch 2 and it ran largely OK; however, some of the draw distances were pretty poor. Sections of beach and cliff would routinely be popping in when Ruffy was relatively close to them. Also, some rooms in the same game area wouldn’t load until you walked into them, which meant you walked into a black opening and then the game would lag for a few seconds before everything would appear. At least in the general running of things it was smooth, but those area transitions were just missing the old PS1 disc-scratching sound.
Lastly, and this might seem minor, but there’s a lot of water in the world of Riverside (well, duh), and Ruffy can’t swim; fair enough. When you fall into the water (which will happen a lot), he kind of doggy paddles a bit, giving you a small window to return to dry land, but most of the time he will ‘drown,’ and you’ll respawn on land. All sounds pretty typical so far, but inexplicably the respawn points would often be nowhere near where you fell into the water. It was just incredibly frustrating, as you couldn’t try the tricky platforming section (or whatever it was) immediately and would have to work your way back to where you fell into the drink.
TL;DR
- Camera can be a bit dizzying
- Laggy area-transitions
- Strange respawn points from falling in the water
Final Score: 8/10
Ruffy and the Riverside often feels like a bit of a fever dream, but at least it’s a fever dream with original ideas. The puzzles are fun and the world of Riverside will appease many an explorer and collectathon fan. I can’t wait to see what Zockrates does next!
Thank you for checking out our Ruffy and the Riverside Switch review, thank you to Zockrates (via Pirate PR) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:
- Andrew Caluzzi (Inca Studios / Camped Out)
- Bel Cubitt
- Bobby Jack
- Jack Caven
- Nintendo Maniacs
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