A Collect-a-Thon with a Transformative Twist
Don’t be fooled into thinking that Ruffy and the Riverside is a kid’s game. And don’t be put off by an opening hour or two that will no doubt leave you flummoxed. Because this is a game that demands your time, so much so that once Ruffy clicks, it clicks in a big old way. In fact, it very much comes across in the same vein as those delightful collect-a-thon focused 3D semi-open worlders of yesteryear; of games involving icons like Banjo, of Yooka-Laylee and the like.
Is it as good as those games it evokes memories of? Perhaps not, but if you’re looking for something to really get your teeth into, as puzzles, challenges, races, and a world rich for exploration come to the fore, you’ve certainly found it in this one.
A Bear’s Big Adventure
In Ruffy and the Riverside, you play as Ruffy; a little bear on the eve of becoming hero of the world. A naive little guy, it’s his world that is on the brink of ruin, half destroyed by an evil being long banished. Obviously that’s the basic set-up, and I don’t want to divulge too much of what happens narratively in Ruffy and the Riverside, but be sure you’ll get to meet a ton of folk, good and bad, as you look to restore a Hollywood-esque land to its rightful, pride filled place. You’ll get to do it with the power of a pretty unique, extremely clever mechanic too.
For the most part, Ruffy is a solo guy on a mission, but he’s aided in every task he does by a small buzzy mate, Pip. With Sir Eddler the mole helping push forward the tale, and a variety of other folk happy to chat, there’s plenty of opportunity in the Riverside to get to know the locals. But as with any NPC-fuelled adventure, that does then mean Ruffy’s life starts to fast become filled with a variety of quests, or missions, of objectives and of collectibles. In fact, we’d go as far to say that at times, Riverside is a bit overwhelming with things to get involved in, with each of the various features requiring different skills, tactics and strategies.
Races, Riddles, and Rewards
For instance, there’s some straw bale racing, which in itself would be simple enough. But in order to take down the Five Fellows, you’ll need to start manipulating the race track, switching on boosters to aid your progress. It’s far from a simple ‘race’. Then there are the Pattern Potatoes that require you to a) hunt down a solution, and then b) implement that on a board. Even with the former noted (and you’ll probably want to take a few snaps of things in Ruffy and the Riverside, akin to old-school pen and paper jotting), it’s not always easy to translate the solution to the Potato itself.
Further, you’ve got cute little fluffy Etoi’s to hunt down, hidden away in trees and other structures, whilst there’s a Serpent’s Board riddle which slowly builds in complexity as the game progresses.
Throw in collectible butterflies, Capes to own, Dreamstones to gaze over and a ton more, and it’s easy to see how Zockrates Laboratories, the developer, have gone to town with a ton of ideas. For us, there’s probably one or two too many things to worry about for utter enjoyment to arise.
Restoring Riverside
The main goal though is to save Riverside, a Hollywood-type sign needing to be relit. That can only happen by Ruffy collecting the various letters, each hidden away in a certain section of the world. As with other things in this game though, it’s not always as simple as just rocking up and grabbing that letter – you’ll need to uncover pathways, solve further puzzles, and generally go all-in on objective ticking just to even access areas. With a decently sized hub-world playing host to these secondary lands, and navigation always tricky, you should expect to be sent this way and that, and then that way and this, over and over again.
Paper-Perfect Presentation
Thankfully, Ruffy and the Riverside looks cracking. There’s a unique-ish paper-y feel to everything that comes together here, with bright worlds and plenty of detail dragging you along. Occasional glitches and the odd difficulty in making certain jumps – especially when bale-rolling – rarely ever pull you out of the immersion. And for us, climbing high, working vine ladders, platforming elements and the use of Pip as a parachute, has been a real joy, allowing for a surveying of Riverside, all in hope of understanding where we need to go next. Of course, there’s a map, but it’s one of those that very much sends you in a general direction, and then leaves you to figure out the rest. At times, that can frustrate, and we found the early moments of Ruffy’s adventure to do that more than we really cared. But, as mentioned, when things click, when you understand what Zockrates are trying to make you do, it’s all delightful.
Equally so is the audio. There is no proper voicework on display, and interactions between characters play out in a text-box format, occasionally repeated too often, but it works well for the type of game we have. For us, it’s the backing audio tracks that are real gems though, mixing it up as you move through the world and get involved in certain aspects. With further audio clues pinging when required, this is a game that really does excel aurally.
The SWAP Mechanic
But there are a couple of things that are Ruffy and the Riverside’s real USPs – a SWAP mechanic and, to a slightly lesser extent, the chance to change the world (the entire world) as you see fit.
Your SWAP power is critical to everything on this adventure. Grabbing one element of the world, copying it up and pasting it back down on another, completely changing that piece is brilliant. It means you can turn day to night, rivers and pools to molten lava or hardened ice. Trees can be turned to sand, concrete to wood and more. Understanding how the copy and paste SWAP mechanics work is initially a little daunting, but much like everything else in the Riverside, once it clicks, you’re up and away, solving otherwise incomprehensible puzzles in a flash.
A multi-SWAP system aids in negating too much repetitiveness, with a timer dictating where and when you can move elements around. For instance, knowing you need some lava to burn through wood is fine, but getting the two to come together is where the real skills lie.
That is amplified by a smattering of 2D wall puzzles that Ruffy can portal into. Utilising elements of the real 3D landscape around you, injecting them into the monochrome 2D stuff ups the puzzle ante even more.
Without a doubt, the scanning and applying of textures is a real highlight of Ruffy and the Riverside, combining really well with everything else found within.
Creative Canvas
Neatly, this is an adventure that you can customise further too. Unlockable, is an in-menu graphical editing system that lets you change the world to your own tastes, pixel-peeping at all visual elements of the game and making them your own. Don’t like how that river flows? Change it up and chuck some purple in. Bored of that bright lava? Dull it in an instant.
The whole visual editor side of things may not be essential to any playthrough, but should you wish to really make the Riverside your own, you can do so.
A Quirky and Challenging Collect-a-Thon
A world rich with ideas, it’s only really your own imagination that is the limit to Ruffy’s journey through the Riverside. A cute artstyle may mean this is a game initially mistaken for a younger gamer’s runthrough, but in actuality, it’s a much more challenging affair. Tons of missions, objectives and collectibles will see you working through the puzzles on offer for a good few dozen hours, but the vast majority of those will be seen as a delight.
You’ll need to get through a slightly confused opening, but then Ruffy and the Riverside fast becomes a quirky, unique, challenging game that is ripe for manipulation.
Important Links
SWAP the World in the Super Unique Ruffy and the Riverside – https://www.thexboxhub.com/swap-the-world-in-the-super-unique-ruffy-and-the-riverside/
Buy Ruffy and the Riverside on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/ruffy-and-the-riverside/9ns1bc5d2fkj
