Ruffy and the Riverside

Do you remember games like Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario 64? The creators of Ruffy and the Riverside certainly do, as this little 3D puzzle platformer is a tribute to these classic games from Rare and Nintendo.

There isn't much of a story in Ruffy and the Riverside, but you take on the role of the little bear Ruffy, who is "the chosen one" and has been chosen to stop the villain Groll from destroying the otherwise peaceful and lovely world that Ruffy and his friends live in. Now Ruffy embarks on an adventure across seven different areas to stop Groll, offering plenty of 3D platforming, exploration of every nook and cranny, and puzzle solving.

While paying homage to the classic platform games mentioned at the beginning, Ruffy and the Riverside has its own ace up its sleeve. The game has a so-called "swap" feature, which allows the player to change the surfaces, i.e. the texture, of the game's elements. This means that the surfaces of rocks, trees, walls, and much more can be changed.

Let's take a simple example: you are standing on the shore of a lake and next to you is a large rock. Out in the lake is a small island with a chest you want to reach. You can't swim, so it's not possible to get out to the island. The solution is the new swap feature. It works by holding down a key and using a "crosshair" to take a copy of the surface of the rock next to you. Using the same crosshair, you then shoot it out onto the water, turning the water into a solid rock surface, allowing you to "walk on water" out to the island with the chest. However, the surface returns to its original form after a short time, so you also have to consider how to get back from the island.

This is a simple example of how this swap feature works, and the game's puzzles naturally use it throughout, which can become quite complicated later in the game. It may sound quite good at first, and it works well most of the time. The problem, however, is that not all surfaces can be copied, nor can all surfaces be swapped (that would probably be too much to ask), so in several of the game's puzzles, you simply have to try your way through, as you cannot immediately see which surfaces can be swapped.

A good example that I encountered at the beginning of the game was that I had to talk to a character who was sitting watching TV on a beach, but he was so engrossed in his TV that I couldn't talk to him. I was told that I had to turn off the TV to get his attention, so I thought I would just turn the TV into stone or water, which would turn it off - but I couldn't. Instead, I had to do something else quite illogical (which I won't reveal here), and it actually took me most of 45 minutes to figure it out.

The game's puzzles can be a little frustrating because they seem a bit locked, as it can be difficult to see when swap features can and cannot be used, so you resort to the process of elimination, but that's just not a fun way to solve puzzles. That said, Ruffy and the Riverside is a cosy old-school platform puzzle game that borrows a little from the classics but definitely has its own identity.

However, there were a few things that I found very difficult to ignore. First of all, I don't find the visual style particularly appealing. It's a kind of Paper Mario clone, with 2D characters in a 3D world, which is fine, but I really didn't like the character design. Ruffy is a really annoying character. All the sounds he constantly makes when he jumps are so annoying, and I can't stand his idle animation when you're not moving. I know this is very personal, but that was how I felt, and it actually ruined part of the game for me, as I couldn't see past it.

If you want to take a completely objective view, Ruffy and the Riverside is a charming little tribute to the classic 3D puzzle platformers of the 1990s, and it has a nice ace up its sleeve in the form of the swap feature. However, it is also a bit limiting, and I think the visuals may be a bit of a hit or miss for many.

If you're into classic puzzle platformers from back in the day, then take a look at Ruffy and the Riverside, as it's a nice little platform game and quite reasonably priced at just over £14, depending on which platform you play on. Just don't expect a game that really pushes the genre, even though it has its own ace up its sleeve.