Ruffy and the Riverside might just be the most infectious game of the year, which I can appreciate is somewhat of an odd platitude to hand out, but trust me, it’s a well earned one all the same as I hope to explain shortly. If you were to take a quick stock of the game, you would simultaneously be assailed by a number of impressions borne from experiences with other titles. Ruffy and the Riverside looks a little bit like Paper Mario, has more than a dash of Banjo Kazooie and has the sort of effortless audiovisual charm you might expect to see in something like Studio MDHR’s Cuphead.
Ruffy And The Riverside PS5 Review
A Delightfully Inventive 3D Platformer That Relies On Much More Than Nostalgia
What Ruffy and the Riverside actually is however, is a rip-roaring 3D platformer that is greater than the sum of its parts, thanks to an over abundance of infectious charm and a genuinely innovative central concept. As to what that central concept is, it’s important to understand at least the basics of Ruffy and the Riverside‘s setting first as the two are inextricably intertwined.
Ruffy and the Riverside has our titular furry hero attempting to save his world from Groll, a long thought exiled dark power that has an insatiable hunger for world-altering marbles (bear with me here) that can change the very material and fabric of his beloved homeland, Riverside. Aided by a weapons grade wholesome cast of good folks including Pip, a plucky bee with an attitude, Silja the wise turtle and the well-meaning, adventurous mole Sir Eddler, Ruffy is the CHOSEN ONE who must use his natty ability to swap the materials of one surface with another to defeat Groll and save the world. In case you missed it, it’s absolutely that swapping ability which sits at the beating heart of Ruffy and the Riverside‘s platforming shenanigans, and more precisely, how developer Zockrates Laboratories employs it in a variety of fun and compelling ways.
Essentially, the way that Ruffy’s magical SWAP ability functions is that by aiming a special reticle at a surface and pressing the R1 button, Ruffy will commit that material to his memory and from there he can essentially copy and paste that material over another, changing its physical properties in the process. Predictably, Ruffy and the Riverside has a lot of fun with this concept, too. For instance, you might see a towering waterfall that you need to reach the apex of, but have seemingly no way to get there. However, a quick glance at the local environment reveals a set of vines growing nearby. By copying the material properties of the vine and then essentially pasting it over the waterfall, we end up with a tremendously tall set of vines in place of the waterfall that allow our hero to now climb to the very top. Neat, eh?
In another example, Ruffy finds himself confronted by a cocky Bully Shark that is holding some of the local denizens captive. To rid the land of this annoying amphibian, Ruffy could copy the material properties of a nearby patch of ice and then overlay it onto the water that shark patrols, freezing the water and thus getting rid of the shark in the process. In another example that shines a light on how the game deals with physical weight properties in a neat way, Ruffy has to weigh down a variety of carrier hooks with materials of the correct density in order to touch a button. Once a number of buttons have been touched, this then enables Ruffy to take part in a kart-style race around a makeshift course.
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Then there are the precious marbles themselves. Strewn around the place and which randomly pulse out, causing changes in the environment in multiple ways within its radius, these McGuffins are impressive to see in action and very much lean into the SWAP mechanic which arguably defines Ruffy and the Riverside. Honestly, it’s hugely smart stuff and the SWAP mechanic represents the very sort of freewheeling, playful inventiveness that one might expect to see from Nintendo’s first-party line-up.
By virtue of its very nature then, the magic SWAP mechanic provides Ruffy and the Riverside with a deep additional layer of puzzle solving that you don’t really get in other platform games and in doing so, most certainly serves to differentiate the game from its genre peers. Peel away the magic SWAP mechanic from Ruffy and the Riverside though and what you’re essentially left with is an enjoyable 3D platformer absolutely awash with charm, if one that comes with a fair bit of jank. First the good stuff though. Ruffy and the Riverside doesn’t unfold as separate stages, but rather as one continuous world separated by the odd loading screen. As you wander around the place sniffing out secrets and talking to NPCs to take on various side quests, you’ll soon realise that you’re covering fairly sizable distances as you travel from one place to another.
Where Ruffy and the Riverside perhaps gets a little comfortable with embracing its influences from 3D platformers from a halcyon age, is in just how much it loves sending the player off on numerous collect-a-thons whenever the opportunity arises. Indeed, it can’t seem to get enough of them and as such, these somewhat unfortunately form the vast bulk of side quests that you’ll get from Riverside’s numerous cheerful denizens. It’s a shame, because a bit more variety in the quest types would have really have been welcome.
In addition to the quasi open-world, you also get very linear dungeons and mini-worlds to explore too which often tend to focus on the magic SWAP functionality in different ways. Think themed dungeons like you might see in a game like The Legend of Zelda, and you get the idea. It’s certainly worth mentioning too that a lot of imagination has clearly gone into Ruffy and the Riverside‘s game world at large. As well as the vibrantly verdant beginning area of Riverside itself, the game takes in a vast range of deserts, snow-capped hills, islands in the sky, video game screens that you can hop into and so much more besides.
Another area where Ruffy and the Riverside comes unstuck slightly in terms of its 3D platforming fundamentals, is somewhat oddly, the combat side of things. Though Ruffy himself is perfectly enjoyable to control from a traversal perspective – he’s quick and responsive enough to turn on a penny and also has a neat gliding ability thanks to his friend Pip, it also turns out that Ruffy can do a wild punch and Mario style butt bash as well. The problem with combat here however, is that the enemies simply aren’t challenging in the least and can usually be swatted away with minimum effort. Even big spiky enemies, for whom their deadly pertrusions would prevent them from being attacked head-on in other games, can be routinely battered away here without penalty.
Away from such flaws, Ruffy and the Riverside also suffers somewhat from a touch of the ol’ jankiness. From a technical perspective, while the flat sprite, Paper Mario style character models are routinely bursting with charm and whimsy, the fairly juddery camera panning can detract somewhat from what is otherwise a responsive, 60 frames per second 3D platformer that very much adheres to the late 1990s, early 2000s as a technical touchstone. As do the occasional and oddly placed invisible walls which crop up here and there, making Ruffy and the Riverside feel more like an authentic technical throwback to a decades-ago time than it perhaps needs to be.
Elsewhere, the cursed jank also manifests itself a little with repetitive dialogue that always crops up whenever you pick up certain kinds of collectibles or chat to particular NPCs. It’s hardly deal breaking stuff, but it does underscore the fact that maybe some extra development time would have helped to polish such rough edges.
The end result though, is that even when taken in tandem, these relatively minor flaws aren’t enough to derail Ruffy and the Riverside‘s playful innovations. Oh and a word on the soundtrack, too. If you’re not playfully bopping along to Ruffy and the Riverside‘s soundtrack foot-tapping earworms, then chances are your ear(s) aren’t working and you should return them to your parents, with the receipt of course, post haste.
Unlike other seemingly similar efforts that want to tempt players down 3D platformer memory lane for a concentrated hit of nostalgia and leave it at that, Ruffy and the Riverside doesn’t just take that well-worn idea and repackages it, but instead adds something refreshingly compelling to the formula. Though some minor flaws and polish issues do abound, they aren’t enough to take the shine away from one of the most charming and thoughtful 3D platformers in ages.
Ruffy and the Riverside releases for PS5 on June 26, 2025.
Release code kindly provided by PR.