Ruffy and the Riverside Review: A Rough Ride Through A Cool Concept

Ruffy and the Riverside is one of those games that immediately grabs your attention with its concept. You play as Ruffy, a curious explorer wandering a colorful and surreal riverside world filled with strange creatures, hidden secrets, and shifting environments. The game looks like it belongs in the same conversation as other offbeat indie platformers that thrive on charm and style. But once you settle into the experience on Xbox Series X, it becomes clear that its bold ideas don’t always translate into fun gameplay.

The first thing that stands out is the visual design. The world is vibrant and full of whimsy. Environments pop with saturated colors, unique architecture, and little bits of environmental storytelling that give the world a lived-in, handcrafted feel. Ruffy himself is a likable character with a design that feels like a throwback to late ’90s mascot platformers. It’s clear the developers wanted the game to feel distinct, and in that regard they succeeded. Just walking around and taking in the scenery is a delight.

One of the game’s big hooks is Ruffy’s swap abilities, which let you trade properties between objects, characters, or environmental elements. For example, you might swap the weight of a heavy rock with a wooden tree to create a floating platform, or exchange a waterfall with vines to create a climbable surface. In concept, this is brilliant. It feels like it should open the door for creative puzzle-solving and give you more ways to approach the platforming challenges.

However, in practice, the swap mechanic rarely feels as intuitive as it should. The targeting can be finicky, especially when objects are close together. There are also times when it’s unclear what can be swapped, so you’re left guessing until you stumble onto the solution by trial and error. When it works, swapping can create clever moments and these flashes of creativity show the potential of the system, but they are too few.

Unfortunately, it is when you start engaging with the game’s core platforming that the problems start to pile up. Movement feels slightly floaty and imprecise, making even simple jumps more difficult than they should be. The physics are inconsistent, sometimes causing you to overshoot a landing or slip off ledges in ways that feel unfair. The Riverside’s terrain is full of narrow platforms and moving elements that demand precision, but the controls just don’t provide enough of it. This makes sections that should be fun or at least relaxing into small exercises in frustration.

There is also an uneven sense of pacing. Some areas are fun to explore, with hidden collectibles and charming NPCs that give you reasons to slow down and look around. But other sections are padded with repetitive platforming challenges that don’t add much beyond length. It’s a shame, because the game clearly has moments where its world-building shines, but those moments are buried under gameplay that does not feel polished.

Not everything is negative. The soundtrack is pleasant, matching the quirky and colorful tone of the visuals. There are fun little interactions with the environment, and occasionally the game surprises you with a clever set piece or a humorous character exchange. When it briefly clicks, you see the potential it could have had with tighter controls and better level design.

But those moments are fleeting. Most of the time, Ruffy and the Riverside feels like a good concept trapped in a mediocre game. It wants to be a mix of exploration, platforming, and puzzle-solving, but it never fully commits to any of those ideas in a way that feels satisfying. Instead, it leaves you with a series of mild frustrations layered over a charming but shallow world.

For players who really love quirky indie platformers, there may be enough charm here to make it worth a look. But for anyone hoping for a more engaging experience to match its intriguing mechanic, Ruffy and the Riverside falls short of its potential.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Ruffy and the Riverside is available for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series One, Series S/X, and Switch.