Review
Deliver At All Costs review: madness on wheels
by Kim Muntinga
"Ruffy and the Riverside": "Zelda" puzzle in a colourful "Banjo Kazooie" setting
25/6/2025
Translation: machine translated
"Ruffy and the Riverside' entices with its likeable, hand-drawn characters. Unfortunately, the gameplay cannot quite keep up with the successful look of the 3D platformer.
When I started «Ruffy and the Riverside» for the first time, I was thrilled. With its colourful world, the game reminds me of 3D platformer masterpieces such as «Super Mario 64» and «Banjo Kazooie». The look of the 2D characters, on the other hand, brings back memories of Nintendo's «Paper Mario» RPG series.
When the end credits roll across my screen less than ten hours later, my initial enthusiasm has faded. Although I don't have a bad experience with the game, it falls short of my expectations. Looks aren't everything.
A cute adventure with too much banter
I control the bear Ruffy, who is accompanied by the cheeky bee Pip. Actually, I'm just a painting assistant who, until the start of the game, only uses the «FLIP» skill to swap paintings. The FLIP is the core element that everything revolves around. We'll get to that later.
When I accidentally awaken the evil cube Groll, the entire world of Riverside is in danger. Grudge destroys the town's letter emblem, which is linked to the centre of the world. To restore it, I have to find and collect the sacred letters.
The story is simple in typical platformer fashion and provides the necessary motivation to save the world by jumping around and solving puzzles. Even though the story has a nice message, especially towards the end, the characters ramble too much for a 3D platformer. Shorter dialogues would do the trick and distract less from the actual fun of the game.
This is a shame, because I really like the design of the game world. The hand-drawn 2D characters are bursting with charm, as is the retro-style 3D world. I also like the music that plays in the background. First and foremost, the Title Theme.
I FLIP the world the way I like it
The unique selling point of «Ruffy and the Riverside» is the FLIP feature. This allows me to copy and replace textures at will. For example, if I'm standing in front of a waterfall, I first copy a climbing vine nearby. Then I transfer the plant to the water. This allows me to overcome the obstacle without any problems.
The main story navigates me through the game world with its common thread. I always have a goal to follow. Along the way, I am regularly distracted by small anomalies and puzzles. Sometimes I have to transfer an image to a table using the FLIP ability, sometimes I have to correctly depict a stone structure by turning the excess stones into wood and destroying them. It's also worth turning stones into wood in water. This way, they float on the surface and serve as a platform for me.
Everything revolves around the FLIP. So much so that the platforming elements take too much of a back seat for my taste and I spend more time solving little FLIP puzzles. «Ruffy and the Riverside» feels like a colourful «Banjo Kazooie», which draws inspiration from «The Legend of Zelda» due to its mini-puzzles.
The numerous rock formation puzzles, for example, remind me of the little Krog puzzles from «The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild» and «The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kindgom».
They are entertaining and I get 3D platformer-typical collectibles. An Etoi creature here, a butterfly there and a so-called «dream stone», which I use to colour the world to my liking. Each dreamstone represents a texture in the game, such as flowing water. If the original design is too plain for me, I redesign the water according to my wishes and draw it myself. Then I can see it everywhere in the world from then on.
A highlight of the puzzles for the collectibles are the two-dimensional images on the walls, which I can enter via a portal. I play short jump'n'run passages in the images, which I manipulate with the FLIP effect before entering in order to master them. Here, too, I'm reminded of a Nintendo game: this time the 2D passages from «Super Mario Odyssey».
Overall, the development team took a little too much inspiration from Ruffy's Copy Paste skills for my liking. Too many elements were copied from other games and reused in Ruffy's world. Despite the obvious Nintendo inspirations such as «Zelda», «(Paper) Mario» or «Banjo», Ruffy can't keep up with these titles in terms of gameplay. The «borrowed» gameplay elements are so simplified that I never get to puzzle. As a result, I don't feel like exploring the charming-looking world. I miss the heart of the game. The developers should have been a little more daring or removed some elements.
Varied puzzles in a stylish game - but only in the story
At first, I was overwhelmed by the many exploration options and preferred to follow the clear story. Later, when I venture on one or two detours, I find the numerous optional puzzle sections a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, the puzzle types all work according to a similar principle that has little to do with platformers. That's why I quickly lose interest and stick to the story, which offers more variety.
In a cemetery, for example, I have to colour the flowers on a grave correctly in order to win a beauty contest. To do this, I first have to go to the mausoleum with the ghost jury and avoid guards in a small sneak passage.
Other times, I feel like Tony Hawk when I perform tricks on a halfpipe with the help of a straw ball. If the mini-game is too difficult for me, I simply cheat during the half-time break and use the FLIP effect to change my score.
I'm less fond of the walking paths during the main story. If I follow the story non-stop, I often have to run back and forth. It doesn't help that the built-in compass is more confusing than helpful. I can see my destination at the top of the screen, but not the way there. Because Riverside has a few branches, I can't follow the destination in a straight line. Instead, I have to keep reaching for the map to make sure I don't stray from the path. This disrupts the flow of the game.
The few boss fights are hardly worth mentioning. The enemies always attack in the same pattern. The fights are so simple that they feel like an item on the checklist. They cannot be compared with the spectacular fights from «Astro Bot».
«Ruffy and the Riverside» will be released on 26 June 2025 for PC, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch. The PC version for Steam was provided to me by Phiphen Games for testing purposes.
In a nutshell
A stylish platformer, but too one-dimensional despite the 3D world
Because 3D platformers from the 1990s and 2000s are among my favourite games, I want to love "Ruffy and the Riverside". But the game simply doesn't offer enough depth to make me want to explore the world. That's a shame, because there's enough collectables to do so. Instead, the focus is on the FLIP ability of the character Ruffy, with whom I exchange textures. I spend more time solving puzzles and reading the story than mastering challenging jumping passages.
"Ruffy and the Riverside" scores points for this with its charming design of hand-drawn 2D characters and a colourful world. The story also brings with it some varied challenges.
As 3D platformer fodder for in-between games, "Ruffy and the Riverside" is definitely suitable - especially with the right expectations. However, it seems that the developers have orientated themselves too much towards Nintendo. As a result, "Ruffy and the Riverside" lacks the heart that its charming design deserves.
Pro
- Exciting copy-paste mechanism
- Colourful game world and hand-drawn 2D characters
Contra
- Too much repetition and too little depth
- Disappointingly few platformer sequences
Header image: Phiphen Games
Cassie Mammone
Freelance Editor
cassie.mammone.freelance@gmail.comI wrote my first text about video games when I was eight years old. I haven't been able to stop since. The rest of my time is spent on my love for 2D husbandos, monsters, my cats and sport.
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