Ruffy and the Riverside is a 3D open-world action-adventure platformer where players step into the shoes of Riverside’s Chosen One, Ruffy, to save the world! Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Ruffy and the Riverside Review Overview
What is Ruffy and the Riverside?
Ruffy and the Riverside is a hand-drawn 3D open-world action platformer where players step into the shoes of the titular protagonist, Ruffy, as he goes on an exciting adventure, out to save his world! Wielding the power of SWAP, allowing him to change up almost anything and everything in the world of Riverside. Explore, fight, SWAP, skate, and solve puzzles to stop the evil cube villain, Groll, from taking over and destroying the World Core, the central heart of their entire planet.
Developed by indie studio Zockrates Laboratories UG and published by Phiphen Games, it is Zockrates’ debut title, aiming to deliver a fascinating 3D platformer with a quirky personality, engaging mechanics, and an intriguing story.
Ruffy and the Riverside features:
⚫︎ Fun and Unique SWAP Mechanic
⚫︎ Expansive Open World with 7 Areas
⚫︎ Charming, Hand-Drawn Graphics
⚫︎ 3D Platforming
⚫︎ Puzzles Galore
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 Epic Games |
 Switch |
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 PlayStation |
 Xbox |
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| $19.99 | |||||
Ruffy and the Riverside Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Fun, Unique Texture Swapping Gameplay An Expansive Map to Explore Different Puzzles to Solve Hand-Drawn Visuals |
Main Font is Hard to Read Ruffy is Talkative—Too Talkative Strange Save System |
Ruffy and the Riverside Overall Score - 78/100
Ruffy and the Riverside is a wholesome and charming 3D platformer that revolves around a unique texture-swapping mechanic, making its gameplay fun, engaging, with the right bit of challenging that gets your gears going. However, its main weaknesses lie in the dated-looking UI with a hard-to-read font, as well as an insanely talkative main character that seems too excited about saving the world. But hey, can’t exactly blame him—the world of Riverside is fun, vibrant, and yours for the taking!
Ruffy and the Riverside Story - 7/10
Its story is pretty straightforward, a little cliché, but engaging nonetheless. Ruffy is one lovable bear character: bright, inquisitive, and ready to save the world despite his youth. It’s not only Ruffy—the entire cast is fun and endearing in their own right, from Ruffy’s reliable sassy bee sidekick Pip to the gem-obsessed but well-meaning mole Sir Eddler. While the story is pretty intriguing and backed up by a lovely cast, it doesn’t really add anything innovative to the whole "You are the Chosen One, save the world!" schtick—and that’s totally okay.
Ruffy and the Riverside Gameplay - 8/10
Gameplay-wise, it feels like your standard platformer, made just extra fun with its unique SWAP mechanics which everything in the world revolves around. Jump, run, and fly through the air to get to places, as well as make use of Ruffy’s special SWAP ability to change the world your way—water turns to lava or vines in a flash, steel becomes plush material, rock to wood. Controls are smooth and responsive with each jerk of the joystick and press of the jump accounted for and with no input lag. Unfortunately, there’s no remapping of keybinds or controller buttons, but it’s not a big loss.
Ruffy and the Riverside Visuals - 8/10
Ruffy and the Riverside stands out for its hand-drawn graphics, its marker strokes visible and giving it a personalized touch. It’s nothing amazing, and it sometimes gives the look of old-time Flash games, but it’s charming in its own right and it works well performance-wise too—everything was seamless and had no stutters. Despite the lovely hand-drawn textures evidently made with painstaking care, the UI leaves quite a bit to be desired with a strange font choice that makes some parts difficult to read and a color scheme that kind of feels like it's from the early to late 2000s. If you’re a fan of that though, it’s perfect for you.
Ruffy and the Riverside Audio - 7/10
The audio is alright, a nice soundtrack that captures the essence of its playful fantasy world, and sound design is pretty spot on. The splashing of water, the ding of Ruffy’s SWAP ability at work, and even the background noises of all the NPCs scattered around the world all come together to make Ruffy’s world more alive and vibrant. However, there’s not much variety in their grunts and expressive noises, which can get pretty grating the more you explore its rather expansive open world. They are cute, don’t get me wrong—but he doesn’t really have to be that noisy every time he does something, right?
Ruffy and the Riverside Value for Money - 9/10
For $20, it’s an immensely good deal for hours of gameplay, from the main story all the way to completing all the side-quests and collectibles. It’s a fair price as well for a one-track game with only one ending. It doesn’t seem to have any replayability though, as you can probably finish everything in one playthrough if you dedicate enough time to it. Nevertheless, $20 for a wide variety of puzzles and activities to do, in and out of the main story, is a steal.
Ruffy and the Riverside Review: Subtitle
Ruffy and the Riverside, upon first glance, looks like something I would have played back in my childhood in the early 2000s—classic 3D platformers like Super Mario 64 and Spyro the Dragon, as well as a hint of those Flash games I used to play daily. It definitely came at me with a wave of nostalgia, appealing to the child self within me, and I had to pick it up. And let’s face it—Ruffy is one, adorable, bright teddy bear.
And just as I thought, it turned out to deliver what it promised: a quirky, wonderful adventure where you can literally change the world!
SWAP Makes Everything Fun
Everything—from the story plot to solving puzzles to helping out other NPCs with their dilemmas—revolves around Ruffy’s ability to SWAP (yes, stylized in all caps). His special skill allows him to copy almost any type of texture or color around him and paste it onto another, even changing their properties completely. An insurmountable waterfall becomes a ladder when overwritten with a texture of climbing vines, or turn impenetrable stone blocks into flimsy wooden crates with a wood or tree texture, ready for the breaking.
It’s an immensely fun mechanic, letting you experiment with almost everything in the open world to give yourself an edge or simply just to color a bush a different color for aesthetic purposes. Puzzles are fun to crack because of this mechanic, usually making you think outside the box. Sometimes, the answer is not obvious on the get-go, and there are times you might need to restart because your process is incomplete. However, the difficulty is nothing insanely complicated, and I believe even younger kids will have a good time playing Ruffy and the Riverside.
Smooth Controls, Smooth Gameplay
As a 3D open-world action-platformer, it’s a big relief that the game responds to the controls without any hiccup whatsoever. Jumping, running, and the running-jumping combo is fluid, taking you exactly where you want to be and timing it at the precise moment.
Admittedly, though, it may need a bit of time to get used to (I can’t count how many times I hit the RB or RT button thinking it was going to make Ruffy run) since the controls are a little different than most games these days, but nothing complicated. Unfortunately, there’s no option to change keybinds, so there’s no other way than to learn it the Ruffy and the Riverside way.
Hand-Drawn Visuals
I’m a big fan of the game’s hand-drawn art and aesthetic, with every single texture evidently placed first onto paper before being brought to life through animation and extra visual upgrades. The strokes can visibly be seen on the patterns in the environment, a testament to the game’s dedication to a traditional, hand-drawn art style. It’s got personality, and I’m all here for it.
The blend of 2D elements (the NPCs, the animals, the characters) with 3D elements (the environment, the trees, the rock formations) fits just right, and while it’s not amazingly stunning or realistic, it’s lovely in its own right and definitely pays homage to the games of old.
Chosen Font is Hard To Read
It was most likely a stylistic choice in order to go with all the game’s whimsicality, but the font they chose for the main text leaves something to be desired. It’s a little bit too thick, with an extra curl for fanciness—not exactly the best choice for a video game in my opinion, especially with all the text you’d need to read. I enjoy a bit of stylistic fonts in video games now and then, especially if there’s a reason for its unique choice of fonts (for example, in the game Pentiment, where the default font option is artistic and mostly gothic because of their medieval theme), though it wasn’t just clicking for me in Ruffy and the Riverside’s world.
This extends to the UI and the main menu as well, with everything being that one singular font (I’m not too well-versed with fonts, so I can’t exactly pinpoint what it is). Perhaps I can look past the special font while in cutscenes and in gameplay, but for a main menu, it would have been nice to have a clearer font, especially because some of the options in the menu made the text smaller and harder to read.
Ruffy Is Way Too Excited About Everything
It’s a minor gripe, but I honestly have to point it out—Ruffy is one sweet summer child and he’s adorable and all that, but he’s way too excited for his own good. Every single move you make, he will make some sort of sound. Pressing the button to start running, jumping, bringing out the SWAP mechanic, even when he falls into water—he’ll make a reaction of some sort about everything, and that’s already on top of the extra sound effects that play when doing something.
Ruffy is super cute, I mean it. I love Ruffy and his shenanigans, and even for his funny remarks. However, I believe everything is good in moderation. His exclamations can get pretty annoying the more you play, which may make you put down the game sometimes to cleanse your Ruffy babble meter back to 0. What sucks is that there’s no way to turn down the voice volume, so no way to go but to deal with it—there’s always the option to turn down the master volume entirely but Ruffy and the Riverside isn’t half as fun without the quirky music as well, so you’re kind of stuck there.
Is Ruffy and the Riverside Worth It?
Worth To See Its Colorful, Hand-Drawn World
Ruffy and the Riverside is definitely worth its $20 price tag, with its intriguing story, charming cast of characters, engaging gameplay, and hours of both main story and side-quest content to go through. While it has its weaknesses like a UI that is hard to read at times or an overly excitable main character (terribly lovable though), they’re pretty minor gripes to what otherwise is a great, solid 3D action-adventure platformer for all ages.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
Epic Games |
Switch |
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| PlayStation |
Xbox |
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| $19.99 | |||||
Ruffy and the Riverside FAQ
Where can you play Ruffy and the Riverside?
Interested players can play Ruffy and the Riverside on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.
Who is Ruffy in Ruffy and the Riverside?
Ruffy is the titular bear main character who sets on a journey to save his world, Riverside, by stopping the evil villain Groll from taking the World Core for himself. Joining him are his allies such as Pip the bee, Sir Eddler the mole, Silja the turtle, and more!
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Ruffy and the Riverside Product Information
 |
|
| Title | Ruffy and the Riverside |
|---|---|
| Release Date | June 26, 2025 |
| Developer | Zockrates Laboratories UG |
| Publisher | Phiphen Games |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam, Epic Games), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One |
| Genre | Action, Adventure, Platformer, Puzzle |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Ruffy and the Riverside Official Website |
