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Forbes
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
2025's Best-Looking Retro Platform Game Finally Gets Release Date
'Ruffy and the Riverside' has all the hallmarks of an indie GOTY, and it lands next month. One of the most charming indie games of the year finally has a release date. Ruffy and the Riverside, which draws on classics like Banjo-Kazooie and Super Paper Mario, will officially arrive on June 26 for PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and both Nintendo Switches. When I checked it out earlier this year during a surge of indie demo showcases, Ruffy and the Riverside immediately stood out for its inventive but nostalgic gameplay and gorgeous presentation, blending colorful, hand-painted visuals with core mechanics unlike anything you've ever seen in a platformer, either modern or retro. At the heart of the game is the SWAP system, a clever feature that allows players to copy and paste environmental textures and alter terrain in real time. It's an ingenious mechanic for puzzle-solving and exploration, letting you transform waterfalls into climbable vines, ice into lava, or steel into wood. Players take on the role of the titular Ruffy, a wide-eyed and perpetually positive protagonist dubbed the 'Chosen One,' who starts his journey to save the World Core from the sinister Groll. Ruffy and the Riverside is set across seven distinct regions, with quests and areas alternating seamlessly between expansive 3D sections and side-scrolling 2D sequences. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Naturally, its missions are heavily influenced by your god-given ability, while countless collectibles push you to think in a whole new way and experiment with your surroundings. All the while, you're surrounded by a cast of funny, quirky NPCs, daft side quests, and a bunch of mini games, including one that draws on fellow summer release Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. 'Ruffy and the Riverside' purportedly clocks in at 25 hours, making it a great summer investment (if ... More it's as good as the demo, of course). Ruffy and the Riverside has been developed by Zockrates Laboratories, a team of artists in Nuremberg. It's a labor of love they've been quietly polishing since 2017, and the long development time has translated into the wider experience, which boasts a 25-hour playtime. It also marks the first release for publisher Phiphen Games, a new interactive media division of indie film and TV house Phiphen. If the demo's anything to go by, Ruffy and the Riverside will smash it this summer — and despite a year that's already given us the likes of Blue Prince and Despelote, it could be a sleeper selection for indie game of the year.
The Verge
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
In a year full of giant games, some little mice stand out
There have been a lot of big games this year that have felt all-consuming, like Monster Hunter Wilds or Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Maze Mice offers something different: a small, pick-up-and-play experience that takes a bunch of ideas from some classics and adds a clever twist. The game, from Luck Be a Landlord developer TrampolineTales, mixes elements of Pac-Man, Vampire Survivors, and even the classic Snake. As an adorable, pixelated mouse, you zip around a maze to get blue experience gems that are guarded by cats. When you pass by the cats, they'll wake up and start chasing you, sometimes creating a hilariously long line of felines. (Cute ghost cats will also appear and inconveniently float right into your path.) All the action takes place on one screen, so it's easy to see where everything is at any given time. When you get enough gems, you can pick from a selection of three power-ups. The upgrades are often a little silly, like knitting needles that fly through the air to attack the cats pursuing you, but as with Vampire Survivors, it's fun to experiment with different abilities to create interesting builds. Maze Mice 's most interesting feature is that time only moves when you move, like in Superhot. When you inch forward, the enemy cats inch forward right behind you, but when you're not moving, they're frozen, too. Your abilities are all on cooldowns, and the time on those cooldowns also only advances when you move forward. It all means that instead of the growing sense of being overwhelmed that you might get while dodging ghosts in Pac-Man or fighting hordes of monsters in Vampire Survivors, Maze Mice gives you time to sit and think about where you want to go next — even if you have 10 cats on your tail. I really like how it all works. You're still dealing with lots of enemies, but instead of the anxiety of having to fend them off in real time like in other games, it's all much much more laid-back. The charming atmosphere and catchy music help make the experience feel more welcoming than stressful, too. After runs, you'll unlock new upgrades and characters for future runs based on your score. I'm a big fan of a mine weapon that blows up when I get the cats following me to walk over it. And my favorite character so far is a mouse named Jazz with sunglasses and a saxophone — who starts with a saxophone weapon. Such a cool little guy! Maze Mice is in early access, so it should get more content down the line. It seems like there's a generous amount to play with already; TrampolineTales launched the game this month with 30 characters and 63 upgrades, meaning there's a lot to dig into. But the thing I love most about it is that I can play for a few minutes after an hourlong Doom: The Dark Ages level and feel like I actually accomplished something – even when those pesky cats eventually catch up to me.
