Fans of classic 3D platformers and creative open-world games should take note of Ruffy and the Riverside, an upcoming adventure title that lets players tinker creatively with the game’s environment and master a powerful Swap ability to progress through the game’s many puzzles and challenges.
As Ruffy, players will be able to swap elements of the environment at will, using their wit and cunning to remove textures from the world and place them on other objects. This paves the way for a number of inventive solutions to the game’s many challenges – including scaling mountains by swapping vines and waterfalls, or changing the day/night cycle by switching out the sun and moon and fashioning floating pathways out of heavy stones by replacing textures with wood.
The game also features a number of side quests from the town’s colorful residents, and looks all the more memorable thanks to its charming papercraft art style that helps it stand out in its genre. With a launch set for later this year on both the Switch and PC (with more consoles possibly to come), fans of adventure games should keep an eye out for what could be one of the genre’s best surprises this year.