When's water not water? When it's lava, of course. Or whatever it is you want it to be. Playing Ruffy and the Riverside from Zockrates Laboroatories, at its core I'm reminded of my favorite collectathon retro 3D platformers – Banjo-Kazooie, Super Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot and the like. But, thanks to a clever and charming texture-swapping twist it's also not quite like any of the above – a distinctly modern twist on a classic format. This is already shaping up to be one of the best platformers of 2025.
With boppy music and colorful visuals, I knew I was on board from the moment I saw Ruffy and the Riverside, but I had some questions about just how the 'copy-and-paste' ability to absorb materials and then apply them to objects would work. The best platformers are often about the joy in keeping up momentum. Would this be too stop-start? Thankfully not.
