Rive: Ultimate Edition Review – Going Out With a Bang

<p>The Nintendo Switch has received a lot of love from indie developers&comma; with many developers happy to port their titles over to the video game industry&&num;8217&semi;s new hotness&period; The system definitely is not lacking in the shooters department&comma; yet here we are with another indie shooter on the way&period; <em>Rive&colon; Ultimate Edition<&sol;em>&comma; however&comma; has been streamlined by developer Two Tribes for the system and has been optimized for the Switch&period; There have been a number of additions and tweaks to the frenetic shooter and it is quite the experience indeed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"JgPXJXpwuJI" data-param-t&equals;"32s" title&equals;"RIVE&colon; Ultimate Edition Announcement Trailer - Nintendo Switch"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;JgPXJXpwuJI&amp&semi;t&equals;32s"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;JgPXJXpwuJI&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"RIVE&colon; Ultimate Edition Announcement Trailer - Nintendo Switch"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story behind the game is kind of cute actually&period; You see&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s a space pilot who goes by the name of Roughshot&comma; who is running low on fuel&comma; and happens upon an abandoned space station&period; He docks his ship and sends his little spider tank out to explore and search for fuel as well as assorted goodies like scraps and nuts and bolts&period; He encounters the ships AI bot who accompanies the tank through the levels&comma; providing a bit of backstory and exposition on what is going on&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s actually a pretty decent little story&comma; with some funny bits of dialogue and interactions throughout the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game is more or less a twin-stick shooter&period; You use the left stick to move and the right stick to shoot&comma; in any direction&period; The face buttons are used for assorted powerups that you can purchase throughout the game&comma; and for the most part&comma; it works very well&period; The game is mostly a side-scroller&comma; where you are moving your tank briskly through areas&comma; and jumping and double-jumping all over the place&semi; shooting at a wide assortment of enemies before they shoot you&period; The game also has spots where there is zero gravity&comma; and the game feels a bit like Geometry Wars&comma; as you can tightly move around with 360 degrees of movement&comma; and are shooting in whatever direction enemies are coming at you from&period; Every level kind of has a rise and fall&comma; ebb and flow of difficulty as it were&period; Sometimes you&&num;8217&semi;ll be cruising along just shooting random robots&comma; and the next thing you know there will be laser barriers closing in on you&comma; backing you towards giant saw blades&comma; while wave after wave of robots flies at you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;131844" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-131844" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-131844" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;11&sol;16232731&sol;rive&lowbar;screenshot&lowbar;06-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-131844" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Rive&colon; Ultimate Edition&comma; Two Tribes<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>By the way&comma; in case you hadn&&num;8217&semi;t guessed it by now&comma; you will die&period; A lot&period; Sometimes it will be just in random spots in levels&comma; usually&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s against bosses&comma; but the game can be pretty unforgiving&period; As it is with most shooters though&comma; once you learn patterns you can get through whatever has you stumped&comma; but it can take a while sometimes&period; I should note that I sometimes had a harder time at random spots in levels than I did with some of the bosses&comma; and I didn&&num;8217&semi;t find many of the bosses to be that impressive&period; I guess I have been spoiled by other shooters&comma; but while the bosses can be challenging&comma; they just didn&&num;8217&semi;t wow me like I would have liked&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As you play the game though&comma; you will be fighting to get better and better scores&comma; as the game does have leaderboards&period; So when you are done a level&comma; you can see where you rank globally&comma; or against your friends&period; You can even just choose to go back and replay specific levels to get that high score needed to beat your friend that just one-upped you&period; There are also 48 achievements in the game to earn&comma; with a few more added since the release on PC and PS4&period; Another fun little mode is a survival mode&comma; where you are trying to see how long you can survive against waves of enemies&comma; again trying to get that top score&period; Two Tribes has also included a co-op mode for the Switch release&period; One player has a joy con controller and controls the tank&comma; while the other player with the other joy con controls the gun&comma; and if you die&comma; then you swap roles&period; It can lead to some pretty hilarious couch co-op gaming sessions and is actually a blast to try and take on the levels with a friend&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;131845" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-131845" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-131845" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;11&sol;16232914&sol;Rive01-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-131845" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Rive&colon; Ultimate Edition&comma; Two Tribes<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Rive&colon; Ultimate Edition<&sol;em> has been optimized by Two Tribes for the Switch&comma; and it does run really well&comma; blasting at 60fps even in 1080p docked&period; However&comma; the one issue I had was in playing the game in handheld mode&comma; which is traditionally how I play my Switch games&period; Due to having to aggressively move both analog sticks&comma; I found that my hands cramped up after about a half hour of playing in handheld&period; I play quite often in handheld mode and I don&&num;8217&semi;t think that I&&num;8217&semi;ve had a game make my hands cramp up as much as playing <em>Rive&colon; Ultimate Edition<&sol;em> did&period; Playing docked with a controller is a lot better and more comfortable&comma; I was just disappointed at how much it hurt to play the game after maybe a half hour session&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the end&comma; if you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for a new mildly frustrating&comma; but endearing twin-stick shooter for the Switch&comma; then check out <em>Rive<&sol;em>&period; It can be frustrating&comma; and at times it actually crippled my hands from playing&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s so satisfying when you finally clear an area or beat a boss&period; Sadly this is the last game that Two Tribes are making&period; They&&num;8217&semi;ve had a good little run with some other adorable games like <em>Toki Tori<&sol;em>&comma; and if this is to be their last game then it is a nice little swan song to go out on&period; <em>Rive&colon; Ultimate Edition<&sol;em> is another great addition to the growing Switch library&comma; and if you have the patience for it&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll be rewarded with a challenging but fun experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>Rive&colon; Ultimate Edition was reviewed with a digital copy provided by Two Tribes&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;