Game: RITE
Genre: Platformer, Adventure, Action, Arcade
System: Nintendo Switch (also available on Steam, Windows)
Developer | Publisher: Pond Games Pty Ltd
Age Rating: US Everyone | EU 3
Price: USD $6.99 | UK £5.19 | € 5,69
Release Date: August 23th, 2022
Review code used, with many thanks to the IndieXP.
For all the hardcore platformer achievers in the room who constantly practice on mastering a new (or old) mechanic, Pond Games has brought Rite to test everyone’s skill and patience. Focused more on gameplay than anything else, this simple precision platformer starts quite easy, but don’t be fooled, later in the game even though the mechanics are very straightforward, the difficulty increases remarkably.
After being available for PC since July 2020, a port for the Nintendo Switch was finally added. These types of games don’t always need so much innovation, like different new skills or move sets to be highlighted in the market. Having a vast selection of where to choose from when it comes to a platformer game, Rite stands by itself with just its simplicity and smooth controls.
Rite of Passage
Rite is a high-speed precision game with no story behind it, other than you being a little Nim trying to overcome challenges. Each of the 5 areas contains levels, having 160 in total. On every level you have coins and a key to open the exit door to continue to the next level. There’s no tutorial needed other than a picture of the controls at the beginning. Rite has very simple and intuitive gameplay.
Even though I characterize this game mostly for its challenge, I mainly absorbed the other aspects it had during the first few levels. In time, as you progress, the challenge appears and it makes you try numerous times before advancing to the next level. Still, the animations of the pixel art environment, moving axes and the character you control are notably smooth and it just sees good to the eye.
Mastery of Difficulty
Focused more on its gameplay, Rite has a great learning curve when it comes to its difficulty progression. As you begin the first levels, it is just simple enough to flow through them, feeling good about advancing fast and getting adjusted to the speed-paced movement of your character. You can jump, which if you tap the jump button it slightly jumps shorter, jump from wall to wall and slight down walls when touching them.
Later in the game, once you arrive at higher and more challenging levels, just grabbing the key and advancing to the next level is hard enough to test your patience and perseverance. Every time you die, be that because you touched a spiked wall or fail a timed jump making you fall on a sliding axe, you are back at the beginning to try the level again. There is no other punishment other than trying again until you become a master of that level (or lucky enough to make a certain jump).
Colorful and Pixelated
Rite is a game with simple graphics, which makes sense considering the developer decided to focus more on its gameplay making it as fluid as possible. Still, that simplistic pixel art has its appeal with its animations and the color pallet, which is nicely mixed. Before getting tired of seeing the same art on each level, as you progress to the next area, you play a new environment with a different theme, making it less repetitive.
Is It Perseverance or Mastering?
You can be an experienced gamer with high platformer skills or a casual gamer who wants to kill some time every so often. No matter that, Rite will still face you with what seems to be an impossible level to win (of course, we are talking of the higher levels, since the first ones are quite easy). But the more you play the levels, the more you get used to the physics of the game, the timing of your character’s jumps and the distance necessary to reach certain spots.
That feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction is very real. It is that old feeling of older games that shows a significant challenge in front of you and you don’t want to rest until you overcome it. If you do rest, is to have a break and try again later, nevertheless, once you finally succeed, the joyful satisfaction is not based on luck or anything else. Whether you mastered your skills and became a platformer professional or patiently tried a level several times until you got used to it, this game brings a sense of achievement that many people look for in a speed-paced precision platformer like this one.
Conclusion
Almost everything in Rite feels good. Sadly, the only thing that didn’t keep me very hooked was the music. It does have good tunes and a cool soundtrack but once you are in the later levels and start getting stuck for a while, the music can become repetitive. Other than that, the fact that it doesn’t bring a story or deeper plots is irrelevant, considering that it has amazing gameplay, smooth controls and follows a good flow of progression with its difficulty.
For all those achievers, platformer aficionados or simply any gamer looking for a challenge, this game delivers what you are looking for, presented in a simple yet attractive way. It is easy to learn, hard to master and for its price you will be getting what you pay for and even more.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot 
