RiME Makes Itself at Home on the Nintendo Switch

Jordan Boyd November 14, 2017 2:12 PM EST

Tequila Works' RiME has finally released on the Nintendo Switch and the port is impressive but does come with some flaws.

RiME is a wonderful game in the Nintendo Switch’s handheld mode. I’ll go as far to say it’s the perfect game to get nestled into bed with and play in short or long bursts. I found my time with the game to be sort of therapeutic, to some degree. RiME isn’t a stressful title, and none of its puzzles ever really kept me stumped for too long at all. Yet, I still found that I was enjoying myself, in part due to RiME’s great story and captivating world.

On the Nintendo Switch, RiME can sometimes struggle technically, but I never found it unplayable. In some of the larger areas, the frame rate can chug — it’s uncapped and fluctuates quite a bit at times. If you’re interested in playing RiME on your television, I’d suggest going with one of the other versions of the game for the best experience. While the Nintendo Switch version is definitely passable in TV mode, it’s easily identifiable as the weakest version on the market. I played about half of the title in TV mode before switching to handheld mode.

It’s impressive seeing a large, colorful game like RiME on the Switch. Even with its flaws, I often found myself stopping to take in the scenery. From start to finish, RiME continuously presents beautiful new areas for you to explore and overcome. The game even offers some more brief moments of horror and action that work within the game’s story.

In RiME you play as a young boy who wakes up on a mysterious island. Your goal is to simply find out how you ended up here. Even without any dialog, the way the boy interacts with this world and its characters can be moving at times. Even better, RiME goes in a direction that I initially didn’t expect it to.

In terms of controls, I felt as though Rime controlled sort of like a modern The Last Guardian. The climbing controls could be a bit wonky at times but the game does a good job at placing you right back where you were if you do mess up and fall off a ledge or anything. You don’t do much outside the realm of pushing objects, grabbing items, and climbing.

With a slew of puzzle mechanics we’ve seen time and time again, RiME’s world and characters keep things fresh, and the lack of intense difficulty keeps everything moving at a really good pace. Sometimes, I did feel like the solutions could be a bit too obvious, especially towards the later game, but I was so interested in seeing the journey end, I can’t say this is too much of a problem.

If you’ve never experienced RiME before, I’d say that the Nintendo Switch is a great place to do so. The game is receiving a day one patch that fixes some issues in the game, and I’m sure more of its issues will be fixed over time. Again, there’s nothing game breaking here so it’s easy to look past it all for the leisure of having RiME on such a tiny and mobile device like the Nintendo Switch. The other versions definitely do run better but visually (thanks to the more cartoony art style) the game looks the same on Switch compared to those versions.

RiME only took me a few hours to finish. There’s a ton of collectibles to go back and get that’ll unlock you some extra features and costumes in the game if you’re the completionist type. In the midst of so many high-octane games, RiME is really an experience that stands out from the rest.

If you appreciate titles like The Last Guardian, Journey, and more, then Rime should definitely be on your list of game’s to pick up before the year ends. Also, try your best to not have it spoiled for you — we aimed for that in this preview. If you want to hear us gush more about the game, you can read our review from earlier this year.