Rite

There’s no messing around with Rite. This single-player 2D platformer gets you into the action quick and just keeps chucking level after level at you, each offering up an increasingly more precise challenge than the last.

Folks who’ve played the likes of Celeste or Super Meat Boy will be more than comfortable here.

There are just over 150 levels to chew through, and each one tasks you with collecting pieces of gold, and one big key — which opens up the door to the next test.

Now, there are 20 of these gold pieces in each level — and whilst collecting them all isn’t initially essential to progress, any completionist will be sure to want to put in the extra effort to grab them all, to ensure they see everything this precision platformer has to offer.

When it comes to platform titles like this — in which pinpoint accuracy is required — then having controls that afford such meticulous movement is essential.

Thankfully Rite nails it, with an admittedly simple, but solid and polished control scheme. Moving your twitchy character around each trial feels responsive, fluid, precise, and ultimately fair — if you mess up, it’s on you.

As for that control scheme, you have two moves at your disposal. A jump, and a wall jump. It’s simple. There’s no dash or double jump here.

It may well have been interesting to see such moves introduced, but there is something about this uncomplicated approach to your inputs that I appreciated. Rite takes an accessible, manageable control scheme and tests what you can do within those limits. It works.

The early levels, as you’d expect, act as something of a tutorial, warming you up for the challenge that lies ahead.

Things ramp up fairly quickly, and you’ll soon find yourself having to jump over nasty-looking spikes, dodging swinging axes, and working your way around numerous saw-blades. One hit results in instant death….and well, you’ll die a lot.

Later levels will see you retrying a dozen or so times before succeeding — which if you’re familiar with precision, twitch-movement platformers, you’ll know is the norm. This is fine — however, I’ll note that a small gripe I found mildly annoying was the death animation. It’s quick enough, I just wish it was a touch quicker still. As when you are dying time and time again, the quicker you can get back to retrying the better. I want to stress though, that this is a minor thing — I’m talking milliseconds of irritation.

Getting through a level, collecting all the gold pieces, and doing so in a record time, is super satisfying. I think this game would lend itself well to speed running, as I found myself wanting to improve my level times, shaving off a few seconds here and there. It has that compelling snappy feel about it.

Overall, this is an honest and straightforward enough proposition. Rite is pure gameplay, with no story to speak of — but that doesn’t hurt it.

This is a fun, tricky, and ultimately enjoyable package that nails the basics — yes you're not short of similar experiences like this on the Switch — but Rite takes these solid foundations and then builds upon and improves them further via well-designed levels, lovely animation, a well-matched soundtrack, a brutal late-game challenge, and a pixel-art style that looks the part, with a solid theme throughout.

It's a well-crafted, but uncomplicated, precision platformer. It wastes no time and offers up a demanding challenge, all with an affordable price tag. An impressive offering from a solo developer. There’s a lot to like here.