Aarik And The Ruined Kingdom from Shaterproof Games brings us a chill perspective puzzle experience on Nintendo Switch. Learn more in our Aarik And The Ruined Kingdom review!
Aarik And The Ruined Kingdom from Shaterproof Games brings us a chill perspective puzzle experience on Nintendo Switch. You’ll be taking on the role of the titular character and must wield your father’s crown to use its magical powers to shift your perspective as you aim to bring old ruins back to life. This is the only way you’ll be able to find your family. Things will start out simple enough, with puzzles that require you to rotate the camera view to repair a path, but you’ll soon be asked to move entire segments of a level to repair structures and hopefully bring you one step closer to your overall goal.
Once your journey begins, you’ll be taking control of Aarik by using either the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con or by making the most of the console’s touchscreen when playing in Portable or Tabletop Mode, or if playing on a Nintendo Switch Lite. That way, you’ll be tapping where you want to go. If using the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con, then Aaarik will move by using a cursor with the left analog stick and then pressing the A button to tell him where he needs to move. You can also move directly by using the right analog stick.
Since this game places a big focus on perspective for its puzzles, you’ll need to constantly change your view of the area by rotating the camera left and right as you use the L and R buttons, respectively. You can also zoom in and out as needed by using the ZL and ZR buttons, so that you can take a closer look at things. While doing this, be sure to keep an eye out for the hidden crown images that you can collect in each bite-sized level.
There are different magical gemstones that slot into your father’s crown that will grant you additional abilities as well! These gemstones will allow you to, say, fix a crumbling bridge, make broken paths whole again, take control of the land’s inhabitants, and even control and reverse time! Sure, that sounds like the game might want to make you rub your belly and pat your head at the same time, but it all clicks after a bit of trial and error.
This one features an in-game achievements system for you to work on as you make your way through the many puzzles on offer. Most of the achievements will unlock as you collect the hidden crown in each of the levels. On top of those, there are also achievements for pressing pressure switches 20 and 50 times, using the control magical gemstone 50 times, making 5 plants grow, running for over 1,000 tiles, repairing 10 and 20 broken items, and rotating gears by 5,000 degrees in total, to name some examples
Aarik And The Ruined Kingdom brings us a chill perspective puzzle experience on Nintendo Switch. You’ll be taking on the role of the titular character and must wield your father’s crown to use its magical powers to shift your perspective as you aim to bring old ruins back to life. This is the only way you’ll be able to find your family. Things will start out simple enough, with puzzles that require you to rotate the camera view to repair a path, but you’ll soon be asked to move entire segments of a level to repair structures and hopefully bring you one step closer to your overall goal.
This particular game was released on Steam back in 2024, and it’s now made the jump to the Nintendo Switch. It’s a game that, as its developer mentioned in our Aarik And The Ruined Kingdom feature, has been inspired by the puzzle and gameplay mechanics of the Monument Valley perspective puzzle series, but it sets out to do its own thing while expanding on the formula. Aarik And The Ruined Kingdom launches today on Nintendo Switch with a budget price of only $6.99, and it’s an easy one to recommend.
Disclaimer
This Aarik And The Ruined Kingdom review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Shaterproof Games.
