When I first played the demo of Rita, I knew we were in for something great. Rita is a cute bird who loves a crossword, and the game splits itself between 3D platform puzzles to collect letters that, in turn, solve crosswords, word searches, and other variants on word games. It sounds like an odd mash-up at first, but the way Rita integrates the two halves together is inspired, and it creates an endearing adventure for all to enjoy.
The key to Rita’s success for me is how solving clues in the crosswords and word searches changes the world Rita lives in. The first four letters you’ll collect are R, A, M, and P. Placing them into the crossword to spell ‘ramp’ adds a ramp to the world for you to progress. Abilities like jumping are unlocked this way too, and as you progress through the three main worlds of Rita, you’ll be changing the time of day, moving trains, raising water levels, and opening doors to new areas by solving crossword puzzles. The crosswords themselves come in a newspaper, with two tiers of clue difficulty. The recommended option is to provide a traditional clue, but if letters and spelling are a barrier, you can reduce the difficulty to just telling you the word, leaving you to find all the letters. You’ll often collect letters for multiple puzzles that run concurrently, and they’re coloured differently to help players out, too.
Each of the three worlds contains multiple locations, and plots Rita’s family tree. Rita is the star of the first world, whereas her baby chick shares the limelight in the second. This allows the game to introduce puzzles that require characters to be placed in different egg locations to complete them. This is easily done as a single player, and the platforming is generally very forgiving. You’ll need to make use of the camera pan functions to see all the hidden collectables, as Rita uses a fixed isometric camera position that automatically spins to give static(ish) views for each location. Panning the camera lets you tilt around houses and windmills to spot bird feathers. Bird feathers are the main collectables outside of the mandatory letters, and they open up memories of Rita’s journals. These levels are the trickiest in the game as they creatively merge word searches and platforming. Only in the bonus levels is careful platforming required. This is often because lining up narrower platforms from an isometric camera perspective can be tricky, and Rita does occasionally shorten the view. This stops being as much of a problem when your birbs can glide.
Rita isn’t a huge game. You can clear it in about 4-5 hours, and not all the word puzzles are required to get to the end. That said, at no point did I feel like Rita retreaded old ground or ran out of steam with its central idea. I’m always of the firm view that shorter, more impactful games make for a better experience. I’d rather be left wanting more than crash out, and I think Rita hits that balance well. There are a few races and minigames like beach volleyball to tackle, and whilst some of their controls are very fuzzy and loose, there’s nothing egregious or poorly designed. If anything, should a sequel happen, it’s the platforming elements that I’d like expanded upon. Everything in Rita has an early N64 blocky approach to it, and the platforming feels a little stiff as a result. It’s probably the only nitpick I have in what is an otherwise lovely experience.
So grab your newspaper and get to that crossword. Rita merges two distinct worlds expertly and provides a surprisingly wholesome, subtly emotional story, too. It’s also making chicks with glasses a power move, and we can never have enough of that, either. Fun, accessible, cosy, and streamlined yet varied. Rita is recommended.
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