The Ramp (Nintendo Switch) – The test

The Ramp, by programmer Paul Schnepf, is a separate title. He also defines it himself, not as a video game, but as a toy. The Ramp therefore sends us back, as testers, to the very definition of what video games are and what we expect from them. Yet our favorite medium has accustomed us to drawing an extremely fuzzy line on this. Depending on our purchases, we can very well live an adventure dictated by its creators by following a list of rules defined in advance as in any platform game or JRPG. But we can also find ourselves in the middle of nowhere without any direction or goal like a Minecraft adventurer. We may even find ourselves on a border between these opposites with the best game of the known and unknown universe, namely Zelda Breath of the Wild.

A head-turning intro

In the case of Minecraft, the software is clearly a game and it’s up to us to do what we want with it. Our Switch consoles are also toys and projects such as Nintendo Labo kits accentuate this impression with their handling and construction. But what is a toy? Le Robert defines it as follows: an object used by children to play, play being an unproductive activity used for entertainment.

Is The Ramp a game or a toy? The definition of Robert obliges us to classify it in the box of games, the toy is none other than our Switch. This semantic distinction clarifies, we will be able to approach the test of The Ramp more calmly and try to understand why its designer sought to drown the fish like this. Because yes, we are not going to be particularly tender with this one.

In the title of Paul Schnepf, it is clearly stated that there is no scenario, no score and nothing to unlock. We can just do tricks with a skateboard. Titles such as those in the Tony Hawk series had already offered us a dive into this world with a non-negligible exploration part and titles such as the very recent OlliOlli World even added a very pleasant frenetic dimension to it. Well The Ramp is the negation of everything that makes the charm of previous titles.

In The Ramp we have at our disposal only three sites that are the size of a screen plus a large ramp that only allows you to make a single jump before being reset. The first consists of a tube, the second of a swimming pool and the third… of a swimming pool with a passage. That’s all, we’ll have to be content with it. In five minutes we went around what the title offers.

The void, what does it look like?

The gameplay, meanwhile, offers us to direct our skater in these environments, to accelerate it by pressing the A key at the right times, then to perform tricks once in the air using the directional sticks. On paper, the idea is very good, no frills, no frills, only the essentials, namely skateboarding. We are almost in front of an arcade game basing everything on its concept. But an arcade game works because it offers a challenge via high-scores. There is none there. We chain the figures for no reason and very quickly without any interest.

Because The Ramp is not a toy, it is a video game and it must respect the codes of our media, not to please any diktat, but quite simply to be interesting to play. Paul Schnepf created a game equivalent to fingerboards. It’s not very expensive, 5 €, it’s fun five minutes, but once that time passes, we come to wonder why we made this purchase before putting it, shamefully, in the bottom of a drawer .

From a technical point of view, the realization is correct, but it is quickly forgotten. We can choose one avatar from five, but it has no influence on the gameplay. The music cuts out very quickly as it is so repetitive and the graphics are so minimalist that we come to wonder what the 700 MB needed to install the software are for. However, the controls respond perfectly well and it is easier to play than on a smartphone.