by Chris PenwellFrom the depths of the 90s and early 2000s are several Rugrats games that hold a special place in the hearts of many Nickelodeon fans. Sometimes, games of that era can age well, but the titles in the Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection have spoiled like Tommy’s leftover milk bottle. You may get a kick out of some of the gameplay moments, but it may be best to leave the babies’ adventures in the past.
Has Limited Run Games done anything with these games graphically?
As a child, I played all three of the original PlayStation games included in this collection: Rugrats: Search for Reptar, Rugrats Studio Tour, and Rugrats in Paris: The Movie. They look a lot better in my memory than what I see in front of me now. The graphics look blurry, undetailed to the point that the grass looks like one of those old CRT TVs showing a blank channel, and somewhat nightmarish, as the baby’s blank eyes stare into your soul. The PS1 emulator DuckStation does a far better job of refreshing the visuals in 4K, making them look sharper.
There seems to be no upgrade whatsoever. There’s no sharpening of the assets, and the audio levels are all over the place. The music might be loud one moment, and then quiet the next. Characters from faraway look so blurred that they could be mistaken for an asset from an Atari 2600 game. The PS1 games have aged terribly, overall, and need some sort of revamp. Additionally, there are frame rate issues all over the place. It is inconsistent and has obviously not been touched by Limited Run Games at all.
Even the text is hard to read due to the bad remastering of these titles. It’s blurred and jumbled up on the screen, forcing you to squint. Oh, well, I guess “a baby’s gotta do what a baby’s gotta do.”
Strangely, the portable games from the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance look sharp and aren’t as bad on the eyes as the PSX titles. They seem to be upscaled, while the PSX 3D games look odd.
This is as basic a modern port as it gets. There are a few screen options like 4:3, or stretched (ew), and a CRT filter that doesn’t improve the experience whatsoever. It would have been nice to have a Pixel Perfect mode like other collections, so the textures wouldn’t be stretched out as much. The borders also don’t really fit, cutting off characters’ heads in the display.
There are no subtitles for the hard-to-hear voice acting, making this game inaccessible for some. Those who want trophies and achievements from the Retro Rewind Collection may be disappointed, too, due to the uninspired nature of them. You just finish the game or a certain section for a trophy rather than something creative.
It gets worse, unfortunately. Every time you pop up the menu, an annoying narrator says the same abrupt line, and it sounds loud. It makes the collection feel unfinished, and it’s very annoying to deal with. Additionally, it’s frustrating to hear the same dinosaur roar every time you collect a Reptar bar. (Gosh, it gets annoying fast.) Like many licensed tie-ins, you’ll hear the same line over and over and over and over again, too.
What the collection does right is the rewind function. Despite the button configuration being weird (L2 + R2 on PS5), it goes back about 10 seconds, so you can fix a mistake you made. The controls are finicky in these PS1 games, so it’s a blessing to have functionality like this. You can also save your progress quickly from the menu.
Glitches, glitches, glitches
There were various times I was frustrated with the glitches in the games. At one point, an enemy was walking in the air, preventing Chucky from attacking in Rugrats in Paris: The Movie. At another moment in Studio Tour, the whole screen became a glitchy mess with textures looking completely wrong and warped in a sickening fashion. Music can cut out as you transition from room to room in Search for Reptar.
Some actions work for a moment and then can’t be used a few seconds later, like jumping and shooting a laser gun. This got challenging during the platforming levels. The jump button input is also ridiculously slow as you try to make a run-up. Thank goodness there’s a rewind function to resolve most of these messes.
Get ready to feel as sick as a baby
The gameplay experience of the PSX Rugrats titles can be hit-or-miss. Search for Reptar made me want to barf the first time playing it. The camera is way too close to Tommy, and he constantly hits walls because of the poor controls. There’s a maze section in one of the minigames that I refuse to play through because it genuinely makes me feel nauseous. I felt so dizzy as the camera kept messing up.
When the camera is zoomed out, however, for the majority of Studio Tour (my favorite in the collection), the game works much better. Some of the minigames are actually fun. Mini-golf between the first two games is excellent. While easy and simple, the art design and theming of each level are well implemented.
One stage can be themed to the bathroom with overly large washroom utencils like soap and a toothbrush. Another has you put the golf ball between a rotating windmill. I had so much fun with the minigame that I wish that someone could make a new Rugrats mini-golf game, perhaps with other Nickelodeon characters.
Other fun minigames include the gold cart minigame from Studio Tour. You can have the likes of Chucky and Angellica riding a cart collecting gold before the clock runs out. In a Pac-Man like set up, you have to avoid enemies (or use your flashlight to eliminate them) and get as many resources as possible without getting hit.
The kart racing is also enjoyable, despite how simple it is. Once again, the theming, just like the mini-golf, is on point. Most of these levels are simple, as its genuinely for children, but enjoyable. The Treasure Hunt mini-game makes it fun to collect each item and proceed to the next level. In Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, you are playing as Chucky in a karate dojo, and it’s genuinely charming and hilarious to see this little toddler performing a Ryu-like tatsumaki against his wooden foes.
The Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games are a little flawed. While I didn’t put as much time into these as the console ports, I can say that the levels aren’t well-designed. The platforms are almost impossible to reach, due to how much height can be made from a jump. Additionally, the music is repeated over and over again, making them annoying to play.
I would skip the portable games, as well as Search for Reptar, as both Studio Tour and Rugrats in Paris have better mini-games, gameplay, and overall camera control.
A strange omission
A game I think would have been a great asset in this collection is Scavenger Hunt. It’s a Mario Party-like experience that has you finding statue pieces, secret passageways, and cookies across the board. The assets are genuinely much better in this Nintendo 64 game than its PS1 counterparts. I remember this game quite fondly, and it would have been a great diversion from the typical formula of the PS1 entries.
What was a great addition to the package are the scanned manuals. They’re high quality and you can see a lot of details from the manuals. They even look a little warped with bends and some cuts, making them look authentic. You can also play all the music from each game, which is neat but I will never use that function as most of the soundtracks’ music is horrible to listen back to.
Skip this game, similarly to skipping “All Grown Up”
Overall, the Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection is like poop in a baby’s diaper. Limited Run Games has done next to nothing to improve the gameplay, graphics, or quality of life of these titles. It’s significantly ugly, outdated in its gameplay offerings, and genuinely frustrating, with a gallery of glitches. While some of the minigames can be fun overall, most are outdated and shouldn’t have been re-released. It is a decent flash in the past and great for preservation, on the other hand.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was playing a game about (and maybe for) babies for hours. It was at first nostalgic, and then I felt embarrassed as these titles I grew up with have failed to age gracefully.
