Are you like me? Did you grow up in the 1990s watching Nickelodeon and playing a platheora of licensed platforming video games on your console of choice? Well, developers The MIX Games and WALLRIDE want to take you back to that era with Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland. Playing this game definitely took me back to that time in my life as the game feels more like it came directly from that era of video games with a modern coating.
The first thing you’ll notice about Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is how much it feels like the 1990s cartoon. The art style is directly capturing the original cartoon (and luckily not the 2021 CGI reboot), so the characters still have that strange charm to their designs. The opening level is reminiscent of the opening of the show with the theme song playing throughout. The first enemy is even the iconic catlike toy from the intro. Each level has a title card pop up on screen like it’s an episode of the show. The game just nails the Rugrats aesthetic. One of the coolest thing about the game is the 8-bit filter you can switch to at any time to make it feel like the game was released back during the late NES era of the early 1990s.
As for gameplay, the game sees you play as the four main babies Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, and Lil from the show as they pretend to play a “Bibeo Game” (video game) and collect Reptar coins around Tommy’s house. The story is told sparsely throughout the game, and is mostly set up at the beginning and a conclusion at the end. When there is story it is told either through some very good animated cutscenes or two character stills on screen talking to each other. The game is divided up into 5 different levels and, though they have pretty bland titles such as Bedroom or Kitchen, due to the babies’ imaginations these are colorful and wild levels the babies must traverse to find all four Reptar coins hidden throughout the levels.
You can play as any of the four babies at any time and you can switch between them at the touch of a button. Each baby has a different stat distribution such as having a higher jump ability. Thus, it’s good to switch up which baby you control as you hit different parts of a level to tackle things in a different way such as needing a more floaty baby to stay in the air longer for a jump. Switching babies is also how you manage your health in a level as each baby has a “health bottle” that has four bars and once it runs out you can no longer use that baby in the level. Thus, switching between them is vital if one character gets low on health. Especially during boss fights so you don’t have to restart a boss fight when one baby’s health runs out. Though, on the hard difficulty you can’t switch characters making the game tougher than you would think.
The gameplay is also where I have the biggest issue with Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland. The gameplay is overly simple for the most part as there are only two actions characters have: jump and pick up item/ground pound. Thus, there’s not much variety in what you’re doing in any of the levels. Each level is straightforward of get to the end with some minor branching paths, but, overall, each level plays the same aside from a level mechanic like jumping on bottles for a higher jump in one level or turning off switches to turn off flame vents in another. With how short the game is, as it only took me about 4 hours to complete, it would have been nice if there was more to mix up the gameplay.
Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is the definition of nostalgia if you are a fan of the series. With an art style that captures the 90s cartoon’s feel perfectly and an decent amount of challenge to the puzzle platforming, the game would fit right at home with the licensed platformers of yore. It’s hard to make a game feel like it could have released thirty years ago that is now being rereleased with modern graphics, but that is what Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is able to achieve.
Score: 7 out of 10
Reviewed on PlayStation 5