“They don’t make them like they used to.”
It’s a phrase we have all heard before, particularly so if you inherited the gaming gene from your parents. But after my time with Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland, there is a very simple reason for not making them like they used to. They’re not very good.
Some 20 years after the original cartoon series ended, the iconic first iterations of the Rugrats are back in a brand-new retro inspired 2D platformer. This isn’t the babies as featured in All Grown Up! or their CGI counterparts, but their original look and feel.
Which then begs the question as to who this is aimed at. Would it be older gamers who remember the original cartoons fondly, or newer players looking for an insight into how games from years gone by were played. The reality is that Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland falls between the two; a game not sure of its identity.
Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland features all four of the babies as playable characters: Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil. Unsurprisingly, they are not voiced, and there is very little in the way of cutscenes either. There are short flurries that look like more basic versions of the cartoons, but any major plot points feature the babies’ icons popping up with text bubbles. It could have been so much more.
The babies are on an adventure after watching a TV advert and finding a mysterious door behind the TV for a new Reptar videogame. But in order to open the door they need to find enough coins from six levels. As fans of the series will know, these babies have some serious imagination, so they are collecting the coins to buy the video game by appearing in their own video game.
The levels are based on classic Rugrats episodes, and playing them, I am reminded that occasionally this series got pretty dark. Forgotten memories were unlocked when I saw the likes of Mr. Boppo the punching clown, Mr. Tippy the sippy cup and Thorg the gorilla, as well as the levels based around them. Many of the minor enemies too are characters from the cartoon as well. So, Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland does a pretty good job referencing its source material with the wide range of enemies that are likely to lead to your demise.
I for one am glad the Let There Be Light episode is once again referenced here. There are too many jumpscares to remember when playing through that section in Rugrats: Search for Reptar on the original PlayStation.
You can choose to play in solo or co-op play, along with a choice of three difficulty levels. The easiest difficulty doesn’t make the gameplay any easier, but it does allow for unlimited respawns. The standard difficulty allows you to swap between characters if one’s health is looking low, but lose them all and it’s a wipe. The hardest difficulty doesn’t allow for character swapping. I would recommend avoiding the latter two at all costs; for some reason this game is a lot harder than those 8-bit gaming experiences you grew up playing.
Another reason is that the babies have different stats, and they make a bit of a difference. Chuckie for example has the highest jump, but unlike Lil, he doesn’t float for a few seconds if you hold the button down. In a game where the platforming needs to be incredibly precise, the right character at the right time can make a huge difference.
Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland has the option to change things up to an 8-bit version; not just changing the music and applying a filter to it, but completely switching the game from how it would look hand-drawn to an 8-bit version. It comes with a reduced colour palette and aspect ratio change, so if you want to play the game as it would appear on a NES, there is the option there. And, I would argue that the game is ever so slightly easier in this mode, but it unfortunately doesn’t make it any more enjoyable.
The regular mode does a pretty good job recapturing the visuals of the original cartoon. The babies look great in their 2D forms whilst the supporting characters appear in the backgrounds of the level, even if you can’t interact with them. At times, it does feel like being reunited with old friends seeing these characters we watched growing up.
As well as Reptar coins that will need to be collected, each level features a screwdriver that is required to access the respective boss of that level. There are also milk bottles and cookies that act as your health items, and many levels feature blocks that the babies can pick up and utilise. It isn’t immediately obvious, particularly in the ice-themed level where the blocks look like the surrounding environment, that these blocks can be picked up and thrown. I only found out by pressing the wrong button; it’s never explained which button does what here.
And before the ‘veteran’ gamers start saying something about games spoonfeeding players nowadays, I’m not asking for much but it would be nice to be told what button is jump and if there is an interact button…
The biggest question remains though, just who is Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland aimed at? Is it those who remember the cartoon fondly but have moved on, or the younger gamers that will likely be put off by the hard difficulty? It feels like even Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland doesn’t really know either as it doesn’t do enough to fall on one side of the fence.
It’s been more than 25 years since one of the first Rugrats games released in the form of Rugrats: Search for Reptar. Unfortunately, Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland feels like a massive step backwards from that game.
Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland revealed with trailer – https://www.thexboxhub.com/rugrats-adventures-in-gameland-revealed-with-trailer/
Purchase Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/Rugrats-Adventures-in-Gameland/9MTMX47STJ5T
