Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection Review

Every child growing up in the ‘90s loved Rugrats, right? I certainly did, with the original PlayStation game Rugrats: Search for Reptar being one of the first videogames I ever completed. It’s still one I have fond memories of almost 30 years later, which is why I was pretty excited to see Mighty Rabbit Studios and Limited Run Games announce Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection!

With eight games in total, this is quite the collection for Rugrats fans who want to relive a great era of gaming history. But is there more to this compilation of titles than just ports of old games bundled together? Hold on to your diapers, we're going in!

So, what’s actually included here? The main draws are the PlayStation versions of Rugrats: Search for Reptar, Rugrats: Studio Tour, and Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, the latter also has its Game Boy Color version. Also for the GBC are Rugrats: Time Travellers and The Rugrats Movie (which also has the original Game Boy version). Finally, we have the Game Boy Advance’s Rugrats: Castle Capers to round out the collection. Technically six games, although I feel that the ones released on separate consoles are different enough that we should really count them as eight in total!

Before looking at each game individually, it’s worth noting that little has been done to port these titles to modern consoles. For better and for worse, these are exactly as they were when originally released: no upscaling, no clearer audio, no improved controls, just straight up the exact same games. I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, as the whole collection is basically just a nostalgia trip for Rugrats fans. However, the PS games in particular suffer the most from this, as they just look blurry with hard-to-read text on modern TVs.

There are some additions that are available for every game, thankfully. A save anywhere option is a godsend, but the one I used the most (especially for the Game Boy titles) is the rewind feature. Missed a collectable and no way to go back and get it? Hit that rewind button, and like a long-forgotten VHS tape, you’ll be rewinding until a point you choose to resume from. Some screen options are also present, with a CRT filter or the option to stretch the games to widescreen. Don’t do that, though; they just don’t look right with any other aspect ratio than 4:3.

As with most retro collections, this one also includes a music player with each game's soundtrack. My favourite thing, though, was the inclusion of each manual in digitalised form. Flicking through them made me miss the physical booklets we’d get in days gone by. Whilst none of the titles are overly complex or need a thorough read of their instruction books, I was still pleased to see them included in their entirety.

The handheld titles are, admittedly, the ones I’m least familiar with. I may have played one or two of them back in the day, but none have stuck in my memory like the PS titles have. These are side-scrolling platformers, and they’re both simplistic and honestly kind of boring. Some, particularly Time Travellers, are slow with confusing level designs, which, when battling to beat a stage before time runs out, can be pretty frustrating. From a preservation standpoint, it’s great to have them included; however, I wasn’t that engaged enough to want to complete any of them.

The three PS games are the main attractions. I’m certainly more biased towards these, although again, they aren’t actually that fun to play. Search for Reptar is easily the most enjoyable, which sees you completing various stages and mini-games located around the Pickles’ household. At the time, it was great to explore the various environments I’d seen on the TV show and partake in a range of activities, such as mini golf and destroying a city as Reptar. I’d forgotten how irritating the camera could be and how the controls are incredibly stiff. It’s a short, nostalgia-fuelled title that I’m glad I got to revisit, so it isn’t all bad!

The other two PS titles, Studio Tour and Rugrats in Paris, I couldn’t remember quite as well. Both are packed with mini-games and expand on what made Search for Reptar so great. They’re mechanically very similar to this previous adventure, although Rugrats in Paris does feel like the weakest of the three, with the available mini-games and areas to explore not being quite as enjoyable.

If you’ve never played any of these Rugrats titles before, I probably wouldn’t recommend Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection. The lack of quality-of-life updates makes this solely a collection for fans of Tommy, Chuckie, and the rest of the gang who want to relive a part of their childhood. Search for Reptar and Studio Tour are genuinely still rather fun, although I’m much less patient with the awkward controls and camera than I was when I was a primary school kid.

Overall, a pretty underwhelming port of some childhood classics, and a handful of portable titles that aren’t really worth revisiting. Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection is a disappointingly lacklustre attempt at porting them to modern consoles, although a decent trip down memory lane at the very least.