I remember watching Rugrats when I was a child and, incidentally, my partner actually had a bunch of the video games that can be found on the Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection… so, this was perfect for us. As someone who didn’t have these video games at the time of their release, as I was too young, it’s interesting to play them now as an adult.
The Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection is a bunch of retro games from the likes of the GameBoy through to the PlayStation, but now you can play them all on the same device. It contains: Rugrats: Search for Reptar, The Rugrats Movie, Rugrats: Time Travelers, Rugrats: Studio Tour, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, and Rugrats: Castle Capers. These different games all come from moments within the series, with my favorite being Rugrats: Search for Reptar, maybe because I always loved Reptar or maybe because the PlayStation era graphics are just interesting to me.
It all handles a little clunky and the cutscenes certainly aren’t up to today’s standard, but a lot of that is a part of the charm. Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection is meant to be a love letter, perfectly putting together a bunch of classics, in a way that brings joy to 90s kids who grew up on Rugrats or retro gamers who like seeing these sorts of things brought to new consoles.
I do like the variety of the games chosen for Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection, both graphically and in the way that they play. Some are more 2D, some are 3D, and it all depends on the console and era of the release. You’ll find yourself playing more arcade-y games and then more open-world games, keeping things interesting. Each one even has a little cutscene to show you where the game connects to the episode.
To me, the Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection is a love letter to preservation, which is just underlined by the high-rez scans of the various instruction booklets that would come with the games. It’s something that’s meant to keep some games that would otherwise likely be lost to time available. Of course, videogames have come a lot further in the time since Tommy Pickles was wandering around his playpen, but these games remain as a reminder (albeit one powered by nostalgia) of the past of gaming and it makes for a great purchase for fans of the long-running TV show.
Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection is available on PC, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.
