Rugrats All Growed Up

Based on the special of the same name, Rugrats: All Growed-Up is an arcade game aimed at kids in the 7-years-and-older age range, offering minimal educational content and lots of action. The prematurely aged Rugrats move through maze after maze, dodging falling books in the library, avoiding kid-eating plants in the greenhouse, and ducking bats in the basement. Along the way they must climb ladders, jump gaps in their path, and solve puzzles to unlock stubborn doors. Finishing one maze will create opportunities to explore others, and along the way players can collect Spooky spheres which will enable them to free another time-accelerated Rugrat for use in gameplay.

As maze games go, All Growed-Up offers plenty of entertainment and challenge. Its graphics are bright and easy to decipher, making it a good game for children who are frustrated when their next step is obscure or nonintuitive. The player feedback is as supportive as fans of the show might expect: miss a jump or fall prey to a spooky spider, and the other Rugrats will heckle you. The game structure is more forgiving, though, allowing you to restart partway through a completed maze--instead of having to begin at the very start--when you fall or are otherwise put out of commission. This game is tough, in other words, but fair. It is also fully enjoyable, offering a pleasant romp through game rooms of increasing difficulty, with plenty of excitement along the way. (Ages 7 and older) --Alyx Dellamonica

Amazon.com Product Description
Jump forward in time with the Rugrats. The babies are watching Dr. Spooky on TV--the doctor is testing his time machine and cackling over his genius. Tommy wants to travel 10 years into the future but Chuckie thinks it sounds too scary. Dr. Spooky throws the time machine's switch, and, in a split second, the Rugrats are 10 years older. After the initial excitement wears off, the now preteen Rugrats realize they must search Dr. Spooky's castle to find the blueprints to build a reverse time machine. Play as all of the Rugrats characters, including Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica, Phil, and Lil, and see them as preteens. Rugrats All Growed Up is a colorful sidescroller that features artwork and environments faithful to the TV show.

The game works like a Super Mario Brothers arcade of ladders and roadblocks. The problem is that the keyboard commands do not respond well and a mouse is not supported. If you don't hit the spacebar-cursor key combination just right, you fall when trying to jump, and each time you fall, you must redo a very long sequence of moves to get back to where you left off. This becomes boring and extremely frustrating--leaving the 6-year-old near tears, the 10-year-old banging keys, and me wondering how this game ever made it past the testing stage.

THQ, the manufacturer, makes a lot of games for all the popular video game machines. Perhaps with a video game controller, this game can play well, but it does not translate to a computer keyboard.


GREAT!   November 21, 2001
7 out of 11 found this review helpful

I love this game!! It's the best!! You can play the 'growed' up Rugrats in an thrilling adventure and you can also play all the new characters like Kimi and Dil! That's what I love about the game 'cause Kimi is my fav character.


It is great and so funny!   August 21, 2001
Bobby (PEnnsylvania, USA)
0 out of 6 found this review helpful

Rugrats all growed up is so funny and interesting! Its so neat to see how the rugrats look and ACT when they are 12 years old! Its very neat seeing how the rugrats have changed so much since they were babies.