Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland Preview for Steam

Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is a fun little 2D platformer game where you join everyone’s favorite little babies on an epic adventure. One day Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil see a commercial for a new Reptar video game and as such they decide to use their imagination to play the video game in real life. You will travel between 8-Bit landscapes and HD Art as you play pretend with the Rugrats. You can play solo and switch between all the babies or you can play in split screen co-op or steam remote play with friends. Join these loveable babies on an epic adventure in this retro style platformer.

When you start the game, you are straight into playing. First, you can pick one of the babies to play as. Each baby has a different level of jumping ability as well as lifting ability to help out though the areas, in solo you can switch between the babies at any time while playing the game. You can use WASD or the Arrow Keys to move around with W having you look up and S to crawl. It took me a while to find it but the semicolon key is used to jump and the apostrophe is to lift items. Jump and press S to pound the ground and jump off flowers. The game also features full controller support. Progress through levels by grabbing Bottles, Cookies, Reptar Coins, and more. Use items to open doors, fight bosses and make sure to stick together as a team. As it stands now there isn’t much direction or story, you just run through different levels of the game switching between the 8 bit game style and the real world with HD Art. Overall while there isn’t much in the way of story or direction other than the initial explanation of the Rugrats playing pretend because of a commercial there is still a certain sense of nostalgia from not only the retro style of the game but also with the Rugrats character in general. There is a charming and fun quality to this relatively simple game.

The game itself is a fun concept but there isn’t much to it and has no direction or even prompts on how to play or where to go. In the beginning, you are just kind of thrown into it and play through the levels. I also had an issue a few times where I got stuck and had no way out or even a way to restart the level so I had to fully close the game and reopen it to continue playing. The game could use a little bit of direction or story in the full release to round out the experience, as well as touch ups like a way to get out of areas you might get stuck in.

Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is a retro style platformer where you join the Rugrats in the world of pretend based on a video game commercial they see on TV. Join Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil as they transform Tommy’s house into a video game world full of adventure and action. Toggle between beautiful 8-bit scenes and HD art, select your favorite baby and play solo or have a co-op experience with friends or family. Overall, this is a charming and nostalgic video game and I can’t wait to see what the full release has in store.

Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland will release for consoles and PC via Steam this year. You can wishlist the game right now.

Related: Reviews by Brianna Keller