Mitsota Reviews: Rugrats: The Search for Reptar
Yes, I'm reviewing a baby game for babies.
Rugrats: The Search for Reptar is an action/adventure thing developed by NSpace and published by THQ in 1998 to tie in with the soon-to-be released Rugrats film. This game was a huge deal, not only was Rugrats a gigantic property at the time, but it was also set to be one of relatively few big name children's games on the Playstation. So did the game live up to all the hype surrounding it? Fuck no it didn't! Let's jump right in and find out why. :)
The game opens pretty strong with a 3D recreation of the show's intro, and while it looks like hot garbage compared to games I've been playing recently, I can imagine this rocking some kid's world when he first saw it. I'd also like to praise the UI design, it's spot-on perfect for rugrats, and looks just like the show's colorful title card animations.
Start up a new game, and you're treated to a short setup cutscene wherein Tommy tries to assemble his jigsaw puzzle, only to find that all the pieces are gone! (Oh noes!) Tommy swears to find every piece of the puzzle and restore the picture of Reptar! I dunno about you, but I'm pretty hyped. Let's play!
Right after the opening cutscene, you're set loose in the Pickles' house in all it's pastel late 90's glory, in search of stages scattered around the house. And right from when they give you control and you start moving, you discover the one thing that almost single handedly ruins this entire game: The camera sucks. Like a Hoover.
The camera hangs at a slightly top down shot behind the player, which is serviceable, it works; But then you try to turn around and the camera freaks out and flys all over the fuckin' place. It's not much better if you try to make a running turn, the camera pans so slowly, it's almost useless.
So why not manually control the camera? Because it controls like dog shit, that's why! you get one button to center the camera behind the baby, (which doesn't work in tight spaces) and 3 buttons to make the camera briefly sway left, right, or up, then return to it's default position.
This broken camera, combined with the delayed and clunky jumping controls make navigation a huge pain in the ass, which is a shame; I actually kinda like the levels in this game. There's around 15 stages on offer, and each stage is a recreation of an episode of the TV show.
While a lot of these stages boil down to "run around collecting floaty garbage", there are some real gameplay segments here, like the level "Grandpa's Teeth", which sees players running around a playground/park area as Chuckie and Tommy after a goose who has stolen the titular teeth. This section transitions into a chase scene, and then into a little shooting gallery segment. Good stuff.
As someone who was a fan when this show was on the air, I believe NSpace did a great job actually designing the levels in this game; Every location feels big without the levels sprawing out unnecessarily. I also somewhat vividly remember most of the episodes of the show that these levels were based on, and I'd say that they were translated into video game levels pretty well.
Smooth texture work, high poly models, and lovingly recreated music from the original show's musician, back with his unique use of the boyband and choir sound fonts. The music adds a lot to the atmosphere of the game and makes it feel a lot more "Rugrats-ey", the game certainly wouldn't be the same without it.
In conclusion, I feel like this game is a pretty good tie in with the show, and it would have been a great game for young fans of the show, if only it weren't for the god awful camera controls that all but ruin the entire experience. Maybe don't trust one of television's largest, most profitable properties with any random development team who said they'll do it for 20 bucks, huh?