Nostalgia is a big market these days so it’s not a surprise to find games publishers seeking out old titles to repackage and push out to new audiences. Limited Run Games, a premium publisher of physical video games, has turned its attention to ‘Rugrats’, compiling six of the popular TV series’ games into one release – ‘Rugrats: Retro Rewind’. ‘Rugrats’, a cartoon that focused on the lives of several babies, ran from 1991 to 2004 and spawned sequel series and films. While never gaining the popularity of ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Rugrats’ always had a loyal following so revisiting the game titles from back in the day sounds fun doesn’t it?
‘Rugrats: Retro Rewind’ comprises ‘Rugrats: Search for Reptar’ (1998), ‘The Rugrats Movie’ (1998), ‘Rugrats: Time Travelers’ (1999), ‘Rugrats: Studio Tour’ (1999), ‘Rugrats in Paris: The Movie’ (2000) and ‘Rugrats: Castle Capers’ (2001). For this release, these games have simply been ported so don’t expect any kind of remaster. I played this on a 55” 4K TV and honestly, it didn’t look great. I started with ‘Rugrats: Search for Reptar’, a game that sees you controlling Tommy, Chucky and co as they search environments and play games with one another. The graphics, understandably, look dated but perhaps the most noticeable thing is that the controls are awful. It’s actually very hard to move the characters around thanks to the wildly unpredictable camera angles.
This is sadly true of many of the games included here. ‘Rugrats: Studio Tour’ suffers from the exact same issues but some of the handheld games like ‘The Rugrats Movie’ fare a little better. Being in 2D is definitely a bonus for them and while they still feel clunky, they are much less frustrating to play. Of the six games here, I’d probably say that ‘Rugrats: Castle Capers’ offers the best gaming experience. While the gameplay is a little repetitive, it at least is enjoyable to play through and has fewer frustrations than the other games here.
What is interesting to note is that all of the games at least attempted to do something different. They aren’t all identical in their look-and-feel and gameplay, so there is variety. It’s just unfortunate that the ports of these games has made them very hit-and-miss on a modern console. Should you want to go through the history of the ‘Rugratst franchise though, you may find this release fascinating.
A nice addition to this release is the ability to rewind while you’re playing. If you mess something up – which I did frequently thanks to the controls – you can skip back and try again without having to full replay parts of the game. Given how unpredictable the controls are, this is a really nice feature to have. ‘Rugrats’ fans will get a kick out of the digital museum and the music player too, allowing them to revisit things that will likely help boost the nostalgia factor.
‘Rugrats: Retro Rewind’ will delight fans of the original games but I can’t see it becoming a game people regularly return to. The nostalgia hit wears off pretty quickly and I couldn’t help but think that a remaster of the games might have been more successful. As gaming has advanced hugely since these titles were released, you can’t help but wonder who has been crying out for this release.
Publisher: Limited Run Games Reviewed on: PS5 Also available on: Nintendo Switch Release date: 15th May 2026 (digital)
