Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection

Usually I defend this kind of retro collection from critics claiming it's just roms carelessly dumped into an emulator. However this couldn't be more true with rugrats retro rewind collection. There is just so much here that shows very little care. The save systems of these games were replaced with a singular save state which can break things, makes the games feel less true to their originals and also doesn't allow multiple save games. Half of the button prompts are straight up wrong, I assume they mixed up xbox and switch controllers. Not only is the N64 of Rugrats in Paris not included but you also can't switch between PAL and NTSC versions, which I'd consioder a standard feature of retro collecitons. The Menu uses sound clips from the Show / Games that become irritating fast. The Art gallery shows completely different art as the cover art. The Manuals have stuff blurred out that looks like an intern was using MS Paint to do them. There are only three screen borders to choose from, none of which have any relation to the games. On the positive note we do get a rewind function, but the games are easy enough as they are, I don't think it was ever truly needed.

About the games: Well you know these aren't milesstones and you know they are aimed at a very young audience. But their clunkiness, especially by todays standards make them probably not suitable to today's kids, and the super low difficutly makes them only interesting to adults who want a nostalgia trip. Search for reptar is obvoulsy the highlight of this collection and even that has a lot of questionable design choices, like the fact that the characters react to running into a wall. Studio Tour is a game that tries to improve it's predecessor but makes this worse by doing so, but it works as a good crazy golf game. I don't know what the hell Rugrats in Paris is but I do not like it. I haven't bothered too much with the gameboy games as of the wtiting of the review but they seem like your avarage licenced side scroller from the time.

But yeah while the games aren't perfect they are far from the worst games of their times. It's just that time has moved on and this collection doesn't do anything to help that. In fact it just adds to their clunkiness in places. I'm glad that even games like these at least get a rerelease in the first place. However this collection neither works as a way to reach a new audience, nor does it as a preservation of the original experience for the old audience.

I should have listened. Dont buy this. They aren't going to fix the washlist of problems with this collection

It’s a good collection of games. That being said, I have one major problem. The PS1 games speed up sometimes. Hopefully, that bug will eventually be patched.

This collection is great for those wanting to go back and experience these old games but, some things to keep in mind:

- The games are still CLUNKY, the only real QoL changes come in the form of the save states and the "rewind" feature.
- Some of the games are extremely buggy (Studio Tour & Castle Capers being two that immediately come to mind).
- As others have suggested, there were times where I had severe drops in framerate which made no sense considering these are extremely old games and I play on a pretty decent PC.

As far as the "Pros" go for this collection - really it all banks on the nostalgia. I like the museum and the music player. I like that there are added achievements and nothing is crazy difficult to get. There are 6 games in this collection but, I was wondering why they skipped some of the other titles that came out for certain consoles (as others have mention, Perfectly Angelica is not in this bundle). The voice acting is good, the borders for the games are okay, and it's nice to revisit these old games.

would I recommend this collection? Yes and no...
Yes if you like these games and wanna revisit your childhood. No if you want something fun to play that runs smoothly.

Now, I love Rugrats. I grew up with the show and being blasted with news that the Rugrats games got ported to PC and modern consoles was such a treat. But unfortunately, with the way the collection is now, I can't in good conscience recommend it. I can forgive the clunky gameplay since the gameplay always was clunky with these old Rugrats titles and if they somehow managed to change it too much, well they might as well just remake it at that point. Though I wish they refined the camera atleast.

What I cannot forgive is its framerate and audio issues. The framerate frequently drops (even though my computer is insistent that its going at a crisp 60fps) and the audio frequently either gets crunchy, delayed, or just disappears altogether. I use a Windows 10 Alienware gaming laptop. These are all games from the PS1 and Gameboy Color. There is no excuse possible for me to be having these issues.

It is also too loud with no way to turn it down in gameplay. You have to quit the game to do that.

I appreciate the CRT filter though.

Hopefully sometime soon they will fix the issues the collection has and I can change my review. Until then though, you're better off either emulating the game or looking for copies of the original Rugrats games.