All Grown Up! Express Yourself

"Surprisingly, a very good game."

As a kid, I always loved Rugrats. I mean, what kid didn't? But when Rugrats: All Grown Up was released, I was hesitant. "You mean they're not babies anymore?" I asked my T.V. incredulously, after seeing the commercial. Despite my skepticism, the show turned out to be quite good. And so I played this game, expecting it to be as good as the show. And it was.

Story: (9/10)

The story lines in this game (there's eight of them) are all based off of episodes of the show. You take control of Angelica, and find stories to report on, and publish in the school newspaper. From finding the lady who duped Suzie out of her money, to finding out why Phil and Lil have been fighting, to finding out why no one wants to come to your (Angelica's) birthday party, You'll have your hands full. Many of the supporting characters in the show make appearances in the game, such as Z, the school bad boy.

Gameplay: (8/10)

You control Angelica in a 2-D platformer as she reports on the various problems that occur around your town. It won't be easy. One of the objectives you have in all episodes is finding people. You will receive some hint as to who to talk to, then you will have to go find them and talk to them. Unfortunately for you, the world is huge. Fortunately for you, the portrait of the person you have to find will appear in their location on the map of the area they're in. You will be able to explore the entire residential district where you, Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Suzie, and all the other kids in your school live. Also included in this district is the park, the woods, and the river. The other 2 locations are the school and the shopping district, but you can't access the shopping district until episode 5.

But walking through the large world isn't easy. Many things lie in wait to damage Angelica's HP, shown as pieces of paper at the top of the screen. You start each episode with 9, and if you get hit you lose 3-4, which will scatter, and you will have to collect them before they disappear. It's pretty easy to not die in this game, though, as most things that can damage you can be avoided, such as bees, moles, and falling balls. Some things are unavoidable, such as a high speed youngster on a skateboard crashing into you. You then must quickly collect the paper. You have more than enough time to do so, therefore the inescapable injuries aren't that bad. But for some reason the skateboard kid keeps crashing into you at exactly the same spot... Hasn't he learned not to skateboard there!?

The world doesn't change at all between episodes, other than character placement. You cannot talk to a character unless you need to, in which case a "!" will appear above their head. You can the press R button to talk to them.

I said before this was a 2-D platformer, but it really isn't. It's very similar, but there's a minimal amount of actual platforming going on. You will mostly be walking or running around, finding people to talk to. As I said before, the world is fairly large, and getting to that person's location can take as long as 5 minutes, adding needless gameplay to the game.

The last thing you do in the episode mode is minigames. There is eight to choose from. You will find a new one in every episode you play, but the predominant one is Ball Toss. In every episode, someone who contains vital information to your story will request a volleyball, which you must go find and bring to them. After which they will challenge you to a game of Ball Toss, in which you must hit a ball back and forth between each other using the L, A, and R buttons. Three rings will appear on screen, each representing one of the buttons you use, and when the ball gets to the center you must press the button to hit it back. Points are awarded, 30 for weak hit (barely in the circle) 50 for medium hit (ball halfway in the circle) or 100 for a spike. (All the way in the circle.) Each consecutive spike you hit increases the points earned by 20. Your goal is to achieve 3,000 points before you lose all your "lives" shown by hearts in the top left. The game is not very hard, but you must play it a total of 8 times in the story mode. It wears thin after a while.

Other mini games include Suzie Says, a rhythm / memory mini game requiring you to hit buttons rhythmically according to what Suzie played first, Fashion Find, where you must dress Lil up according to her standards for going out, Picture Mix, where you must put together a picture puzzle, Burger Toss, where you memorize the list of ingredients someone wants on their burger, deep fry some fries, and finally fill a glass with juice, Action!, where you play as Tommy, recording dance moves as the spotlight shines on them, Rafting Rush, a 3-D rafting game where you must navigate a raft downstream and collect stars without crashing, and Blast Off, where you help Dil launch a rocket as far as it can go. Some of the mini games add fun and depth to the overall game, and some are generic and entirely not fun at all.

But Episode Mode isn't the only mode you can play. You can play each mini game separately, customize your title screen character, movie, and wallpaper, dress Angelica in various jewelery and items you obtain in Story Chase, (episode mode) or access your PDA. Your PDA track many things, such as your profile that you fill out for yourself. (For some reason it includes a spot to put your address...) A "To-do" list that you fill out yourself, a "Best Friends" menu for you to fill out the personal information of your friends, and finally and "extra" menu, filled with more wastes of time. Pretty much when you get done with Episode Mode you'll be done with the game, and won't have much use for the PDA.

Also included is a 2 player link option, in case you and a friend both own this game.

Graphics: (9/10)

The graphics are very well done. The characters look just like they do in the show, and you can walk around in each Rugrat's house. Each background looks as it does in the show.

Sound: (10/10)

I really liked the music in this game. There's only a few tracks that I didn't like, and the good ones more than make up for it. Of course, there's a music player for you to listen to all the tracks in the game.

Overall: (9/10)

And here we have it. A very good Game Boy game. Rugrats: All Grown Up: Express Yourself is sure to please any fan of the show. I would have liked to play as all the other characters besides Angelica, and I would have liked there to be more depth to the game than "run here, talk to this person, run there, talk to that person, get them a ball, play ball with them, run to the next person, play the mini game, finish," but at least the world is large enough to make it different. Even though walking through some areas, such as the woods, really gets old after a while. The entire game will last about 3-4 hours, typical for a Game Boy game based off a show.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/13/09

Game Release: All Grown Up! Express Yourself (US, 10/19/04)