Unless you’re a curious person who likes poking at the less-celebrated side of gaming history, it’s hard to recommend Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection to someone without specific, strong nostalgia for one or more of the included games. It’s not that there’s nothing to any of them, but you’re not missing much if you never play them. If, on the other hand, you do have happy childhood memories of playing any of these games, you’ll likely appreciate the work Limited Run Games has done to bring them to modern platforms. It’s really hard to imagine anyone else would, and regardless of what I think of the games, that effort earns my respect.

The effort put into this collection is minimal, and these games need a lot of work to be playable today. Most of them were never good and have no reason to return.

Looking at the whole package, Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection is the epitome of a release that’s carried solely by nostalgia. If you happened to love the show or any of the games in this collection in younger years, there’s certainly a case to be made for picking this one up just to take a trip down memory lane and remind yourself of the simpler times. Yet when you take that aspect away, you’re left with a weird amalgamation of mid-tier games that exemplify many of the game design shortcomings and limitations of this era of the gaming industry. At their worst, these games are janky, difficult to control, and relatively thin when it comes to meaningful content. At their best, they’re inoffensive and passable distractions that you’ll probably never feel like playing again after you put them down. There are much worse games out there, but Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection makes an unconvincing case for why it’s worth both your time and money. It’s a cool novelty and I think fans of the original show or games will get a bit more out of it, but this isn’t something that I can recommend as something you ought to pick up. If you must, I’d suggest you at least wait for a sale.