Rugrats Royal Ransom

It’s Adventure Time!

NA release: 26th November 2002
EU release: 11th April 2003
JP release: N/A
Developer: Avalanche Software
Publisher: THQ
NGC Magazine: Score: N/A
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

For a kids license title, I do have to give Rugrats Royal Ransom credit for having meaningful difficulty levels. The easy mode is extremely easy, while the tough difficulty is surprisingly tough. Some of this is due to changing the level design and having to do more of the levels. That said, it’s not perfect, as some levels are just longer without any difficulty and part of the difficulty is just having annoying explosive boxes placed everywhere. Enemies also take more hits, which doesn’t work well with the very delayed throw the babies have.

Royal Ransom, for the most part, is a very simple platformer. Most levels involve following a “magic helper ball” that guides you along every step of the way, even on levels where you have to find hidden items. It functions fine, but it’s a bit slow and floaty, never feeling exciting. There are a good amount of levels in various generic themes, but they’re all rather linear and bland. It’s enough to distract kids, but kids can also enjoy the top of the line platformers as well.

There’s also a bunch of vehicle-based levels, mostly races but a few where you have to collect items. Like the platforming levels, they work well enough, but can’t hold your attention for very long. The final level has you driving around a catapult which requires shooting at distant targets that require a surprisingly high level of precision. Once you finish levels, you can go back and hunt for money to unlock minigames, including the multiplayer minigames (locking the multiplayer mode like this seems a bit odd to me). It does the job, but not much more.

Fine

Each level inside the Play Palace 3000 is split into several sections, with each section having one primary objective to accomplish. Normally you’re sent on dogged scavenger hunts for items that are scattered around the environments in plain view. On the off chance that you can’t find an object, there’s always the magic helper ball that will hold your hand and take you to each required destination. The invisible walls, magic helper ball, and simple environments make it easy for the young ones to keep going in the right direction, but if they still manage to succumb to a level’s perils they’ll have to start all over again from the beginning, losing every last item they’ve collected. With just a few health power-ups included in each level, this could spell frustration for the younger crowd this game is clearly aimed at.
Shane Satterfield, Tech TV Extended Play

Remake or remaster?

In a collection of Rugrats games.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Rugrats Royal Ransom.