Rugrats: Royal Ransom

Rugrats: Royal Ransom is an action-adventure video game developed by Avalanche Software and published by mh:awesomegames:THQ for the mh:awesomegames:PlayStation 2 and mh:awesomegames:Nintendo GameCube. The game was initially released on November 16, 2002, and is based on the mh:besttvshows:Rugrats animated series. The game's plot is loosely based on Rugrats: Castle Capers.

Plot
Tommy's father, Stu Pickles, invents what he calls the Play Palace 3000, which is a giant expanding tower filled with rooms for the children to play in. Stu leaves to go buy the finishing touches, duct tape and paperclips, and asks Lou to watch the kids. As always, Lou falls asleep. The babies begin to play on the Play Palace 3000, but Kimi notices that Angelica is at the top of the tower. Angelica assumes control of the backyard as queen, and forces the babies to obey her, stealing all of their toys in the process.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Angelica is extremely unlikable in this game, as she steals all of the Rugrats' toys (Tommy's Lion, Chuckie's Wawa, Kimi's Superthing, and Phil and Lil's can of worms), then takes over Stu's Play Palace 3000, so she could have the babies be her loyal subjects, and when the babies do get to the top floor, she tries to use bubbles to slow them down.
 * 2) Like most bad Rugrats games, the plot is way too simple; Angelica steals the Rugrats' toys, so the Rugrats go to get them back.
 * 3) Every character controls the same and has the same abilities, which is a lazy move on the developer's end.
 * 4) There's only three moves to use, which is not a good number, cause in most video games, especially Super Smash Bros., the characters have plenty of moves to use.
 * 5) Despite the short number of moves, one of them, the jumping one, is very hard to master, and jumps in most games are usually the easiest thing to do.
 * 6) The areas are very simple and some stages repeat textures, which is boring, and are usually a chore to get through, as there are invisible walls, and can be too big of an area, which can make getting through a level frustrating.
 * 7) Even though you can control the camera freely, it rarely cooperates with you, which can make seeing things frustratingly difficult.
 * 8) The mini-games are normally boring and too simple, as other games have better mini-games, especially the Mario Party series.
 * 9) When you try to use the camera to get a good look at the environments, it slows down the graphic engine and gets close to getting the game to crash.
 * 10) Even though you can play as more characters than just the main 5 Rugrats, they can only be played during the mini-games.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The graphics are great, and the animation is good for a 3-D Klasky-Csupo game, and by PlayStation 2 and GameCube standards, and is a major improvement over the past 3-D Rugrats games.
 * 2) The game's soundtrack is pretty good.
 * 3) The voice acting is good, as most of the main cast reprise their roles. Candi Milo did a good job voicing Chuckie.
 * 4) There's a fun amount of dialogue from the characters, and the cutscenes are good.
 * 5) The game has difficulty options for easy, medium, and hard, which can be enjoyable if anyone wants the game to be more challenging.
 * 6) Stu's invention, the PlayPalace 3000, is actually interesting and has good environments for the Rugrats to play in, and it could have been executed better.
 * 7) The mini-games have a few good things about them, which are the selection of more characters, the environment changing, and different activities that the characters can do, and could have been more enjoyable if they were executed better.
 * 8) The story's ending is simple, but good, where the Rugrats get their toys back, and Angelica gets her comeuppance as she slides down out of the PlayPalace 3000 and into the mud, which is satisfying.
 * 9) The game has a cameo of Tak from Tak and the Power of Juju, and references to Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, with pictures of Angelica and Chuckie in barrettes, and Chuckie holding Wawa.

Trivia

 * The game's graphics looks similar to the graphics in Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly.
 * Tak makes a cameo, within a snow cave, waving in the snowboarding mini-game, as well as in books on the floor of the Pickles' house.
 * Chuckie is voiced by Candi Milo in this video game, Milo would later provide the voice of Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory taking over from Christine Cavanaugh who also voiced Chuckie.
 * In the Pickles' house, there are references to Rugrats in Paris in the form of pictures of Chuckie and Angelica in berets, with Chuckie holding Wawa.

Videos
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