B.U.D., the Botanical Utility Droid is back again for some more climbing and planting some helpful utilities to traverse over the world. This cute little red robot does an awesome job in growing different Starplants and harvesting its seeds, he’s back again for another adventure. B.U.D. is the kind of robot that isn’t afraid of climbing high surfaces and making leaps of faith for its own fun… He’s a hard-working robot that’ll do anything to keep M.O.M. happy and in this sequel, he’ll prove it once again!
Grow Up is the sequel to Grow Home where the player controls a love-to-climb robot named B.U.D. that has one mission, planting and guiding the stalks of the Starplants to become energy sources and help them grow. Grow Up doesn’t differ that much from its predecessor but the main goal isn’t about these Starplants anymore… B.U.D ‘s ship named M.O.M has crashed into the moon and different key parts of the ship are soaring through the atmosphere, eventually crashing into this newly yet to discover planet. B.U.D. has to retrieve these scattered parts in order for him to repair the ship and get back home. It’s a game about exploring and using the know how to get around.
A whole new set of skills to soar through the sky…
This game offers you an undiscovered planet with lots of secrets to unfold. B.U.D. will find himself into this familiar world where he gets to play around in, scanning all of these new plants and animals that call this world their home. Scanning these plants will give B.U.D. a heads up about “how to use” these plants. These plants will have different unique abilities that B.U.D. can use to its own advantage. Each discovered plant can be replanted, so you’ll always have the ability to progress further into this world.
B.U.D. is also a climbing fanatic with some tricks up it sleeves of its own. B.U.D. has some functionalities of his own and he can easily combine these functions with the collected plants to make a clear and usable path to get where he wants to. He’s equipped with jet packs, air brakes, glider, … and everything you dream of as a little red robot. These abilities are unlocked throughout the whole game and some of these functions can be upgraded with the amount of crystals you collect. These crystals are dispersed all over the world and you’ll have to loosen them up to collect them.
The higher you are, the bigger the fall!
You’ll quickly reach beautiful heights and before you know it, you’ll be soaring from Starplant to Starplant to get to that specific place. These heights can only be reached when you’ve completely honed B.U.D.’s climbing skills. It might look like an ordinary third person platformer but it’s not as easy as it looks. The game’s based on a tremendous physics engine, so you’ll have to familiarize yourself with the movement of B.U.D. because it’s not always that fluent. To make B.U.D. climb, you’ll have to control his arms each separately. The right thumb stick controls his right arm and the left thumb stick controls the left arm. To climb a surface, you’ll have to use them one at a time, just like in real life.
These controls can often lead you to some frustrating moments, as the game doesn’t always play out as you’ve actually imagined it. From time to time, you’ll have to make big jumps towards a climbable surface and sometimes your robot arms won’t grab onto this surface as much as you wanted them to do. They will “malfunction” and you’ll fall to your death. It’s a good thing you’ll have “limited” respawn points, to start halfway again.
The whole world with all of its environments and climbable surfaces are a real challenge. It’ll definitely test your skills and willpower throughout the whole game. There are different ways to get to the top but you’ll have to scout ahead and think about all of these different possibilities. Use your collection as a set of “different ways” to create your own path. Old players will feel at home when these set of skills are back at their disposal; the road ahead becomes a lot easier once you’re back on track. However, these features aren’t very well explained to new players, so they’ll have to figure it out themselves but once there, it all becomes very clear what to do.
The game has a main story but when it’s finished, the game doesn’t really end. There are a lot of side missions to go through and it will definitely expand your gameplay with a couple of hours. The game also has this colorful bright world with a touch of abstractness that will appeal to all sorts of gamers. The graphics may look very simple, but sometimes the game will look drop-dead gorgeous when you’ve reached a point set sky high. All of those frustrating moments are really worth it when you experience these beautiful landscapes, it gives you a sense of calmness. It sometimes feels like you’re on top of the world and that’s an amazing feeling.
Conclusion:
The game doesn’t offer a lot of new things, compared to Grow Home but it’s always a pleasure to experience this game hands-on. The graphics are simple but very colorful and bright. All of these beautiful landscapes with challenging objectives and top of the world moments makes the game really worth playing. It may be a bit overwhelming for new players at first, but the gameplay is simple enough to get the hang of it. Gamers who played the predecessor will feel like home. The game is out now on PS4, Xbox One and PC.
