Grow Up

Grow Up is a sequel to Grow Home, featuring the robot protagonist B.U.D. whose space ship M.O.M. crashes on an alien planet after a meteor storm. As an open world platform game with sci-fi setting, players must locate and recover nine ship parts scattered across a diverse planet with varied climates and vegetation. The game expands on the vertical exploration mechanics of its predecessor with larger environments, deep caves, volcanoes, and floating islands. Players can utilize climbing mechanics, grow unique plants for traversal, and unlock special abilities through optional challenges while exploring a procedurally animated world with physics-based gameplay.

Grow Up: Review

Introduction

In the vast, often homogenized landscape of open-world games, Grow Up emerges as a singular, whimsical anomaly—a sequel that doubles down on its predecessor’s signature charm while simultaneously stretching its ambitions. Following the botanical odyssey of Grow Home (2015), Ubisoft Reflections’ Grow Up sends players back into the cosmos as B.U.D. (Botanical Utility Droid), a perpetually endearing, wobbly robot on a quest to rescue his maternal spaceship, M.O.M., after a meteor storm scatters her across an alien planet. While the core promise of scaling impossible heights and nurturing alien flora remains intact, Grow Up trades the original’s intimate, vertical focus for a sprawling, horizontally-driven sandbox. The result is a game that expands the universe with commendable audacity but risks diluting the very essence that made its predecessor so intoxicating. This review dissects Grow Up as both a technical achievement and a philosophical exploration of growth, arguing that its legacy lies in its joyful imperfections—a testament to the experimental spirit of mid-2010s Ubisoft.

Development History & Context

Grow Up was birthed from the fertile ground of Ubisoft Reflections’ post-Grow Home ambition. The studio, renowned for the Driver series and The Crew, pivoted to create a boutique experience that defied the typical AAA blockbuster template. Using Unity as its engine, the team aimed to address the criticisms of the original—namely its linearity—by constructing a “globe-spanning” world with diverse biomes, from volcanic caves to floating islands. This ambition was fueled by the success of Grow Home, which, despite its modest scale (developed by a small team), resonated for its physics-based traversal and minimalist storytelling. Released on August 16, 2016, for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, Grow Up arrived in an era saturated with open-world behemoths like The Division and No Man’s Sky. Yet, it carved its niche by doubling down on accessibility and experimentation. The development process was iterative, with Ubisoft Pune assisting on console ports to ensure parity. Crucially, the team retained B.U.D.’s “clumsy” ragdoll physics—a deliberate choice to maintain the original’s endearing unpredictability. This context is vital: Grow Up was never meant to reinvent the wheel but to expand it, creating a larger playground for its robotic protagonist to explore with childlike wonder.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

The narrative of Grow Up is a masterclass in environmental storytelling, with dialogue reduced to a whisper against the roar of discovery. The plot is elegantly simple: after reuniting with M.O.M. at the end of Grow Home, a meteor storm cripples their ship, crash-landing B.U.D. onto a vibrant, untamed planet. His mission is to locate nine scattered ship parts, a quest framed as both a literal rescue and a metaphorical coming-of-age. The absence of M.O.M. for most of the game shifts the dynamic from maternal guidance to self-reliance, mirroring the titular “growing up.” B.U.D., with his procedurally animated limbs and perpetually startled expression, embodies this journey—his movements are a constant negotiation between control and chaos, reflecting the player’s own learning curve.

New companion P.O.D. (Planetary Observation Droid) introduces thematic layers as a foil to B.U.D.’s spontaneity. While B.U.D. acts, P.O.D. analyzes—providing waypoints, tracking floraforms, and offering objective clarity. This dichotomy between instinct and strategy underscores the game’s core tension: the joy of unstructured exploration versus the satisfaction of structured progression. The narrative thrives in its silence; the world communicates through its flora, which B.U.D. scans for the Floradex 3000. Each plant discovered—from trampolining “champolines” to glow-illuminating “star flowers”—feels like a revelation, reinforcing themes of curiosity and adaptation. Even the 24 unique plants and 150 crystals to collect are not mere chores but narrative vignettes, each a testament to the planet’s untamed biodiversity. In a medium obsessed with cinematic exposition, Grow Up proves that a story can be told through a robot’s stumble or a seed’s bloom.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Grow Up builds its foundation on Grow Home‘s climbing mechanics, where B.U.D.’s hands operate independently, requiring players to alternate grips and momentum to ascend. This remains the game’s sublime centerpiece—each precarious ascent a ballet of physics and precision. However, the sequel introduces systemic expansions that both liberate and constrain. The most significant addition is the ability to scan and plant “floraforms”—seeds that grow into functionally diverse plants anywhere in the world. A bouncy mushroom can turn a chasm into a trampoline; a glider leaf enables graceful descents. These tools grant unprecedented freedom, allowing players to bypass verticality for horizontal traversal. Yet, this empowerment comes at a cost. As Hardcore Gaming 101 notes, the ease of access “completely erode[s]” the original’s balance of challenge and reward, where every petal or jetpack burst was a precious resource. Now, abilities are permanent, turning potential setbacks into trivial inconveniences.

The game’s progression loop revolves around three pillars: finding ship parts (story objectives), collecting crystals (to upgrade abilities like jetpack duration), and completing P.O.D. challenges (short time trials rewarding suits with quirky perks, like a bee suit that attracts insects). While this variety encourages exploration, critics like Shacknews lamented that the “endless icons to tick off” transformed traversal into “grind.” The tele-router checkpoint system mitigates frustration but fails to address core issues: physics inconsistencies and camera hiccups that often sabotage momentum. B.U.D.’s ragdoll charm occasionally curdles into clunkiness, as uncooperative limbs or an uncooperative camera send players plummeting. Yet, these flaws are inseparable from the experience—the “mild terror” in B.U.D.’s eyes, as one Steam user noted, is part of the fun. Grow Up is less a polished product and more a sandbox of delightful chaos, where emergent moments—like bouncing between volcanic rocks or gliding over a neon-lit forest—outweigh its systemic imperfections.

World-Building, Art & Sound

The world of Grow Up is a triumph of minimalist environmental storytelling, a vibrant planet that feels both alien and inviting. Gone is the singular, towering stalk of Grow Home; in its place is a globe divided into distinct biomes: arid deserts dotted with cacti, snow-capped peaks with frozen waterfalls, lush jungles, and even underwater caves. This diversity is a technical feat, with Ubisoft leveraging Unity to create seamless transitions between floating islands and subterranean realms. The art direction, while retaining the flat-shaded, low-polygon aesthetic of its predecessor, trades the original’s stark contrasts for a softer, pastel palette. As Rock, Paper, Shotgun observed, the world is “stunningly beautiful” but lacks the “glowing objects” that once made landmarks pop. This subtlety, however, enhances the sense of discovery—crystals and floraforms blend into the environment, rewarding keen eyes.

Sound design mirrors this duality. The ambient score, composed by Luke Sanger, shifts from the original’s melodic tranquility to a brighter, more buoyant electronic soundtrack. While some critics, like those at Hardcore Gaming 101, found this “techno pop” jarring, others argued it complemented the game’s freewheeling energy. Sound effects—the whir of B.U.D.’s jetpack, the rustle of alien foliage, the percussive thud of a crash—are crisp and tactile, grounding the fantastical in physicality. The absence of combat or violence amplifies the atmosphere; this is a world of pure exploration, where the only threats are environmental hazards like lava or deep water. The result is a space that feels alive and responsive, a character in its own right. As one Steam review gushed, “Drifting over the polygonal landscape… is a peaceful good time,” a sentiment that captures Grow Up‘s artistry: a world designed not to challenge, but to enchant.

Reception & Legacy

At launch, Grow Up received a mixed-to-positive reception, with critics praising its charm and ambition while decrying its mechanical flaws. On Metacritic, it scored 70-74 across platforms, with IGN (PC, 7.8/10) calling it a “worthy follow-up” that “strengthens some of [its predecessor’s] weak points,” while GameSpot (PS4, 5/10) lamented that “clumsy” controls “bury the charm.” Players, however, were more forgiving, with Steam awarding it a “Very Positive” 92% rating over 1,800 reviews. Fans lauded its “relaxing” exploration (Steam user quote: “perfect for playing with kids”), even as some noted its “underwhelming ending.” Commercially, it performed modestly, buoyed by Grow Home‘s cult following and a budget price point.

Its legacy is more nuanced. As a technical showcase, it demonstrated the versatility of Unity and proved that smaller teams could create ambitious AAA-adjacent experiences. Thematically, it remains a standout in exploration-focused games, using a robot’s journey to literalize growth and independence. Its influence is subtle but palpable in titles like Slime Rancher and Ode, which prioritize physics-based traversal and environmental storytelling over combat. Yet, Grow Up is often remembered as a “difficult second album”—a sequel that expanded its world but lost some of its soul. Atari’s acquisition of the IP in 2025 hints at potential revivals, but for now, its legacy endures in the hearts of players who found joy in B.U.D’s bumbling ascent. As Hardcore Gaming 101 surmised, it remains “an unmemorable game that simply pales in comparison to the first”—a poignant verdict for a title that dared to grow too big for its own brittles.

Conclusion

Grow Up stands as a fascinating case study in sequel design—a game that succeeds and falters in equal measure. By expanding Grow Home‘s vertical playground into a horizontal globe, Ubisoft Reflections delivered a world teeming with wonder and possibility. The introduction of floraforms, ability capsules, and varied biomes creates a playground that feels alive, responsive, and endlessly explorable. Yet, this ambition comes at the cost of focus; the original’s razor-sharp tension between peril and reward is diluted, replaced by a more forgiving, if occasionally repetitive, experience. B.U.D.’s journey is still one of discovery, but it’s no longer a struggle—it’s a joyride.

Ultimately, Grow Up‘s place in gaming history is secure, not as a masterpiece, but as a love letter to curiosity. Its flaws—clunky controls, a shift in musical tone, and the occasional sense of bloat—are overshadowed by its moments of brilliance: the first glimpse of a floating island at dawn, the satisfying thud of a seed taking root, the pure, unadulterated joy of watching a robot clumsily conquer a mountain. It is a game that invites players to embrace imperfection, both in its design and in its protagonist. For fans of Grow Home, Grow Up is a worthy, if imperfect, expansion—a reminder that sometimes, the most rewarding journeys are the ones that grow with you.