B.U.D. is back, and this time the wobbly robot has a moon to reach. Grow Up sends the clumsy climber across an open planet to recover the scattered parts of M.O.M., the motherly spaceship that crash-landed and left her pieces across the world and its moon. Ubisoft Reflections developed it. Ubisoft published it on 16 August 2016 for PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One. Leap, bounce and float, the pitch goes. A robot wants to put his mother back together.
The game wants to be a joyful and ageless fantasy. For long stretches it is. But a sequel has to justify itself beyond a bigger map and a jetpack, and Grow Up does not always clear that bar.
B.U.D. and the Scattered Parts of M.O.M.
The setup carries real charm. M.O.M. crashes into the moon, her parts fly across the planet, and B.U.D. sets out to recover every piece and rebuild her. That is a clean goal, and it gives the open world a reason to exist beyond scenery. You are not climbing for the sake of climbing. You are hunting.
The planet is whimsical and vast, and the game pushes you from the lowest valleys up into space. Towering plants, strange floraforms, a moon to reach. The scale is the point. Grow Up wants you to look up and feel the distance.
That distance is also where the game starts to strain. An open world built around verticality lives or dies on whether the climbing stays interesting, and Grow Home already mined that idea hard. Grow Up adds tools. It does not always add purpose.
Starplants, Floraforms and the Scan-and-Plant Loop
The core mechanic returns. B.U.D. can direct the stalks of Starplants into energy sources to help them grow. It was the best idea in Grow Home, and it is still the best idea here. Steering a plant toward a power source and watching it shoot upward turns the landscape into a ladder you built yourself.
New to Grow Up is scanning. The planet is covered in floraforms, plants with unusual properties. One might let B.U.D. jump high. Another might launch him into the air. Once you scan a floraform, you can plant a seed of it at any time, anywhere else. That is a real addition. It turns the world into a toolkit, and it rewards curiosity. See a strange plant, scan it, and you have a new verb.
The loop is generous. Scan, plant, use, repeat. It gives the open world a collectible logic that is not just busywork. Each floraform is a small discovery with a practical payoff.
The payoff is uneven. Some floraforms feel essential. Others feel like novelties you will plant once and forget. The game does not always distinguish between the two, and the result is a world full of options where only a handful matter.
Ability Capsules, Crystals and the B.U.D. Suits
Progression comes through ability capsules. Find one, and B.U.D. gains a new ability: a jetpack, gliding, rolling into a ball. Each ability can be upgraded by collecting crystals hidden across the world. The jetpack and gliding are the headline additions, and they change how the game moves. Floating over a valley you once climbed is a genuine shift in scale.
The upgrades give the collectibles a purpose. Crystals are not just points. They make the tools you already have work better, and that is the right way to tie exploration to power.
Then there are the challenges. Each requires B.U.D. to pass through multiple checkpoints within a time limit. Complete them, and you unlock optional B.U.D. Suits. The suits each give B.U.D. unique properties. A bee suit attracts bugs. An aviator suit increases gliding speed.
The suits are the clearest example of Grow Up’s central problem. They are charming. They are also optional, and the game never makes a strong case for why you should care. A bee suit that attracts bugs is a fun idea in search of a reason. The aviator suit’s faster gliding is useful, but it arrives after you have already done most of your gliding.
A Sequel That Adds Without Deepening
Grow Up is a better-featured game than Grow Home. It has more abilities, more plants, more world, more things to find. By any checklist, it is the bigger game.
It is not clearly the better one. Grow Home was small and strange and focused. Its climbing had a purity to it. Grow Up spreads that idea across a planet and a moon, and in doing so it thins it out. The jetpack and gliding are fun, but they also let you skip the climbing that made the first game work. When you can float over a problem, the problem stops being interesting.
The floraform system is the strongest new idea. Scan a plant, plant it anywhere, use its power. That is a real design addition, and it makes the open world feel like a sandbox rather than a checklist. If the whole game were built around that loop, Grow Up might be something special.
Instead, the loop competes with everything else. Challenges, crystals, suits, ability capsules. Each system is fine on its own. Together, they make the game feel busier than it needs to be. The charm of B.U.D. is that he is clumsy and small. The game around him is neither.
The story does not help much either. B.U.D. wants to find M.O.M., and that is the whole arc. It is sweet, and it is thin. The game is not interested in complicating it, which is fine for a fantasy, but it means the emotional weight rests entirely on the idea of a robot rebuilding his mother. That idea is good. The game does not do much with it beyond the premise.
What Grow Up Gets Right
None of this makes Grow Up a bad game. It makes it an uneven one. The acrobatic adventure is real. Leaping, bouncing and floating through a whimsical open planet is a pleasant way to spend time, and the game rarely frustrates. It is gentle in a way few open-world games are. There is no combat, no death spiral, no punishing systems. You climb, you scan, you plant, you float.
The floraform scanning is the best thing here, and it deserves more credit than the game gives it. It is a mechanic that turns observation into power. You look at the world, you learn it, and you use it. That is a good loop.
The B.U.D. Suits are the worst thing here, not because they are bad, but because they are forgettable. Optional cosmetics with minor properties are fine. Optional cosmetics with minor properties that arrive after you have finished the game are just clutter.
The moon is the game’s best setting and its biggest missed chance. Reaching space is the promise of the title, and the game delivers it. But the journey there matters more than the destination, and Grow Up’s journey is full of detours that do not pay off.
The Verdict on Grow Up
Grow Up scores 6.9 out of 10. That is a fair number for a game that is charming, competent and slightly hollow. It is a sequel that adds features without deepening its core. The floraform system is a genuine improvement. The jetpack and gliding are fun but undercut the climbing. The suits and challenges are optional noise.
If you loved Grow Home, Grow Up will feel familiar and a little diluted. If you never played the first, this is a gentle, pretty adventure with a robot worth rooting for. It will not stay with you long. But it will not ask much of you either.
B.U.D. is still adorable. The moon is still up there. The game just does not quite know what to do once you reach it.
KEY FACTS BOX
- Title: Grow Up
- Developer: Ubisoft Reflections
- Publishers: Ubisoft Entertainment, Atari
- Release date: 16 August 2016
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), Xbox One
- Genre: Adventure platform
- Modes: Single player
- Perspective: Third person
- Predecessor: Grow Home (2015)
- Critic aggregate: 6.9/10 (IGDB, 13 outlets)
- Clay Tribune score: 6.9/10
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