Grow Up is an adorable and fun game in which you play as BUD, a space traveling robot. Your job is to scour the planet searching for pieces of MOM, your spaceship. Along the way, you find different plants that can help you get where you need to go and by collecting their seeds, you gain the ability to grow the plants wherever you need them. You also collect different abilities that improve your cute little robot self. Grow Up is a great game for kids but I really enjoyed it too. It’s funny, it’s easy but not too easy and it’s a great game to turn on for a quick fix.
In terms of deaf accessibility, Grow Up does GREAT. There is no speech in the game, it’s all text-based dialogue between BUD and his little companion robot, POD, so attention was paid to making the text easily legible.
Visual cues are easy to see and understand, both in-game and on the map screen.
And on-screen instructions are very clear.
The environments are diverse and fun to play around in and while I’m usually a fan of realistic looking games, I really like how the art fits the game style in this one. The one thing I’d have liked to see in this game, that for me, would help me be more immersed in it, is some subtle controller vibration, aside from the very brief instances when you open your glider. When Courtney, my hearing review partner, played Grow Up, she noted that the minor beeps and glitchy computer sounds really added to the environment and the light whooshing air sound sound when using the glider just made it more interesting. As a deaf player, I’d have liked to be able to feel those things, so I could be a little more connected to BUD. The lack of that feature doesn’t make the game inaccessible or unappealing, it would just be nice to have.
Bottom Line
For a quick and simple game, Grow Up is a lot of fun and the accessibility features aren’t overlooked at all. This is a great game for deaf kids (and deaf adults).