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Growing Up: Life of the '90s

Teenager School Life Simulator

Ratings

Age

13+

Category

Games

Languages

English

Growing Up is an immersive life simulator where you guide a character from birth to adulthood in the vibrant 1990s. Shape your personality through the 'Mind Map' puzzle system, master a variety of skills, and navigate the complex social world of school and family. With over 30 unique locations and a cast of memorable characters, every decision you make leads to a different future. Experience a heartwarming story of growth, nostalgia, and the endless possibilities of life.

Dinsun Expert Review

Our Expert Score

91/100

Growing Up: Life of the '90s is a heartwarming and deeply nostalgic life simulator that manages to capture the specific 'magic' of childhood and adolescence. It’s not just about managing stats; it’s about the branching paths of a life. The choices you make—from which hobbies you pursue to how you interact with your parents—genuinely change who your character becomes as an adult. The 90s setting is rendered with incredible love, featuring CRT TVs, iconic toys, and the distinct fashion of the era.

The 'Mind Map' puzzle system is a creative way to handle learning and development, turning the abstract concept of growing up into an engaging strategy game. What’s truly impressive is the replayability; every 'run' through a character's life feels unique, with different friends and career outcomes. It’s an emotional journey that treats its subject matter with maturity and warmth. If you grew up in the 90s, it’s a nostalgic powerhouse; if you didn't, it’s still a fantastic life simulator.

Dinsun reviewed on: Fri Feb 27 2026

Features

1

Deeply branching narrative and life outcomes

2

Creative 'Mind Map' character development system

3

Stunning nostalgic 90s art and atmosphere

4

High replayability with diverse paths

Tips & Walkthrough

Gameplays

Screenshot

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Q&A

A full playthrough from birth to graduation takes roughly 4 to 6 hours, and you can start a 'New Game Plus' with inherited traits.

Ratings & Reviews

Love it but I have MANY suggestions
Mon Jan 01 2024 pizza&ramen

One I think you should have the option to have siblings or somthing like that and I think you should make more games in the same art style, maybe like, growing up: life of the 20’s to show more of what it was like a long time ago or even life of the 80’s or the current year, with new characters in the same art style and option to have pets as well and I think another thing with the siblings is once you grow up you could have the option to have twins, where you play as both players or you could customize your character further (more hairs and outfits) and customization your parents and even friends (maybe).

Love the game, but I can’t play anymore
Fri Jul 12 2024 SmolJim

This game is awesome, I love the gameplay. The love interest’s stories are really interesting and they feel like actual people and not archetypes. The gameplay is really fun, I love that there’s very little pressure to “win”; even when you do poorly in school or disappoint your parents it’s still part of your character’s story and personality. I’m able to give my player characters unique personalities and well-rounded skills. However, I bought this game a while ago and now I literally cannot play it. Whenever I try to load a save the app gets stuck in a never ending loading screen. This is in addition to the already long loading screens. Obviously this is a port of a PC game, but it seems like very little was done to optimize it’s performance. I play on IPad but I can’t imagine these issues are any better on IPhone. I love this game and I think it has great art, mechanics, and graphics but now that I can’t load my generations long save I feel cheated. I think this can be a 5-star game, but it needs issues sorted out immediately.

Great game, some caviats
Wed May 04 2022 Meyowuffsbgsfj

I LOVE this game. I get on it like 5 times a day. The story is captivating, the gameplay is fun. However, there are some things that make me hopeful for the future development. The good sides: the game is a great way to pass time. It’s fun to manage your health and parents’ opinion. The characters are fun, and there is LOTS to do. The bad sides: the game has TOO MUCH to do. Because you only get so much energy and only so many spaces for schedules, more than half the things you CAN do, you CANT do. It makes me sad, because i’d love to buy all the items i can and make the game so much more bearable. Also, some of the penalties are INSANE. Your parents’ opinion of you goes down 8 points for playing RPG?? The constant struggle of getting approval is tiring, and that also contributes to the lack of available game features. Also, i wish the game went a bit further. Maybe slow down the time, or increase the age that you can play to. When i first saw the ad and the introduction, i thought that most of your life up to 18 would be restricted, then up from that would be all on your own. You could get married, break up, become a crippling alcoholic (jk). But seriously, working to do all of my school work and then the game ending with: “this is how the rest of your life will be because of the options you chose” is kinda saddening. Just my opinion, though. Will the devs listen to me and change the game? Or will they find an audience that likes it as is and i move on? Either way, thanks for reading.

10 out of 10 would recommend but…
Sun Dec 11 2022 gfggbbh

Absolutely amazing game! The day I got it I stayed up all night playing it, a few complaints I have is that it can be a bit complicated and confusing with the traits like charm, intelligence, etc. it’s very hard to keep up with what classes are necessary and what classes aren’t and while playing the game I have met the same people over and over again it gets kinda annoying when it happens. Other than that it’s a amazing game with great art and stories I just wish you could play past 18 like go to university/college like actually witness your characters life before playing the next generation also the parents (from my experience) are very generic like they don’t retain any qualities of when you played them which is a bit upsetting at times the game feels like the exact some story over and over again don’t get me wrong I love the game just wish it had more to it.

I want to see more…do more
Mon Jan 02 2023 KORE IV

I love this game it’s a lot of fun, I really hope they expand on it, I wish they would give you a college portion, an area to see how your friendships are going, and way more romance then what we have in there. It would be cool to see them expand clothing, hair, and adding make up. I’m glad they added a bit of diversity in the game. It’s overall a really great game but it can be so much more. It’s just like Chinese parents but they both have their differences to say the least. It is like like, it would be cool if they offered some of the life stuff in there like the house you’ll end up choosing. If there was more to this game I do think that it would be good for switch like a college and young adult section to chose your career and marriage and etc. I wish that it was more like it needs more spice.

Love
Sat Sep 07 2024 injailoutsoon42

I love this game so so much. There’s a few things I’m hopeful that will be added or improved upon in a second installment. I’m desperate for more (bisexual) love interests. On one hand, I respect the game for having exclusive options, but on the other hand I like being able to romance who I want regardless of the sex I play as. (Think Stardew.) I’d also want the ability to choose pronouns, sexuality, the ability to randomize these… more clothing and hairstyles… maybe makeup options? Another review suggested pets, I agree with them! Bring on the pets!! Maybe there could be a chance your parents could surprise you with a pet? (Think the goldfish event but… good ending :p)

Fun but not enough
Tue Aug 27 2024 Js9543

This game was fun and had a lot of potential I just wish it was longer and there was more to do for instance I would have love to see my character play a sport and get a scholarship also wish I could of followed them to college it would of been cool to run for prom king or class president maybe even take a avid or rotc class maybe get a job buy a car be born to a single parent household or a upper/lower class district also managing parental and mental health is kind of limited so I feel as though wants I master an activity an evolved form of that activity will appear for example football 101/ freshmen football/J.V/Varsity/Captain/All American. Maybe if you start in elementary (pop warner) you skip freshmen and go to J.V otherwise cool game

Great needs a update ❤️
Sun Apr 09 2023 Rainbow Cookieees

I love this game , it needs much more though , It tough to get points , and the special requests takes forever to earn , would like more skills to be attended and faster game play , also would like a feature where we can save our data to our email or FB and can play this game on different devices, it great especially how to raise a child , please add more interaction with parents and school , also add picking hair style getting ready toileting etc Please add more storylines and characters where they is a dialogue, also need more customization for clothes etc ,

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