It alright!

Honestly the story about the making of the game is more interesting than the game itself. Originally being made as a GBA version of Rayman 2, they instead shoehorned in some Rayman 3 stuff (like the bare minimum) so they could tie it into 3’s console release.

And since it plays more like Rayman 1, it DOES kinda feel like a melting pot of the first three Rayman games, which is interesting.

The story is an absolute mess. Like, Globox swallows a black Lum, that makes sense, but Razorbeard and the robo pirates are back?? What

But other than that? It’s a solid 2D platformer. Not always super interesting, but it works, looks alright, sounds alright, it’s fun enough! Gameplay mixes it up every now and then with minigames, kinda a standard GBA 2D platformer. But it does it well enough, and I always have a great time with my boy Rayman.

As much as I like me some 2D Rayman action, I can't recommend this one. Because of the GBA's screen size, everything feels too zoomed-in, leading to some blind jumps and unfair deaths. This game also likes to hide things behind the player when they first enter a stage very often.

For example, when I encountered the first boss, I had no clue how to fight it. I punched at it, and it did no damage. I thought maybe I need to jump over to the other side and do something to the gears on it. I tried that and fell to my death. Upon respawning, a message appeared giving a tutorial on throwing barrels, and I thought to myself "What barrels?" I then moved Rayman an inch to the left, and the camera swiveled over and there was the barrel. There are zero indicators that it's there when you enter the fight.

What made me drop this game was the second boss. After getting through a bad stage full of platforms you need to hit in order to be able to jump on, I was completely done with the gimmick. Imagine to my surprise that it would be a key feature in the next boss fight, which really doesn't like to count some of your punches as connecting with the platforms! Two Game Over's later, I'm completely done with this fight and have no desire to see what lies beyond it.

Maybe you'll have more patience for this game than I did, but I know where I stand on this one, and that is on a solid 2/5.

An honestly underrated entry in the Rayman series. Some very fun but challenging level design, three different level types (including a Mode 7 racer which was somehow really good), and a very pleasing visual style. It's definitely a quick game and probably very easy to 100%, but these are honestly pros in my opinion. Rayman 3 GBA knows what it is and doesn't overstay its welcome, but it's not half-assed, either. Unfortunately, this is marred somewhat by it's buggy bosses and VERY bad sound design/music, so it's not, like, a lost masterpiece or anything, but for fans of Rayman that are itching for a new game, this one will have some very fun stuff to try.

Also, it's lowkey better than the console Rayman 3. I said what I said.

This game is such a tragedy. I cant believe the greatness of Rayman 2 came before it. Its like a completely different team made this game with zero research done on the previous games. All the characters act differently. The setting feels different. Rayman's abilities are different. The dialogue of this game is ATROCIOUS. Its just a bunch of "lol im so random, rawr tacos XD" ass dialogue. Its like if they made Uncle Grandpa into a shitty platformer. The story is constantly sidetracked by random ass encounters. They shoehorned a bunch of adult humor into the game (Im fine with adult humor, it just felt out of place for a rayman game). Every fucking character is annoying and doesnt shut up. The combat is bad. Lock-on doesnt work and you NEED it to fight. Most of the actual platforming was OK. Some good, some ok, some bad. I felt that the enemies of the game, black lums with guns called Hoodlums, is a weird racist allegory and I cant think of it any other way. Just dont play this game man.