Vou fazer algo que não queria fazer, mas chegou a hora, Rayman é visualmente incrível um dos jogos 2D mais lindos da 5º e 6º geração, sua gameplay é muito boa, muito suave e fluida, a fluidez é assustadora de tão impressionante pra um jogo de 1995, é claro as inspirações de Cuphead no visual e movimentação. Porém esse jogo tem um problema seríssimo com dificuldade, Rayman é um absurdamente difícil, mas não o desafiador, o injusto mesmo, depois das primeiras fases, você é punido pelo mínimo erro, e muitas vezes em situações ridículas onde não tinha o que fazer. Mas o que realmente mata esse jogo é o fato de você ser OBRIGADO a fazer 100% do jogo, sim você leu certo, OBRIGADO! é necessário pegar todos os coletáveis do jogo, repetir fases varias e varias vezes pra ir atrás deles, e muitos estão em lugares extremamente improváveis, que ninguém imaginaria que iria estar, as vezes acontece de um coletavel spawnar no começo da fase, depois que você avança e você ter que fazer o caminho de volta só pra pegar ele, sem falar que muitos deles, tem risco de 90% de morte, o que não seria um problema, se você não tivesse vida ilimitadas, que te fazem voltar 3 FASES ATRÁS, é ridículo.

Sei como é um jogo de extrema importância pra indústria, e para a historia dos videogames, e eu ja estava com 80% do jogo feito, mas realmente não dá mais, eu passava muita raiva jogando, e não me divertia em nenhum momento, depois das primeiras fases é só tristeza.

One of the most iconic yet tragically forgotten platformer franchises. What Ubisoft has reduced Rayman to, is something to be ashamed of. Once among the most iconic video-game mascots, now reduced to a cameo within another forgettable game franchise. What made Rayman so iconic that it's still talked about today, over two decades later? From its cartoony artistic design that looks like the produce of someone who has consumed hallucinogenic mushrooms; to its pleasant and vibrant colour world. Rayman is unique. And all of the visual aspects are complimented by the incredibly soothing and relaxing soundtrack created by the late Rémi Gazel. It may sound corny to say, but Rémi truly lives on in the hearts of thousands. His body may have died, but through his work he continues to live on. The legacy of Rayman is something to be remembered. The cheerful music he created; reminding me of a beautiful summer. It's something that has left a profound impact on me. "Deep Forest" takes my mind to the days of my childhood, to those simplistic times; remembering how me and my father first picked up Rayman from our local VHS rental store. There's so much emotion behind his work, behind the music; and it absolutely resonates with me as someone who has enjoyed this game for so many years. I know I've mostly talked about music and of how pleasant this game is, but don't be fooled. Rayman is very much a challenge. Platforming is punishing and unforgiving. You may take a beating and you live to see another day, but god forbid if you take a mistaken step and fall you'll pay a severe price. And there's multiple stages that take advantage of this fact. Band land was an absolute nightmare as a child. Musical instruments with malice intent. That's all I'll say! Mind you, Rayman is not flawless in its design; it's far from perfect. Rayman is a platformer, a good platformer; but at the end of the day.. I don't look at Rayman as that. Or I should clarify, not only as that. I view Rayman as an art-piece. Because that's what it is. And Rémi Gazel's legacy is proof of that. Rayman is one of those games that stick with you throughout life. And for all the right reasons.

When I was a kid my Brother used to play this on PC and cheat his way through the game.
Then I got it on my PSP one day and was excited to play it before bed. It was then I realized that this game is one of the most difficult and frustrating games ever created. I smashed my PSP against the wall and wrecked my entire room which was the absolute low point of my entire life up until that point!!

Many years later after I have really gotten into retro games and beating stuff like Ninja Gaiden, I Wanna Be The Guy, NES Gradius, I Wanna Be The Boshy, Ghosts n' Goblins or Contra I thought to myself surely Rayman can't be that difficult now compared to those games. So I tried it again.

This time I didn't just wreck my room. I burned my entire house down and punched the asphalt driveway to my porch so hard that my wrist shattered into a thousand pieces. Out of anger I refused to call an ambulance or the fire department. Instead I called Ubisoft and told them that if they ever do another rayman game I would helicopter hair to their office and draw frowny faces into raymans belly circle as a means to demonstrate.

Heckin good game

UGGGGHHHHH, I want to give this game a higher score, I really do but no cigar

Positives
1. The graphics are pure eye candy. The colorful environments, Well animated sprites, and the opening cutscene are wonders to the eye
2. The music is great with plenty of funky and jolly tunes you'll remember (ex: The map screen, Plink plank woods, Mr. Darks Dare)
3.The controls are tight and precise making the game a joy to control
4. The bosses (except one) are pretty fun and fair challenges

Negatives
1. It makes sense that the game wasn't play tested much cause HOT DAMN is the difficulty pure hell. The game loves to just put you in constant do or die situations and sprinkles in some beginners traps. couple that with some bullshit enemy placement and questionable level design at points leaves you with an unbalanced, messily designed, frustrating game.
2. The lives and continues system is very egregious here. Normally I actually prefer lives in 2D platformers but here, considering how much you die and losing all your continues means getting kicked to the title screen and to your last save, it's infuriating. There's a reason why everyone recommends the 99 lives code
3. The entire endgame is locked behind 100% completion. In order to do the last level and see the credits, you have to save 246 electoons which considering how well some are hidden, is a massive task and a half.

The games 3 negatives are unfortunatly crippling enough to knock it to a 3.5 stars. It's still a great game but be prepared for it's difficulty

I probably should preface this review by stressing that there's gonna be heavy amounts of nostalgic bias. For several years as a kid, all I had was a PS1, and of the several CD's I was lucky enough to get, only two interested me: Crash Bandicoot 1, and this. Both of which are fairly short games which I would boot up and crank out a full run on a near daily basis. With that, I possess an immense amount of practice and muscle memory that few others would be likely to obtain these days, unless you chose to be part of the speedrunning community.

I had to keep this in mind as I was skimming through the reviews found on this site, acting surprised as it turned out that the larger majority of the world finds this game to be total bullshit. And even though I eventually got really good at it, I had to recall that once upon a time, during my initial couple runs of Rayman 1, some of the levels had me gripping the controller so hard, I could've sworn my handshakes were firmer after the fact. Yeah, no, the memories came flooding back, I'm pretty sure I hated this game once. But, it was 1 of the 2 platformers that I owned, so, what choice did I have but to keep pushing on with it?

So, call it Stockholm Syndrome or what have you, but cut to about 16 years later, and I'm here to tout that Rayman 1 can be actually pretty good, with some adjustments and the right mindset anyway. Starting off, I'd like to present new players some tips for a more enjoyable experience:

Tip #1: If you've got an emulator, put on an infinite lifes cheat. Alternatively, the game itself has a built-in cheat for 99 lives, you can find how to activate it here. Alternatively alternatively, just make a save state for every checkpoint you reach. While it does kinda sap away the point of the collectibles, alongside removing the game over screen as a stake... Rayman is already difficult as is, that getting to the end of a stage should serve well enough as its own reward.

Tip #2: Besides the regular collectibles, each level has 6 cages with trapped scrimblos to rescue. It sounds rather enticing if you love your collectibles, but the first problem comes up when you're halfway through the game and you realize you still have no idea what rescuing those cages actually does. It is only at the end of the game, that the purpose is revealed: You cannot access the final stage, unless you have rescued every single caged scrimblo.

At that point, I figure anybody playing this blind would just go "no thanks!" and shut the game off. After all, the locations of many cages are obtuse, and often hidden out of sight unless you touch a specific pixel to make the cage appear. You'll be likely to miss cages in just about every stage, so you're basically being told to replay the game all over again.

But don't worry, there's a workaround! First things first, just don't bother with the cages. Maybe get what you can just for the sake of engaging in exploration, but seriously, don't go for 100%. Instead, the way you want to unlock that final stage is by using the game's password system. Simply look up the password for 100% completion, and you're good. However, I highly recommend only using this password once you reach the end of the game, because using it at the very start of your run will lock you out of most bosses. They can only be fought once, how 'bout that.

Tip #3: Regarding the "right mindset", I wholeheartedly believe that Rayman requires to be treated less like a casual Mario platformer, and more like one of those "Meat Boy/Celeste-like" type games. Death is inevitable, but with that, comes learning from your mistakes. Stages have decent checkpointing as well, not like "per every room", but each level is short enough that you're not losing TOO much progress. To beat Rayman, requires committing yourself to the challenge that awaits you, and perhaps take breaks if you're tired. But, as someone with practice, I can guarantee that every stage is possible to get consistently good at, and I'd even argue it's satisfying to do so.

Tip #4: If you're really not feeling this, try the "Rayman Redemption" fangame instead. It serves as a reimagining of Rayman 1 that's extremely faithful in replicating every aspect of the controls, sound, and graphics, alongside adding several QoL improvements. However, the keyword here is "reimagining", as the level design is not exactly like Rayman 1, and oftentimes introduces new elements alongside it.

Going back to the idea of requiring "commitment" to beat the game, the question may arise, is it even worth "committing" to it? This is obviously gonna vary from person to person, but my reasons stand as such: I think Rayman himself, control-wise, is tight and responsive. Initially, you start off with a shockingly tiny set of abilities (move and jump), but you soon get your attack button, followed by a grapple move, a hover ability, and - to round it all off - the run button. This concept was reused in Rayman 2, where you start off weak and basic, before obtaining more abilities that make you more versatile and powerful-feeling. Here, you may argue that something like the run button and the hover should've just been given to you from the start - which honestly, I have no argument against - but I think it does work in the sense of letting the game be very simple for anyone to pick up, and get gradually more complex, and more fun as it goes on.

I also think that if you're all about that 90's PS1 aesthetic combined with a dash of surrealism, Rayman's an excellent example of using the power of a 3D console to make a very nice looking 2D game. Rayman's presentation aged so gracefully, with plenty of lush backgrounds, and bizarre expressive animations to oogle your eyes at. Almost every level introduces at least one new mechanic or enemy to keep your attention, along with bosses that seem to get increasingly more creative.

The soundtrack is a bit of a unique case for its time, that's emblematic of one of early Ubisoft's traits. Most platformers of this time would just settle for playing one song throughout the whole stage, but Rayman's strategy is to repeatedly switch between two audio tracks. One track contains music, and the other contains pure ambience. It goes from music, to ambience, back to music, back to ambience, just like that on loop. I think it's a fascinating way to create a soundscape for your game, an endearing attempt to make it feel more alive, and its sounds less predictable. The music itself has instrumentation that anyone nostalgic for 80's-90's synth and guitar will feel right at home with, just absolutely full of that CD audio cheese.

In all my attempt to convince the person reading this to play the game however, I think I've made one case most convincingly clear: It's not for everyone. It's a pretty difficult romp, it really sucks to 100%, and it takes like 40% of the game before you obtain abilities that really open it up. At the same time, I don't think Rayman 1's only for people who grew up with it. If you have even a general appreciation for the PS1 era of gaming, you should give this a shot. If you're ready to challenge yourself, you should optimize that challenge however you like, whether it's playing the game as intended, or giving yourself a leg up with cheats. Both ways are fine, I ain't gonna fucking gatekeep. Because for all the flaws that Rayman has, I really think there's plenty to appreciate about its variety of gameplay mechanics, and whimsical aesthetic. And I would like everyone to experience those positives by eliminating the primary negative: The fact that the game kicks your ass way too hard.

But, y'know, it's important not to force yourself to play something you're not enjoying either... so, worst case scenario, you can move on to Rayman 2. It is a very different experience from the first installment, and one that's much more palatable to a general audience. It's what I would consider a good entry point into the series. Rayman 1 is not that. It's for weirdos like me.

Stunning cartoon-like graphics and superb OST.
But the level design and game difficulty hate you.
It´s like the game is playing tricks on you all the time until you decide to throw the controller away. And the limited field of view (4:3) won't help at all. The characters are a little too big (and Ray is so slow and sluggish) for such a small FoV.

I'm happy the series improved so much over time.