Rayman is an absolutely incredible game, filled with a ton of charm. So if I love it so much, why have I rated it so low? Well...
Let's start with the Good Bits: I love how Rayman and the other limbless characters move and animate. Mama in particular does all of these cool spin attacks which must have been a pain to animate. The soundtrack is INCREDIBLE. Right from the very first stage you're hit with these beautiful tracks that can be anything from jaunty and encouraging (which suits the first stage of a platforming game), to tense and pulse-pounding, to atmospheric and eerie and back. This orchestral soundtrack gives soundtracks like Donkey Kong Country 2 a run for its money. The power-ups are relatively clever and fun to use; figuring out how to use the power-ups in conjunction to access secrets and hidden Electoon cages is satisfying. The levels are visually interesting, and you feel rewarded for getting to the next world to see what gorgeous landscape you get to see next.
But then we get to the Bad Bits, and this is going to take more than a sentence or two to explain. The short and easy answer is: difficulty. The story goes that there was a shortage of QA testers, so nobody working on the game actually had a realistic idea of how difficult the game was. That's the story, anyway, and I believe it. That a game like this dared to have something like limited Continues (5!!) is a testament to poor planning and a total lack of awareness. Rayman starts with only three hit points until death, which can be increased to five by grabbing special power-ups, but death resets this to three. And you will be dying a LOT. Despite the initial controls being almost pixel-perfect in execution of jumps, the game quickly introduces slippery platforms that remain throughout the game. Enemies ultimately get replaced with unkillable environmental hazards. The camera isn't completely broken, but more often than not you'll be expected to simply guess what lies under you and whether or not you'll die attempting a jump, especially in certain sections of Band Land. The Run power is imprecise and hard to stop when you're trying to land on a certain spot and not overshoot, but at times you're required to use it.
If you're thinking of playing this game, I have two pieces of advice: one, look up the infinite lives code for your region. Maybe you feel like you won't need to use it, or it's cheating. All I'll say is, go ahead, but have that code written down nearby just in case. The second piece of advice is to look for a video of the Caves of Skops level "Eat at Joe's", with deaths included. That should give you some idea of how broken this game can be at times.
Let's start with the Good Bits: I love how Rayman and the other limbless characters move and animate. Mama in particular does all of these cool spin attacks which must have been a pain to animate. The soundtrack is INCREDIBLE. Right from the very first stage you're hit with these beautiful tracks that can be anything from jaunty and encouraging (which suits the first stage of a platforming game), to tense and pulse-pounding, to atmospheric and eerie and back. This orchestral soundtrack gives soundtracks like Donkey Kong Country 2 a run for its money. The power-ups are relatively clever and fun to use; figuring out how to use the power-ups in conjunction to access secrets and hidden Electoon cages is satisfying. The levels are visually interesting, and you feel rewarded for getting to the next world to see what gorgeous landscape you get to see next.
But then we get to the Bad Bits, and this is going to take more than a sentence or two to explain. The short and easy answer is: difficulty. The story goes that there was a shortage of QA testers, so nobody working on the game actually had a realistic idea of how difficult the game was. That's the story, anyway, and I believe it. That a game like this dared to have something like limited Continues (5!!) is a testament to poor planning and a total lack of awareness. Rayman starts with only three hit points until death, which can be increased to five by grabbing special power-ups, but death resets this to three. And you will be dying a LOT. Despite the initial controls being almost pixel-perfect in execution of jumps, the game quickly introduces slippery platforms that remain throughout the game. Enemies ultimately get replaced with unkillable environmental hazards. The camera isn't completely broken, but more often than not you'll be expected to simply guess what lies under you and whether or not you'll die attempting a jump, especially in certain sections of Band Land. The Run power is imprecise and hard to stop when you're trying to land on a certain spot and not overshoot, but at times you're required to use it.
If you're thinking of playing this game, I have two pieces of advice: one, look up the infinite lives code for your region. Maybe you feel like you won't need to use it, or it's cheating. All I'll say is, go ahead, but have that code written down nearby just in case. The second piece of advice is to look for a video of the Caves of Skops level "Eat at Joe's", with deaths included. That should give you some idea of how broken this game can be at times.