This game has a lot of cool ideas, and some are executed really well! But other ideas are just pure cruel, and I'm 80% it was intentional. The game is really vibrant and colorful and the animations are really smooth. The gameplay kicks you in the ASS. There's traps after traps and tons of trial and error, which isn't my idea of fun. My biggest gripe with the game is that 100% completion is MANDATORY for the final boss, and you don't even get to actually fight him! Instead you fight combination of the rest of the bosses, which is actually pretty cool and haven't seen a game do before. This game is just odd compared to the other Rayman games, the "lore" wasn't completely set in stone and many things changed in 2, but it seems like this game is canon according to Rayman Origins. Overall, I don't really reccomend this game to people unless they really like a challenge or really want to see where Rayman started.

I've been putting this review off for a week. I don't much want to think about Aero the Acro-Bat let alone write about him, but I played the game and now I have to do a review. If I don't, the people that put me up to this will shoot me in the back of the head and I'll be found dead in a ditch the next morning.

I suppose the nicest thing I can say about this game is that I don't remember much of it. Levels have greater variety and are more intelligently designed, and in general the game looks and sounds better, but Aero still controls like he's covered in grease. It takes what should otherwise be a passable if mediocre platformer and makes it torturous to play. Every minute I was playing this game was spent wishing it would just end.

There's cutscenes between levels, which are hideously rendered. They really wanted to build the lore of Aero the Acro-Bat. Newcomer Batasha is basically a proto-Rouge the Bat and she looks horrifying. Whoever designed her has got to have a Fur Affinity account filled to the brim with the most disturbed artwork you've ever seen in your life.

This game gets two stars if only because the soundtrack is less abrasive, but I'm deducting one for Batasha awakening a level of fear in me that I never knew I could experience.

Earthworm Jim 2 shows tremendous improvements made over the original in just a year's time. I think I can safely say pretty much everything is better here, but most notably the level design. Gone is that awful labyrinthian feel of the first game, this time they're both a bit smaller and a lot more obvious on where to go. I don't really have any complaints with the main gameplay, really.

The four non-platformer stages, though, are kind of miserable. Three different stages of Puppy Love is an incredibly poor decision, it would either work better as bonus stages or only showing up once. The humor on display in those segments is weirdly morbid as well, and doesn't really line up with the rest of the game's humor, and kind of sucks? I don't know, basically to sum it up there's nothing really I care for about those levels. The flying stage is pretty awfully designed as well, what with the enemies and the way the bomb seems to always go the exact opposite direction of what you want.

I think in Shiny Entertainment's quest to make this one more gimmicky than the previous installment, it created some much higher highs but also a handful of duds. Thoroughly a more enjoyable experience though, by actually quite a lot. You probably still should not spend money on it though and instead kick Doug Tennapel down infinite stairs. Maybe Tommy Tallarico too for good measure