Severely misguided attempt to add more structure to a game that was already structured just fine for what it was. Now there's an upgrade system, but you start off weaker than where you started off in the original version. There's an open world, but its horribly aimless and kills the mood of the original Hall of Doors, while also running worse than anything else in the game. Cutscenes and dialogue have been added to elaborate on plot points, except the game's story didn't really need elaboration so everything ends up getting explained twice while the mystery of the original is lost. Rayman 2 didn't have a hub world because it was all meant to feel like one continuous adventure, winding through different kinds of dark fantasy/steam punk-inspired environments while constantly being tailed by your enemy. The hub world here adds nothing, neither do the extra cutscenes, and while you have the option to switch to the original version's gibberish language, the game hides that option and doesn't save it when you quit, meaning most of the time you'll be hearing the much more boring version of the dialogue.

The biggest heartbreaker to me was you can no longer read the game's extensive lore, something you could originally access at any time in the original game. Rayman 2 on the N64 was my first experience playing a game where the world was wholly a mystery to me, and being able to read lore about all the characters being thousands of years old, and how each character was involved in creating the universe, it blew my child-mind. And none of it was ever even brought up in the story, it was the first time I could feel how huge the world of a game was, not through it having a literal huge map but by smartly implying it while going through the story. But Revolution is interested in removing all of that wonder, and makes sure that every element is as obvious as possible. And the game takes too damn long to load! I still enjoyed it to some extent because underneath all the bad changes it's still my beloved Rayman 2, but in no way is this the definitive version of the game, would never recommend this to be the way someone experience one of my favorite games.