Rayman 1 is an evil game. Made by a bunch of French assholes who think it's really funny when spikes spawn right in front of you with only .5 seconds of warning. Assholes who love throwing you into boss fights with little to no explanation of how they work. Eventually, these French assholes got their shit together and made games that are actually meant for normal humans, and even the hardest parts of those games don't reach the level of bullshit that Rayman 1 does.
Now, as a Rayman fan, I just kind of assumed 1 was the weird outlier no one in the fandom really revisits or talks about outside of Rayman trivia or videos of guys screaming over footage of them failing a purple lum swing for the 30th time in a row. So it was quite a surprise to learn this fan remake was a thing! A group of passionate Rayman 1 fans set out to not only remake the game for modern machines but also to make the definitive version of it. New levels, old levels restructured and remade with new mechanics, new sequences and re-balanced boss fights, as well as new bosses and characters altogether. What we have here is an attempt to sober up Rayman 1, making it more palatable for a wider audience, while still keeping the same devious and demanding gameplay. The Sonic-Mania comparison is used a lot in reviews of this game, and it's a fair comparison, but it would be more like if Sonic-Mania was an attempt to "fix" Sonic the Hedgehog 1.
The result ends up being mostly positive, but with a few negatives, speaking as someone who actually likes Rayman 1. The game is better organized now, it has more secondary objectives and unlockables, the most infamous sections have been tweaked to become more readable to the player, and lives are a lot more common. It feels like every level has been reimagined in some way, and overall I think this is a good approach. The legend behind the original game's difficulty is that the game was never playtested by people who weren't the devs, so why not make this game in a way that feels, you know, playtested? And if you're worried the game is too easy now, oh brother, just you wait until the last couple of worlds in the game, you'll get exactly what you were hoping for and a lot more. It's not just made easier, it's balanced, and the odds are slightly more in your favor. I kind of switched back and forth between thinking the game was just the right difficulty and a little too easy for those experienced in the original, but in the end, I think they managed to hit the sweet spot.
I say the game is more balanced, but there's still bullshit that appears out of thin air, and there are still bosses that have one mechanic that feels impossible to figure out (it's Mr. Skopps, I should stop being vague and just say I fucking hate Mr. Skopps). Sometimes Redemption elaborates on mechanics in a way I find annoying, and not in a good way, like any puzzle that requires you to guide a ball anywhere. Moments like this sort of made me question the process of what was considered "too much" vs what had to be kept in to keep the spirit of the original game.
The biggest change I have a problem with is the fact that you have the ability to run from the beginning of the game. In the original, you go quite a while before gaining the ability to run, and many people saw this as a negative. With the modern expectations of 2D platformers, it probably makes more sense for the ability to run to be available at all times. The early levels in Redemption are re-balanced to account for this, so it's not like you're breaking the game or anything, but the deliberate nature of Rayman 1 is sort of lost with this change. I liked the way that the original was a platformer that really makes you consider each jump. You have to really think about momentum, you have to think fast because you can't move fast under normal circumstances. Once you do get the ability to run in the original, it's not as mindless as the run button in a Mario game, because there are very often moments to run and not run, it's something to consider carefully. But in Redemption, that aspect is lost, it essentially is a Mario run button, and there's no reason to not be holding it until some very late levels in the game. For a game that's trying to retain the spirit of the original as much as possible, this feels like a needless "fix".
Of course, with this re-balanced version of Rayman 1, now I have to wonder if this would appeal to 2D platformer fans who don't care about Rayman. I like the original, so of course I enjoyed this, but does this remake justify Rayman 1's presence 25 years after the original's release? Honestly, I think it's worth checking out. While some changes irk me, it still presents a different mode of 2D platformer design than what most audiences are used to and still has that Weird Frenchness that's all over the Rayman series. I don't think any of it reaches the heights of Rayman Origins/Legends, but I think it's worth checking out for any fan of 2D platformers, and if you're going to play any version of this Rayman 1, it should be this one. And when you're done with it, maybe consider giving the original a look, I promise there's something there.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/A789CafxhdM?start=105&end=106
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9YEK-qNL_k
Now, as a Rayman fan, I just kind of assumed 1 was the weird outlier no one in the fandom really revisits or talks about outside of Rayman trivia or videos of guys screaming over footage of them failing a purple lum swing for the 30th time in a row. So it was quite a surprise to learn this fan remake was a thing! A group of passionate Rayman 1 fans set out to not only remake the game for modern machines but also to make the definitive version of it. New levels, old levels restructured and remade with new mechanics, new sequences and re-balanced boss fights, as well as new bosses and characters altogether. What we have here is an attempt to sober up Rayman 1, making it more palatable for a wider audience, while still keeping the same devious and demanding gameplay. The Sonic-Mania comparison is used a lot in reviews of this game, and it's a fair comparison, but it would be more like if Sonic-Mania was an attempt to "fix" Sonic the Hedgehog 1.
The result ends up being mostly positive, but with a few negatives, speaking as someone who actually likes Rayman 1. The game is better organized now, it has more secondary objectives and unlockables, the most infamous sections have been tweaked to become more readable to the player, and lives are a lot more common. It feels like every level has been reimagined in some way, and overall I think this is a good approach. The legend behind the original game's difficulty is that the game was never playtested by people who weren't the devs, so why not make this game in a way that feels, you know, playtested? And if you're worried the game is too easy now, oh brother, just you wait until the last couple of worlds in the game, you'll get exactly what you were hoping for and a lot more. It's not just made easier, it's balanced, and the odds are slightly more in your favor. I kind of switched back and forth between thinking the game was just the right difficulty and a little too easy for those experienced in the original, but in the end, I think they managed to hit the sweet spot.
I say the game is more balanced, but there's still bullshit that appears out of thin air, and there are still bosses that have one mechanic that feels impossible to figure out (it's Mr. Skopps, I should stop being vague and just say I fucking hate Mr. Skopps). Sometimes Redemption elaborates on mechanics in a way I find annoying, and not in a good way, like any puzzle that requires you to guide a ball anywhere. Moments like this sort of made me question the process of what was considered "too much" vs what had to be kept in to keep the spirit of the original game.
The biggest change I have a problem with is the fact that you have the ability to run from the beginning of the game. In the original, you go quite a while before gaining the ability to run, and many people saw this as a negative. With the modern expectations of 2D platformers, it probably makes more sense for the ability to run to be available at all times. The early levels in Redemption are re-balanced to account for this, so it's not like you're breaking the game or anything, but the deliberate nature of Rayman 1 is sort of lost with this change. I liked the way that the original was a platformer that really makes you consider each jump. You have to really think about momentum, you have to think fast because you can't move fast under normal circumstances. Once you do get the ability to run in the original, it's not as mindless as the run button in a Mario game, because there are very often moments to run and not run, it's something to consider carefully. But in Redemption, that aspect is lost, it essentially is a Mario run button, and there's no reason to not be holding it until some very late levels in the game. For a game that's trying to retain the spirit of the original as much as possible, this feels like a needless "fix".
Of course, with this re-balanced version of Rayman 1, now I have to wonder if this would appeal to 2D platformer fans who don't care about Rayman. I like the original, so of course I enjoyed this, but does this remake justify Rayman 1's presence 25 years after the original's release? Honestly, I think it's worth checking out. While some changes irk me, it still presents a different mode of 2D platformer design than what most audiences are used to and still has that Weird Frenchness that's all over the Rayman series. I don't think any of it reaches the heights of Rayman Origins/Legends, but I think it's worth checking out for any fan of 2D platformers, and if you're going to play any version of this Rayman 1, it should be this one. And when you're done with it, maybe consider giving the original a look, I promise there's something there.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/A789CafxhdM?start=105&end=106
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9YEK-qNL_k