There are so many fucking releases of this game I couldn't even figure out which version i SHOULD rate 4 1/2 stars. The Dreamcast version is the one I grew up with and love, but it's functionally the same as the N64 version so I'm sticking with this release.
It's incredible that Rayman 2 is Rayman's finest moment because it's VERY VERY Good, which is interesting because the other Rayman games are just fine, mostly. This is an outlier series where one entry is the very best the genre has to offer and everything else is whatever.
Anyway, this game is wonderful, plain and simple. For my money, the best 3D platformer, it controls so good, Rayman is so buttery smooth, so responsive, it has momentum and weight while still feeling light and slick. When I play something like A Hat In Time, I feel like Hat Kid has no weight whatsoever, she is just flawlessly acrobatic in a way where I feel like my inputs make no difference and the game might as well play itself, in something like Mario 64 or Rayman 2, there is that element of player involvement that makes pulling off the meatier challenges really satisfying.
Honestly, this really should be in the echelons with Mario 64 as "really fucking good 3d platformers," but I feel like the hundreds of re-releases making the game worse and worse over time has done a number on the respectability of what really is a crown jewel for the genre. It really is the Sonic Adventure DX problem all over again!
The game does deserve to be remembered as it was originally released, as an extremely tightly designed game with fantastic level design, whimsical and catchy music, plus honest-to-god artistic cohesion. Rayman never goes to the Shopping Mall level or the Snowman level, he is always in a consistent, realized fantasy world and the platforming challenges feel fantasy enough to fit, while also feeling contextualized enough to make sense.
I think the combat leaves something to be desired, but it seems like they were aware of the problem a lot of 3d platformers had of combat being so ancillary and pointless it felt like an inclusion for its own sake, like, even as a child I don't think a goomba ever grazed me in Mario 64. For what it's worth, this world feels alive, enemies feel like actual threats, it doesn't have the Glover thing where it feels weirdly cold and empty, they've taken great measure to give Rayman an identity all its own.
So how should you play Rayman 2? Probably ReDream to be honest. The PC version requires so much dicking around to get working I don't think it's worth the hassle. The PS1 version is MISSING stuff!! Revolution adds in a bunch of crap to a game that didn't need anything, and every version afterwards finds some way to make the game less playable. A shame!!
It's incredible that Rayman 2 is Rayman's finest moment because it's VERY VERY Good, which is interesting because the other Rayman games are just fine, mostly. This is an outlier series where one entry is the very best the genre has to offer and everything else is whatever.
Anyway, this game is wonderful, plain and simple. For my money, the best 3D platformer, it controls so good, Rayman is so buttery smooth, so responsive, it has momentum and weight while still feeling light and slick. When I play something like A Hat In Time, I feel like Hat Kid has no weight whatsoever, she is just flawlessly acrobatic in a way where I feel like my inputs make no difference and the game might as well play itself, in something like Mario 64 or Rayman 2, there is that element of player involvement that makes pulling off the meatier challenges really satisfying.
Honestly, this really should be in the echelons with Mario 64 as "really fucking good 3d platformers," but I feel like the hundreds of re-releases making the game worse and worse over time has done a number on the respectability of what really is a crown jewel for the genre. It really is the Sonic Adventure DX problem all over again!
The game does deserve to be remembered as it was originally released, as an extremely tightly designed game with fantastic level design, whimsical and catchy music, plus honest-to-god artistic cohesion. Rayman never goes to the Shopping Mall level or the Snowman level, he is always in a consistent, realized fantasy world and the platforming challenges feel fantasy enough to fit, while also feeling contextualized enough to make sense.
I think the combat leaves something to be desired, but it seems like they were aware of the problem a lot of 3d platformers had of combat being so ancillary and pointless it felt like an inclusion for its own sake, like, even as a child I don't think a goomba ever grazed me in Mario 64. For what it's worth, this world feels alive, enemies feel like actual threats, it doesn't have the Glover thing where it feels weirdly cold and empty, they've taken great measure to give Rayman an identity all its own.
So how should you play Rayman 2? Probably ReDream to be honest. The PC version requires so much dicking around to get working I don't think it's worth the hassle. The PS1 version is MISSING stuff!! Revolution adds in a bunch of crap to a game that didn't need anything, and every version afterwards finds some way to make the game less playable. A shame!!
2 Comments
its quite good!! dont play rayman 1! its designed as mental torture for completionists.
Weatherby
1 year ago