👋 Written: June 5th-July 2nd, 2019 👋
Year: 1995 | Developed by: Ludimedia | Published by: Ubi Soft
Never figured I would discuss the original that started it all on my blog, but finding out about the passing of one of the people involved recently made me want to cover it in light of this. 😔 I felt it would be appropriate, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Rayman--whose name derives from the Ray tracing technology used to design and animate him--was a character designed by French designers Michel Ancel, Frédéric Houde, and Alexandra Steible, with Ancel having conceived him during his teenage years influenced by Russian, Chinese, and Celtic fairy tales. When Ubi Soft funded his project, Rayman was originally to be made for the Atari ST by Ancel alone,...
Images "PrtScn"ed while watching ShiryuGL's video on YouTube, and no, there's nothing wrong with your speakers, there is no sound whatsoever
but when Houde joined the project they considered making it for the Super NES CD-ROM System with the animation provided by a cartoon company which the developers hired--but because the format got cancelled, so too did this iteration of Rayman in favor of CD-based formats leaving it unfinished but playable. On July 3rd, 2017 Omar Cornut released the ROM of the early build of the 16-bit based prototype online with Ancel's blessing; it was interesting to see a small glimpse of what would've been and seeing a decidedly more malleable Rayman with a chunky red body is amazing. 😆
Image from Wikipedia
Produced by Gérard Guillemot, developed by Michel Guillemot, and published by Yves Guillemot, Rayman would make its American debut on the Atari Jaguar on the 1st of September, 1995; the Castelnau-le-Lez based Ubisoft subsidiary team Ludimedia (known nowadays as Ubisoft Montpelier) felt that this console was the first to utilize the graphics they envisioned and was initially intended to be a console exclusive until the publisher subsequently focused on the PlayStation One version because of its CD based technology, greater power, and apparently it was easy to program for. The PlayStation version came out in America that September 9th as a launch title, followed by a Japanese and European version on the 22nd and 29th (the latter also being a launch title) respectively. And since the Sony version of the game is the only one I've played, I'll exclusively be talking about it.
In Rayman's world--whatever it's called--the Great Protoon has long maintained peace, prosperity, and balance all throughout.
All this lasts until one day an evil bad guy called Mr. Dark has taken the Great Protoon which has rendered the Electoons, small beings that gravitate around it, vulnerable and susceptible to be kidnapped. In her efforts to stop Mr. Dark's plan, Betilla the Fairy gets defeated by him, not to mention that the balance of Rayman's world's has been disrupted because of this.
Unlike the Magician, I won't add the "don't you thiiink?" at the end because it kind of comes across as condescending, though the intonation of his voice as he says that might be why I feel that is the case...
The Electoons have all been caged in separate compartments of each area, they're really going to need a hero to save them.
That hero is the wavy haired Rayman who agrees to save his world as he utters his first (and only) line--that we hear in this game, anyway, voiced by Stephen Perkinson-- as he rests on his hammock, "No problem". 👍
Rayman will have to rescue all the caged Electoons scattered throughout each land and defeat Mr. Dark if he is to restore the Great Protoon thereby restoring all the balance in his world.
I find it fascinating how the map screen is viewed from the perspective of Mr. Dark's binoculars. 🤔 He even does this when Rayman eventually reaches his own domain Candy Chateau which has some humorous implications if you think about it long and hard, but never mind.
In the 2D sidescrolling platformer Rayman you take control of the eponymous limbless humanoid with floating appendages. When you start the game you can only move left and right, hold up to look above you, duck down, crawl to the left or to the right with either of the two left shoulder buttons or either of the two right shoulder buttons respectively, climb, and jump with the 𝖷 button (your altitude depends on how hard you pressed the button), but after you clear certain portions of the game Rayman will be taught new powers by Betilla the Fairy that will help him during his quest. In the option screen you can change the controls to your liking if you prefer, but I'll stick with the default controls which I'll cover.
After clearing the first couple Pink Plant Woods areas Betilla will grant you the power to throw your fists to punch enemies with the ☐ button, which is the only way for Rayman to defend himself against his enemies and for him to free the Electoons from their cages; later on you'll be given the power to hang from ledges and platforms; the third power you'll be granted is the ability to swing from rings after Rayman's fist grabs them; eventually you'll learn to momentarily glide like a helicopter by pressing the 𝖷 button again while you're in midair which gives you the benefit of additional airtime in regards to clearing wide gaps and/or getting closer to rings you can swing from depending on the scenario (you can even stop midglide by pressing the button again); and last but not least, Betilla will give Rayman the ability to run by holding down the ⭘ button.
With Rayman being limbless he can of course launch his fist from a distance for he can do it while standing still, in midair, and while hanging on a ledge--the first and last of the three are the only times he can charge his fists for the longer you hold it down the more potent it will be not to mention the farther it will fly in terms of range. The beauty of these fists is that it will return to you after it's been thrown, like a boomerang. When you first obtain your punching power-up and any time you use up a life pretty much it won't be quite as powerful, but there are power-ups you'll find on occasion which will augment the fists' potency, range, and the amount of times you can throw it at a time.
When you first start the game you begin with a health of three, but there is a health power-up that will augment the capacity to five; the tiny health power-up replenishes two bits of health and the big health power-up replenishes all of it. A neat bonus is that whenever you pick up the life icon (which can be grabbed with Rayman's fist from a distance as it comes back to him) is that all your health will be full when you gather it. 😏 The downside is that if you lose all your health (or fall offscreen) you'll be relegated to only having a health of three until you get the big health power-up again, but that's not the only catch whenever you lose a life.
Throughout the game are a series of blue-colored orbs called Tings to collect along the way, and if you get a hundred of them you'll earn a life, and if you have at least ten of them when you see the Magician's hat you can give them to him to access a brief bonus attempt at getting a life (if you decide to do it again after you got a life, it'll just give you the record). In most areas are a photo shoot checkpoint or two which will let you resume from that point should you lose a life, reaching an exclamation point sign will bookend the present area, and at the end of each segment of Rayman's world you get to fight a boss. Losing a life will also reset your Ting count to zero and bring back your fist potency level to what it was before.
The background art by Éric Pelatan and Sylvaine Jenny is exquisitely beautiful, all the areas in Rayman's world are so immersive and replete with detail with a lush painterly quality to it that does an excellent job at drawing you in. There are also numerous instances of parallax scrolling with the background layers scrolling at different intervals, as well as moving foreground in a few stages, all done to a seamless degree for they do a succinct job at augmenting this platformer's sense of visual depth. 😃 All the areas in Rayman are a visual marvel, they've stood the test of time wonderfully well, and the fact that it's all hand drawn and in 2D more than helped to ensure that.
Add to that the sheer amount of imagination and creativity behind these areas, there is also a surreal quality about them blended well with the computer graphics by Jean-Christophe Alessandri, Sophie Ancel, Nicolas Bocquillon, Jean-Marc Geffroy, Laurent Rettig, and Olivier Soleil. Some portions of the Dream Forest take place outdoors while others transpire in the deep, Band Land's realm is composed of instruments both in the backdrop beside the mountains and the foreground, there are a couple nightly stages that are lit up by brief flashes of lightning, there is an effective aurora borealis in the Blue Mountains which incorporates equally effective use of blues,
Picture City's stages are gorgeous with all the different drawing and painting utensils as well as pins, erasers, and pencil sharpeners abound (including sharply-tipped pencils), and there is even a stage that cleverly has layered paint brushes in the parallax background resemble snowy mountains, to name several examples. The boss fights are engaged in a static background, some of my favorite examples being Mr. Sax's background with the organ pipes viewed in a fascinating fish eye lens but also before facing off against Space Mama in the two battles waged against her it's set in a stage with the closed curtain slowly pulled up to reveal the given set--very clever with the last one, I might add. 😄
Rayman has a fitting cartoony aesthetic in terms of Michel Ancel, Serge Hascoët, Bruno Bouvret, Sacha Gentilhomme, Michaël Guez, and Christophe Thibaut's character designs which have an endearingly lighthearted charm about them, yet despite this their animation is painstakingly fluid and very expressive at that. There is something mesmerizing about watching Rayman do his walk (and later on) run cycle(s), charging his punches, hanging on ledges, and crawl on the floor without any limbs as his appendages float; he even has tipping animations for when he's standing dangerously close to the edge facing it and facing away from it, and I love how his hairs flows in the wind when riding down slippery slopes.
Rayman's enemy roster comprises of the tiny blue Antitoons (the antithesis of the pink Electoons), two safari men (including one who reacts incredulously only to act blasé about having a giant plum fall on his head), a poacher who polishes his pistol which shoots out bullets with giant hammers protruding from them, normal-sized flies, rock monster variants, menacing spiders with suction cups for legs, space cows that surf on pans, et al, there are even clowns in Candy Chateau at the end. Like Rayman they are all expressive in their motions and emotions, as are the bosses.
I like Bzzit and Moskito's designs and the way their body exaggeratedly stretch when proceeding to whizz by and momentarily break apart only to bring it back to center upon taking a hit, Mr. Sax towers the entire screen with his huge stature and incredibly detailed amount of brass, Space Mama isn't the most imposing-looking boss of the bunch but that makes her no less intimidating as she fires her shots at you plus she's very poised and graceful when landing on the ground with a twirl, and I found it adorable how Mr. Skops is having his beauty sleep when you first see him (as evinced by his peaceful smile) only for it to be interrupted once he peers at you with one of his eyes in which case it's time to engage in action. I love the way Mr. Sax and Mr. Stone react upon being defeated, it's very priceless when you see it in motion. 😆
I mustn't neglect to mention Bzzit breaking down crying upon being defeated to which Rayman comforts him, pats him on the back to which Bzzit feels better which concludes with them high fiving in the end before he permits Rayman to ride on him in Anguish Lagoon.
It's really sweet and shows how goodhearted the game and its titular character are. 🤗
There is a hidden animation that is not used anywhere in-game, but it can be accessed with a code, but the conditions in which it's applied is dependent on the version you play. All of them require you holding down the R1 and R2 buttons, but in the American version it'll be applied if you hold them at the "Presents" screen and press Start, in the Japanese version it's similar but pressing Start is not required, and in the European version you have to hold down both of the right shoulder buttons during the PlayStation logo. Here you see a larger sized Rayman assemble himself any time he leaves offscreen and enters back in while the bouncy Eat at Joe's theme is playing in the background, it's short but sweet. Anytime Rayman gets close to a shrinking fly he'll be shrunk down to size, yet despite this his quality of detail and animation is about equal to when he was normal sized, which I was impressed by when I first played it as a child (plus, it's the same model used during the map screen).
I wouldn't see this take in person until I caught up with the NTSC SNES version Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow in late 2010; while I did own the PC version of Donald in Maui Mallard growing up, I never got past the earliest portion of the third stage as a child plus the flies and the buzzing sounds they made really intimidated me from continuing further at the time 😔
The only other mid '90s 2D platformer that I can think of that accomplished a similar feat, albeit not to the same extent as in Rayman, is Eurocom's 16-bit cult classic Disney Interactive platformer Donald in Maui Mallard/Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow, the former version of which came out three months later for the MegaDrive in Europe that December in 1995.
The animation by Alexandra Steible (who also handled character development), Kamal Aitmihoub, David Gilson, Sophie Esturgie, Jacques Exertier, Gregoire Pons, Véronique Rondello, Béatrice Sauterau, Phillipe Vindolet, and Christian Volckman have a very good quality to them; and during the intro and ending there is an FMV sequence which is well animated even if most of it is stills which pan in (or out), but the way the 3D ground blends in with the 2D Magician as the camera moves is seamlessly integrated. I always liked the shot of Mr. Dark watching out for Rayman with his binoculars while standing on the hill as the wind blows his cape, it's so imposing, plus it's the one portion of the FMV that plays whenever you begin a game and continue your progress.
Prefacing the Dream Forest, Band Land, Blue Mountains, Picture City, the Caves of Skops, and Candy Chateau whenever you first venture there (or whenever you continue your progress in one form or another) as the game loads are endearingly designed representations of the realm you're about to explore plus they set the stage for what's to come based on visual clues. I love how a lone pink Electoon is beside Rayman for two-thirds of them, and I think the expressiveness really sells it; there are even a couple more still images for when Mr. Dark kidnaps Betilla the Fairy after you defeat Space Mama and her washing machine and when you defeat Mr. Skops followed by her beckoning Rayman for help with Mr. Dark's eye really close to the screen. *shudders* Very creepy! 😖
Rayman's music and sounds were done by Stéphane Bellanger, Didier Lord, Sylvain-Luc Brunet, Nathalie Drouet, Dominique Dumont, Kamel Founas, Rémi Gazel, Didier Gilbert Leglise, Jean-Marc Lichtmann, Frédéric Louvre, Olivier Mortier, Frédéric Prados, Stéphane Ronse, René De Wael, and Olaf Zalcman. The soundtrack is really good as it perfectly complements each of part of Rayman's world for it gives each area an appropriate sense of atmosphere. For many involved their music career began with Rayman, while a few only worked on it and anything pertaining to it prior to 1999. This late May 2019 Gazel, who was among the latter, sadly passed away due to cancer, which was really upsetting news to hear for those who grew up with this game (myself included). ☹
I have plenty of favorites in the mix. The theme you hear in Pink Plant Woods at the start of the game does a good job at engaging you in the action, the Anguish Lagoon theme that plays when you ride on Bzzit is soothing and peaceful, the Swamps of Forgetfulness (and pretty much any obstacle-laden auto-scrolling bit) has a tragic theme that doesn't let up in terms of riveting composition, Bongo Hills has an incredibly soothing theme that affects a '70s style instrumentation in places (several songs in the soundtrack do affect a '70s flavor, if you were to listen to them and didn't know the context behind it, you would think it would emanate from that era),
the music for when you're deep in the caves is beautifully breathtaking with the panflute melody at the start followed by a haunting composition taking over most of it with what sound like the echoes of whales here and there, the Peaceful Peaks theme is as peaceful as its descriptor suggests it is, the Eraser Plains theme has got a suitably artsy theme which would fit well as a museum piece and has got a nice and nostalgic quality about it, and the theme that plays in the area before you face off against Mr. Skops has got a pristine and calming sense of finality about it.
Each of the bosses have their own distinctive themes, which I always appreciate regardless of the genre as opposed to using the same boss theme over and over as it shows versatility on the composers' part for it gives them their own personality. Bzzit's theme has a "Flight of the Bumblebee" kind of feel and in particular when he decides to speed up, Moskito and Mr. Dark's battle themes have got a great guitar riff, Mr. Sax has got a fun jazzy theme with the lite organ and saxophone, but my favorite boss theme is one that takes place when facing off against Space Mama and her washing machine as it's highly atmospheric and graceful like her motions.
Like the previous PlayStation One game I covered Rayman's game disc doubles as a soundtrack when played on a radio or CD player, which is always a treat as an audiophile as there were plenty of games that did so. 😃 There is a small list of voice credits in this game, primarily for the character's sounds as opposed to full on voice acting (with the exception of the Magician in the intro and ending FMVs)--as I said earlier Stephen Perkinson provides the voice of Rayman, I'm sure that Emmanuelle Cosso provided Betilla and Space Mama's sounds, but I'm not entirely sure which roles Chris Benard and Douglas Rand played because it's not stated in the credits and I don't wish to mistake who did what.
Rayman has got an enjoyably ingenious sense of sound design, like in the Pencil Pentathlon stage with the artistic tools like the scribbling pencils and scrubbing erasers used in the background to make up its music, there are occasional moments when it just incorporates ambient sound effects to create an authentic sense of atmosphere, and the Tings you collect have got a rhythmic sound quality when you get them in sequence. Sometimes if you get to a key moment the previous theme that played will suddenly be replaced by another, I like the over the top whistle whenever Rayman punches an adversary out and how he hiccups upon taking damage, there are even appropriate drum sounds that are heard whenever he steps on them. A vital sound cue to pay heed to is one that plays when it reveals something or someone hidden, but more on that later.
This is one of those PlayStation One games where once you begin the game you have a choice to continue your progress by password or by memory card (which requires one space), and once you made your choice that's what you stick with. Regardless what you chose the only way to ensure your progression should you take a break is by walking towards the Magician hat icon in the map screen--if you chose to make do with passwords you'll be given a ten character password but if you chose the memory card option you can just save the game. One thing of note is that saving the game will keep track of your percentage, but say if you missed one out of six cages in a stage but came back via password despite having cleared the stage beforehand you will have to locate and destroy all six Electoon cages. Unless you have no room or no choice, I strongly advise you to use the memory card option.
Rayman was a commercial success and was praised upon release, during the PlayStation One's console run it wound up becoming the 20th best selling game for the system having sold over four million units. It would also see a release on the Sega Saturn and MS-DOS in 1995 and 1996 respectively; a Sega 32X and 3DO version was considered, but it never came to pass, probably because these formats were not received well (who'da thunk that a console with a reported $800 price tag and apparently barely any good content would be deemed a commercial failure? 😐 /s) I was right in my last review when I said I may have neglected to mention another Game Boy Advance launch title or two, because Rayman Advance was among them on June 11th and 22nd of 2001 in America and Europe respectively, which is crazy (but maybe not so crazy when you consider that the PlayStation version itself was a launch title, sooo: poetic? 😕).
Rayman has become such an iconic character during his two-plus decades of existence, he would even make appearances in other games; such as a cameo in Ubi Soft Montreal's Tonic Trouble on the Nintendo 64 (which Michel Ancel conceptualized), as a trophy and spirit in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate respectively, and he would appear as a playable character on the Nintendo Switch/Xbox One release of Blue Mammoth Games' free-to-play fighting game Brawlhalla.
Left image from Wikipedia; Happy 20th Anniversary, Rayman 2: The Great Escape!!!
The success of Rayman would lead to the creation of the Ubi Pictures-developed sequel Rayman 2: The Great Escape which would be released on October 29th, 1999 for the Nintendo 64 in Europe which would be followed by an American release that November 6th (it would be ported to the Nintendo DS in 2005); it would also see a release on Windows PC, Sega Dreamcast (this version in particular would be ported to the Nintendo 3DS in 2011), PlayStation One (by Ubi Soft Shanghai), PlayStation 2 (as Rayman Revolution/Rayman 2: Revolution by Ubi Soft Annecy), and a separate version by Ubi Soft Milan for the Game Boy Color as Rayman 2: Forever--each version actually had their own distinct qualities and features, so it's not 100% the same game. This sequel opted for a more 3D action oriented affair that had a darker tone with a whole new slew of characters and settings, seemingly eliding the world and characters of the previous game, but the gameplay mechanics were more or less the same which also incorporated new elements.
Originally it was going to be developed in 2D, but only a tiny bit of it was done before making the jump to 3D; this early build would be playable on the PlayStation One version provided you beat the game with at least 90% completion. Rayman 2 has been lauded by many as one of the best 3D platformers of all time since it came out, and having only played the first Sony version I consider it a great game (despite having found out that it's considerably condensed compared to the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast versions) and consider it a huge improvement over its predecessor, which is not something I say often about PlayStation One sequels. 😃
Image from GameFAQs; badarse Rayman is badarse
In 2003 Rayman continued his exploits in Ubi Pictures' lighter multi-console entry Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc. Rayman 2's world and characters were so popular that they all returned for this installment and anything after it, which is pretty much saying that they were here to stay. I've only played a tiny bit of the console version, but the version I owned and played the most
Images from GameFAQs
was the Game Boy Advance version simply titled Rayman 3 by Ubi Soft, which was a 2D platformer in the vein of the original. I liked it a lot when I was younger, and at the time I considered it my favorite of the three but only because I found it to be the easiest and most manageable of them all. It's a good game in its own right, and it is fun to play once in awhile. In 2005 the series continued with Backbone Entertainment's Game Boy Advance-exclusive Rayman: Hoodlum's Revenge which took on a more isometric perspective which was new for the series. To celebrate Rayman's first ten years that year, Ubisoft compiled for the Game Boy Advance the imaginatively titled Rayman: 10th Anniversary (Collection) which was basically a bundle of Rayman Advance and Rayman 3 in one cart (in Europe the latter was also bundled up with Disney's Winnie the Pooh's Rumbly Tumbly Adventure in one cart in 2006).
Image from GameFAQs
In 2006 Ubi Soft unleashed Ubisoft Pictures' and Ubisoft Sofia's Rayman: Raving Rabbids, which was essentially a collection of mini games as far as the console versions were concerned whereas the handheld iterations at the time focused on platforming action. I played it once while I was at one of my cousins' houses over a decade ago, and I remember finding it alright but the way the Rabbids wig out and scream at everything became a bit grating and annoying to be honest. Regardless the game did well enough to spawn a subseries of its own, which I remember being surprised by as I was never too interested in that brand because of their aforementioned quirks, but perhaps that was part of their appeal? 🤔
Image from Wikipedia
They even crossed over with Nintendo's IP in the 2017 Ubisoft Milan/Paris collaboration for the Nintendo Switch in their tactical turn-based RPG Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Yes, you read that right, the Rabbids have become Mario canon, which is definitely a crossover I can't imagine anyone saw coming. Totally mental! 🤯
Image from Wikipedia
After years of Raving Rabbids after Raving Rabbids content, it seemed like forever since the last Rayman game came out (I didn't know about Hoodlum's Revenge back then) and at the time to me it felt like Rayman stopped being active--that is, until 2011 when Ubisoft Montpelier surprised everyone with Rayman Origins which was seen as a magnificent return to form. Incorporating characters from the second game but vied for a more 2D oriented sidescrolling venue, it introduced multiplayer within the same adventure and most surprisingly of all it managed to bring back the Electoons, the Magician, and Betilla the Fairy (who's rather sexualized this time around; I'm not sure how I feel about that, but her expressions here are priceless) and all the other characters who haven't been around since the 1995 original*. I first played it while visiting one of my Italian cousins years ago and I remember being impressed by its fast pacing and intuitive synchronicity, and it was so heartwarming to see the aforementioned characters again. 😊
* Not counting early spinoffs Rayman Gold, Rayman Designer, Rayman Forever, and Rayman Brain Games
Image from Wikipedia
Rayman Origins has been regarded by those that played it as the best thing to happen in the series in a long time, but despite all the appraisal it got the game didn't make as successful a sales number as the other iterations but it still turned in a profit for Ubisoft. Which is a good thing, because it would lead to the 2013 sequel Rayman Legends which followed in the same mold as its immediate predecessor, many thinking it was just as good if not better. Ubisoft Montpelier originally planned for it to be a Nintendo Wii U exclusive, but was delayed and released on multiple platforms after their first-person survival horror ZombiU, one of the Wii U's launch titles, was a financial failure. In terms of sales it fared better than Origins, and in 2017 it received a Nintendo Switch exclusive port with Rayman Legends Definitive Edition.
I think it's safe to say that pretty much anyone who grew up playing video games during the '90s must have been acquainted with Rayman in one form or another. In 1997 when I was six years old, back when I still lived in Italy I got my first TV video game console, the original PlayStation, and the first game I played for it was Eurocom's interactive take on Disney's Hercules.
If I was asked about some of the fondest of early memories when it comes to the console, they'd also include Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot, Toys for Bob's Pandemonium!, Taito's Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition, my personal all-time favorite '90s 3D platformer Argonaut Software's Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Traveller's Tales' Mickey's Wild Adventure, Insomiac Games' Spyro the Dragon, and, of course, the original Rayman.
This is a game that I'll always have a soft spot for; it's not perfect as there are things that hold it back from being top quality platforming fare, but it is still enjoyable in my opinion. I've always thought Rayman had a cool design, how he was limbless and the way his appendages float whenever he animates is mesmerizing as I said earlier, greatly helped by the fluidity of his motions; I especially like how whenever an area or bonus segment has begun all his appendages will spiral inward until he's fully formed. The game's surreal areas are so imaginative and characters full of lighthearted charm, all of which make the proceedings very endearing.
I've always loved the hilarious visual gag of the tall and lean safari men having those plums fall on their heads and cover their whole faces apart from their faces, made even greater by their "meh" outlook after briefly reacting to the impact and goes along like everything's normal, until Rayman literally knocks them out (the varying whistles as they fly upward is funny and well fit for the tone of this game). 😆 I remember one time when my sister Diana and I were playing it as children when we got to the part of Betilla the Fairy giving Rayman his power, and how she remarked, "Ew, she's spitting at him!" Well, Betilla does have her eyes closed and her mouth open as the beam protrudes from her hand, I don't blame her for reacting that way (the spewing sound effect probably doesn't aid that either), but that memory I found amusing in hindsight.
Usually I opt for the option to save my progress on the memory card whenever I begin the game from the start rather than selecting the password option, but it's nice that this game gave you a choice between the two which fellow PlayStation One games Burst's Spot Goes to Hollywood and Argonaut Software's Croc: Legend of the Gobbos would also implement. There is generally more leeway when it comes to saving than when you use passwords, plus you don't have to worry about getting all the Electoon cages from the start of the stage if you miss even one when you get back to the game to continue your progress. I'm not a fan of overly long and complicated passwords when it comes to video games, they take up a lot of space and have way too many characters to memorize so you have to accurately write it down or take a snapshot of it, but at least in Rayman's case they only consist of ten legible letters and numbers in a big and colored font (no need to squint your eyes or lean in closer to the screen to get a good look like in Crystal Dynamics' Gex).
I like how each new move Rayman learns not only increase his arsenal of actions but also how they are integral to the gameplay and allow you to get to spots that you could not have before. There was a point in the past when I wished Rayman would move a little faster, knowing that later on he would gain the ability to run which is required due to the increased obstacles and layout of future stages, though after Betilla teaches you that ability the difference in pacing is very apparent--before you learn that, all the ⭘ button will let you do is have Rayman stick his tongue out and make funny faces, and for one stage only it lets you plant the seeds Tarayzan gives you as the flood of the rainfall rises up. But anyway, when you do run you'll be given a lot of traction which is a breath of fresh air, especially if you revisited the past stages where before you could only walk; when it comes to slippery surfaces and slopes, though, you're going to have to careful not to go too fast lest you wish to lose control in midair.
What's also neat about Rayman is its sense of replay value, which is high. I like how you go through one stage with a limited moveset versus revisiting it after learning new moves, it really broadens the areas' horizons and makes a huge difference, you can get most of the Electoon cages (that you find) in pretty much any order you want, and once you clear a stage the map will expand and if two paths forge you can decide to go through one path or the other. There are also lots of secrets within these areas which is the only way to collect everything, but the methods in which you uncover some of them can be a little on the precarious side of things which I'll expand upon later--
particularly a somewhat hard to reach pink ring in one area of the Blue Mountains which involves you running down the slope, jumping, then gliding and letting go at the right time which may take several times to successfully latch on to, and in a Picture City area there is a slippery slope, a bouncy rubber surface, and pointy-tipped pencils from both the top and bottom which you must clear without taking damage, and the only way to do so is by not running but walking down thereby enabling you to ride your bounces forward. In a select few areas Rayman will be given a potion which will let him fly with his helicopter hair by continuously pressing the 𝖷 button and timing each press depending on what obstacles are ahead of or around you.
While Rayman was highly praised, it wasn't without its critics and detractors, mostly in regards to its difficulty which is rather hard. Now there are several factors that culminate in its robust difficulty, which link to the some of the game's problems for me--not to the point of it being game-breaking, more to the point that the game tries to break you, and I imagine it may have alienated and/or turned off people in some circles because of it. There is an in-game code that gives you ninety-nine lives (and a health of five), if you feel the game is being too hard on you; now that is not to suggest that the game is impossible, plenty of its stages are manageable to surpass with enough practice and enemy pattern-studying, but while the code doesn't entirely extract the difficulty it does give you a slight sense of ease with the high number of opportunities you're given.
It is a bit of process but easy to remember once you got it down pat: in the American version simply pause the game, press and hold the L2, R1, L1, R2 buttons and release in the order of L1, L2, R2, R1, then press and release the ⭘ button, after that press and hold the left, ⭘, ☐, and △ buttons and release in the order of left, △, ☐, and if you did it right the game will automatically unpause with your life count up to ninety-nine. While I admit it's tempting to use it every chance you get, it is nice to see how you long you can last before you wind up enabling the code, especially since the continues are limited in number. For my recent playthrough I only started using it while I was down to my last life and continue while fighting Mr. Stone; give me credit for trying at least.
First off, there's only a half-second of invincibility time (meaning there's barely any) once you've sustained damage, the knockback effect is obnoxious (it often is in 2D platformers), whenever you let go after swinging there is no telling how high you'll jump after letting go, and whenever you lose a life the potency of Rayman's fist will revert to what it was before, but that's only some of the factors contributing to the level of challenge. Now to put things into perspective: the stages in the Dream Forest overall are very manageable from the outset and the difficulty isn't too bad (only one area is dedicated to riding on Bzzit where you can fly and maneuver yourself through all parts of the screen, which is a breeze), but once you're a few areas in when venturing in Band Land that's when the difficulty begins to amp up; the difficulty doesn't continuously increase for every area as occasionally there are some breathers, but for the majority of the proceedings it can be quite hard (made a little more bearable once all of Rayman's skills have been learned).
One reason for the augmented sense of difficulty is that the learning curve can feel quite steep at points. In Band Land there are slippery platforms so you'll have to watch your speed, and in one area you're going to have to jump from slippery platform to slippery platform while maintaining your positioning and jumping to ensure that you don't fall down and start again from the nearest checkpoint (it's a good thing you can hang from ledges at this point, otherwise it would be very arduous a task). In one area of the Blue Mountains there is a ceiling that gradually lowers itself with two large ropes which must be cut with Rayman's rotating hair before said ceiling lowers itself to the point that Rayman drowns in water, although the first time I got to this part several years ago I had no idea how to clear it because there was no obvious solutoin and had little time to figure it out until I looked it up and when I learned the solution I was like, "OHHH! Well, I'm dumb!" 😖 Sometimes the solution is right in front of you but you don't see it right away; I think it's a testament that the most difficult stages have got otherwise relaxing music playing in the backdrop.
There is one area in the Caves of Skops where Rayman finds himself in a pitch black cave except for the very dimly lit light around his fist (which may be too much for those with sensitive eyes, so those prone to epileptic seizures need not apply), and when you depart from Eat at Joe's later on there are a series of balls floating in the water that are pushed by a fish that you must remain on without falling off, especially since there's a toothy fish with malintent that will threaten to end your life. The first time you meet Mr. Skops isn't exactly a battle per se, but you'll have to learn to hang at the nearby platform at the right time without being hit by his claw and must remain above the rising lava as he will try to eliminate you anyway. When you reach Candy Chateau there is one area where Rayman must outrun his evil clone (who looks very creepy with his lack of pupils) concocted by Mr. Dark who follows your every move (and I do mean that in that very sense, so take advantage of that knowledge) and later on your controls are reversed so you'll have to learn to adapt to that momentary setup to survive.
One other element that adds to the difficulty is the sudden appearance of secret, previously invisible power-ups, caged Electoons, and/or enemies, not to mention where they are placed; sorry, I mean: the ways in which you make them appear contribute to the difficulty. Yes, there are moments where you're going to have to make (sometimes literal) leaps of faith just to reveal these hidden items, and there are moments when you have to make your way to difficult portions and then make your way back from there the moment you see something pop up without losing a life because of the enemy obstacles. Punch a plum to make it drop, punch it to make it bounce to the left of the narrow platform, get on it, cue secret sound effect with Electoon cage; jump over an exit sign at the end, cue secret sound effect revealing a platform that will move the moment you jump on it; punch a breakable rock in the pretense there might be the exit inside it, walk towards that position, cue secret sound effect with the exit appearing behind you; in several instances, if you move in certain key spots then an enemy or group of enemies will appear ahead of, above, behind, and/or below you to name plenty of examples.
However you go about it, Rayman is that rare game where the only way to see the ending--let alone gain access to the final stage--is if you free every single Electoon from their cage.
As someone who grew up playing the original Spyro the Dragon trilogy by Insomniac Games as a child, I found mashed/Piemations' Spyro's Bad Day on YouTube hilarious 😆
I cannot think of many games that did this; usually conditions such as these are reserved for games that have more than one ending, but that is bizarrely not the case for this platformer in particular as the Candy Chateau cannot be accessed if even one Electoon cage has yet to be shattered. Whether you used the ninety-nine lives code or not to fight Mr. Dark at the end, there are phases that are basically mashups of bosses you fought before (it's fascinating to see this in an officially made game given that nowadays fan made titles incorporate mashups).
The way the game concludes itself (as far as the PlayStation One version goes) feels rather anticlimactic: after defeating Mr. Dark the ending FMV is basically the same establishing shot of Rayman's world from the intro FMV (except zoomed in on areas with fireworks juxtaposed on a blue filter resembling a day for night shot) with the offscreen Magician telling you that you saved the world, and then it cuts to credits. You don't even see Betilla the Fairy once post-final battle and Mr. Dark (who doesn't show up in battle once Rayman regains his powers despite his face being shown near his health bar) just vanishes without a trace, which is a bit disappointing; perhaps this was a very last minute thing for the PlayStation One port, given that it came out eight days after the original Atari Jaguar version, it certainly would explain the shortchanged quality of the Sony edition's ending on Ludimedia's part.
There was another game that had a similar gameplay before Rayman came out, the Nintendo 16-bit based British-developed Software Creations cult classic platformer Plok which came out two Septembers prior to this game (in America, anyway), but to say it's exactly the same would be misleading despite both being challenging platformers: one of them attacked enemies with his detachable limbs while the other had no limbs of any sort for his floating fist was the way to do them in, one of them had a myriad set of moves from the get go while the other learned each new move the further he went along,
one of them had to be beaten in one sitting because they couldn't afford to utilize a saving or password feature (games aren't made for free, you know), the other had a saving/password feature, et al. While I generally find Plok to be the better and more polished game of the two, I'm sorry to say that the game you're most likely to see the ending of firsthand is the French-developed Rayman: with the aforementioned codes and more forgiving continue system after losing all your lives, Ludimedia's platformer at least gave you some sort of leeway as using a continue would have you pick up from the last part (or checkpoint) of the stage you were in. Such a leeway is nonexistent in Plok's case as there are no codes whatsoever (inaccessible in the physical cart, anyway) and its continue system is much more restrictive and limiting, which is a shame since it's a good platformer but damn can it be frustrating to attempt to beat its normal difficulty mode.
Regardless of the problems Rayman has got, I do still enjoy it for what it is and the good natured charm of it for I could never hate it no matter how difficult it got. As arduous and hair-raising as it can be to uncover the game's secrets, there is still a thrilling sense of exhilaration and excitement when you do find the secrets in question, much in the same way there's a sense of exciting exhilaration when you find the secret compartments, items, and bonuses in Rare's Donkey Kong Country/Super Donkey Kong. 😃 And maybe it's me, but it does have a '70s vibe in aspects (there is a hippie camp in one area, and as I mentioned earlier some of the instrumentation brings to mind music from that era), which is very interesting (I wonder if it's a reference to the fact that Rayman's creator Michel Ancel was born during that decade).
I didn't think much of it back when I first played Rayman 2: The Great Escape as a child, but in hindsight I find it bizarre that the only consistent element of the two games was Rayman himself, for the worlds and characters inhabiting that game were all new (none of them making a return from the first game) yet it acts like we're already supposed to know who they are (listen to Rayman's intonation when he reunites with Globox, presumptuously weird when sequels do that), and because the second game's direction and comparatively lenient difficulty was praised it continued from there, making (until Rayman Origins) the 1995 game the odd one of the series. On one hand it does seem unfair, but on the other hand Ancel and team must have realized how off-putting the difficulty curve in the predecessor was so they decided to tone it down a little, but thankfully not to the point that it's become easy peasy to the point where all sense of challenge is glaringly absent.
The original Rayman came out at the right place, at the right time, in 1995 2D platforming was still the norm shortly before 3D platforming was on the cusp of becoming vogue the following year with games like the Nintendo 64 launch title Super Mario 64, Naughty Dog's PlayStation classic Crash Bandicoot, and Core Design's multi-console hit Tomb Raider (to name three) becoming influential hits that would serve as the template for 3D platformers to come; plus Sony of America hadn't yet enacted their "3D or bust" mentality for the PlayStation One when it came to console-exclusive platforming action because they had the misguided belief that 2D was a thing of the past (no, it isn't, it never was, since 2D is still viable today). Had Rayman come out any later, it would probably still be well-received, but I doubt it would've become as successful because it would've been strictly 2D fare at a time when people generally made the jump to 3D.
Playing this game, it takes me back to simpler, carefree times, back when times were more optimistic, back when platformers were the most popular genre in video games before that position was usurped by first-person shooters (which I don't really care much for, nor do I EVER want to) and became the face of the medium (much to my sadness, whenever an adult program or movie shows video game footage it's of those kinds of games and it just upsets and infuriates me every time because that's simply a dangerously harmful generalization to make, now people unfamiliar with video games presume they're all about FPSes and that the people who play them are only into violence which is absolutely not the case because there are plenty of genres to choose from; that's enough to make me feel self-conscious about my love for video games, because FPSes permanently stained the universal appeal of the medium because video games as a whole are now constantly called into question by "experts"), it takes me back to a time when the world seemed to be filled with hope and wonder, a time of blissful ignorance, a time of pure innocence. Can we relive those days again, please? 🙁
If you like playing 2D platformers regardless of the format I do recommend playing Rayman, not just because it's an important game in the PlayStation One's history but also because it's a good game if you give it a chance, but if you're averse to difficult games of this ilk then you might be better off trying something with a slightly lower difficulty level and/or curve. If you like playing games with a multitude of secrets, vast imagination, and replay value, then this game may strike your fancy. Despite the ninety-nine lives code, I do believe that with enough practice it is possible to manage without it (but not without any challenge, of course). It may not be for everyone, but in regards to the game as a whole I believe it still holds up well, for the most part. 🙂 Thank you, Michel Ancel and everyone at Ludimedia, for the memories. 🤗
My Personal Score: 7.5/10
d(^-^)bTO EACH THEIR OWNd(^-^)b
● It was neat to learn that Rayman was done by a French team, by that logic that makes him one of my favorite French video game characters next to Pierre Adane and Phillippe Dessoly's Mr. Nutz from his self-titled platformer by Ocean Software. 😄
● I love how some of the most beloved and recognizable PlayStation One heroes made their debut on a September: Rayman (1995), Crash Bandicoot (1996), Croc (1997), Spyro the Dragon (1998). If that's not a coincidence, I don't know what is! 😆
● In the end of May I saw Guy Ritchie's live action take on Disney's 1992 animated classic Aladdin. I'll admit when I first heard he was going to direct it, I was a bit worried about his editing trademark (as seen in films like his Sherlock Holmes movies) permeating throughout, but to my surprise and relief he toned that down a bit I felt (of course, I've only seen four movies directed by Ritchie, so I might be wrong), another thing I was glad about is that I enjoyed it. I liked the new cast, most of the actors had a likable chemistry, Will Smith made a great Genie, and the new song "Speechless" written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul of La La Land and The Greatest Showman fame sounded incredible and (in my opinion anyway) didn't feel out of place. I really need to see the animated movie again, but I really liked this live action version (even if it was two-plus hours, I didn't feel exhausted liked I feared I would) and I would gladly watch it again.
● I got to see two movies at the end of June, one day after another. First I saw Gary Dauberman's directorial debut and spinoff to The Conjuring series Annabelle Comes Home, which like previous spinoffs doesn't hold a candle to the superior two films with "The Conjuring" in the title, but of the spinoffs it may just be my favorite (I haven't seen Michael Chaves' The Curse of La Llorona, I didn't know it was connected to this franchise until it came out and honestly I have no idea how it ties into the main movies). But anyway, I really liked the characters in this third Annabelle flick, I didn't want to see anything bad happen to them, some moments were inventively creepy and unnerving (the future seeing television, for one), but I appreciated the comedy (even if it admittedly takes away some of the horror elements), and the final scene was bittersweet. If I had a nitpick, it has to do with the timeline between it and the first The Conjuring film (in regards to Judy's age), but overall I liked it a lot.
● The second of the two movies I saw at the end of June was Simon Kinberg's Dark Phoenix, which I felt was a very glum and downbeat (I've heard similar comments before seeing it, and because of this I was bracing the worst; it was still watchable and certain moments were entertaining, but it was overall a sad film) take on "The Dark Phoenix Saga" (which was previously adapted by Brett Ratner in 2006 with X-Men: The Last Stand which Kinberg also wrote for). Sophie Turner was a very compelling Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix, and the acting was mostly good, but it wasn't very fun otherwise, and the fact that it's the last of the 20th Century Fox-developed X-Men films before the merger with Disney is very disappointing. Also, I distinctly recall Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class and Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days of Future Past taking place in the '60s and '70s respectively, but with this movie taking place in 1992: the central cast don't look like they've aged a day. 🤨 A decade, I'll give, but two or three? That's simply lazy.
Thank you for reading my review, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think (neither spam nor NSFW allowed); hope you have a great day, take care! 😃
