Rayman Advance

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Rayman Advance
Rayman Advance
Published by Ubisoft
Developed by Digital Eclipse

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Release date 11th June, 2001 (Game Boy Advance)

22nd June, 2001 (Game Boy Advance) (Europe)
20th April, 2017 (Wii U) (North America)
25th May, 2017 (Wii U) (Europe)

Genre 2D platformer
Gameplay mode Single player
Platforms Game Boy Advance, Wii U (Virtual Console)
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Rayman Advance is a port of the original Rayman game for the Game Boy Advance which resembles the PC version most closely. It was released in 2001 after nearly a year in development[1] as a launch title for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance handheld console. Oddly, both the European and North American covers use different renders of Rayman from Rayman 2. In 2017, it was released on the Wii U's Virtual Console alongside the Game Boy Advance version of Rayman 3.

Differences

Due to hardware limitations, this version has several differences from the other versions, although it is based on the PC release. The first part of Bongo Hills has been removed, most likely due to palette limitations, putting the cage that was meant to appear there at the last part instead. The music has been remade to fit on the cartridge, resulting in much of the original quality being lost. Some music tracks have even been completely removed, while a few new ones have been added. This was due to the developers putting most of their focus on the graphics of the game, resulting in little space left for the music on the ROM. The graphics have increased in contrast and brightness, resulting in some quality being lost. This was done late in development to compensate for the lack of backlight on the original Game Boy Advance. The intro and ending of the game now consists of a slideshow, similarly to the Atari Jaguar version, instead of the pre-rendered movie seen in most versions.

Other changes in this port were made to intentionally make the game easier. The number of lives per continue has been increased to six and the number of continues to nine, one extra unit of health has been added to the player's health bar (meaning it starts at four and is increased to six upon collecting a Big Power), no Tings are lost upon losing either a life or a continue, more lives can be found within levels, more time is available in bonus levels, fewer enemies appear, the Photographer appears in several new locations, and additional platforms have been added in some levels, most notably Space Mama's Crater. Some bosses have minor differences as well, such as Bzzit and Moskito being able to take hits before they fly away after being damaged, resulting in the player being able to constantly hit them with the right timing until they are defeated. This is also one of the few versions in which Mr Dark's Dare is replayable upon completion.

While there are not that many bugs throughout this port, there are a few noticeable ones. Some items, most notably the clouds, sometimes appear incorrectly. Some show the textures of a vanishing cloud, while they are stable. Some pencil sharpeners, most notably in Pencil Pentathlon, will move in the wrong direction or are placed incorrectly, causing some items, such as lives, to be unobtainable, and others much harder to obtain.

The very first scenery of the Dream Forest in Rayman Advance.
In comparison, the same scenery on PC.

Multiplayer

The game was originally planned to feature a multiplayer mode in the style of "capture the flag". It was marketed as being included in the preview versions of the game, but was never finished for any releases. The mode would have included one map per world, and all of them can actually be found in the game's ROM. Only the first few maps were finished, however, with the rest lacking any objects.[2]

Gallery

References

  1. Gamespot, Q&A: Rayman Advance, https://www.gamespot.com/articles/qanda-rayman-advance/1100-2718137/
  2. YouTube, Rayman Advance Unused Multiplayer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP2M8CgeJNI