The Awesome and Cool Rayman Poll Thread - #83: What are your thoughts on the 30th Anniversary Edition of Rayman 1?

[Keane]

If Raymein ever goes 3D again they should try something new, basing yourself off platformers from 1-2 decades ago would be Yooka-TJKirk. I'd like to see Rayman control more flexibly than he does in 2 & 3, and there's a lot of possibilities to expand on the combat. More enemy variety than everything shooting projectiles from a distance would also help a lot.

If we're talking purely art direction though than I pretty much just want Rayman Dark 15: a heavier focus on the more magical, "fantastical" elements of the series. I want more LotLD towers and purple Picture City backgrounds in my Rayman.

again than R2. Hopefully the humor would be... better... but I'd be sad to see Rayman turn into something more serious and edgy.

One thing I like better about Legends is that it presents aspects of its world as more silly by nature as opposed to trying to be funny. The sheer craziness of the presentation makes the game silly on its own and never has to rely on dialogue or gags. I don't mind the comedy in Rayman 3 but apart from the script and some music there's very little to imply the game is supposed to be comedic or even really lighthearted at all.

I think the tone of the Zelda games would work perfectly for Rayman actually, those have a great balance between being dark epic adventures and having lighthearted elements. Ocarina of Time or Breath of the Wild, that's about where Roymo should be I think.

[Ambidextroid]

I've always remembered OoT as having an underlying darkness to it the whole way through with all the creepy enemies, the shadow dungeon, the dark undertones in the story etc. where Rayman felt more like exploring a mostly empty world where less of the engagement comes from story and characters and more from the world itself.
I'd say Rayman 2 has more of a Mario 64 feel (that is that you derive most of the fun from exploring the worlds rather than exploring the story, though of course M64 has a more wacky inconsistent theme) and Rayman 3 feels a little more like Jak and Daxter than a Zelda title.
For me if any game hit the sort of mature yet fun/silly mark it would be Rayman 2 to be honest.
Though come to think of it I'd quite like to see how the darker side of a Zelda game would work with Rayman, I just can't picture it in my head.

[dr_st]

Rayman 1 has never really struck me as particularly "Rayman-ish", probably because when I played the game as a kid the music never worked and we played the game with sound effects only so I don't have that nostalgic connection to it.
Rayman 2 has some pretty amazing atmospheric pieces and catchy tunes but it doesn't seem to stand alone as it's own music very well. It goes brilliantly with the game but there isn't enough variation to be the kind of music I'd just listen to alone.
That's why I have to choose Rayman 3, it has a lot of varied music which could actually be great standalone tracks of music but also work really well with the game. Rayman 2's music is probably the most nostalgic and best as a videogame soundtrack, but for the music itself independent from the game I prefer R3's.

This captures my feelings exactly.

I love the music in Rayman 2 while I'm playing it, but I never felt like listening to much of it outside of the game. The tunes themselves are very short; the soundtrack is basically composed by mixing very short pieces together in a fluent way. That doesn't really work much standalone.

Rayman 1 is actually a like like Rayman 2 in this regard. You would have probably felt the same if you grew up playing it with music. The most individually interesting tracks there are from the boss battles.

From Rayman 3, I actually ripped quite a few songs and liked to listen to them independently - the different tracks from the battle with Reflux, Land of the Livid Dead, the Hoodoo/Credits song, the Balloons mini-game / Ship level song, and a few others.

[R4Y_ANC3L]

I really wonder how Rayman 4 would be like. I know it uses a Rayman 3 model and the game has recreated levels that would have been seen in Rayman 1.Probably has matching music that suits some of those levels. After seeing levels and modelling made by Absolution in Rayman ROTD I wished the Rayman series were brought back.
Besides from that, I like the voices of Rayman from Rayman 2 and 3. His combat sounds were One of my favourite things to hear in those games as well as the music(like top of the world and the base colour music in sanctuary of water and ice). In my opinion, the music that is heard while playing you tend to have like some kind of "feeling" towards hearing the music.

[Ambidextroid]

the Hoodoo/Credits song, the Balloons mini-game / Ship level song, and a few others.

These two are some of my favorites, I also really like the Begoniax boss theme from the PS2 version and the Rocket mini-game/Hoodlum Headquarters obstacle course.
Pretty much all of the tracks in R3 feel consistent but very varied, where R1 feels varied but pretty inconsistent and R2 feels consistent but less varied. A lot of the tracks in R2 have the same genre and instruments while R3 has a bunch of different genres yet I feel like they all fit in Rayman's world

[R4Y_ANC3L]

Another thing that I like about Rayman 2(and revolution)and Rayman 3 is the ambience that is heard in those games. I listened to them all and they are as soothing as the music itself, seriously. Sometimes I prefer to listen to them rather than listening to the music. The ones that are heard in Rayman 1 do go somewhere but they not only suit the environment in levels but also brings in an idea about the level(like "Quiet" from pencil pentathlon). Very imaginative.

[Keane]

I've always remembered OoT as having an underlying darkness to it the whole way through with all the creepy enemies, the shadow dungeon, the dark undertones in the story etc. where Rayman felt more like exploring a mostly empty world where less of the engagement comes from story and characters and more from the world itself.

A, well yeah, I was more proposing that Rayman would try out that kind of approach. Ocarina has all that but then there's also the Gorons, Kokiri Forest, Kakariko Village, the Castle town where everyone is autistic/disfigured, etc. There's enough of those sorts of things going on to break up the darkness and especially in the first half there's a kind of innocence to everything. Which in comparison is something I think Rayman 2 comes pretty close to actually, it just never dives as deeply into its gloomier moments as OoT.

I also think if we're talking this kind of stuff it's not entirely matter of whether Rayman should be "darker" or continue being wacky in future games, but also if it can attempt doing something with a bit more heart to it, or something a little more magical. To continue on the Zelda comparisons, a King Zora & Mido at the end of OoT scene, or climbing a rainbow-coloured staircase into the astral observatory in Majora, those are the kinds of touches I would like in my future Ramyn games. Lllllucky for me, Adsolution Video Gaming Rayman Interactive: 15 Dark, Returning is pretty spot on in how I'd want to see that play out.

Though come to think of it I'd quite like to see how the darker side of a Zelda game would work with Rayman, I just can't picture it in my head.

Well, what if Rayman grabbed a shotgun and killed his parents? And this music plays meanwhile:

[Ray502]

Time for the seventh poll: "Which Rayman game did you play the most when you were younger?"

[R4Y_ANC3L]

"Which Rayman game did you play the most when you were younger?"

I played mostly Rayman 2 the Great escape for the Playstation 1.
Matter of fact, that was the only Rayman game I played when I was younger.

[PluMGMK]

Has to be Rayman 2. I seem to recall a period during which I started up a new game on an almost-daily basis. That memory doesn't really make sense quantitatively, but it must mean that I played it a lot!

[Adsolution]

I played all three like 90 times, but the fact I had Rayman Advance gave the first game a pretty big edge since I was away from home a lot.

[Keane]

Raybama 3 mostly because I only had that one + Advance, I've actually only played Rayman 2 fully once. I was obsessed with the game but could never get past the Desert of the Knaarens because I was a pussy and then also struggled a lot with the Longest Shortcut so I ended up replaying the first four worlds dozens of times.

[Ray502]

Time for the eighth poll: "Has your opinion about the Rabbids changed recently?"

[R4Y_ANC3L]

"Has your opinion about the Rabbids changed recently?"

It seems so to me. By the time I have seen Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle, I had a feeling that their personalities were one of the things that made the game fun and amusing. I don't think they are that bad.

[Rayfist]

My opinion of them as a whole has not changed, I've always been neutral towards the franchise. I always felt like the Rabbids have had strong potential, but that potential seems to be a little wasteful for a lot of the titles after Raving Rabbids 2 (the first two Rabbid games were genuinely fun party games imo.)
Although Mario & Rabbids Kingdom Battle seems to recover some of that potential, a strategy game using the same formula, even without the Mario characters might help the franchise out. I think perhaps there was some strong motivation to actually make something truly good considering the fact that they were doing a crossover with one of the biggest videogame IP's out there.

[Master]

I think I turned Rabbid hater when RRR2 came out, but since the split with Rabbids Go Home in 2009, and with the revival of the series with Rayman Origins, I've shuffled to neutral, for the most part. Mario+Rabbids is a well done game, but I don't know if it's shifted my opinion towards the Rabbids themselves, I think the humour is much better done compared to the toilet humour that seemed to be commonplace in their earlier years. If that sort of humour continues, I think I could come to like them a bit more.

[Ambidextroid]

I've never liked the Rabbids, and while my fierce hatred has tempered into a more passive hatred over the years I don't think Kingdom Battle will win me over.
Then again I'd be willing to buy the game as it does look fun nonetheless.

[dr_st]

I only briefly tried playing the first RRR game, and turned it off very fast. Good or bad, it wasn't Rayman, wasn't what I expect from a Rayman game, wasn't what I wanted to play.

To date the only Rabbids game I played is "Rayman Raving Rabbids" for the GBA. Which is basically a sub-par, lightly Rabbid-themed clone of Rayman 3 for the GBA, but still more Rayman-like than the actual Rabbid games.

[MagicalPlatypus7]

I only briefly tried playing the first RRR game, and turned it off very fast. Good or bad, it wasn't Rayman, wasn't what I expect from a Rayman game, wasn't what I wanted to play.

To date the only Rabbids game I played is "Rayman Raving Rabbids" for the GBA. Which is basically a sub-par, lightly Rabbid-themed clone of Rayman 3 for the GBA, but still more Rayman-like than the actual Rabbid games.

Agree .The only thing that make this good is the fact that the gameplay is identical to rayman 3 + it contain element from the cancelled rayman 4

[Ray502]

Ninth poll incoming: "If you had to play only one Rayman game for the rest of your life, which would it be?"