Rayman 2

[OCG]

Are you using Emulator?

[Snagglebee]

Are you using Emulator?

That's why I fuckin' said:

^^ That's way better than what I see on my TV's screen >_>

[Rulez]

Are you using Emulator?

That's why I fuckin' said:

^^ That's way better than what I see on my TV's screen >_>

Okay, who the fuck cares?

[spiraldoor]

I remember that you are really fond of this picture, Spiral. Could you please elaborate on why you find it so great? I'm not being sarcastic here. I'm genuinely curious, because I can kind of see what you mean, I'd just like a bit more information on that.

Bear in mind that it's the Hall of Doors in general that I love, particularly the one in the PlayStation version. It's don't just like this individual screenshot, thought I think it's a bit better than any similar one (full disclosure: I took it, and it was a nuisance to get it exactly right).

The Hall of Doors represents everything that fascinates me about the early Rayman games. It's a perfect balance of otherworldly strangeness and dreamlike realism. When I look at it, it makes no sense. It's a forest suspended in a void, surrounded on all sides by the cosmos. Where is it in relation to the levels to which it leads? Does it have a physical location, or is it some kind of extra-dimensional dreamspace? I don't know, and I don't want to know – the imagery is too stirring for a simple explanation. As Rayman wanders from one whirling vortex to the next, he's presented with one ethereal vision after another, each representing the world before which it appears. These animated holograms all have an eerie kind of symbolic portent, like images in a dream. On the other hand, the actual structures like the menhirs and the stone pillars seen in the screenshot serve to embellish the Hall's physical substance (if you can call it that), which just adds another layer of inexplicable surrealism to the proceedings. The music is beautiful. That glowing halo of light that orbits the sky over the portal to the Crow's Nest is hauntingly strange. The Hall of Doors is the most Rayman thing ever.

Are you using Emulator?

I used ePSXe.

[Rulez]

Bear in mind that it's the Hall of Doors in general that I love, particularly the one in the PlayStation version. It's don't just like this individual screenshot, thought I think it's a bit better than any similar one (full disclosure: I took it, and it was a nuisance to get it exactly right).

Ah yes, I realise that, I just referred to it as the screenshot, not the Hall of Doors in general. You still gave the answer I expected, though.

The Hall of Doors represents everything that fascinates me about the early Rayman games. It's a perfect balance of otherworldly strangeness and dreamlike realism. When I look at it, it makes no sense. It's a forest suspended in a void, surrounded on all sides by the cosmos. Where is it in relation to the levels to which it leads? Does it have a physical location, or is it some kind of extra-dimensional dreamspace? I don't know, and I don't want to know – the imagery is too stirring for a simple explanation. As Rayman wanders from one whirling vortex to the next, he's presented with one ethereal vision after another, each representing the world before which it appears. These animated holograms all have an eerie kind of symbolic portent, like images in a dream. On the other hand, the actual structures like the menhirs and the stone pillars seen in the screenshot serve to embellish the Hall's physical substance (if you can call it that), which just adds another layer of inexplicable surrealism to the proceedings. The music is beautiful. That glowing halo of light that orbits the sky over the portal to the Crow's Nest is hauntingly strange. The Hall of Doors is the most Rayman thing ever.

That's an excellent description! Thank you for your answer, again.

[Master]

Splitting the game into five rough worlds by adding four mask doors to the Hall was a great move. It gives the game a much more classical segmented feel, similar to the original. Additionally, it's a nice pun on the Spiral Doors, it serves as a constant reminder of what the game is about, and it adds a lot of colour and character to the Hall of Doors (which is critically important, because it's the absolute heart of the game, mechanistically but also artistically).

Ah, I see, I do admit, I enjoyed the little cutscenes that played each time a door was encountered, it gave the game much more of a feel of progression, as if your actions were a driving force behind a collective effort, as opposed to merely you alone, they could've easily gone with the simple Council Chamber scenarios, but I'm glad they took this route.
I never really appreciated the segmented part, but having had that pointed out, I definitely see where you're coming from, and again, I think it was a nice way of maintaining the sense of progression.

Blimey, seeing your appreciation for the Hall of Doors and your reasoning behind it has definitely increased my own appreciation for the place, thanks for sharing, Spiral.

[spiraldoor]

Glad to be of assistance.

[Keane]

The Hall of Doors has always fascinated me. Even as a kid I always wanted to know where it would go and what was next. When I first popped in Rayman 3D I was excited to hear it was a port of supposedly superior Dreamcast version I never played, and was a bit disappointed by the different map. The island doesn't at all capture the atmosphere and is very basic.

[OCG]

I used ePSXe.

Ever considered adding shaders to ePSXe? It can make PS1 version look pretty close to PC Version.

[Bzzit]

Damn, that was a nice read Spiral. Reminded me how mundane and soulless Origins navigation/gateway hub is in comparison!

[spiraldoor]

I used ePSXe.

Ever considered adding shaders to ePSXe? It can make PS1 version look pretty close to PC Version.

Some of the plugins have shaders. I've experimented with them before, though not in Rayman 2. First I'd need to get the emulator configured properly on my current laptop, and I am tired.

Damn, that was a nice read Spiral. Reminded me how mundane and soulless Origins navigation/gateway hub is in comparison!

The Origins hub is just a symptom of a much larger problem. The developers aren't currently in touch with what made the first three games special.

[Adsolution]

Even while I'm not too fond of many of the gameplay features presented in the PS1 version (to me, they always seemed a bit tacked-on rather than integral), the Hall of Doors specifically is one thing that does stand above all the other versions', for all the reasons listed above, plus more that I'm not able to coherently phrase.

The developers aren't currently in touch with what made the first three games special.

And isn't is bizarre that the creator of this beautiful imagery is to blame? If he has lost the spark he had back in 1999 and is searching for it again, you'd think that looking through the community for discussions like this would be enlightening to some degree, and the same mistake wouldn't be made again after Origins. Legends is visually more beautiful, but the improvement is entirely superficial, and no matter how much they try to emulate the art style of Rayman 2, it won't even land anywhere within the same league, or even the same dimension really.

Phoenix Interactive knew what they were doing, and what possessed Ubisoft to scatter the Heart of the Franchise (pff) I'm not sure, but it's a piss-off. Rayman 4 looked to be a game that could really have benefited Ubisoft in the long run as opposed to the Rabbids, something more of a quick cash-in franchise.

[Haruka]

Sprial's description about the Hall of Doors is pretty much what I feel when I look to it. I played many platforming games with "hubs/maps" for levels but none did it brilliantly in such a way as Rayman 2 did.

[OCG]

If anyone is wondering how to configure shaders and which ones are best for awesome quality, here is a tutorial my friend made:

[spiraldoor]

Even while I'm not too fond of many of the gameplay features presented in the PS1 version (to me, they always seemed a bit tacked-on rather than integral), the Hall of Doors specifically is one thing that does stand above all the other versions', for all the reasons listed above, plus more that I'm not able to coherently phrase.

That's no fun. Come on, give it a go.

And isn't is bizarre that the creator of this beautiful imagery is to blame? If he has lost the spark he had back in 1999 and is searching for it again, you'd think that looking through the community for discussions like this would be enlightening to some degree, and the same mistake wouldn't be made again after Origins. Legends is visually more beautiful, but the improvement is entirely superficial, and no matter how much they try to emulate the art style of Rayman 2, it won't even land anywhere within the same league, or even the same dimension really.

It's difficult to say just how responsible Ancel as an individual is for the atmosphere of these games. I mean, look at Rayman 3 – it makes some huge tonal missteps, but in retrospect (and especially in the light of Origins), it did a much better job of preserving the spirit of the previous games than many of us gave it credit for. Does Rayman need Ancel? Did it ever? Just how closely involved was he in establishing and maintaining the feel of the first two games? On a superficial level, they're radically different – is this what he wanted? Would Ancel's Rayman 3 have tangentialised even farther from the previous instalments than Boukhelifa's did?

Normally I don't care for entitled "fans" whining about how they want their favourite game series to continue, but in the particular case of Rayman I believe those of us who grew up playing them have a better handle on what made them work than the current development team.

Phoenix Interactive knew what they were doing, and what possessed Ubisoft to scatter the Heart of the Franchise (pff) I'm not sure, but it's a piss-off. Rayman 4 looked to be a game that could really have benefited Ubisoft in the long run as opposed to the Rabbids, something more of a quick cash-in franchise.

Phoenix's track record is deeply unimpressive, but there's no denying that at least some of the company's key creative personnel circa 2005 were on to something. Their conceptual work seems to have been some sort of pitch to Ubisoft, which is rather cheeky when you think about it. From an executive perspective, the choice between green-lighting Phoenix's idea and the one developed by your very own Ancel and Montpellier would have seemed perfectly clear, but of course we all know the tragic results of that effort.

[Bionichute]

]And isn't is bizarre that the creator of this beautiful imagery is to blame? If he has lost the spark he had back in 1999 and is searching for it again, you'd think that looking through the community for discussions like this would be enlightening to some degree, and the same mistake wouldn't be made again after Origins. Legends is visually more beautiful, but the improvement is entirely superficial, and no matter how much they try to emulate the art style of Rayman 2, it won't even land anywhere within the same league, or even the same dimension really.

Phoenix Interactive knew what they were doing, and what possessed Ubisoft to scatter the Heart of the Franchise (pff) I'm not sure, but it's a piss-off. Rayman 4 looked to be a game that could really have benefited Ubisoft in the long run as opposed to the Rabbids, something more of a quick cash-in franchise.

While I do respect Rayman 2 in general for introducing all these fantastic characters, making the game feel more organic in it's locale, and telling an absolutely great story, I do not think of it as that great of a game. Maybe it's because I never grew up with it, or maybe it's just not my thing anymore, but I do believe that Rayman Origins and Legends will be far superior GAMES. They might not tell a great story, or even be as classic as Rayman 2 in the long run, they are still far more polished, enjoyable titles that basically anyone can enjoy. Rayman 2 is great simply through it's story and nostalgic status, but the game clearly isn't as good as it was back in the day. Look at Rayman 3D, it's almost exactly the same, but with a few features removed. It has the exact same gameplay, the exact same story, the exact same characters, but it still got low scores and is disliked even by this community. Michel Ancel clearly knows what he's doing with RO and RL, and he's trying to take the series back to it's roots with both of them.

But yeah it still pisses me off that Rayman 4 was cancelled. It looked so good and probably would have been one of the best game period. The environments looked fun and creative, and the story probably would have been good too.

[Haruka]

I still think that Rayman 3D did a better job porting R2 than Rayman DS, this DS port was atrocious.

[OCG]

I tried DS version on 3DS and using 3DS analog is weird. I never had problem playing 3D Platformers for DS on 3DS before with analog. Super Mario 64 DS was compatible good with analog and same for Crash of The Titans. Heck even tactical RPG Disgaea DS worked good with analog and it made gameplay faster in a good way. Rayman DS has worst analog controls ever. I had problem on first damn level to make that helicopter jump where Baby Globboxes (is that correct plural for Baby Globox?) are.

[Adsolution]

That's no fun. Come on, give it a go.

t's a bit of a crossover I've noticed between two things: Most of the artwork in the levels is larger-than-life; even in the tightest, most claustrophobic of corridors, the game still manages to convey such a sense of vastness. The backgrounds, especially in levels like The Canopy show trees and plants growing up, far above your head and beyond, yet at the same time, you appear to be suspended high up in the air yourself. In the Hall of Doors, this is still the case, where a looming mash of anything and everything to do with the game is seen towering above what the camera allows you to see, but at the same time, it's as if you're looking at the whole world, all of those visually massive levels compressed into one small area. Clearly this is could also be seen as the case with virtually any map selection screen, but the way it's laid out in Rayman 2 - mysteriously massive appearance compressed within more mysteriously massive appearance - combined with the artwork, mood and presentation really entrances me. At times I'm actually not sure whether I like the Hall of Doors from the PlayStation 1 or PC version better, as while the PS1 version shows off a beautiful purple, auroric cosmos, the PC version has kind of an unknown darkness. You don't know what's behind those trees, just that Rayman's world is mighty huge.

It's difficult to say just how responsible Ancel as an individual is for the atmosphere of these games. I mean, look at Rayman 3 – it makes some huge tonal missteps, but in retrospect (and especially in the light of Origins), it did a much better job of preserving the spirit of the previous games than many of us gave it credit for. Does Rayman need Ancel? Did it ever? Just how closely involved was he in establishing and maintaining the feel of the first two games? On a superficial level, they're radically different – is this what he wanted? Would Ancel's Rayman 3 have tangentialised even farther from the previous instalments than Boukhelifa's did?

I'm assuming that Ancel was very involved in Rayman Origins' artistic direction (due to his appearance in multiple advertisements and interviews), and as such, is also at least somewhat responsible for most of its positives and flaws. Then again, his appearance isn't saying much, as anything could really be happening under the hood. He has his name up on it quite a lot though, so if he wasn't the one responsible for the game's problems, he certainly embraced them.

Normally I don't care for entitled "fans" whining about how they want their favourite game series to continue, but in the particular case of Rayman I believe those of us who grew up playing them have a better handle on what made them work than the current development team.

Indeed, and this is perfectly fine to say, as by this point Rayman has deviated so inexplicably far from what he used to be that someone who barely knows a thing or two about the series would be able to create something more resemblant. Origins paints the portrait of someone who may have seen the character in a game from the 90's before but can't really recall where, and at best can recall a vague images in his head, and designs a game based off of just that.

Phoenix's track record is deeply unimpressive, but there's no denying that at least some of the company's key creative personnel circa 2005 were on to something. Their conceptual work seems to have been some sort of pitch to Ubisoft, which is rather cheeky when you think about it. From an executive perspective, the choice between green-lighting Phoenix's idea and the one developed by your very own Ancel and Montpellier would have seemed perfectly clear, but of course we all know the tragic results of that effort.

I actually thought for some reason that Phoenix was affiliated with Ubisoft (I'm not really sure why), but I also didn't know that their record was that poor. I can't seem to find much information on it either.

[OCG]

I never even heared about Phoenix before Rayman 4. Did they even made some game that got released? Or are they worse then Spyro Enter the Dragonly creators who never made game again?