Re: Rayman 1
Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 1:57 pm
Right, I played through the entirety of Rayman GBC and I must say the game is
PURE. WIN.
The music, of course, is wonderful, and it's fun to recognise each tune all the time. The only themes I cannot place are the Bonus Level (Time Attack) and the one from Mr. Dark's showdown battle scene. Though I can well imagine the last to be made especially for the game, and it could also be the Time Attack one was too.
The graphics are simply stunning. For only 64 possible colours, the amount of liveliness and magic they seemed to pump out of the graphics is insane! I especially love the foresty areas, where you can see the colours of the flowers, trees, cliffs - all very Rayman 2-esque and no failure in any aspect at all. I simply have no bad remarks on the graphics, except that maybe the Antitoons and Electoons are a bit unrecognisable, but what could you expect from a tiny GBC screen?
The gameplay is great. The amount of backtracks during one level is a fun one, and not an excessive amount of going back is needed to grab that one cage or extra life, though enough of them were added to keep all the levels interesting. I also liked how every area is concluded with a flooding level; I always thought the original Rayman had loads of them too, but it appears that was the GBC version that merged with the Ray1 experience. Also some level areas from GBC had been mixed in with those of R1, so it was nice to remember the places that were in my head all the time, but weren't actually in R1. I like how the GBC version introduced new enemies, as well as reshaping or restyling old ones. There are no more Hunters, which might be a shame, but I think it's quite alright, since I never really liked spammy waves of flying bullets with mallets anyway. Granted, it's very cartoony, but it can also be quite frustrating. It's also quite malicious how everything in GBC gets beheaded when it dies; Livingstones, the weird plant things in the Arcane Forest, bats - everyone loses their head. The design of the levels themselves is terrific as well; if you go through one part that passes underneath another you've already been to, you can safely assume there will be one point where you will end up back on the old path, though going into a new direction. This is a nice feature, in my opinion.
And the ending was quite fitting. Justice is brought to the evil sourcerer, some funny moments are placed in for those who enjoy them and finally you get to go to the world map, which hold all the places you have yet to bust out some Electoons. Also 5 question marks point out a new mysterious world that may or may not be accessed - who knows! I will play through the whole game to break all remaining cages and find out if any of that opens one of these new worlds.
So, overall, Rayman GBC is a great game indeed. I cannot find many weak points, not as many as I can find in R1. Hey, I love R1, but there are so many bitchy things about the ways you can die or have to precisely do something to get to one teeny little place, that the game gets on my nerves a lot of the time. I know, it's challenging, and I like that, but I don't like the challenges R1 sometimes presents me - but I guess that's just a matter of taste.
So, if you've got an old Game Boy Colour dusting away in the cupboard, get into your wallet and rush to the next second-hand store to see if they've got Rayman GBC. I believe it's well worth it.
PURE. WIN.
The music, of course, is wonderful, and it's fun to recognise each tune all the time. The only themes I cannot place are the Bonus Level (Time Attack) and the one from Mr. Dark's showdown battle scene. Though I can well imagine the last to be made especially for the game, and it could also be the Time Attack one was too.
The graphics are simply stunning. For only 64 possible colours, the amount of liveliness and magic they seemed to pump out of the graphics is insane! I especially love the foresty areas, where you can see the colours of the flowers, trees, cliffs - all very Rayman 2-esque and no failure in any aspect at all. I simply have no bad remarks on the graphics, except that maybe the Antitoons and Electoons are a bit unrecognisable, but what could you expect from a tiny GBC screen?
The gameplay is great. The amount of backtracks during one level is a fun one, and not an excessive amount of going back is needed to grab that one cage or extra life, though enough of them were added to keep all the levels interesting. I also liked how every area is concluded with a flooding level; I always thought the original Rayman had loads of them too, but it appears that was the GBC version that merged with the Ray1 experience. Also some level areas from GBC had been mixed in with those of R1, so it was nice to remember the places that were in my head all the time, but weren't actually in R1. I like how the GBC version introduced new enemies, as well as reshaping or restyling old ones. There are no more Hunters, which might be a shame, but I think it's quite alright, since I never really liked spammy waves of flying bullets with mallets anyway. Granted, it's very cartoony, but it can also be quite frustrating. It's also quite malicious how everything in GBC gets beheaded when it dies; Livingstones, the weird plant things in the Arcane Forest, bats - everyone loses their head. The design of the levels themselves is terrific as well; if you go through one part that passes underneath another you've already been to, you can safely assume there will be one point where you will end up back on the old path, though going into a new direction. This is a nice feature, in my opinion.
And the ending was quite fitting. Justice is brought to the evil sourcerer, some funny moments are placed in for those who enjoy them and finally you get to go to the world map, which hold all the places you have yet to bust out some Electoons. Also 5 question marks point out a new mysterious world that may or may not be accessed - who knows! I will play through the whole game to break all remaining cages and find out if any of that opens one of these new worlds.
So, overall, Rayman GBC is a great game indeed. I cannot find many weak points, not as many as I can find in R1. Hey, I love R1, but there are so many bitchy things about the ways you can die or have to precisely do something to get to one teeny little place, that the game gets on my nerves a lot of the time. I know, it's challenging, and I like that, but I don't like the challenges R1 sometimes presents me - but I guess that's just a matter of taste.
So, if you've got an old Game Boy Colour dusting away in the cupboard, get into your wallet and rush to the next second-hand store to see if they've got Rayman GBC. I believe it's well worth it.
), I have to say that Spellbound Forest has music that is annoying as hell. This was made during this era when Ubisoft wanted to make every game related to Rayman 2. This how the GBA game from Rayman 3 ended up being a 2D version of R2 featuring only few Hoodlums. Plus, the R2 theme is quite good, but that doesn't mean that they had to remix it so many times. I've heard waaaaaay to many versions of it.
