Unpopular opinions on Rayman

[Dumbo TV]

I agree with that, it's a great game, but a lot of people glorify it too much (especially Ly fans)

[The Jonster]

Unpopular opinion: I'm happy Rayman didn't meet Mario.

I do still wonder what it would have been like if the 2 actually had met in the same universe and fought the evil rabbids alongside the good rabbits and the other main characters. Ah well.

[Immortalia]

Unpopular opinion: Rayman 2 is somewhat overrated

Tbh I agree too. Rayman 2 on N64 was my very first experience with Rayman games. Yet despite this, despite all the nostalgia I remember as a kid, from dropping into the Woods of Light for the first time, from discovering the Cave of Bad Dreams and being terrified of that place... I replayed it again recently as an adult, and it was fun, but not as much as I remembered.

Now, Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc? Hoo boy. I guess I'll put my unpopular opinion in too, and say that Rayman 3 is my favorite of all the Rayman games. I know I'm biased in that sentiment honestly, but gosh dang, that game is so much fun. Replaying that recently as an adult gave me so much more of a fun time, and made me feel like a kid again. The gameplay just feels so much more fun.

[lyndo64]

Now, Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc? Hoo boy. I guess I'll put my unpopular opinion in too, and say that Rayman 3 is my favorite of all the Rayman games. I know I'm biased in that sentiment honestly, but gosh dang, that game is so much fun. Replaying that recently as an adult gave me so much more of a fun time, and made me feel like a kid again. The gameplay just feels so much more fun.

Finally someone who agrees with me!

[The Jonster]

Well I'm glad there are people here who love Rayman 3! I love the game almost as much as Rayman 2

[Greengoop]

Is R2 your fav Jonster?

[Reese Riverson]

Well I'm glad there are people here who love Rayman 3! I love the game almost as much as Rayman 2

I'm one of those who love Rayman 3, especially since it led to my introduction to this very online community we know and love today. It all began with the paper insert talking about RaymanZone that inevitably led me to join RaymanPC. It drove me to meet the people I care a lot about. (Splatoon 2 ended up doing the same thing for me, with another group of wonderful friends. So I've always considered Splatoon 2 about like I do Rayman 3).

I obviously loved the game for what it had to offer, but it just so much more than just a video game to me that I loved, that's why it means a lot to me more than any other Rayman game out there.

It's awesome you favor Rayman 2 though, it is a great game, and I know my friend neo absolutely loves it. Memories of it for him are just as meaningful as Rayman 3's were to me. It's pretty cool to learn about how meaningful things can be to you.

Which brings me to the next question for you Jonster,

What is most meaningful about Rayman 2 versus Rayman 3 to you? I'm honestly curious. (This question is also valid for anyone else who would love to answer, even including any other Rayman game if they have a special impact to your life or childhood. )

[DaveRattlehead]

What is most meaningful about Rayman 2 versus Rayman 3 to you? I'm honestly curious. (This question is also valid for anyone else who would love to answer, even including any other Rayman game if they have a special impact to your life or childhood. )

I think it's a very interesting question and what you say is something that has happened to a lot of people. It's really surprising how much a videogame can impact your life, and I'd say this is something that has happened to me with several games (including Rayman, of course). A clear example is Little Big Planet. Thanks to this game I've met amazing people and, to this day, I keep in daily contact with one of the people I met there since 2011. This person is today, without a doubt, my best friend on the Internet (and why not to say it, probably my best friend in general). GTA 5, on the other hand, is an example of a videogame that isn't from my childhood, but it means a lot for me. Since 2018 I've been in a crew where I've met amazing people and we play weekly every single Thursday. Now that some of the people aren't playing on PS4, we try our best to stick together in the different platforms.

As for Rayman... Well, I think I've told this several times, but I don't mind commenting it once more . For me, both Rayman 2 and Rayman 3 have been very special games for me and probably both have their arguments to tip the balance. Personally, I'll take Rayman 2 (oops, this isn't an unpopular opinion). Rayman 2 was the first videogame I've tried in my life, the one that made me become a fan of this hobby and the first game I completed 100%. At the same time, playing this game reminds me of a beautiful stage of my life much more innocent, playing with my sister and my father in my old house (not with my mother, she didn't like it at all ). We loved playing Rayman 2. My sister, who didn't like videogames at all, liked it so much that she used to draw the different characters to make our own stories. Kids games, of course . For these kind of things is why I consider Rayman 2 very, very special. Not only because it's a good game with a fantastic lore... When a game crosses that barrier and touches your heart, you know it's not just a game, it's a special game.

[Adsolution]

What is most meaningful about Rayman 2 versus Rayman 3 to you? I'm honestly curious. (This question is also valid for anyone else who would love to answer, even including any other Rayman game if they have a special impact to your life or childhood. )

The most meaningful? I'd probably have to say the art style. Rayman 2's lighting and texture work is drop-dead gorgeous, and a big reason for that is that they make up most of the visuals. Detailed textures spread across low-poly environments and models. So often it looks like a painting, because when the majority of your scene comes from the texture work, you quite literally are staring at a painting most of the time.

Everything about this just looks so aesthetically pleasing to me. Rayman 2 imo succeeds in looking less what you expect a video game to look like:

than Rayman 3, which often has more visible tiling, granier textures, and lighting and colours that just don't pop the same way or feel quite as vibrant and polished:

The Fairy Council is the only level I think, at times, manages to actually capture Rayman 2's beauty in that way. Even Land of the Livid Dead I think is a bit eh looking a lot of the time, and I used the above comparison to hopefully illustrate why I feel that way compared to R2.

I like 2's animation more on average too, it feels less stiff, more flexible. Obviously one big reason for that is that 2 used vertex/morph animation and 3 used skeletal animation, the former being a lot more akin to how traditional 2D animation works, allowing artists to achieve a rawer vision in fewer steps.

And then there's the tone, I just like how 2 takes itself seriously. I'm not saying it's some deep, dark, edgy thing, it just respects itself a lot tonally. It's kind of wild when I consider that, out of 90's 3D mascot platformer games, the one that probably takes the #2 spot in terms of taking itself seriously is freakin Mario 64. I love that R2 doesn't rely on wacky goofy ADHD energy, because that alone somehow makes it far more unique in its generation than it should. The lore and worldbuilding too, it's genuinely intriguing and feels like it came from a place of passion. They wanted to create a true epic with this game.

Then there's the soundtrack, which is just so well constructed from beginning to end. Lush, cinematic, a little odd in its own subtle way, it always plays a massive part in immersing you. Rayman 3 has its share of really wonderful tracks, but like 70% of its soundtrack comprises busy, noisy industrial beats that are chunky in their own right, just not very memorable or interesting in my opinion.

What do I think Rayman 3 does better? Combat obviously, and having a difficulty curve that actually makes sense. Probably my biggest criticism of R1 and R2 are how their difficulty curves aren't curves, they're more like random noise. Rayman 2 is easy from beginning to end for the most part, with these random huge spikes of difficulty. The final boss also just feels like such a strange, inappropriate choice in terms of gameplay. Rayman 3 consistently has an an excellent sense of challenge and far, far better bosses, and one of my favourite final bosses ever. Even though I prefer 2's tone over all, I also think 3's humour is genuinely funny. The story structure is also pretty unpredictable and unique, I like that it's still introducing key characters and plot elements more than half way through, you always want to know what's happening next. Rayman 3 I think also succeeds in making every level, for the most part, feel different. I think R2 succeeds at this for the first half of the game, and while it doesn't totally fail at it in the second half, it does sort of start to blend together. Despite liking 3's final boss more, I think Tower of the Leptys is easily the worst level in the game. It's just drab stone hallways, and the Prison Ship, despite being 90% gimmick gameplay, blows it out of the water in terms of feeling like a thrilling final level.

A lot of this isn't an unpopular opinion, but the first part about the graphics I feel kinda is. I don't think LOTLD is that pretty!

[PuzPot1390]

Well I'm glad there are people here who love Rayman 3! I love the game almost as much as Rayman 2

I knew that The Great Escape was often lauded as the 'fan favourite', but I was under the assumption that Hoodlum Havoc was also very popular given how well it tends to do in online polls; it's certainly my favourite. Might be surprising to some though given that Michel Ancel had nothing to do it.

[DaveRattlehead]

I don't think it's an unpopular opinion; liking one doesn't mean disliking the other. And well, I believe Rayman 3 has strong arguments for liking it more than Rayman 2. In fact, I would say I have more fun with Rayman 3 than with many current games, and it's a game that has aged quite well.

[TaffySaturn]

In the great Rayman 2 vs 3 discussion I think I have a bit to add that hasn't been discussed. I played both Rayman 2 and 3 this year and that made me a huge fan. Overall I like Rayman 2 a bit more with it's serious tone, level design, and mechanics. Always being a spectacle and never making you bored in the levels at all. That being said Rayman 3 really feels like it was trying to 1 up 2 and I feel like it succeeds in many aspects like the boss battles (aside from the final boss which I was personally underwhelmed by compared to Razorbeards mech.). For me what makes a great boss battle is changing locations/interesting areas during the fight and Rayman 3 does it in spades such as Razoff and Begonlax. Rayman 3 also has better music compared to 2s really good soundtrack as well. However what Rayman 3 lacks compared to 2 is consistency. There were a few levels that felt too drawn out and didn't keep my attention as much like The Longest Shortcut and Summit Beyond the Clouds. But overall Rayman 3 is a middling 8 while Rayman 2 is a high 9. Both are excellent games and the best of the best platformers.

[Maz]

Multiple games have shown Rayman's ability to perceive sound, in spite of his lack of visible ears. The only logical conclusion: Rayman's "hair" is not hair, he's just a furry with hairy bunny ears.

[Master]

Hehe I guess Rayman was a Rabbid all along then.

A new sentiment I feel I've developed that might not be so popular - I'm kinda past the point where I care or desire for the series to have one set or singular ideal as to where and what it is. The fact that each Rayman game can stand on its own and be a unique experience without invalidating each other is a refreshing place to be in, the series lends itself to reinvention and yet retain recognisability and I feel that is a trait that suits long running series. It served Mario well and I suspect it could serve Rayman well.

Or maybe I'm just so starved of Rayman that at this point I'll take whatever comes. But there's no denying there are so many different takes now on the series and fans all have their own further subtakes and styles in their own fan works, so why stick with a static style?

[Greengoop]

Hehe I guess Rayman was a Rabbid all along then.

What if the rabbids are shrunken down versions of ray people in suits?

[mikemoron]

unpopular opinion: rayman 2 revolution is the ACTUAL best version of rayman 2

[Greengoop]

unpopular opinion: rayman 2 revolution is the ACTUAL best version of rayman 2

Just look at the poll in the rayman 2 topic and you will see you have the second most popular opinion

[AdmzWarszawy]

Unpopular opinion: I like the chair sequence in Rayman 2 a lot, it's quite fun, short and not overstaying its welcome. Also the concept is really funny.

[dr_st]

Unpopular opinion: I like the chair sequence in Rayman 2 a lot, it's quite fun, short and not overstaying its welcome. Also the concept is really funny.

Pum-pupum-pupupupum
Pum-pupum-pupuuupupum!

But, yes, it's short enough to be quite OK! The only thing to watch out for is not to miss any of the last lums. If you miss the earlier ones, there are plenty of opportunities to get yourself killed. Otherwise you have to replay the part again after finishing the level.

[AdmzWarszawy]

I like the ps1 version of 2 more than Revolution. Yes, I said it, and I have my reasons.

The ps1 version is the most glaring in terms of removed content, being about 3/4 length wise compared to the pc version, which obviously sucks, but had to be done so that the ps1 wouldn't implode. Sometimes it adds things, like that one section in the second sanctuary and a different final boss, both of those are designed well, and not a pain. Also it's very charming to be honest, it may not look as good compared to pc, but that bigger amount of crustiness doesn't diminish anything about why the game looks as good as it does.

Now... Revolution, goddamn do I have a lot to say about Revolution. Ok so first off, the hub worlds, they look nice... and that's it really, you just walk around getting the lums that could've been in levels, but now are in the hubs so they wouldn't feel empty, even though they still sometimes do. Then we have the familiars, which are really unnecessary. You already go out of your way to get all of those cages, and now you can't even get the extra health until you do a minigame, which is either a cut level mechanic, like the chair, or just a rehash from the dreamcast version's minigames. They removed the chair level, how dare they. 3rd, the upgrade shop, it's cool I guess. Although it does take away some of your abilities so that you have to buy them, which is shitty. 4th, the rain mask... I don't like the rain mask at all, it's unnecessary padding of the game, which is even worse since to obtain lums and cages you have to go through the whole level, (technically not, but all of the levels have a part where you can't go back anymore), so that means you have to replay a level just to get like 3 things. It's mandatory for 100% completion, and it's just bad game design. Now on a better note, the lum radar. Finally something actually good, I waited 2, no 3 thousand years for this! It just makes getting 100% easier, which is fine since you get it after beating Clark in the Tomb of the Ancients, which is quite late when you're going through the game. The last thing added were the bosses, one is forgettable, one is eh, and one is actually good. (In order, the Red Catterpillar, Grolem 13, and Biditank), they're just there, although the pirate facility thing before biditank is very cool.

So, in summary, I have a lot more to complain with Revolution than ps1, so I like the ps1 version more because of it.