Rayman 3D

Intro


Rayman 3D is the newest remake of Rayman 2: The Great Escape the amazing platform game from Ubisoft that was released for the Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 and PC 12 years ago. Back in the day Rayman 2 was a big player in the platform war, so big he was even considered a rival to Mario. Ubisoft has in the last decade forsaken the limbless chap and only given him one original game and several Rayman 2 remakes. So how is this remake? Has Ubisoft done justice to its old mascot? Or have they done a quick job for a quick buck and gone back to Assassins?

Graphics


Artistically the game starts off very nice the first few levels are set in a jungle that is bright and full of life. That is what you need in any platformer is nice mixture of colours. Then you finish the early levels and the bright and giddy platformer becomes all doom and gloom. The art style would of been way better if everything was not dark. Darkness is not what you need in these types of games. It does make you think "Rayman one had wonderful art whats going on?.

Graphically Rayman 3D is just the Dreamcast ported to the 3DS, it does not push the 3DS limits at all. Due to this been a Dreamcast port the full environment is square and pointy. In terms of smoothness the game runs very nice with no frame rate issue. The 3D on Rayman 3D is quite poor is over powering but you will just see two Raymans and the 3D does not help the gamplay in anyway.

Sound


Some of the music is very catchy and is a joy to hear then other times no music is present. Has Ubisoft meant to do this to add drama and tension I really don't think so, to put it bluntly I think they have just been lazy. Sound levels are terrible, some music is so quiet you'll turn the volume all the way up to full then boom! A insanely loud song will come on destroying your ears. Like I said good songs are present but they have been put in the wrong place you may be running around in a gloomy dark pirate ship while listening to a upbeat song!

The audio is very annoying the majority of sound effects is Rayman always running out of breath when he is running or climbing. Footsteps are quite effective when they work! I never knew on occasion Rayman likes to run like a ninja!

Control

As you expect the circle pad controls Raymans movements is quite nice and slick. Press the B button to jump and press B again to hover. Press the Y button to shoot and hold to charge. These are simple and easy to get around. Take the controls underwater and its a nightmare you use 2 buttons you have not used in the entire game to swim! A to go down and X to go up that and the circle for movement its confusing in practice and often you lose direction of where you are going and then drown.

The one factor that effects the entire game is the camera, what angle you see the character can effect the entire control of the game. Unfortunately this is god awful, the bad camera angles knock the control way off and if you have such a bad angle you can't take it anymore tough luck because the majority of the time the camera button does not work.

Gameplay

If you excuse the bad controls, sound and mediocre graphics the gameplay Rayman 3D is not too bad. they may be no multiplayer or street pass functionality but underneath the grit lies a very fun game. Blasting robot pirates to oblivion and swinging on purple lums is undeniable fun. The bosses are really fun (if you excuse the awful controls) and you can tell why back in its day this games was incredible.

The first level has Rayman and his answer to Luigi Globox escaping captivity of the robot pirates and in a mad dash get separated. Adding the to the task of finding his best friend he is also given the goal of rescuing Ly the fairy and then learns he has to collect 4 masks to stop the robot pirates. For an old platformer this game does have a good story behind it,

Lastability

If you can get ignore the sloppy controls and actually manage to finish the game you will be able to do it in about 6 to 8 hours. After your first playthrough you'll have no motivation to play again, with no bonus or difficulty increase you will more than likely put the game down and move on to Mario.

Verdict

Ubisoft have once again released a poor version of a great game, this could of been amazing. This is a really lazy port and this really does no justice for the 3DS. If your a Rayman fan just get out the old consoles and play, if your new just wait for Rayman Origins to come out on the 3DS in a few months.

5/10