RAYMAN -DEFINITIVE REVIEW!

Rayman was and is a Great platformer first appeared on 64 -bit Atari Jaguar multimedia games console system on early nineties and later on other machines as well. -It was actually underrated at the time because nobody knew anything about this character called Rayman let alone it`s creator Michael Ancel who is the one of the most important peoples on UbiSoft these days, so as there were dozens of mediocre platformers around not many folks out there even bothered really find out if this one was any better than the rest of Mario and Sonic rip -offs... -Luckily, it was. This is mainly courtesy of the cheer originality of this particular title as despite similar gameplay, it has very little if anything to do with those more popular platformers. Gameplay and main character itself may look like nothing special at first, but more you get into it, more you start to appreciate all those small little details that create perfectly balanced interaction with games levels... Unlike most games even today, Rayman does not have anything in the actual game that would not FIT into it. Despite overly dreamy fantasy theme, everything feels so natural that it is nearly unreal when you think about it. OK, first Donkey Kong Country was also perfectly executed in the way one would not want to add anything or remove anything as it was perfect gaming world or small planet (actually it was just a land, but still) on just the way it was and made sense. But what makes world of Rayman so special is that the visual art is simply unequaled when it comes to both ideas & style, and this combo delivers dream -like experience despite the system you play with it. What you get is one of the most important platformers out there with a lovable hero, and that is enough for this title to be up the with just mentioned ones. But... Here IS a word of warning for platform fans: This is a Difficult game. No Donkey, monkey, or even Mario with Sonic could beat this game without crying some real tears for a while and all of that brings this game in to the point where you have to play it over and over again until you finally made it. Kids? -I`m afraid that despite all the joy there is in this title, it delivers very little for majority of gamers, yeah, -gamers. Is first Rayman game too hard? Well yes it is, but not impossible. I would say it is about as hard as first Rock/MegaMan, despite being different on gameplay. It seams that desingers were creating game(play) for themselves and not for the audience that haven`t even heard name Rayman ever before, so yes if you think Yoshi`s Story is hard you should leave Rayman alone until you want to kill him... -Luckily, all this was fixed for the sequels that are most likely the definition how to do platforming for the 3D universe, so while first Rayman is not as good as it should or could have been because it was not playtested properly, it IS up there with the best ones. Personally, i allways get exited when i heard about NEW Rayman game, if i heard one... *VISUALS/GRAPHICS: 10/10 *SOUND/MUSIC: 8/10 *CONTROL/GAMEPLAY: 9/10 *CONTENTS/ENTERTAINMENT: 9/10 *TOTAL SCORE: NINE OUT OF TENRead full review