Game Reviews
Articles
Code Bank
News Flash
Fan SceneWho We Are
The Paper Game Mag
Links
Feedback
Search
Home
|
I've heard a lot of great things about Rayman, so I made sure to check into getting my hands on a copy, and let me tell you, I'm impressed. Ubi Soft, a newer video gaming company, jumps into the industry with this incredibly cute and unique platformer, providing innovative game play paralleled by no other than Mario. The game play provides more fun than any platformer I've seen. Rayman, the character you control, is a living grape (from what I can tell), and his personality is showed superbly. The adorable sound effects that come from the character just make you think of him as a Saturday morning cartoon character, and although many games are declared as "a playable cartoon," I can tell you that this is most definitely true with Rayman. The graphics are made up of bright pastels and you often find yourself laughing at the zany sound effects and cute enemies. There is even a button you can push to make faces at enemies! As you play through Rayman, you will find that certain areas can't be reached. This is because you must backtrack to the level after you've acquired new abilities. When beginning the game, you're limited to making faces at enemies (!), but later you can gain the ability to punch enemies (your main means of attack), grab edges (to pull yourself up), and swing from rings in the air. It's fantastic. The graphics are a sight to behold (made of cartoon-like shapes, NOT polygons) like mentioned above, and I especially thought highly of the music and sound effects. I found myself playing the game just to listen to the music. How breathtaking. The only catch to all this greatness is the difficulty and frustration level. The enemies of the levels are difficult to defeat and very annoying. You often die while just trying to hit them once! On top of that, enemies are overly-plentiful. One level simply has them everywhere, and this often causes a surge of silly sound effects to blare from your television speakers - sounds of Rayman getting hit by numerous enemies. How impossible! One level of Rayman places you in a level with slippery floors. It's difficult to avoid enemies in here (like all the levels, but even more so here) and one series of jumps has fans blowing you from the left and right. The player ends up spending ten minutes trying to scale the heights of the level, all while their frustration boils higher and higher. It's really unfortunate that Rayman is so dreadfully difficult. To sum it all up, Rayman makes for a great game playing experience, but it often ends in a broken controller and a PlayStation that has been abruptly switched off. This didn't happen to me, but I suppose it could for some. The humorous sound effects, enchanting soundtrack, and beautiful visuals enhance the game play a great deal, even though the game play is enough to make the game great itself. Check into Rayman if this sounds like fun to you. Just make sure you have a low frustration level. |
Articles
Code Bank
News Flash
Fan Scene
The Paper Game Mag
Links
Feedback
Search
Home
We want to hear from you! E-mail the Editor of Game Mag at gamemag@kcnet.com.