Rayman 2: The Great Escape

Coming from Rayman 1 to Rayman 2 is like seeing night turn to day. Rayman 1 is much more colorful and pretty to look at with its detailed sprite art and environments, sure. However, Rayman 2 was not only done in 3D, but also with the experience gained from the first, so it’s a very different beast. This one doesn't feel like a commercialized version of devs challenging each other with the hardest stages they could make.

Globox and the Teensies are some of the new
additions to the series that stick around for the
remainder of it.

It’s also a game with a lot more focus on story and building the world of the Glade of Dreams, though in an unexpected turn of events it would end up ditching almost everything from the original game in favor of new characters, items and locations. This would mark a recurring issue of the Rayman franchise, a sort of identity crisis where few things stick around between installments, making it difficult to set a canon (and a tone) for the series. Rayman origins tried to paste everything together, but more work ought to be done about that.

Rayman 2 was first released on October 22nd for Nintendo 64 and PC in Europe, then on the 31st in the U.S., with further releases on DreamCast and PlayStation in 2000, and more ports down the line for PS2, Game Boy Color, Nintendo DS, 3DS and iOS. I have seen the game be played previously, on an N64; so it’s my first time really playing through it, albeit on PC. Let’s see what this game is like.

Rayman 1 (AKA Rayman Forever)

We've waited entirely too long to see Rayman in a game again.

I still have UPlay stuff to get through… I’ve been thinking about playing more Ubisoft games for the blog, seeing as I have so many waiting on that platform alone… I mean, I own 17 games there and only played/reviewed two of them. I’m long overdue for a themed month. Well, the title gives it away: I’m gonna review some Rayman in the coming weeks. Besides, with the announcement of Rayman being added in 2023 to the Sparks of Hope DLC for Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle, I feel this series of reviews is justified.

Nice, I'm already 25% through!

When I said I got all of my UPlay games for free, I lied actually; I bought three games, all three of which were pretty inexpensive. Those are Rayman 1 (also known as Rayman Forever), Rayman 2: The Great Escape, and Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc. For all the time I spent talking about the Rabbids (both the game and all associated media), it’s a shame I spent so little time discussing their parent franchise.

The three games I mentioned are the genesis of Rayman, his humble beginnings as a new platforming mascot from Ubisoft. His first outing in 2D, followed by two adventures in 3D. We know what happened next: Some spin-offs and secondary adventures (Hi, Hoodlum’s Revenge), a long series of mini-game titles (hi, Rabbids), and finally a few highly-stylized titles (hi, Origins and Legends; by the way, if the month is going well, I might tack Legends to the list as I have that one on Steam).

So, today’s game is the one that started it all. Rayman 1, also nicknamed Rayman Forever on Ubisoft’s platform, originally released on September 1st in North America for the PlayStation. The version I’m playing was released on UPlay in 2016, and includes Rayman Designer, a level maker, as well as Rayman by His Fans, a pack of 40 fan-made levels. But what is Rayman 1 like? Oh, you’ll see…