Top 12 Video Game Environments

Like any story, video games are subject to feature a myriad of environments of all kinds. Need your story to take place in a populated city? In a desert? In a factory? In the sewers? There are so many options! One thing about video games is that by their composition, they can often feature multiple environments. Remember Super Mario Bros. 3: Grass, desert, islands in the ocean, a world of giants, a world in the clouds, an ice world, a maze of pipes and a fiery world! There is a very wide variety of locations that can be visited.

I doubt there’s a game out there that has them all – there are so many! Although their strength lies in how they're used. so it’s interesting to see how a developer approaches them. I recall Rayman Origins, which I reviewed two weeks ago; it had a desert world made of musical instruments, and a food world that also included frozen and burning lands.

I decided to pay tribute today to my 12 favorite video game environments. The ones that allow for the most creativity, the ones that offer great visuals. The ones that are tied to the plot, the ones that tend to be memorable. Considering that there’s at least three dozen different possible environments, I had to carefully pick my choices for the list, so if there’s an environment you like that is missing from the list, be sure to share it!

12. Locomotive Levels

Jump from a car to another, and don't fall on the
tracks. These wheels are deadly.
Screenshot from: Road Runner's Death Valley Rally

Instant danger: Have the characters travel across things in movement – like, say, the top of an airplane. But that’s kind of outlandish even for video games, so let’s settle for a train instead. Plus a train could actually be long enough to make levels of a decent length. Trains make for interesting 2D platform scrolling levels – as long as you don’t mind the blatant lack of wind pushing back on the hero, in some cases. Oh wait, did you mean “inside” the train? That’s possible too. Less jumping there, more fighting – I could see the interior of a train wagon being a set in a beat’em-up game. But the top of the train is bound to be a dangerous place, one where the winds play against you. Not to mention the possibility of falling off!

Note, if your game or show is set in a mostly realistic world, don’t do that. Ask Archer.

11. The Lethal Lava Land

Fire everywhere, lakes of lava, artillery everywhere,
and a nopn-stop sense of dread. But our target audience
is kiddies, so we can't call it Hell.
From: Super Mario Bros. 3

Speaking of conventions and physics conveniently ignored for a cool world idea… The convection would kill someone in real life! Merely standing near lava is enough to die, there’s a reason no one goes near that! But in video games, lava is usually harmless as long as you don’t directly step into it. Therefore, it’s perfectly possible to feature multiple levels in such locales. Due to the destructive nature of fire, this tends to be the setting for final worlds in many games – what’s better than a world of friggin’ fire? Some go even further, featuring literal Hellish imagery, making it effectively a world of fire and brimstone. It fits, no? I rank it pretty low on the list because it’s a very common setting, and most gamers can attest to seeing this at least once. Now, though, the really great thing is if you actually apply the physics and have the main character lose life points by just being near the lava if they’re unprotected, like in Super Metroid…

It's not just magma. It's alien magma. That makes it worse!
From: Super Metroid.

10. The Eternal Engine

What are those smashing pieces of machinery and these
spiky wheels for? We'll never know.
From: Rayman Origins.

Is it a factory? It can be. Is it a villain’s lair? It also can be. What it is, though, is a giant machine that is never turned off. A machine so large, you can run, jump and fight your way through it. Giant cogs, worker robots, moving parts that can crush and break any intruder… And of course, since it’s never turned off, one can only imagine how hot it must be in there, from the machines that have seemingly been working for eternity – hence the name. Now, will you enter an eternal engine that looks like it was made in the Industrial Era, or will you walk into a sleek, futuristic place? Probably the former more than the latter.

9. The Most Heavenly Level

You know things have gotten bad when even the Afterlife
is endangered.
From: Super Paper Mario.

The opposite of the Hellish world, the Heavenly world. For some reason, Heaven is just as dangerous as Hell. Is it because of the angels? Is it because the demons have overtaken it? Is it because the characters have no choice but to meet their maker in order to solve their problem? It’s like the solid cloud platforms of a level in the sky, with added symbolism. Throw in some temples for good measure. Maybe do like in The Simpsons Game and have the Simpsons battle folks like Benjamin Franklin or Shakespeare? You could also create a Stairway to Heaven like in Super Paper Mario and have the heroes jump upwards towards Heaven. Gotta say, though, one has to be gutsy to be heading out to beat up God.

This level from The Simpsons Game went
a step beyond and had you battle in
the afterlife the dead opponents you
killed in previous levels. Awesome idea.

8. The Ice Palace

Doesn't look very "Ice Palace"-y.
The slippery floors would beg to differ,
From: A Link To The Past.

Even better than the ice world: The castle made entirely of ice. A perfect fortress for the local cool king or queen. A lair formed by the crystallized, frozen water. Its interior could have been made through magic, to create a beautiful interior with decorations and all. Or, it could look like it’s been handcrafted by a thousand mooks, with the finesse of a jackhammer – in which case the inside may feel like a natural ice cave, no matter how pretty the outside may be. Places like this aren’t unheard of in real life, either; in Quebec, during our winter festival, an ice hotel is built each year, so I can buy that some ice-based villains get themselves a cozy, cool place to live in. Or build it themselves. Obviously, not all of them are Elsa, not all of them can build from snow and ice in a matter of seconds, but please! A bad guy commands respect, and thus a respectable lair! If possible, a lair that follows their theme. Thus, ice palace.

7. Band Land

My wheels! These piano keys, they do nothing!
From: Mario Kart 7 (Music Park track)

It’s a common locale in Rayman games, but it’s been seen in various other games: Simply put, it’s a world entirely made of musical instruments. Platforms make sounds when you land on them. The trampolines are bongos. The enemies follow the theme in a way or another, either by being instruments or by toying around with nearby instruments in the décor. Level developers will frequently show off their creativity here, featuring every single darn instrument and musical element they can fit in. Be careful, though. Music can reveal itself to be quite the vindictive kind…

6. The Maze

Going back to the Mario well... Remember the Forest
Maze? The toughest part is to follow Geno and
remember where he went.
From: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.

They come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes they’re built in such a way that you return to the start if you lose your way. Mazes have always been an interesting element to add to a game, and they can definitely give that little boost in difficulty. On top of that, mazes can be applied in many genres – top down action game? Yes! Metroidvania? Those can sometimes feel like one huge maze where you can’t progress until you’ve found the equipment necessary – forcing the player to visit more areas of the maze to find what’s missing. Platform games? Oh yes, it’s entirely possible. Remember Level 8-4 in the first Super Mario Bros.? You had various rooms connected by pipes, and had to find the right path! What about World 7, the Pipe Maze, in Super Mario Bros. 3? It’s also very easy to turn dungeons into mazes, whether it’s in action-adventure games à la Legend of Zelda, or in RPGs. Other Mario example: Anyone remembers the Forest Maze from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars? Mazes can be infuriating to visit in games, but they nonetheless offer a very interesting experience – as long as you don’t quit in rage from not finding your way out.

5. The Amusement Park of Doom

In Video Game Land, always check who owns the park that
you're about to visit. Or you're gonna have some nasty
surprises...
From: Sonic Colors.

Another favorite of book and film action climaxes, the amusement park. Moving parts much like in the eternal engine, giant machines normally built for the enjoyment of the masses – only to become deadly to our adventurer! The Ferris Wheel will try to kill you! The haunted house will contain actual monsters! What about the security? …What security? If it exists, it’s probably hostile to the characters. The bright and colorful landscapes of amusement parks makes them an ideal location for a level, or two, or five, or more – amusement parks are common level types in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, often bundled in with the casino-themed levels. Sonic Colors takes place entirely in an amusement park! Ah, no matter how tempting it is, our poor heroes can’t take a break by riding the roller coaster…

4. Hailfire Peaks

The trope namer, featuring frozen tundras and fiery caves
in close proximity.
From: Banjo-Tooie.

This list has had fire; this list has had ice. Opposites attract, and nowhere is this truer than in video games where physics can be bent to great effect. Thus we have a world that is all-cold on a side, all-hot on the other. You could argue the logistics of that place don’t make much sense… but it makes for a friggin’ awesome setting. At one point you’re helplessly slipping left and right on the surface, avoiding the waters so cold they burn like dry ice… and moments later you’re in a fiery world, dodging streams of flames and jumping above the lava. Now, the name of the trope actually refers to any video game world that combines two regular settings (fire and ice, desert and music, temple and mountain)… If the two portions blend together, it can result in worlds and locations that have never been done before in video games! But I do have a preference for the fire-and-ice combo, I think it’s one of the more interesting mixes in video games, even if it’s one of the most common setting combinations.

3. The Abandoned Laboratory

Some freaky amoral things have been going on here.
That's, like, the most frequent reason for laboratories to
close down in fiction. Realistic reasons, like a lack of
funding, are far behind.
From: Undertale.

As a huge science-fiction fan, I associate laboratories with scientific experimentation and study. And also, laboratories are where the most amoral experimentations can take place. Freaks created from a geneticist doing things he shouldn’t have done, creatures born from unholy combinations. Dangerous machinery all around. Of course, you wouldn’t expect the original scientist to stay in this Hellish place, so most such laboratories are abandoned – and old enough for the walls to be dusty and cracked. The lights have stopped working long ago, giving the location a creepy atmosphere. And you can never tell what is lurking in the dark… what may be the monsters you’ll encounter. Many video game settings have a horror element to them (the ghost mansion, the creepy circus), and the abandoned laboratory is a shining example of those, as long as the developers know how to use the setting to its fullest.

2. The Macro Zone

This is an example of a game where your character is
naturally small, so everything else is big.
From: Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers (NES).

A bit of an unexpected entry, the Macro Zone is any occasion where the Hero steps into a world much more gigantic than themselves. Maybe they shrank; maybe the world they’re in is naturally bigger in every way; maybe they’re naturally tiny and only now are they stepping into the big world. Rats become large enough to be bosses, tiny toys become enemies to defeat, and everything has to be scaled. It’s like World of the Colossus. The Pikmin franchise is famous for this, and so are various other game series that have featured a few worlds based on this idea – as a big Mario fan, I can list off World 4, Giant Land, in Super Mario Bros. 3, as well as the Micro and Mario zones in Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins; one is a house visited while Mario is shrunk, the other is like a toy box made gigantic.

1. All the Worlds Are A Stage

Imagine that every single one of these connected rectangles
is a stolen piece of land from plains, peaks, volcanoes,
abandoned zoos, towers, and so much more.
No rhyme or reason, just all connected together by
doors.
From: Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

The video game equivalent of settings being back for the finale: When all the previous locations somehow merge into one. The Great Maze in Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s The Subspace Emissary is the biggest example (literally so, being a 2-hour long level), but other games achieved this in different ways. The fight against Zant in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, as an example (video below), sees Link being teleported with his enemy and battling him in previous boss areas. It could also be a way to reminisce on previous locations, by seeing them all together – it’s even better if they’re still in the same order. A wonderful throwback to an adventure that is coming to a close, a nice reminder of trials and challenges passed, or a strong return of many of those (as this type of level may often feature the puzzles encountered in previous levels, or the bosses defeated previously). I always thought this particular type of level was enjoyable for those reasons. Sure, they can be frustrating – if, say, the levels return with an increased difficulty, or if this particular setting drags on – but they’re well worth it.

Alright, that was my list. I hope you enjoyed. Tell me, are there video game settings I could have forgotten? Cutting it down to 12 means I had to take out many, many interesting video game settings. Are there any others that you enjoy, that you would have put in your own Top 12 list? Feel free to share them!

Steam Pack 4

I’m back with another of those, yes! Why, you ask? Well, because I had time to play some other games in my collection since the last one. Yes, I know, it’s only been… er… six weeks? So what, I have so many Steam games – so many that I got almost for free, others that were pretty cheap… if I want to get through this humongous collection, at some point I’m gonna have to speed up a little. And if making more Steam Packs is what it takes… then, why not? Here, have my thoughts and comments on four more titles in my Steam Library. I’m hopefully gonna get out of the Bs and Cs of my collection soon enough!

Beat Hazard

I wish spaceships in real life could shoot bullets
that threw out so much color into the depth of space.

Audiosurf let you ride your music. Made by Cold Beam Games, Beat Hazard sets a complete shoot’em-up to your music. In some ways, it’s better. In others, it’s worse. Ever since I reviewed Audiosurf last year for Steam Pack 2, I found myself less and less interested by it as I soon realized that the game was too easy even on Normal difficulty (I got so used to moving around catching colored blocks that the game didn’t seem all that tough now, except on the hardest difficulty). It got monotonous after a bit. Meanwhile, Beat Hazard manages to be even more creative… and even more difficult, which is always welcome.

Oh, and fear the bosses, because those can be a pain
to fight. Especially in the special Boss Mode.

Here, you are a little spaceship floating in deep space, and enemies come at you from all around the screen, in rhythm with the music currently playing. A level usually starts with a few floating asteroids, after which actual enemies show up. Then the enemies get stronger – we get some that actually shoot at our ship, then we get some that are equipped with magnets attracting our ship to them, or pushing it away. Then we get others that release a dozen ship-seeking missiles when destroyed. Others fly around the screen, releasing little destructive spheres. What about these that look like worms, with indestructible heads, forcing the player to destroy only the body segments? Oh, and let’s not mention the few different types of bosses that can appear mid-track for you to battle!

Thankfully, like any good shoot’em-up, you’ve got a wide selection of spaceships to use in this quest. Some are slower but pack a bigger punch, some are fast and can easily avoid projectiles, and some others shoot instantly as soon as there’s an enemy on the screen… And so you can see them all explode into bits, leaving colored lights in the blackness of space in the background. Blow up a whole ton of enemies and see the world around like a mural of explosions of color! So much light, so much brightness! Thank God I’m not epileptic, or I’d be having a seizure! Hell, even without epilepsy, this thing hurts the eyes!

"Complete 3 tracks on Insane"? Sounds alright.
I'll just pick 30-second tracks. Oh, what? I have to
pick a song longer than 210 seconds? I'm doomed!

If you’ve got the Shadow Operations Unit DLC, a whole new world opens for you; all the available ships in the hangar come with three missions to complete (whether it’s collecting a few million points in total, beating bosses, that sort of thing – most of which require you to avoid dying). In-game, you can collect 10$ powerups that get added to your “wallet”, with which you can buy upgrades for your ship, whether it’s extra bombs and lives when you start a level, bigger score bonuses, and extra powerups like enemy-seeking missiles, repellent shields, or death rays. However, you can only equip a number of those upgrades, so choose wisely! You can even use that money to unlock two harder-than-hard game modes, labeled Insane and Suicidal… just in case the game wasn’t already hard enough as is. Oh, there's also a multiplayer mode, if you have a friend to share the fun with.

...This is so bright! And what an impressive boss!
...But where the **** is my ship?

For, you see, this game is pretty hard. It’s a very awesome idea to have the music radically change the incoming enemy waves from a track to the other. Things can be pretty hectic, though, especially if the density of enemies on the screen makes it difficult to see incoming weapon blasts and other attacks. Worse even, remember when I said that enemies exploded into colored lights? Well, that too can make it hard to spot the deadly blasts. The intensity of these flashing lights can be bothersome too – and while you can set that intensity anywhere from 50% to 200%, even setting it at the lowest doesn’t help much. Your eyes might tire after a while playing this game. Thankfully, if you’ve got a big collection of music, and a desire to buy and complete the Shadow Missions, you’ll have hours upon hours of fun. All in all, despite these small issues, I find Beat Hazard to be pretty damn awesome – as long as you’re not epileptic…

If you’re interested, you can buy the base game for 9.99$ USD, or buy the bundle that also includes all DLC for 16.99$ USD. Enjoy!

BEEP

Hello WALL-E! Oh, it’s not WALL-E? Well, it sure fooled me!

Ready to explore the universe... or overtake it.

Big Fat Alien’s indie game BEEP is a story set in the future, where armies of robots were sent to explore the galaxy. These robots have jet engines to float, a cannon to shoot at hazards, and an antigravity beam to move around giant rocks and other pieces of the surroundings. Since the spaceships can build an endless reserve of BEEPs, there’s no worrying if you lose a few… or many. Someday, a BEEP ship finds a solar system that can be visited…

And thus BEEP begins. Your task is simple: Collect bits of antimatter. There are four in every level, with three that can be found by exploring, and one that is created by gathering all the smaller pieces in that level. You need them to unlock new areas. And thus, BEEP visits various worlds, collecting antimatter, needing 60 to unlock the final world.

For such a small robot, BEEP certainly has a lot of room
inside for these many large bullets.

The game turns quickly into a puzzle platformer, a term you’ve most likely heard already as it’s a popular indie genre. It soon becomes necessary to drag around items with BEEP’s antigravity beam, in order to reach higher ledges and get more antimatter. Not to mention every time where you need to move a bunch of things around. Later levels include even more elements of puzzles and precision games. And indeed, per video game rule, things get pretty difficult as BEEP gets more antimatter and unlocks planets closer and closer to that solar system’s sun. From the early. grassy lands, to the fiery pits of Hell of a planetside that always faces the Sun… have fun exploring these 24 levels and collecting all 96 antimatter parts!

The game ends as your umpteenth BEEP finds an alien tower on a moon near the final planet. That place contains the control command for all the enemy robots met during your robot’s journey. Upon learning that they eradicated all biological life in this solar system, BEEP decides that they must be dealt with… and thus heads out to these robots’ home world. The adventure continues!

Well that sure looks like a planet on which life forms
had a chance to survive...

It’s a concept we’ve seen many times before, a puzzle platformer protagonist who’s able to move around elements of the scenery in order to access the next areas. On this, BEEP does fairly well, presenting some puzzles that really make you think about what you have to do. The 24 levels, spread over six very different worlds, are pretty fun to visit, and BEEP’s abilities make for interesting gameplay. However, the difficulty is increased in part by the fact that BEEP has only six hit points, and by many enemies having also their fair share of HP, especially the wheeler robots that will shoot at BEEP whenever they see him, and take at least four bullets to go down. These are, without a doubt, the biggest obstacle after the many endless pits. Also, while the camera can be moved left and right to view upcoming sections, you also move around stuff through the anti-gravity ray with the mouse, making it impractical when the camera controls decide to play along. And of course, BEEP often has to move while the anti-gravity ray is working, making it often difficult to move an item properly… All in all, not a bad experience, there are definitely some good elements in this, but it’s rather middle-of-the-road. You can check it out on Steam here, if you’re interested. Right now, it’s free… If you buy a large bundle comprising many other games, which I’ll all be reviewing someday for the blog…

Biodrone Battle

We had a robot on a mission… so here, have another robot on a mission. Sort of. In Biodrone Battle, from indie developer voodoosoft, you control a machine in an abandoned lab (Or arena?). Your robot is grossly under-armed for the task, possessing only a basic cannon and a weapon that takes control of other robots… wait, what? That’s actually pretty cool! You can possess other enemies and use them on your quest! Okay, it's cool... on paper, at least.

Tell me, is there anything of interest here?

There are 21 floors in the first mode, named Man or Machine, with a few rooms being unlocked when you’ve collected enough keys. You usually have to defeat all the enemies on a floor in order to complete it. That’s how you get keys, I suppose. A task that isn’t helped by the large amount of hit points the enemies have – and the simply insane speed at which they can shoot bullets before you’ve had time to deplete their life bars! All robots have their own playstyle, and it becomes possible to switch between those collected thus far at will. Not like you’ll actually see much of that… Most of the rooms are in complete darkness, with the lights coming from the robot you control as well as a few shining points here and there.

No?

It could be an interesting concept. But the execution is so damn dull. There is simply nothing of interest here. There is little music to get you pumped and willing to go forward, and the environments are grey and boring. The worst part about this one, though, is the difficulty. You can barely make it past the tutorial, with how brutal the opponents can be. The first few enemies encountered can kill you in mere seconds, while you need a number of hits to kill them! You “could” try a stealth approach, but it’s tricky since, as I mentioned, your robot emits freaking light! In this completely dark environment! Most of the time, you’ll get killed brutally either by an enemy that you didn’t see in the dark, or cornered with no way to fight back efficiently. It’s not even worth playing past a few floors…

Oh. I died. I got bored by this one in record time anyway.
On to something better.

…oh sure, you could try, if the game didn’t decide to stop you in your tracks. I’ve been lucky not to run into any glitches, but apparently those are common in the game. I did have issues connecting to the single-player mode, seeking a server to play in... for a game that’s not nearly popular enough to need a multiplayer mode and servers, much less 9 of them! It’s incomprehensible!

This… this is just bad. Seriously, don’t buy it. But if you must, well, it’s over there on Steam, where you can waste spend a dollar on it.

Choice Chamber

Let’s end this on a game for all you streamers out there. Choice Chamber, made by Studio Bean, allows full interaction with a streamer’s audience in order to personalize the single-player adventure. Every once in a while, a question pops up on the screen, offering a choice. The viewers respond to it, and after a certain length of time has passed, the most popular option comes in to impact radically the game.

Nondesript alright. Not like the character needs much of a
personality for this game, anyway.

In Choice Chamber, you follow Nondescript Unnamed Colorful Protagonist #274, as they go from room to room. Enemies pop up at random, kill them all, move to the next room. Collect special hearts, refill your health, learn to use your weapon. Every playthrough should be different! Just be sure to amass an audience that will make the game worth it. Would be a shame if you connected the game to your Twitch account and ended up voting by yourself on all the changes, by posting in your own chatroom…

Destroy the enemies! Your fans want you to!

How far can you go? How many rooms can you cross? How long can you last until you lose all of your hit points? Aim for a high “score”! (If you equate “score” to “number of rooms”…) New option: Do you want more normal enemies, more flying enemies, more large enemies? Do you want more hit points, more speed, more strength? Best case scenario, your viewers fight for the control of modules that will follow the character around and protect them from the monsters!

There’s even a multiplayer mode where you can race against another player to the top of a tower to climb, with the viewers’ choices still affecting the gameplay. All of a sudden, sticky platforms! Or maybe icy ones? No, wait! Bouncy ones! And this can lead to a fairly long race, too, with the length decided before the game starts.

Literally powerd by your fans. Or dictated by what your
viewers decide. Either way, no fans/viewers...
not much of a way to play.

All in all, it’s a pretty great concept; the game looks polished, pretty – I quite enjoy the art style – and has decent music. Unfortunately, it’s one of those games that is best played when you’ve got an audience. And not every Twitch streamer can brag about getting a large enough audience to make this game worth buying and playing. Oh, certainly, it’s fun if things work and you have anywhere from 5 to 80 people watching you and commenting – and the game will keep track of every response – but if you can barely get an audience of two or three people… well, good luck getting any enjoyment out of this game… Without interactions from viewers, the game is bland at best. If you are not a streamer – obviously, don’t buy it. If you are a streamer but you can’t get an audience worth it – again, don’t buy it. Only buy it if you can have at least some people contributing to the choices in the game. After all, this costs 10.99$, and it would be a shame if you bought it and ended up never using it…

Well, this covers all four games for this week. Be sure to tune in next Friday for a Top 12 list!

Rayman Origins (Part 2)

"Et-lat e-may out-way!" Yeah, if you want to understamd
most of anything said by the voice actors in this game, you
got to brush up on your pig latin skills.
Ouldn't-shay e-bat oo-tay ard-hay, o-nay?

I spent most of Part 1 explaining the various elements of Rayman Origins, like the levels, and everything the Electoons are used for… I guess everything else will be discovered as we go through the game’s plot! I only covered the first three worlds, so there’s got to be something more in the 8 remaining worlds, right?

Past Gourmand Land, we reach the Sea of Serendipity. Immediately, we’re shown a land of pirates, and we save another nymph who gives Rayman the power to dive! You heard that right, folks; at the start, Rayman couldn’t punch or fly, and he couldn’t even dive underwater. He had to learn these things by saving nymphs!

He's got a point there! Less bones to break!
Plus, Rayman has everything else that matters.
And I do mean everything else.

It’s almost silly that he had to re-learn many of these things, since Origins chronologically takes place between Rayman 2 and Rayman 3, at a time where Rayman probably had some of these abilities already. We also get to learn a couple things, especially through the Bubble Dreamer Polokus’s comments: Apparently Rayman has no limbs because the nymphs, who made him to be the protector of this realm, ran out of Lums and thus only made the important parts. Arms, legs? Who needs that, right? Also, who knew that Globox is supposed to be colored red like the other wizards we see from his species, but a weird berry he ate turned him blue?

Only the Rayman series can make that stuff up, folks! It's good to have that comical edge in the mythos.

The Sea of Serendipity has a very distinctive soundtrack – so far, we could hear the Lums singing in the music of the previous worlds, but this is where they become very clearly audible. Oh gee, I didn’t know Alvin and the Chipmunks had been reduced to singing on video game soundtracks. And is that someone drowning in the background of this track? Uh... let’s move on…

These sages should be happy. Yeah, their beards are tugged
in a pain beyond belief, but at least they're not on this
ultra-dangerous adventure.

Past this world is the Mystical Pique, a mountainous area that also houses a monastery, where several of Globox’s wizard fellows can be met. Believe it or not, they’re floating on air. And their beards can be used as vines to jump from platform to platform, too! Rayman’s world is the land of ultra-strong beards that never rip off. In the Mystical Pique, Rayman saves the fifth nymph, who teaches him how to run on walls! Hurray, now Rayman can replicate Sonic! And look at that Mario loser, only able to wall-jump… Rayman can do that AND run up walls too!

We>'re eventually gonna defeat that thing... we just need to stay alive and
stop fighting each other. Easier said than done.

Advantage of nymphs: They're all hot.
Disadvantage: They all have the exact same body type.

At the end of this world, Rayman defeats a golem and opens the next world… Moody Clouds? Actually no, as Rayman enters that world’s first level and finds the nymphs trying to open a portal to the Moody Clouds. There’s only one problem. The four sages of the lands are unresponsive, having morphed into giant unspeakable creatures - without their power to rely on, the portal stays closed. And thus Rayman needs to defeat them in order to access the Moody Clouds, where the true enemy lies.

On this, four new worlds open, each connected to one of the previous four worlds. This is also where the game stops holding back. You want it difficult? You’ll get it VERY difficult. This game has infinite lives, and you’ll need every single one of them. I swear I must have spent over a thousand lives in this game, possibly even more, I died so often.

That trailer's not even one hundredth of the ways to die.

The Jibberish Jungles open the way to the Ticklish Temples, you can access the Grumbling Grottos from the Desert of Didjiridoos, the Luscious Lakes are just across Gourmand Land, and the Sea of Serendipity hides the Angsty Abyss. Each one of them has a King of a realm of Rayman’s world, transformed and given a monstrous form by the mysterious mastermind behind this mess.

The Ticklish Temples house Daisy, the cute, flowery lord of the jungles. Only problem is, it’s been turned into… this:

Sheesh, is that what it looks like before putting on makeup in the morning?

And that is how a giant, threatening monster loses all
dignity.

The battle starts with Rayman fleeing from Daisy by taking altitude. Later he gets trapped in an enclosed space with the monstrous plant and must fight it. This is where I realized, during my playthrough, something that tends to be a recurring issue with ultra-difficult games like this. See, Daisy’s pattern never changes regardless of what Rayman does. First it yells, then it rams into the leftmost wall, and Rayman has to run up the wall on the left, jump to the ground, run up the wall on the right to smash the weak point appearing on Daisy’s forehead. Next it climbs on the ceiling and smashes its head on the exact same spots in the exact same order, then Rayman smashes the new weak point that appears on its ass. Then Daisy jumps forwards and backwards, always in the same manner, then attacks with its tongue and the last weak point is in its mouth. It’s always the exact same pattern regardless of what you do.

After realizing this with the boss fights, I realized the same happened in most of the later levels, especially the ones that had tons of obstacles always appearing in the same spots and using the same tricks. Beating every level in Rayman Origins for the first time is a grueling, difficult task - in the last 5 worlds especially. Beating them again becomes easier and easier as you learn the patterns. Then you will breeze through most of them. Enemies in games like New Super Mario Bros. Wii have enough programming leeway that they can still make the game difficult (as an example, Piranha Plants shoot towards Mario, not in a precise direction), but in platformers where the environment is the hero’s greatest enemy, and said environment always behaves the same way, the challenge gets diminished every time you beat one particular level and learn wat it does, and when it does it.

Well, that was a rant!

Here's a dragon stomach in serious need of TUMS.

When Daisy is defeated, it reverts to a tiny, cute form. Aww, adorable! That’s one saved King, time to go save the others. We face the Mocking Bird again at the end of the Grumbling Grottos. The Luscious Lakes end with a battle against a giant dragon – or, well, a fight against the weak spots in its belly, with accompanying rising and sinking lava and waves of freaking fire, because no matter where Rayman is, everything wants him dead. And of course, once it’s beaten, the battle isn’t over, then you have to make Rayman run out of its mouth. Again; patterns, learn them, because the obstacles are always in the exact same places. Then, we fight the final King in the Angsty Abyss, a tiny shrimp that became a giant dragon-like monster shrimp.

Allergics beware, this is a King Size Shrimp.

With all four Kings saved, the way to the tenth world, Moody Clouds, is open. What awaits for us in there is a land of clouds, of course, as the name indicates, but it’s combined with a factory-like place containing robots and giant deadly machinery. Then again, that’s fine, it’s just the 666^th deadly thing in this world.

Yup, definitely a fan of Mister Dark.
Just check those posters behind him.

Rayman runs through a few engine levels, and then we get a sequence of levels making up the “final dungeon”, if we can call it as such. In “The Reveal”, we arrive in the room where the true villain appears: It’s a Teensie known as The Magician. A big fan of Mr. Dark, apparently. May or may not have hatched this entire plan only because he was bullied at wizard school; the beta script for the game is kinda unclear. Why is it such a twist? Because the Magician... it's also this same guy, who followed you around to track your progress all this time, and was overjoyed at your successes in collecting Lums and Electoons.

Can you say "Traitor all along"? I mean, I knew something
was up once I realized he wasn't sincere when dry-humping
the big tube full of Lums.

Mechas of all the bosses so far?
Yeah, no... weonly have two.
Can you imagine the insane cost for parts and maintenance?

Not out of resources, the Magician sends Rayman down a floor trap, and the limbless wonder has to battle mechanical versions of Daisy and the Mocking Bird from earlier. With these beaten, Rayman runs back to the Magician’s room. Caught off-guard, the enemy drops his hat, realizes he’s cornered, starts bobbing his head, and then dances. Yup, dances. Much like how other Rayman enemies just break into a dance number when they’re beaten. So wait, since the Rabbids let Rayman join in their musical competitions so easily, does that mean they were always defeated from the get-go? I’m probably overthinking this. Rayman embarks on the dance number and has a fun time until the music ends… at which point the Magician flees. Oh, crap! He played us! But that’s alright, we can follow him.

Fleeing from deteriorating evil lairs is intense workout,
even for big-name video game heroes.

What follows is a sequence awfully similar to the Treasure Chest Chase levels, where the pattern of the level doesn’t change whatsoever, and Rayman isn’t allowed a single mistake as he runs, jumps and swings among the falling debris of the Magician’s Tower. It’s just as hard as the later treasure chest levels, too! You need ungodly precision to pull it off. Still, Rayman catches up with the Magician, who jumps into a flying boat to flee some more. Rayman gives chase on his trusty Moskito, shooting at flies and bombs on the way. Hey, are we ever gonna get to battle that damn Magician and his damn ship? Technically, we get to weaken it, but we can’t stop it.

Sun-shattering kaboom in 3... 2... 1...

It eventually reaches the end of its course… that is, breaking the glass around a miniature burning star in the deepest of the Moody Clouds factory… shattering it, destroying the entire goddarned factory in the process. All four playable characters (Rayman, Globox, any Teensies) fall from the sky… and land right in the spot they were in when they were loudly sleeping at the start of this entire mess, going back to their raplike slumber. Nobody knows if the Magician survives, and it seems that nobody cares. But wait, aren’t the inhabitants of the Land of the Livid Dead still angry?

AKA the land of Never-Catch-A-Break.

That’s okay. Beat the treasure chest chase level in every world, collect the 10 ruby Skull Teeth, bring them all back to the skeleton blocking the way to the Land of the Livid Dead, and then enter that level… which is, by far, the most brutal one in the game. It starts with a quick platformer section with attacking boney grannies, then  Rayman has to run and jump through a section that involves a giant skeleton spine speeding through. That part continues with a lot of high-flying, which would remind one of these chest-chasing sections… also, a lot of running upwards on falling platforms. Every single part of this requires precise timing. The next area? FIRE. FIRE EVERYWHERE. And you must carefully run across platforms, than navigate your downward flight to avoid streams of fire… but you can’t be too slow because there’s a goddamn spiky vine chasing you downwards!

Somewhere out there, Mario is watching with his mouth agape,
while Kaizo Mario brushes it off as "no big deal".

That's one Hell of a tough-looking boss.
What do you mean, it loses all of its eyes in one turn if
you're fast enough and then it just has one big weak spot?

Thankfully, the final room in this enormous level is just another boss. Big Mama, the “Mother of Nightmares”, awaits here, bathing in a pool of lava, staring at Rayman with her 15 eyes. Much like the level that preceded it, the fight against Big Mama is all about patterns and the player’s reaction speed. After Rayman runs a bit on Big Mama’s spiky arms, the weak point appears only for a half-second. Punching it which brings the hero close to her eyes – and you have to pop them all! Thankfully you have enough time to pop them all in a single turn, but if you must go through the sequence that precedes this, just know that it never really changes. Again – patterns. Popping all of the eyes triggers a second sequence of arm movements for Big Mama, then the weak point shows up again, and then you can pop the big weak point on Big Mama’s forehead, which transforms her back to her real form, from a gigantic monster to a… gothic nymph who actually looks pretty cool? She quips that this was a nightmare – oh, ha ha, I went through all that trouble and died 150 times in the Land of the Livid Dead alone just to hear that joke, totally worth it. And thus, with this, I can say we’ve seen everything the game had to offer.

This whole game is a nightmare... the first time you play, at least.
Nice hair bones, by the way.

…Oh, of course, you can now go hunt every last missing Electoon, as well as every medal (for collecting the maximum number of Lums in every level) and trophy (for beating the best time in every level). All for bragging rights, of course. And two extra playable characters with the remaining Electoons.

Quite a lot of levels to explore, spread across 10 worlds.
(Technically 11, if you count the Land of the Livid Dead)

So, my verdict of this game? It’s pretty damn awesome. Hard enough to make you pull your hairs out, but awesome. Seriously, this is hands-down the hardest platform game I’ve ever played – although its difficulty is greatly diminished after a first playthrough. As soon as you know the game by heart, it’s not much of a challenge anymore. You could say that it’s true of every game out there, but it’s particularly noticeable in Rayman Origins where the world itself wants to kill you, perhaps moreso than the enemies – but since the world’s behavior in a level hardly, if ever, changes, if you know what’s coming, you’ll never have any issue avoiding the various death traps. It’s different from other platform games where the enemies and their AI lead to risks of death as soon as their behavior is a little less predictable. The first time you’ll play this game, however, you will think of it as insanely difficult.

Multiplayer does make the Moskito sections easier.

What is really awesome, though, is the option to play with up to three friends. Michel Ancel took inspiration from other multiplayer platform games released around that time (such as New Super Mario Bros. Wii), implementing a similar system where characters who die reappear in bubbles and can be saved by other players. The creator of Rayman felt, however, that many of these recent games lacked a form of player rivalry; you could jump on other players, toss them around, but never actively harm them; thus, in Rayman Origins, he made it possible for players to smack around and punch each other, with actual life losses. As if the game wasn’t already hard enough! Still, I applaud the idea, I agree with Ancel that some games would have benefited from that little extra possibility for rivalry.

Gotta admit, this all looks really great.

The art is simply fantastic, the game is an absolute treat, a marvel for the eyes. Things couldn’t get prettier than that… well, until we get to Rayman Legends where they give 3D lighting to the 2D models to give an awesome style. The lands to explore are wonderful, helped by the ton of detail put in every environment. It’s especially great seeing as said environment tends to move a lot, making things even more interesting to look at. The music greatly complements this, even changing mid-level depending on the mood of the new area Rayman entered. They even manage to be funny with some of these tracks, adding elements that you might only notice when listening to the track alone!

16 playable characters, 246 Electoons to collect, eleven worlds, multiple challenges… Honestly, this game is awesome. You could buy it on Steam for 19.99$... Or, if you got lucky, you could have received the game for free through Ubisoft’s UPlay platform. In which case, play it! You will rage, you will swear, you will probably give up and then come back, and then you will enjoy it.

Next week… a surprise Steam Pack!