Rayman® Forever

This game is extremely difficult and unfair, in the way that only true old school classics can be. One has to be prepared to die dozens of times to beat this game. But it is also so very creative, truly a piece of art - the music is great, the sprites look great, animations are great.

There's no music during the majority of game, with music sometimes beginning to play when halfway through a level and then disappearing shortly after. Levels aren't too hard once figured out, but the figuring-out is punishing: - Enemies or obstacles or platforms may spawn out of nowhere, sometimes requiring split-second reactions. - The camera is zoomed in so much that it's impossible to get into any kind of flow on the first few attempts. Jumping from platform to platform elegantly is easier when one can plan ahead instead of having to regain bearings after every jump because the obstacle after that hadn't even been visible before. This impacts level secrets as well; any crevice is either a cage or extra life, or certain death. - One level in particular decides to arbitrarily take control of the camera in the middle of the level and slowly move it to the right, with no visual or audio cue or even any kind of in-game reason whatsoever. Rayman dies when hitting the left edge of the screen. Mastering this game is not about getting better at controlling rayman but rather dying repeatedly to memorize the key parts of a level. Once that is done, the game is a decent platformer. But that still means spending more playtime being punished before getting into the flow of a level.

It is a good game, but not on PC! Here are a few reasons why: It misses part of the full soundtrack that the PS1 and other versions had. It misses some of the graphical effects that the PS1 had. And part of the levels (i guess?). So, in final conclusion, only the PS1 version is worth playing if you're into unfair games. Because it's the definitive version, with all the special effects, like the tings disappearing after you get them, and the music quality is the best, includes the full game with the entire soundtrack. And, the PAL version of the PS1 version even includes an "Ultimate Password" in the end of the game, once you beat Mr Dark.

It's really cool to be able to play this old game without any difficulty. But as other reviews have , there are a few differences that can be really frustrating if you remember the game well and didn't expect it. Not only are some musics missing, but they are not assigned to the right levels ! I clearly remember that the first level didn't begin with that music, but with a more dynamic and joyful one. They also don't seem to loop the same way as in the original game. Some sound effects, like when picking blue pearls, have changed too – the kind of detail which importance you only discover when it is gone : these pearls are useless and I used to pick them only for their sound. Since the major problem with Dosbox versions you can find on the net is the lack of music and/or sound effects, it feels like GOG tried to fix it, but didn't bother assigning the right musics to the right levels and reproducing a game exactly as the original, which is what I'm looking for.

Rayman, for me, was and still is a legendary platformer. Even up to this day this game looks and plays just fine for a 2D platformer! With brilliant level design, and OST & graphics which fit exactly the world'd mood and atmosphere, not much of a story or any background, just straight to the point platforming fun with increasing difficulty and challenge. Not many manage to do whay Ubisoft did back then (And even Ubi themselves) I did find a few drawbacks in this current version, having usually played the original release: *By default, this comes with NO MUSIC. You CAN revert this manually after some googling and tweaking with the game files - but that's a shame, *After doing so, the music doesn't play exactly as it did on the original version *Somehow the original release played much more smoothly. Somehow this release runs with some stutters and FPS drops. *They've completely dumped the intro & ending videos As a compensation(?) Forever comes with two additional levels packs: Gold and Rayman by His fans, plus a level editor if you're willing so much. The levels are not bad but are sometimes with questionable quality. Especiallly in the Fans pack, I've notices many of the levels are kind of replicas of each other, and I'm not sure what's the point of including all of them. The concpet of the "new" levels is generally to collect all Tings and find the exit sign which would appear later. Some of the levels are pretty fun, some are tedious. Some made the levels more "open" in a way it's not too clear where to go next, and you must explore around and find your way, which is sometimes nice. It's generally nice to have some additional levels, possibly more for the hard-core fans. All in all, it's good to have the option to play this classic up to these modern days.