Rayman® Forever

Rayman is simply one of the few Junp 'n Runs that have done everything right. And because this was one of my first games, I was never happy with another jump 'n run (exept for Captain Claw maybe). But this game is just outstanding. The music is very good. Even today when I'm happy, a music piece from Rayman pops into my head (haven't played it for a year). The level design is also very good and particularly rich in variety. This game is of course an old one, but in my opinion it still looks nice. The animations are very smooth and the sourroundings are also nicely drawn. All in all I can say that I don't see a single bad thing about this game and beating it is still a challenge.

As other reviewers have pointed out, the lack of music here really detracts from the experience. I didn't think it would, but there are gaping awkward silences and stop-start music sections.

For those giving low scores because of the music, it was not Gog's fault. Most of you very likely experienced the original Rayman on the Ps1/Saturn, which is the only complete version. Most PC releases of the game had vastly different changes on the soundtrack, either missing tracks or combining multiple tracks into a single long one, resulting in some tracks being less likely to even be heard on a normal playthrough. Gog has to work with whatever files they are provided by the Publisher and it's not their fault, that they received the botched PC releases from Ubisoft.

I owned Rayman back in the days when I had a Sega Saturn. It belonged to my series of favorite side-scrolling adventures. I found the game very entertaining and very beautiful. If you ever played Donkey Kong Country, you can relate Rayman to this game very much - but without the monkeys and bananas. The story is simple: Rayman, although he has arms nor legs, has to restore balance to his world by setting free the encaged Electoons. Each scene of a world holds a number of cages with these funny creatures; sometimes they're in plain sight, sometimes you have to look, and look, and restart the level with new powers and look again. In order to advance to the next level, you need to save a certain number of Electoons. You begin the game with only the ability to jump. But as Rayman meets the fairy Betilla, he gets new powers along the way, such as flying and punching. If adventurous enough, Rayman can even find hidden paths to secret scenes. The graphics are very beautiful compared to the standards back then; and even if they may seem dated now, the humor, beautiful colors, atmospheric music, and bizarre enemies make up for it. I am very curious what this special edition has to offer regarding the new levels. If I would have to name one negative aspect of the game, then it's the save system. You have to complete several scenes before you can save your progress, which can sometimes be very frustrating if you are in a tight spot with no lives for spare. The soundtrack was available on my Saturn disc as a CDDA track, which meant I could just put it in my CD player to listen to it. Yes, it's that good so it's a nice bonus feature that GOG has included here. If you were out to get this game, don't doubt about it: this is a gem right out of Ubisoft's vault.

I thought this package included the rayman designer mapper. But apparently not. 5/5 if you didn't want to make any levels (which kind of ruins the whole point of including 'Rayman by his fans'), but 2/5 if you are like me and wanted to be creative. :(