Rayman® Forever

When I first bought and downloaded Rayman GOLD from GOG.com, I expected it to quite simply be a port, of sorts, of the Playstation X-version of the game. Sadly... I was mistaken. I can't claim to be omniscient when it comes to the PC-version of Rayman, but having played it on PSX through-and-through, it felt VERY different on PC from how it was on PSX. The music was off, looping the same track over and over, if it played at all. The controls were (at best) poor, and the sound felt stale and jagged. So sadly... this game is not as good as it should be. The Playstation X-version still reigns supreme over the fairly buggy and unreliable PC-version.

**Disclaimer (I have never played the old Rayman series) First Impression: I went into this game blind, and man this game is misery. I like a challenge, but I dislike games that make you die (to see hidden platforms etc) so you can progress. Visuals **** (nice and nostalgic, but some of it blends together too much; spikes vs platforms etc) Controls *** (not as tight as I would have expected, poor collision detection) Sound **** (solid all around) Story **** (Interesting world, very enjoyable and funny too) Fun Factor * (yeah, this game just isn't much fun for me.) While I know some folks enjoy insanely difficult games, I can't help but feel it takes the fun out of why I sit down to play games in the first place. Endless repetition/memorization isn't my idea of a good time, but more power to those that find it enjoyable. Color me disappointed, I expected a more well rounded game.

I love so much about Rayman, and this is a bloody good release just for the sake that it's Rayman and more people should play it. Beware, people that have played Rayman before. Some of the songs were cut from the soundtrack in order to make room for more game when the Forever CD was released. The whole soundtrack is included as MP3s, but if you already have Rayman I would rethink purchasing this.

The game worked initially after purchase, but after a recent Windows update, the game no longer loads and DOSBox continues to freeze upon loading the game. It's a real shame, since the game itself is brilliant!

There is nothing wrong with the game, an easy 4/5, 5/5 if it weren't for the brutal difficulty, but this GOG release really isn't worth it. You have to manually add the music because otherwise there is NONE, which is unacceptable. This isn't GOG's fault so to say since they released Rayman Forever as-is. But there are numerous other problems as well; only English even though this absolutely had a German and French release, the DOSBox cyclespeed is too low, strange clicking noises while loading, Rayman 60 level pack is omitted etc.