Rayman 2: The Great Escape

I have to believe that Ubisoft caught a huge break when they created this masterpiece. But rarely anyone gives this game any credit when I believe that it can easily match both Banjo-Kazooie and also Super Mario 64

It's easy to understand why Rayman 2 is beloved. Graphically, it's a very simple game, full of chunky polygons and simple textures, yet the vibrant colors and general design make it stand apart and look charming. It's full of crazy creatures and quirky characters, and the worldbuilding is a testament to this late 90's period, where imagination and art direction mattered more than graphic sophistication! The level design is also rock solid, every level feels different from the last, and new mechanics are introduced up until the very end: vehicular sections, new useful items, temporary superpowers, minigames... It was a passion project full of ambition, there is no denying that. For the most part, the gameplay is fun and refined (unlike a lot of other 90's platformers!) but it still feels lackluster in a few areas, possibly because it was made primarily for consoles: the way the camera works can be annoying, there is no mouse support for it, and the key binding is really terrible and can only be changed through a recent third-party wrapper. Worst of all, mounts and vehicles tend to be... awful to use: the levels were they appear pretty much demand that you learn them by heart to avoid obstacles – the airplane sections at the end of the game are truly hardcore and feel like they were never designed for a kid to beat! In short, while most gameplay elements are fine even by today's standards, from time a time, Rayman 2 will hit you with a janky segment or a mechanic that will annoy the hell out of you – some of which were cut from later console releases, not a bad choice if you ask me. Although, to be fair, while it's a challenging game, rarely is it unforgiving. It's usually generous with checkpoints and health, so even in its worst moments, the game tends not to get too infuriating. Rayman 2 is solid and full of charm, but can feel outdated and frustrating. Still, it will be great nostalgic fun for people who don't mind grinding their teeth over this type of game.

The controls (1) and the display settings (2). Other than that the game is okay so far. 1. The officially supported control schemes are keyboard/mouse and that's it. Those controls suck but that's more of a problem with the time it came out. However, GOG could've done something as simple as including the dinput.dll hack/configurator that people seem to find good enough as part of the game. 2. There's another dinput.dll file, that you could download elsewhere, that enables gamepad buttons/axes but it only takes Dinput and doesn't allow you to customise those controls either. It is important to me that I play with a custom controller config. because I only have a Dualshock 4 (the Dinput layout is very non-standard) and a Steam Controller (which Steam won't send Dinput signals, even though it sends Xinput signals, which are supposed to be backwards compatible with Dinput). You should never use the configurator that GOG launcher gives you access to change the display settings, instead you will need to run nglide_config.exe and, for the love of all things holy, please turn off "3dfx logo splash screen". I have no idea why that isn't disabled by default.

I've played Rayman 2 previously on N64 and loved it to death. I was so excited to play it again on PC with the full soundtrack and gameplay experience. However, I was SORELY disappointed with how poorly this game runs on my PC. The cut scenes are consistently out of synch with the audio to the point where the scene pauses for seconds at a time while game waits for the audio to re-synch. On top of that, these controls are HORRENDOUS. I'm convinced that a good number of people who gave this version of the game glowing reviews didn't actually play this version sold on GOG. Avoid at all costs, and shame on you GOG for releasing such a shoddy version of it.

Rayman 2 was the first game I bought when I got into gaming. Was initially introduced to the game through a demo that came on a Technology magazine. I was absolutely floored by it then. And the gaming retail scene being what it was then in India I spent months going to the only store that kept games then in the hope of seeing that limbless hero in the gaming section. When I finally got my hands on the game it was sheer joy. Those incredible hand painting graphics, giddily creative platforming, endearing and funny characters all aided by some glorious music.