In Rayman’s world, nature and people live together in peace. One day, the evil Mr. Dark defeats Betilla, the Fairy, and steals the Great Protoon, the provider of harmony and balance. The Electoons who used to gravitate towards it lose their natural stability and scatter all over the world. Strange p...
In Rayman’s world, nature and people live together in peace. One day, the evil Mr. Dark defeats Betilla, the Fairy, and steals the Great Protoon, the provider of harmony and balance. The Electoons who used to gravitate towards it lose their natural stability and scatter all over the world. Strange phenomena begin to occur: freaks and hostile characters appear, capturing every Electoon they can find! The disappearance of the Great Protoon also neutralized all of Betilla’s powers, and she needs time to regenerate before she can help in any way. They definitely need a hero to save them, and it looks like you’re it. It’s now up to Rayman and you to rescue the world.
Awesome art style and music but no cuscenes and story (apperently these were cut out of this version). Game is also extremely difficult. Went into this hoping for a relaxing story retro nostalgic trip and ended up annoyed almost smashing my keyboard.
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.
Rayman is the 1995 platformer from Ubisoft entertainment, a game that dared to be 2D at the time were 3D platformers like super mario 64 were taking the gaming world by storm, the first game from the genius mind of Michel Ancel, who would later bring us games like Rayman's various sequels and cult classic "Beyond good & evil", Rayman's story follows the limbless hero of a mystical land as he must stop the devious mr Dark and rescue the great Protoon and the electoons to maintain his peaceful worlds balance, to do this he must travel through imaginative lands including a forest, a land made of musical instruments, even a land full of delicious treats & sweets. as bare bones as the story is, it was 1995, and this was fairly standard for platform games back then.
Rayman features beautifully made graphics and showed how good looking 2D games could look in an age were 3D gaming was taking off. Not only are the lands as imaginitive as can be, but there are a host of colourful characters to help you along your way. Bettila the Fairy will give Rayman new powers, whilst the magician would let you play a bonus level to earn extra tings, and if your lucky, an extra life. The music is also top-notch, believe me, you'll be humming Band land's theme hours after hearing it. however, the music is were Rayman forever also sadly falls, as this is a re-release that was released a few years after the original release, some music tracks present in the original game are missing in this version, but all the same, the music is still top-notch. besides, GOG.com has these missing tracks as a bonus download once you buy the game.
The game controlls fluently, with new powers being introduced in almost every world. and all controlls are rebindable, so you don't have to use an awkward set of keys to play the game, there is also joypad support. The gameplay is geuinely enjoyable, with cleverly designed levels and well hidden secrets such as cages and lives, speaking of lives, you will need them, this game is rock hard, with only ten continues to go off of, and the sadness that if you ruun out of said continues, you may have to start over or try and beat the game on your last continue. this however is no easy task, not only is the game truly difficult, but to reach the last stage, and defeat the final boss you must free every electoon in the game, no easy task, but if your up for it, then this is the game for you.
Rayman forever also comes with a few bonuses, being a second re-release of Rayman, it comes with three games, the original game, Rayman designer, a tool which lets you put enemies and items in levels you create with the Rayman mapper (which you can access on windows by going to start, all programs, gog.com, Rayman forever, Rayman designer, and then launching the mapper, just thought I'd put this here for people who can't find it.) and you'll also get "Rayman by his fans" a collection of selected levels that were created by Rayman's fans with the Rayman mapper.
Rayman forever is an essential purchase if your a fan of old school, rock hard 2D platformers.