In the pantheon of neckless video game characters, this fellow is definitely near the top.
Rayman 2 is the series’ first foray into 3D platforming, as the first game (originally released on the Atari Jaguar, of all things) was a sidescroller. It is also, mercifully, before the series was figuratively overwhelmed by these little bastards:
I’ve said this in other contexts, but it’s true here, too: I bet you can probably *hear* this picture.
There were a whole lot of 3D platforming games in the late 90s, and a lot of them are *really* rough. It was very common to have extremely monotonous gameplay, a character that’s needlessly hard to control, or a camera that’s extremely unhelpful or unpredictable. Some games had all three of these! Thankfully for me, Rayman 2 has exactly none of these issues.
The game is set on…you know, I’m not sure.
Earth? Sounds kinda like Earth. In any case, “Earth” has been taken over by pirates, who have scattered lums, a race of firefly-esque beings who control all the power in the universe or something, all over the world. There are 1,000 of them in total, along with new abilities and weird characters, spread across a bunch of varied levels. There’s a lot of standard platforming fare, but also a good amount of simple puzzle solving, enemy battling, and other types of travel, such as this water skiiing-esque sequence:
In this and other sequences, the game does a really good job of making sure you can see what you need to see. That may not seem like a lot to ask, but you’d be amazed at how severely a game can be ruined by camera problems. The camera in Rayman 2 is usually adjustable (except at points where it definitely shouldn’t be), but I rarely found myself needing to change it – it’s an unusually smart camera for a game from this era.
In addition to having a good variety in its levels, Rayman 2 also just has a lot of levels – over 20 in all, including bonus ones. They tend to be pretty big and densely populated with items, enemies, and secrets. This also led to one downside I noticed a few times, which is that checkpoints can be a bit far away, leading to some excess re-tracing your steps if you die at an inopportune moment. If that’s the worst thing I can say about a game, though, that’s really not so bad.
If you’re into 3D platformers, Rayman 2 has pretty much everything you could ask for – it controls well, there’s a ton of stuff to do and collect, and the camera won’t screw you over. There’s a better-looking version for the Dreamcast if you have one of those, as well as differently remakes on the PS2 (Rayman Revolution), the DS (Rayman DS) and 3DS (Rayman 3D). The portable versions weren’t particularly well-received, but if you simply must have Rayman 2 on the go, you have options.
The latter-day Rayman games, such as Rayman Legends, are also phenomenal, and return the series to its 2D roots. They’re easily among the best platformers of the last decade, and if you have a console that can play them you should absolutely do that.
Next week’s game is an NES title inspired by the Zelda series, but probably not in the way you think. See you then!