Even though slightly dunned down, this PS1 port of Rayman 2 is still an absolute classic.
The story revolves around a bunch of pirates lead by the mechanical menace, Razorbeard, enslaving all the inhabitants of the world. Among them is Rayman. With assistance from Globox , he escapes to learn that the only way to restore harmony is to find and return the four masks of Polokus.
The game play of Rayman is very straight forward. Get to the end of a level. Rayman can run, jump, use his hair like a helicopter to glide and shoot energy spheres from his fists. Simple moves which are very well executed. There are many levels in the game. Most of which have a unique theme. You have a forest, a lava reef, an aquatic level, a mountainous level a cave of bad dreams etc.
Throughout the levels, as well as the usual jumping gaps and finding hidden switches and smashing cages to release some Yellow Lums, the levels have gimmicks which help them feel unique and keep the game entertaining. For example you can go water ski-ing across marshes with the help and a water snake, riding a zooming rocket with legs like a horse, catching wind turbulance to fly instead of glide and even ride on a plum accross lava. The game is very imaginitive and is overall great to play.
If you ever played the original Rayman 1, one thing that probably stood out was the insane difficulty. While Rayaman 2 is still a hard designed game (not compared to the extent of the original game though) it is very forgiving. Whenever you fall off a cliff to your death or exploded you only loose part of your health bar and respawn at the last checkpoint. That health bar also seems to take forever to drain and if you do die, you appear to have infinite continues, so the game will not punish you if you find it too hard.
Graphically the game is pretty nice for PS1. It has some pretty nice effects. There are a few graphic glitches here and there, but the graphics are nice for PS1.
The game does also have a very good soundtrack, with the music changing at several places throughout the level. The music ranges from the catchy stuff to the stuff that adds to the vibe of the game.
It controls pretty well. All the mechanics and moves click perfectly and the camera never poses as a problem.
As mentioned earlier, this is a dunned down version of the DreamCast/N64 version. Can't say anything about the N64 version, but I have played the DC version. That version has levels which are noticeably longer and two levels which weren't included in this one all together. There is also a PS2 remake called Rayman Revolution. The biggest addition was a hub world to try and break the game up and stop you finishing it too quickly. But the levels are largely the same as the ones found in this DC version. It's interesting to play the game in a slightly different way though.
Though a dunned down port, Rayman 2 on PS1 is an absolute classic, and one of the best games the system had to offer. The game play is just tons of fun. An absolute must have.
Milesprower2K9 - original reveiws