C
codacious
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1. Ori and the Will of the Wisps ( 8.5/10 )
2. Rayman 2 Revolution ( 8.5/10 )
My first time playing this one, and wow, I def have a lot of thoughts on it. I feel like this is a game with both highs and lows. I'll start with the visuals:
The atmosphere can be amazing at times. My favorite area was the Sanctuary of Water and Ice, just an incredible area that's easily one of my favorites in video games. I also really liked The Fairy Glades, and the marsh/swamp and fire/lava areas were pretty good too. The sections where you're gliding downward with Rayman's helicopter also stood out to me as feeling incredibly cinematic feeling for a platformer. Overall, though maybe there were a few misses, I feel like the character/enemy/object designs were all really well-done too. Basically, this has some of the best art direction I've ever seen for a platformer...sometimes.
There are a lot of other areas, especially later on, that tend to blend into each other. Lots of pirate fortresses, pirate ships, etc. These areas feel much more dull/less vibrant to me than the other areas. Which leads me to, that a lot of the environments in this game have a very dark vibe to them. As much as I like some of the areas like mentioned above, pretty much all the other areas feel pretty dark, or dull/bleak. Even the marsh/swamp and fire/lava areas have some of this too. It's unfortunate, because overall I think the game has a really interesting art style, and there are some amazing areas in there, it's just there are also so many of these dark areas which kind of blend into each other and aren't as memorable/interesting to me.
The gameplay is mostly really good. It starts off as a pretty simple, easy feeling platformer, but the difficulty quickly increases, leading to some legitimately hard sections later on. It reminds me of games like Pac Man World 2, or Mario Galaxy 2, where the levels are linear but there's also some openness to them, more than something like Crash. I love the Crash style too, but I also really like the mix here you get with some obstacle-course style platforming, but also some openness. Rayman also has some really unique, nice feeling movement. It might be cool to get some kind of forward momentum move like the roll jump in DK/Jak and Daxter, slide jump in Crash, long jump in Mario etc. But Rayman has this really nice sense of lightness/bounciness to him, and the helicopter ability is great. I also really like the touches of him flipping in the air, and rolling on the ground as he lands. I usually don't even like floaty characters that much, but Rayman's movement really worked for me here. If the gameplay was like this the whole game, I'd really have no issues with it.
Unfortunately, it isn't just platforming like this. There's also a pretty large amount of combat. I already like platforming a lot more than combat in general, and I guess the combat in this game isn't horrible, it's just really repetitive and nowhere near as fun as the platforming imo. You essentially just spam the fire button, and strafe/jump a bit. Since it's a pretty early 3D game, the lock-on targeting system can also feel pretty janky at times. In general, it feels like they were trying to come up with a lot of different ideas to keep things fresh. While sometimes this is really good, since it leads to a lot of variation with the platforming, it also leads to stuff like the combat, or...missile shell rides. These might be the most stressful parts of the game for me. It isn't the best feeling to move anyway, but the environment feels so sensitive, like even touching the air around a wall will cause the missile to explode. There are later flying missile shells which feel extremely hectic to control, and they even use one of these in the final boss fight. Definitely something I'd like to see completely redone in a modern remake, or better yet removed entirely.
Well, overall, it might seem like my feelings on this game are completely mixed, but the positives do outweigh the negatives for me. Overall, despite the issues I have with it, it's a very unique and memorable game, and even a top 10 contender for me I think. I'd love to see a remake, or just another Rayman game in general. It's a series that I'm starting to get pretty into, I just wish Ubisoft had that same interest lol.
Edit: Also, this is the Revolution version of the game, which is basically a PS2 remake. I guess most things are probably the same, but some big differences too, most notably that instead of a level select there are 3 big hub world areas. I guess I was mixed on the hub worlds, it's kind of cool how they add to the world, but they could also be a little confusing sometimes about where to go, and I'm usually someone who prefers a more level-based style anyway. It would be interesting to play the original level-based version and see how it feels different, hopefully they release it on N64 NSO for Switch at some point.
2. Rayman 2 Revolution ( 8.5/10 )
My first time playing this one, and wow, I def have a lot of thoughts on it. I feel like this is a game with both highs and lows. I'll start with the visuals:
The atmosphere can be amazing at times. My favorite area was the Sanctuary of Water and Ice, just an incredible area that's easily one of my favorites in video games. I also really liked The Fairy Glades, and the marsh/swamp and fire/lava areas were pretty good too. The sections where you're gliding downward with Rayman's helicopter also stood out to me as feeling incredibly cinematic feeling for a platformer. Overall, though maybe there were a few misses, I feel like the character/enemy/object designs were all really well-done too. Basically, this has some of the best art direction I've ever seen for a platformer...sometimes.
There are a lot of other areas, especially later on, that tend to blend into each other. Lots of pirate fortresses, pirate ships, etc. These areas feel much more dull/less vibrant to me than the other areas. Which leads me to, that a lot of the environments in this game have a very dark vibe to them. As much as I like some of the areas like mentioned above, pretty much all the other areas feel pretty dark, or dull/bleak. Even the marsh/swamp and fire/lava areas have some of this too. It's unfortunate, because overall I think the game has a really interesting art style, and there are some amazing areas in there, it's just there are also so many of these dark areas which kind of blend into each other and aren't as memorable/interesting to me.
The gameplay is mostly really good. It starts off as a pretty simple, easy feeling platformer, but the difficulty quickly increases, leading to some legitimately hard sections later on. It reminds me of games like Pac Man World 2, or Mario Galaxy 2, where the levels are linear but there's also some openness to them, more than something like Crash. I love the Crash style too, but I also really like the mix here you get with some obstacle-course style platforming, but also some openness. Rayman also has some really unique, nice feeling movement. It might be cool to get some kind of forward momentum move like the roll jump in DK/Jak and Daxter, slide jump in Crash, long jump in Mario etc. But Rayman has this really nice sense of lightness/bounciness to him, and the helicopter ability is great. I also really like the touches of him flipping in the air, and rolling on the ground as he lands. I usually don't even like floaty characters that much, but Rayman's movement really worked for me here. If the gameplay was like this the whole game, I'd really have no issues with it.
Unfortunately, it isn't just platforming like this. There's also a pretty large amount of combat. I already like platforming a lot more than combat in general, and I guess the combat in this game isn't horrible, it's just really repetitive and nowhere near as fun as the platforming imo. You essentially just spam the fire button, and strafe/jump a bit. Since it's a pretty early 3D game, the lock-on targeting system can also feel pretty janky at times. In general, it feels like they were trying to come up with a lot of different ideas to keep things fresh. While sometimes this is really good, since it leads to a lot of variation with the platforming, it also leads to stuff like the combat, or...missile shell rides. These might be the most stressful parts of the game for me. It isn't the best feeling to move anyway, but the environment feels so sensitive, like even touching the air around a wall will cause the missile to explode. There are later flying missile shells which feel extremely hectic to control, and they even use one of these in the final boss fight. Definitely something I'd like to see completely redone in a modern remake, or better yet removed entirely.
Well, overall, it might seem like my feelings on this game are completely mixed, but the positives do outweigh the negatives for me. Overall, despite the issues I have with it, it's a very unique and memorable game, and even a top 10 contender for me I think. I'd love to see a remake, or just another Rayman game in general. It's a series that I'm starting to get pretty into, I just wish Ubisoft had that same interest lol.
Edit: Also, this is the Revolution version of the game, which is basically a PS2 remake. I guess most things are probably the same, but some big differences too, most notably that instead of a level select there are 3 big hub world areas. I guess I was mixed on the hub worlds, it's kind of cool how they add to the world, but they could also be a little confusing sometimes about where to go, and I'm usually someone who prefers a more level-based style anyway. It would be interesting to play the original level-based version and see how it feels different, hopefully they release it on N64 NSO for Switch at some point.