RETRO – I never understood how that particular fat plumber had such a huge popularity, whose adventures was also considered to be the epitome of platforming games. It is undeniable that Super Mario is one of the biggest stars of the genre. Lucky for us there were other franchises that tried to rock the throne of Mario, and one of them was a strange little creature called Rayman that was created by French developers.

Just like Mario, Rayman is not a new franchise: The first game was released in 1995 for MS DOS, Atari Jaguar, and for the PC. The PC version was a hit, and back then the platformer genre did not have a lot of serious “players” on the PC besides Jazz Jackrabbit, and Rayman. While mechanically Jazz Jackrabbit was better, in terms of humor, and characters the little French creature was better. Although the franchise had its ups and down: A lot of 2D remakes, and expansions later the first 3D sequel was released.

Rayman 2 was an okay game, but was not a huge success. Only Rayman 3: Hoodloom Havoc was able to correct the quality of the franchise, but it still did not bring a huge profit for the company. Rayman never became a true mascot like Super Mario, even though he is a likeable and funny character. The reason why Rayman is alive is because the side characters had their own game, and became a huge hit. Rabbids dominated Nintendo’s Wii, and later the other consoles, which resulted in the actual main character being put on the bench for a while, however now is that time for him to shine again!

“Ummm… well there is an actual story”

Rayman games never had a stellar story, in fact they became famous for their funny, and weird game worlds, perfect controls, and gameplay mechanics. This is not different when it comes to Rayman Origins, where even though the subtitle Origins is featured, we do not really get too much information about Rayman.

Not that it really matters, as you’ll be jumping all over the perfectly crafted levels that look astonishing in 2D. So you will not care too much about the story. However there is a basic plot: Rayman and his friends are resting on a tree in the Dream of Forests, when one of them snores too loudly, and upsets their neighbor (an evil witch). The witch decides to unleash her monsters all over the world, and kidnaps Rayman’s friends. Basically this is the story, and Rayman will have to save his friends from the evil witch.

Jump!

The controls in the Rayman series have always been the best in the platformers, and this is true in this entry. I did not get angry once when I messed up something. As the controls with the gamepad for Rayman are really precise. In every world we will have to save a sexy Nymph, who will provide Rayman with new skills such as: boxing, swimming, shrinking and other skills that we will need to progress through the levels.

All of the worlds will require to use these skills, and by the end of the game you will have all of them. The game drips the difficulty perfectly to the player, and never spikes in difficulty. The player will be able to learn the abilities of Rayman gradually. More than sixty levels will give us the opportunity master everything, and once you get hooked, you’ll be barely able to leave the game.

This is 2D?? You guys are joking right?

Besides the perfect controls, the game will also keep the player in front of the screen are the unbelievably great, and immersive hand drawn graphics. All of the characters look really detailed, and the backgrounds are colorful. The animation is also first class, and if you ever had doubts about 2D games, well after five minutes with this game those doubts will disappear.

Sometimes you’ll have to stop playing, just to admire the details of the graphics, and the art design. There will be five unique worlds for us to explore, and all of them are really charming.

If there is no Rainbow Six…

…here is Rayman! With our hero (and his unlocked friends later), our objective is to save all the taken electoons (I could fill a page on who they are, and where they are from, but basically they are the small smiling pink creatures). Besides them we have to collect Lums (again ins summary: they are gold colored smiling creatures) that follow us until the end of a level. Just to mix things up a little, if you find a Big Lum, all of the Lum’s value will double. Of course many of the levels monsters will not take these escape attempts lightly, and will try to get you. Besides the old witches’ reincarnation, we will have to deal with tentacles from the water, weird spiky plants, and crazy gunslingers.

What will happen to you Rayman?

Michel Ancel’s games (for example Beyond Good & Evil) have a particular issue: They are really great, but they can have lackluster sales and fail. Well Rayman is not a bad brand, but it is not strong enough to deal with the year end stars. While Rayman is not just for the younger generation, Origins will probably be for them.

-BadSector- (2011)

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier, Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Casablanca

Genres: platform, action,

Publication: 15 November, 2011,