Rayman video game professional#

After a while, the levels start to imply a colder setting and the background skies go from dark to lighter. You fight off Stone Men and Stone Dogs while avoiding sharp and volcanic rocks, and within the first level, you’re chased by the third area’s boss, Mr Stone. It’s how I remember Rayman 2, but just really twilight and night-oriented. Mists and stars and pillars with celestial designs carved into them. I’m really not exaggerating when I say the scenes are something you would see in a dream. There are polar lights going on in the very starry background, and all of the foreground is just as gorgeous mountain terrain with vague patches of snow. The art for this world is nothing short of extremely beautiful. The third world consists of a mountainous area called “Blue Mountains”. The first level in Blue Mountains, Twilight Gulch It appears Rayman is great at making friends. Once beating him, even he ends on a positive outro and starts to dance with Rayman. After a while, you come across great meditating monks that are using their powers to create platforms for Rayman to jump onto. As the levels progress, you eventually make your way up into the air.

Not only that, but some of these levels start to get pretty fast paced, making the player really think fast, but hard, and even gives the player a new mechanic to work with, which is the ability to fly with Rayman’s hair like a helicopter. On top of new enemies, there are new music related obstacles and puzzles for the player to really use their wits in order to finish. However, this is where the game expects the player to get more creative. In this level, the enemies still consist of Hunters and Antitoons, but on top of the introduction of Evil Eyes that shoot lightning at you and appear through the rest of the game, and various music related enemies, such as Sneezing or Yawning Trumpets, Cymbals, and even Wrong Notes.

Rayman video game professional#

As a kid, the level was always really fun, but as an adult, and a professional musician, I’m really loving the music aspect of the level. The platforms all look like either snare drums, staff lines, or other various music related stuff. Next up is Band Land, and holy moly guacamole, by this point, the memories are all flooding back. (A mechanic that was utilized efficiently throughout the entire series). Afterward, he allows you to fly on his back until the end of the level, where you meet Betilla again, to get the ability to swing from flying hoops in the air.

After you beat him, you end on a pretty positive note though, as Rayman actually cheers him up and I think even gives him a high-five. Finally, you come across the first boss, Moskito, who I always thought was a pain in the ASS. After a while, you meet Tarayzan, and he gives you a magic bean useful for the rest of the level. Eventually, you meet the other protagonist, Betilla the Fairy, who gives you the power to hang onto ledges, something really useful for the type of platforming the game has. It’s this shaggy photographer DUDE looking dude that takes your photoboard picture that resembles a surfer. What really gave me nostalgia was the CHECKPOINTS. The enemies are either swampy creatures like piranhas or plants, or humanoid safari looking characters called “Livingstones”, “Antitoons” which are little black bodies running around that recur throughout the game, and Hunters (literal animal hunters). They take on a murky swamp, but the scenery is very beautiful. The first levels are real easy, purposely to serve as an introduction, but when I played them, let me say, I was instantly flushed with so much nostalgia. The player, Rayman, is able to walk around and jump like most games, but the main aspect of the game is you can throw your fist to punch enemies and bring it back like a boomerang. The third level of The Dream Forest: The Swamps of Forgetfulness After all of this, I’m finally ready to jump back into gameplay. Afterwards, once you press start and create your game, a clip plays of a magician explaining the entire situation, that the antagonist has stolen all of the world’s positive power, but I’ve always skipped it as it’s way too corny, even for the 90s. Right after, a pixel animation of Rayman plays of him running around, showing Rayman is a man with no limbs, only a body, head, hands, and feet, all floating around each other to move, which is the basic cartoon premise of every character in the game, including the creatures and inanimate objects. Immediately, the game opens up in the familiar UbiSoft intro that feels so alike to the 90s “THX” style bloom theme, and I’m instantly in love.

After all, I originally played it on the household computer, so it felt right to stick with the platform today. Rayman’s first title was released under many versions in 1995, including the Atari Jaguar, the Sony Playstation, and the Sega Saturn, but the main release was for MS-DOS machines, so I decided to stick with a DOS build to play.