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I’ve always heard good things about the Rayman series, but I never tried one. I tried this game because some people claimed it to be a very entertaining series, and found out that indeed Rayman 3 is a very well put together game with a solid story and some humorous tidbits to keep you on your toes.
Graphics:
From the start you can see what kind of game it will be. The cartoonish style graphics set the theme for the rest of the game. When you start the game you can see the weird level design that’s to come. Things sticking out here, some funky stuff going on there, it really is an eye full. The textures on the maps are very well done as well. It definitely adds to the feel of being in another world. Nothing looks out of place; I don’t think anything would in this game. There are a lot of different types of terrain as well, so it doesn’t seem redundant.
The character models are pretty nice. They aren’t detailed all that much, but you don’t see a lot of high-detailed cartoons now do you? There are tons of different characters too; it’s nice to see that there is a variety instead of seeing the same thing repeatedly. The animations of the models are great. You can do so many things with your character and it all flows together almost flawlessly. However the lip syncing in the game is sub par. They don’t match up very well with the text, looks like random mouth movements with speech. Also some characters’ mouths never move.
There are quite a lot of flashy lights and fires going on too. The particle effects in the game are quite nice for this style. Lots of little things flying around, smoke and fog, it looks very good. The water in the game is acceptable. It’s nothing fantastic, but it is enough to get the job done. As you wade through the water you leave ripples, it’s quite a different ripple effect too.
A major problem with this game are the camera angles. A dilemma that seems to attack a lot of games in this genre, this one suffers from crappy angles as well. For the most part they are fine, but there come some times when you just can’t see what you need to see. Unfortunately there is nothing the player can do but to accept this problem and continue on.
The voices in this game are surprisingly well done. It is amazing to see the types of voices people can pull off when the time calls. The comments some of the characters make in these strange voices really adds to the humor of this game.
There is a soundtrack that plays in the background of the game. It has a good variety of music and doesn’t get annoying, which happens a lot in games today.
The sound effects, much like the voices, are out of this world. It brings back memories of watching Road Runner cartoons, all those zany sounds. Great sound effects help enhance a good game. The ambient sounds are good too. When you walk around in a strange place, you hear all these buzzing and other strange noises. They fill any gap, so you are never sitting in silence.
One major problem with the voices is that they can get annoying after a while. Especially one of the bosses, always laughing the same way, frustrates the player more than needed.
Gameplay:
The story starts off with one of your friends eating the evil boss. You must find a way to get the evil guy, Lord of the Dark Lums, out of your friend’s body. This is a unique style of platform gaming. The cartoon style adds to this uniqueness, as well as the added humor. The game offers a pretty solid, yet weird, story, as well as an addicting mode of game play.
The controls of the game, for people like me, are a little strange and take a bit to get used to. However the learning curve for this game is small, so anyone can play it.
The maps for the game are pretty large. They are a vast environment full of enemies and bonuses that you can collect. You find jewels and other bonus in the levels which help you later on. The jewels give you points, the faster and more you collect, the more points you get. The bonuses help you a lot throughout the levels. Some are needed to complete the level, so it’s important to learn how to use them. When you beat the game, or collect certain amounts of things, you unlock bonus levels. These bonus levels include a first person shooter, and some funky arcade style games. This adds to the replayability of the game, if these bonus games strike your fancy.
As you go through this game you meet a lot of different and interesting people. All of which has their unique characteristic. Some are funny, some are stupid, and some are enemies which you must destroy.
The maps load very fast, so you never sit around and wait for levels to load. A lot of time is wasted in other games while waiting for things to load; this isn’t a problem for this game whatsoever.
A major problem of this game is that you can’t save when you want. If you die, you have to start over from the last checkpoint, or cut scene. This becomes a really big problem later on in the game when it takes you forever to kill a boss and then die immediately afterwards.
Multiplayer:
None that I am aware of.
Overall:
This game has given me a whole new outlook on this classic genre. I never thought an arcade/action game could be so different and so enjoyable. It offers so many things for the player that it’s hard to absorb it all. The cartoonish style graphics are a nice break from the immersive 3d graphics we see in a lot of games today. The added humor in the game also adds to game play, a break from the seriousness to have a laugh. The wacky sounds are what you would expect from this game. This game has the total package, minus a few annoyances; it is very fun.
Fans of the series will more than likely enjoy this game. Like I've already said it is very fun and very addictive, so get your homework done before starting this enormous quest.
