Wow, this game...i mean, this cartoon is...so...immersive O_O
The Robo-Pirates, lead by Admiral Razorbeard, have invaded Rayman's world & in their havoc they've broke the heart of the world into 1000 Yellow Lums, 1000 Yellow Spheres.Rayman is held prisoner along with Globox(a funny blue creature) on the Airship of the Robo-Pirates.Then Ly, the Great Fairy chooses Rayman to be the saviour of the World.On the ship, Globox takes out of his mouth a Silver Lum granted from Ly that gives Rayman powers so he can escape from Razorbeards Airship.Now that he's free, he finds Ly the fairy that tells him to find the 4 Mask of Polokus, the spirit of the World, the "Father of all knowledge" lol.With these 4 Masks he can defeat the Robo-Pirates.At the end of the first level, Rayman meets the Teensies, some weird creatures that guide him through the Hall of Doors, the Overworld of this game.In order to advance to the next level, Rayman must gather enough yellow Lums.Some of the lums are free, others were traped in cages by the Robo-Pirates.There is a total of 20 Stages, something like that & if you get all the lums from a stage you unlock a bonus level.At each level you are guided by a flying thingy that gives Rayman hints about gameplay, you can summon him by standing on a special type of rock.Rayman has a special ability:he can transform himself into a "choppa", by rotating his ears.You can do this only in mid air.At some levels, Rayman can ride a rocket that resembles a dog but in order to ride it, you must first tame it.When riding, if you hit something the rocket will explode & so you are forced to start the ride all over again.Rayman can also swing to Purple Rings, that can be unlocked or summoned by Ly in order to reach unnacesable areas to advance through the level.The hardest levels are the 4 Sanctuaries where the 4 Mask of Polokus are beeing held.This levels are full of puzzles a la Indiana Jones.My favourite level is probably where Rayman drives the Airship in order to find Globox's children lost in 4 Different Underground Mines.Another fun part of the game is when you Ride on a big plum on rivers or molten lava rives.At the last stage, before the Final Battle against Razorbeard, you ride one of those above mentioned rockets that transforms into an airplane & you feel like you're in Star Wars.You ride at high speed & lasers fire behind you.The level The Canopy resembles Autumn, it's very immersive & you are joined by Globox which summons temporar Rainstorms to extinguish fire, he sounds very funny when he does the incantation.The final battle sees Rayman fight against Razorbeard that pilots a huge Robot.
Time has been generous with this game.The graphics are still great & everything looks sharp.The first levels create an atmosphere similar with the one from Warcraft 3-Reign of Chaos, everything is green, you're in nature, highly immersive.The music is sometimes funky, at other times it's jazzy, at other times symphonic, scary etc, it has a varied soundtrack.The camera is great, you can rotate it left & right, it's not automatic like in SM64.
Rayman 2 is a classic, an "interactive cartoon", one of the best transitions from 2D to 3D & one of the Greatest 3D platformers ever made.