Rayman Review

One day, the Great Protoon - the Toon your entire world revolves around - is kidnapped. Adding insult to injury, Betilla the Fairy's powers are stolen, preventing her from bringing joy to the world. As Rayman, it's up to you to release the imprisoned Toons, collect life-giving tings, and face the villainous Mr. Dark. Succeed, and your world will be revitalized. If you fail, you, Betilla, the Great Protoon, and all of your Toon friends face a world of enslavement. Quite a heavy plot for a Game Boy Color game, sure, but Ubi Soft's Rayman is up to the challenge.

Across the game's seven multistaged levels, you'll run around, jump over, climb over, and float past a variety of obstacles, usually of the bottomless-pit or floating-monster variety. Indeed, Rayman is as faithful to the archetypical platform game as you can get. Walk forward, jump, climb and shoot - that's pretty much all you have to work with. Though this kind of gameplay isn't revolutionary, the responsive control, the diverse array of power-ups, and an engaging plot help make Rayman a worthwhile game.

Some people will find minor gripes with the game's obstacle repetition and lack of boss characters, but these faults don't greatly mar the overall experience. Whether you're swinging from rings, floating over spikes with a helicopter, or jumping from vine to vine, Rayman just exudes fun.

As GB platformers go, the graphics are usually mediocre. Rayman, on the other hand, laughs in the face of this stereotype and delivers exceptional visuals. Levels are lushly drawn, giving the impression that you really are traveling through cartoon forests, dangerous dungeons, dark caves, and dank caverns. Rayman walks with a fluidity resembling that of televised cartoons, while his variety of stationary poses and taunts continually delight the senses. From the fluidity of swinging across rings to dangling from rock formations, the GB Rayman does its past Saturn and PlayStation counterparts much justice.

While the Game Boy Color's greatest weakness tends to be its sound chip, Ubi has also managed to imbue Rayman with enrapturing music and appropriate sound effects. Jumping, punching, climbing, and water-splash effects are particularly impressive. Musically, the game is wonderful. Each level has a different background track that befits the overall scenery of the stages within it. The initial forest-level music is a mixture of New Age and catchy cartoon beats, whereas the fiery-depths stage possesses an oppressively catchy, spooky backbeat.

Rayman isn't too complex, but his various abilities, coupled with a heartwarming quest, makes for an enjoyable game. Furthermore, the game drips with replay value due to the required back and forth travel across the game's seven levels. You'll literally explore each level three or four times with newly acquired skills and power-ups, and you'll find something new every time. Furthermore, if you have a second Game Boy unit and an Ubi Key-enabled game title, you can unlock an entire additional level within the game. Had Ubi included a few more sound effects and a bit more creativity, it might have released the ultimate platform title. As it stands though, Rayman is exceptional in its own right, and one of the better titles to hit the Game Boy Color in recent history.