A very hard, but fun and entertaining platformer for the PS1
The story goes that the Electoons have been knocked out of orbit from the great Protoon and this is causing havoc in Rayman's world. So our hero, Rayman sets out an adventure to rescue the trapped electoons. But standing in his way is the evil Mr Dark.
Rayman has a set of uniquely themed worlds, each of which have four levels with a few different sections. Each world is uniquely themed. There's a swampy forest, world comprised of music bars and instruments and a world comprised from writing equipment. The design of some of these levels is really imaginative.
Rayman's abilities are to jump and shoot with his fists which act a bit like boomerangs. As you progress you will learn more abilities such as being able to get Rayman to hover with his hair and sprint.
You advance through the levels jumping from place to place and using and dodging obstacles in your way. You also have to try and smash all of the cages containing electoons. Some level sections have some specific gimmicks to help separate them. One has you riding a mosquito through a swamp, one gives you unlimited flight, another has you in a pitch black cave and you have to use a glowing fist power up to light the cave up.
Rayman's gameplay is fun and has a nice charm to it. However the game is incredibly difficult and I've only managed to get so far (second last world) by using the infinite continues button combination. The game is hard because it's just a hard designed game, but sometimes the way it handles makes it harder than it should be leading to unnecessary deaths. If you want a challenging game, you'll find it here. Maybe I just suck...
The graphics are sprite graphics which are very bright and colourful and this really adds to the imaginative design of the worlds in the game. Simpel graphics, but very effective.
The music is outstanding. Some of the tracks are absolutely beautiful and the more calming tracks certainly make the harder portions less stressful. Easily one of the best soundtracks of any PS1 game ever.
The game doesn't control perfect, I can't really put my finger on it. But it feels a bit stiff for me.
So all in all, Rayman is quite a simple game, which manages to be quite satisfying. It's difficulty level provides a challenge and will certainly keep you playing the game for a long time before you finish it. With an absolutely amazing soundtrack and a very unique charm, I suggest you go and try this game.