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Written by Ian Johnston
Byline: The limbless hero is back again, in a fun - yet flawed - adventure.
Platformers have come a long, long way over the years. Though the 2D platformer is a dying breed, there's definitely no shortage of 3D platformers, especially on the PlayStation 2. In fact, 2002 was a seminal year for the 3D platformer. Fantastic games like Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus, Ratchet and Clank, and Maximo really raised the bar for the entire 3D platforming genre.
Compared to the aforementioned games, Rayman 3 holds its own but doesn't quite measure up. The level design is a bit uninspired at times, the gameplay can be tedious, and the dialogue is incredibly cheezy. Conversely, the in-game music is fantastic, the characters are quite endearing, there are some really nifty unlockable extras, and - most of the time - the game provides an enjoyable experience.
There's also some semblance of a story, but it's not exactly enthralling. Rayman's friend Globox, a giant frog, has accidentally swallowed the Lord of the Dark Lums, an evil fairy that's always up to no good. The lord isn't too pleased about being imprisoned in Globox's stomach, and neither are his hordes of minions, collectively knows as the Hoodlums. They start wreaking havoc anywhere and everywhere they can in an effort to retrieve their leader and take over the world. Rayman is forced to set out on a journey in the hopes that he can find a way to remove the Lord of the Dark Lums from Globox's stomach and avert certain disaster.
Visuals:
The Rayman games all feature bright, colorful, lush environments, and thankfully the same can be said of Rayman 3. The contrast of shadow and light is really well implemented in the various stages, all of which do a great job of conveying the game's whimsical ambiance. Most of the characters look quite distinct from one another, and their eccentric personalities are really apparent via their vibrant gestures, mannerisms, and facial expressions.
Audio:
The auditory element of Rayman 3 is really a love it and hate it situation. While the soundtrack is top notch, featuring a great blend of musical genres like soft rock and new age, and really seems to suit the game well, the dialogue is campy and the voiceovers are incredibly annoying. One character in particular, Murfy the fly, is too obnoxious for his own good. His voice is loud and shrill and he's constantly reeling off one bad, contrived joke after another. He also relays gameplay information, but most of his instructions end up being pointless since they instruct the player to do things that can be easily figured out with a minimal amount of trial and error.
Gameplay:
Like most 3D platformers Rayman 3's play mechanics revolve around completing certain objectives in order to ellicit certain results and collecting various items. The objectives typically involve things like flipping switches that turn machinery on and open doors as well as killing enemies in order to gain abilities that grant access to otherwise inaccessible portions of a particular level. The item collecting is limited to acquiring jewels, which give you points that are used to unlock hidden extras, and freeing caged Teensies; a benevolent race of creatures that bear an uncanny resemblence to Gogo from Tiny Toon Adventures. When you free a Teensie from captivity you're awarded a jewel medallion. Once you've collected six jewel medallions your energy bar increases.
Regrettably, many of the stages seem a little on the small side and are fairly static at times. The problem is that they're designed in such a way that the free-roaming aspect inherent to most 3D platformers is really deemphasized while a more structured, "point A to point B" approach is the norm. The hidden Teensies and jewels are situated so that you'll see just about every nook and cranny of each stage by virtue of finding them all, but the problem is that there just isn't that much to see. The game would have definitely benifitted from a greater degree of flexibility; multiple paths to the end of each level and more varied objectives for starters.
Funfactor:
Despite being a simple, straightforward, and fairly mindless 3D platformer, Rayman 3 is entertaining. Its low degree of difficulty makes it a great introduction to the 3D platformer genre for the uninitiated, but more seasoned platformer fans will probably find it fun, if somewhat underwhelming and lacking in challenge. It's the aggregate effect of a multitude of flaws, most notably the stage design, voiceovers, and lack of difficulty, that keeps the game from being something special. Some of the bonus features that can be unlocked are nice, including a very basic 2D Rayman game and a Lum racing game, but they're not the kind of bonus material that will keep you coming back for an extended period of time.
Overview:
Sometimes being good isn't good enough when you're among greatness, and that's the situation Rayman 3 is in. It's entertaining, visually appealing, and sports some great music, but it just isn't in the upper eschelon of 3D platformers like some of its more recent contemporaries are. Neverthless, those that have played previous games in the Rayman series and had fun with them will almost certainly enjoy Rayman 3. It could have been better and should have been better, but if you can look past its shortcomings there's a lot of fun to be had.
| Visuals: | 3.5 |
| Audio: | 4.0 |
| Gameplay: | 3.0 |
| Funfactor: | 3.5 |
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| Overall: | 3.5 |
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