Rayman 2

Rayman 2 is the second in what you could call Ubi Soft's 'limbless heroes' series of 3-D adventure games. We say that because both Rayman 2 and the previous Ubi Soft title Tonic Trouble feature main characters with one thing in common – while they have bodies, hands and feet they don't actually have anything connecting the former to the latter.

Now you might argue that this is wholly a stylistic thing and the characters are deliberately designed like that to give them a distinctive look, but we're fairly sure the real reason is that it gives the animators less work. Whatever the motive though, it doesn't matter, because Rayman 2 is, quite simply, a graphical masterpiece!

Shining Brightly

The storyline behind the game goes something like this: having successfully concluded his last adventure (the tale was related on a lesser console so it's not that important), Rayman has returned to his home planet only to find that a band of dastardly intergalactic pirates – are there any other kind? – have popped in for a visit and are busy enslaving the populace. Unfortunately Rayman only discovers this when the pirates capture him and throw him into a cell on their ship, so that is where the game begins.

The first task is to escape – once that's accomplished, Rayman must then track down his various friends in order to find out exactly what has happened since he's been away, and from there work out how he's going to go about setting things right. It transpires that the pirates have shattered the magical core of the planet which supplies everything with life energy, so Rayman must find and collect all the pieces to restore order. In addition, to defeat the pirates Rayman must first wake a chap called Polokus, and for this he needs to recover four masks which have been hidden at various secret locations. It goes without saying then that he's got his work cut out for him!

Escaping from the cell is fairly easy. It leads to a slippery slide down a chute, at which point Rayman then enters the first level. This area is basically the first training section where we learn about Rayman's initial powers (he gains more as the game progresses) and also find out about the most important items in the game... the lums.

Cor, Lumme!

Lums are strange glowing lumps of energy with little wings (no, they're not related to Navi). The yellow ones are the shattered pieces of the planet core and you need to find them all in order to complete the game. Red lums give you more energy, blue lums give you air when you're underwater and purple circular lums can be used to swing from place to place, Tarzan-style. You need to use all the lums in conjunction with Rayman's various abilities in order to complete the game. In addition to this, there are other incentives for doing well. While you don't need to collect all the lums to complete a level, if you do manage to collect all of the yellow ones then you get access to a special bonus stage. The bonus stages generally consist of various races, which require you to almost destroy both your joypad and your fingers in order to complete them, but they're fun all the same. First Impressions Last!

From the moment you turn on your N64 with the Rayman 2 cartridge in it you know that you're in for a treat.

Graphically the game could almost be mistaken for a PC title – the visuals are that impressive. Even more impressive is the speed at which the game moves and the smoothness of the animation. When you see Rayman hopping about you pretty much expect at least a bit of lag in the controls because surely something which looks so nice can't respond perfectly too? But it does. Control over Rayman is absolute, as he runs, jumps, rolls, flies, hangs and otherwise makes his way around the incredibly detailed levels of the game. In fact, you could hardly make him move any better if your brain were wired up directly to the N64! Rayman 2 is a joy to play!

Usually, where 3-D adventures fall down is on the camera and the gameplay. The latter often just consists of wandering around areas pressing switches and killing bad guys, while the former (if badly implemented) can mean that the latter becomes not just boring but boring and irritating at the same time. Not the ideal recipe for enjoyment.

A Gleaming Masterpiece!

Rayman 2 though appears to have avoided these problems. The camera is extremely intelligent, zooming in and panning out where appropriate to give you the best view of proceedings. On the odd occasion where the camera doesn't give a perfect shot of things, the camera buttons make fixing the view very simple. And most importantly, the camera never results in an untimely death – the most you are likely to suffer is a second or so of disorientation.

The puzzles in the game are varied but not too complex because Rayman 2 is a very pacy game, and if you made things too complicated then it would slow things down too much. There are forcefields to deactivate, machines to destroy and pirates to sort out and each level brings a new challenge as well as a few surprises – like the level where you waterski through the waters of a swamp behind a friendly snake. Although there are levels where you can drop down bottomless pits, you'll be glad to know that doing this doesn't totally kill you, but instead makes you lose a little bit of energy and reappear a short way back along the path.

All in all Rayman 2 is a joy to play and reflects the huge amount of work which has gone into it. If you're after a top-notch highly addictive 3-D adventure game then this is the one to go for. With games like this on offer, Rare has got a serious rival for the title of N64 3-D adventure game supremo!

We won't believe it until we actually hold it in our dirty little hands, but Ubi Soft swears up and down that the PlayStation version of Rayman 2 is actually going to be released soon. The first Rayman created quite a stir with its breathtaking graphics, but then again that was a 2D game. We liked this sequel on the N64 and DC, but is the PS machine enough to handle it? We'll find out this fall.

UBI Soft previewed Rayman 2 for the PlayStation. Many thought the cartoon-like graphics of the original could not be improved upon, but this sequel is vastly improved. Rayman 2 sports more animation than the original, particularly when dealing with the enemies. The graphics match the animation-they're rendered, rather than hand-drawn. It looks like a worthy sequel.

Questtons about what Rayman is aside, you can't begrudge the guy this: Hes darn cute, and his eponymous, 32-bit platform game was one of the most sumptuous-looking games to hit the market last year. Heck, it was even challenging to boot. Accordingly, UbiSoft has announced a sequel to Rayman entitled, appropriately, Rayman 2.

In the sequel, Rayman's planet has been beset by an invasion of robots from outer space. Naturally, being evil space robots, they want to destroy everything good in Rayman's world. Plants, trees, mountains, music, candy: you name it, they hate it and they won't stop until they pave the world. Who can put the clamp down on this heinous plot? Only Rayman, of course.

Rayman 2 will incorporate much more varied and complex gameplay than the first game, and will include, but not be limited to: new abilities for Rayman himself, new worlds to explore, new enemies to bust a cap into, and new music.Wow, everything you'd expect in a sequel. Look for more on Rayman 2 in our E3 issue and expect it to hit the stores by Christmas of this year.