Rayman 2: The Great Escape - Nitro Rad

I draw Brad from 2d to 3d it's a transition that's not always made so smoothly some franchises have managed to pull it off flawlessly replicating the feel of the original 2d games without suffering from the lack of quality game design many franchises don't survive the leap too well some don't even bother trying it's an intimidating decision to bring your IP into the third dimension and because of that Rayman 2 wasn't always intended to be a 3d game Rayman 2 was originally intended to be a 2d side-scroller much like its predecessor it was planned for release on the PlayStation with a Jaguar version getting the boot in favor of the Sega Saturn this time around this 2d build of the game played a lot like the first Rayman game though Rayman would start the game with all of the powers he obtained in Rayman one and then obtaining even more on top of that come to think of it banjo tooie did the exact same thing however by the time of development the platforming genre was currently popularized by 3d games games like Mario 64 Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon so developing a 2-d game at this time likely wouldn't draw that much interest the spark happened in 96 when the developers of Rayman saw the first crash game at e3 this made them realize the potential a platforming game could have in the third dimension it was then decided to scrap this 2d prototype of Rayman in favor of making a 3d platforming game but there was one little problem at this time they have never made a 3d game before and they didn't know if they can make a good 3d Rayman game so they didn't instead they made tonic trouble a 3d platformer released for the n64 by developing this title who be soft was able to test the engine that they would then use to build Rayman 2 once they were comfortable with working in a 3d space and confident in their abilities to do so Rayman 2 began redevelopment as a 3d title despite being originally intended for the PlayStation in the Sega Saturn Ubisoft Montpellier turned to the n64 this time around for the basis of development it was also ported to PC releasing just days after the n64 version with the Dreamcast port senior released months later it was until a year later that Raymond two would see a port on the PlayStation 1 the very console that Raymond owes most of his success to poor Sony got the short end of the stick this time around as the PlayStation version of Rayman 2 is lacking chunks and chunks of levels a year they had to make this important what do they do add voice acting mmm-hmm while the original had mumbo jumbo accompanied by text kind of banjo kazooie style chilling me mode is to caliber the ps1 version was fully voice acting not really I feel weak and my powers have disappeared so they added voice acting but they removed half the game not a good sacrifice if you ask me I don't know if it had something to do with the sound files taking up all the disk space but either way wasn't worth it well the PlayStation was in tears over this butchered port the Dreamcast was having a blast with its definitive version of Rayman 2 the Dreamcast version was left completely intact from the n64 version it simply had a higher framerate smoother graphics and some extra minigames for this video we'll be taking a look at the Dreamcast version since it's pretty much the thin and obverse of the game unless you want to count all the console ports and the mobile ports and I'm not getting into those like for real this time I'm not getting into those we're doing this again army after Rayman two's grunt success a remake for ps2 called Rayman 2 revolution was developed in 2001 it was an enhanced port of Rayman 2 with in all-new hub world some new bosses and some other additional content many years later in 2005 the n64 version of Raymond su was then ported to the Nintendo DS retitled Raymond es I bought this game years ago thinking it was a brand new Rayman game but I guess I probably should have done my homework then in 2010 Rayman 2 was ported to iOS go figure it was also ported to the 3ds in 2011 titled Rayman 3d oh well that wasn't too bad but that's still a lot of times re-release the exact same game asking for a full price each and every time and they're still doing it ten years later and that's a little bit ridiculous I remember the very first time I played this game it was the n64 version which unfortunately I no longer have I would probably have been about seven years old at the time my mom would always take me to rent a game on the way back from the grocery store and every single time I got Yoshi's Story I was a dumb kid and I really liked that game I was obsessed with the oshi's story now I know better and I know it kind of sucks but what can you do I was like eight anyway so after begging my mom to rent it for probably the fourth time in a row she says James you get that exact same game every time we come here why don't you get something different something new this time something you haven't played already uh what do we got here Rain Man - this looks fun as she reaches out for the game oh god I cried out in protest I don't want Raymond really look stupid I want Yoshika Miyoshi Raymond looks dumb he doesn't have arms and legs I want Yoshi completely ignoring me mom gets Raymond - best decision she's ever made because that weekend was unlike any other years and years later I'm now a proud owner of the Sega Dreamcast version of the game so why don't we check it out I can never get used to how loud the Dreamcast gets when it reads a disc it sounds like the things going to explode unlike the n64 version of Rayman 2 the Dreamcast version also supports widescreen Rayman 2 boasts a radically darker tone than rayman 1 did as the story starts off with a slave ship that is captured and imprisoned the majority of Raymond's people we then sear a man's best friend Globox being dragged along and thrown into a cell with Rayman reunited with his friend Raymond jumps for joy but that joy doesn't last things look bleak the world is enslaved and Raymond has been robbed of all of his powers Globox brings good news as Lee the fairy I guess they just forgot about b'stilla the fairy and made up a new one gave Globox a silver alum and energy core that will restore some of Raymond's power giving him the ability to escape hence the name Raymond to the Great Escape once off of the prison ship Globox is then separated from Raymond this is where the first level starts and we quickly become familiar with the 3d world of Raymond you'll start out with the majority of the powers you obtain in Raymond one helicopter hair and all instead of throwing his fists Raymond now shoots small energy spheres that can bounce off of walls it's cool but I honestly missed the concept of Raymond throwing his hands through the air to punch I mean what good is having hands detach from your body if you can't throw them through the air it's not long before we're introduced to another brand new Raymond character Murphy he's a frog very thing I think he'll drop on by every now and then to explain game mechanics and give you tutorials cages while containing the enslaved elections in Raymond 1 now contain lumps the energy ferries that make up the heart of the world there are 1000 lumps in all scattered across the entire world by razor beard this is the bastard that enslaved the entirety of Raymond's people along with Raymond himself this guy's a much worse villain that mr. dark could have ever hoped to be razor beard destroyed the heart of the world making all peace and stability ceased to exist if Raymond wants to restore it he's gonna have to collect all these lumps you can find yellow lumps scattered all throughout each level you'll need a certain amount of them to access certain stages later in the game so make sure you pick these guys up when you see them yellow lumps aren't the only kind I'm into as there's also the red lumps that'll restore Raymond's health along with the returning purple Lum that Raymond can once again used to swing across large gaps while searching for Globox Raymond then runs in some of this kids who tell Raymond that the Robo Pirates have taken Lee the fairy away chasing after her Raymond then runs into the teen seat a disorganized group of little dudes that cannot figure out which one of them is Kate Raymond too may have a darker tone story but it still has a lot of quirky and adorable humor they then open up a place called the island of doors this is what serves as the hub world the Dreamcast version is quite a bit different as in other versions it's known as the Hall of doors and while it still takes form of a mario world styled map it's very different visually honestly I much prefer the Hall of doors from other versions than the island of doors from the Dreamcast version it's just a lot more visually pleasing and interesting to me in the second level you'll experience the game's combat system for the very first time unlike Rayman one fights are few and far in between instead of having enemies that Raymond can just knock out with a couple of punches and be well on his way enemies engage Raymond in a one-on-one battle the Robo pirates razor beards army of robotic henchmen will be your primary opponents you'll also encounter piranhas eyeball creatures snakes and zombie chickens zombie chickens you're able to lock onto them with a shoulder button allowing you to dodge and jump to avoid oncoming fire as you fire back at them it's an okay battle system it's not very in-depth and it can get boring after quite some time though again fights are infrequent so this doesn't really happen along with the new battle system there is a lot of new abilities Raymond can now perform Raymond is now able to climb various surfaces such as vines and whatnot even if eyes are on the ceiling yeah you can still climb on them there's a lot of little things like this added to the game mechanics to increase the number of ways Raymond can navigate the world this creates a lot of variety to the gameplay variety now there's a scary word if you've watched my tie 3 video a while ago you probably know all too well that the ambition to add variety to a game can ultimately lead to a boring mess disorganized title luckily Rayman 2 doesn't exceptionally well the developers of Rayman understand all too well that variety in the game should be confined to the same core genre so that doesn't mean hey we're getting bored of jumping let's add an airplane stage no way man no [ __ ] no no no no [ __ ] no ah give me some vines to climb on give me some barrels to dodge give me something that still involves navigating an obstacle course like Rockets with legs but guess what we're not shooting at dudes we're still dodging stuff hey chrome Studios you probably should looked at Rayman 2 is a core example not Sonic Adventure 2 Rayman 2 has a lot of platforming variety and it does it exceptionally well many of the best game mechanics that work so well in Rayman one are reintroduced and tweaked to work in a 3d environment you know what that means yeah you do ledge grabbing mechanics oh they're back and they work just as well as I did in Rayman 1 I don't think I've ever seen a unique mechanic in a 2-d game carried on over to 3d this well before to reiterate when Rayman grabs a ledge you're immediately able to jump from the hanging animation this means you don't have to pull yourself up before being able to jump again this creates an unmatched game feel that creates consistently great pacing after rescuing Lea the fairy she then grants Rayman the power to swing on purple lumps it's always really redundant when sequels of games make you obtain the exact same power-ups and items that you've already obtained in games prior luckily though in Rayman 2 you'll have them all yet again by only the second level a couple of temporary power-ups make a return such as the golden fist that'll make Raymond's attacks stronger until he takes three hits and the ability to fly which will last one entire level in the game there's a lot of new stuff too like powder kegs with trimming can carry around and use to blow open doors and destroy machines Raymond's also able to throw the keg up into the air allowing him to attack without you know making it blow up this way Raymond can fend off enemies while trying to get the keg somewhere returning are those giant purple plums that you used to ride around in Raymond one you're now able to carry them in a similar fashion to powder kegs just like the first game you're able to land them on the heads of enemies to create a platform and you're also able to ride them over hazards while it was usually spikes and water and Raymond 1 you'll mostly use plums to get across molten lava in Raymond - what are these things made out of I'd hate to see someone eat them I highly doubt their stomach acid would be able to digest it Raymond 2 boasts a lot of high speed action segments the first being a level where you'll get to jet ski through a swamp in some stages you'll get to ride a shell which is a missile with legs that seems to think it's a horse stages where you get to ride these things are awesome they're really tough though since the shell will explode if you bump around too much or you know run head-on into something and remember those powder cakes well what happens if we bring one near this torch over here these stages are similar to the shell stages as they're fast paced and you know you'll explode if you run into something though the shell is a little bit more durable than the kegs are so when you're flying on a cake try to be a little bit more careful there's also a lot of slide segments that will involve frame and sliding down a large slope making jumps and dodging obstacles one of my favorite stages called the precipice you'll find yourself frantically running forward as a stage behind you crumbles and falls into the abyss below as the pirate ships send a relentless onslaught of cannonballs your way it's total mayhem and you feel so badass running through this obstacle course that's constantly falling apart don't fall in the water here though because it's an instant death wait a minute why does water kill Raymond he clearly demonstrated in other levels that he is able to swim oh ok piranhas that seems to be a running excuse as to why you can't swim anywhere in this game can't swim in the swamp piranhas can't swim in the pond piranhas can't swim in the ocean piranhas yeah that's right you can't swim in the ocean because the entire thing is infested with piranhas a part of this game that used to scare me as a kid is called the cave of bad dreams early in the game during the marsh level there's a detour you can take that will take you to jano a creepy eyeball creature he tells you that you're not allowed to access the place he's guarding unless you know the name of it later in the game you'll run into Raymond's large burly friend Clark who's been poisoned he tells you to go to the cave of bad dreams to get the antidote now having learned the name channel lets you in though he warns you that you'll have to find the antidote before he does and if he catches up to you he'll show you no mercy there's nothing really that scary about the stage itself until he gets the part when you actually run into jano you're almost there and you see him wretchedly pull himself out of the ground before deciding that he wants you for lunch we then get this awesome slide segment from the point of view of inside his mouth during the entire slide you'll see the back of his teeth dripping and drooling with saliva as he thirst for a man's flesh this is so badass but it scared the crap out of me the first time my mom rented this game for me actually it scared me so much that I just straight-up stopped playing the game until we brought the game back to the store it wasn't until I actually owned the game a year later in my life that I would beat this level with the moral support of my cousin who held my hand the whole way down there once at the bottom you'll actually have a boss fight with jano after you defeat him he offers you his entire horde of treasure if you accept and yeah you actually have a choice in the matter you'll unlock an alternate ending featuring a very fat Rayman relaxing on an island in the middle of nowhere but yeah you obviously choose to take the antidote instead the boss fights in Rayman aren't really much to write home about the only one I'd consider great is the final boss one of the bosses you don't even fight you just jump on his head and he walks into the lava I don't even know if you could consider that a boss but the game presents him like he is one so I guess he is regardless each level leading up to the boss never fails to be a great time each one is so unique and special in its own way constantly delivering platforming goodness without suffering from redundancy it's pretty crazy that every single level in Rayman 2 offers something so radically different yet it always manages to be really really fun I think it's safe to say that there isn't a single level in Rayman 2 that I actually don't like Rayman 2 is 19 levels total two of which are bonus levels and the last being the final boss fight the PlayStation version of the game only has 17 levels that entire chunks of levels are missing completely like I mentioned before this version is fully voice-acted but it's simply just not worth it for the axed content one redeeming fact about the ps1 version is that you can unlock and play a beta build of the original 2d version of Rayman 2 you can unlock this by collecting 90% of the yellow lumps and then completing the game in fact the ps1 version only has 800 of the 1000 lumps well 1000 becomes 999 after a cutscene where razor beard eats one Jesus that barbarian there is still a way to find that 1000th Lum though and finding it is not easy in one of the final levels the tomb of the ancients after climbing to the top of this wall here jump off and helicopter all the way around this corner oh my god how is anybody on earth supposed to even find that they hit that thing really well in here is a giant skull with yellow Lum number 1000 in one of its eye holes in the 3ds version they completely ruin this secret because this little spider web net here you're supposed to bounce off of to get it they forgot to make it seeking bounce off of it so you just can't get the yellow um unless you activate some glitch where you get hit by an enemy and bounce up there the final level consists of the most difficult and challenging slide stage yet followed by one last shell level but this time this thing can fly Rayman 2 really knows how to go out with a bang because this final shell segment rocks so hard in the final fight against razor beard you'll battle against the grow goth a giant mech that raised a beard literally purchased from a guy minutes before Rayman stormed his pirate once razor beard is defeated after an awesome final boss fight Raymond freezes people and they celebrate the new peaceful world that Raymond has brought back all in all it's really not that hard to understand why a lot of people call Raymond to the greatest 3d platformer game that isn't Mario it's crazy how well the transition from 2d to 3d actually went I'd highly recommend the Dreamcast version over all other versions that the n64 and PC versions are good too just make sure you avoid the ps1 version unless you don't mind not playing half of the game so after not only a 2d masterpiece but also a 3d masterpiece comes Rayman 3 hoodlum havoc for the GameCube ps2 and Xbox does this even hold a candle to the first two get it always manages to be really really fun I think it's safe to say that I don't like any loving Raymond - that's not what I meant to say

Channel: Nitro Rad

Views: 482,382

Keywords: Rayman 2: The Great Escape (Video Game), Rayman (Video Game Character), Rayman (Fictional Character), Video Game Culture, review, nitro rad, ubisoft, funny, rayman 2, retrospective

Id: WgrVKsp4M2k

Length: 20min 29sec (1229 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 29 2015