
<MAP NAME="boxmap-p8"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 200, 103, 207" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/thearmchairem-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x240.gif" width="120" height="240" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p8" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">	Platform Playstation 2 Genre Platformer Publisher Ubi Soft Developer Ubi Soft ESRB E (Everyone) Released Q1 2003

- Good Graphics - Great level variation - Good audio package - Fun Rail Games - Quick Load and Save times - Improvement over previous Rayman games

- Some camera issues - Can be very frustrating - Game length a bit short - Not too much replay value

Review: Rayman 3 (XB) Review: Super Mario Sunshine (GC) Review: Ratchet & Clank (PS2)
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Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc

Score: 8.2 /10

Over the past year the Playstation 2 has seen some great platformer games released, including Sly Cooper and Ratchet and Clank. Rayman 3 hopes to join the elite of platformers games, but with so much good competition how does it fair?

The first thing you’ll notice is that Rayman 3 focuses a lot more on humor than many other platformers. Almost all of the characters deliver lines that are funny (or should be funny to others). You, of course, play a character named Rayman. Your friend named Globox swallowed Dark Lum Chief (whose goal was to kill you) and becomes immediately affected. Your job is to find a doctor who can cure your friend. Along your search you’ll find various enemies who are out to stop you. This is where the adventure starts.

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Rayman 3 feels like a new game when you compare it to previous Rayman games. The game still maintains the winning formula that has made the character so popular. The environments are fresh and there is a good variation between the environments as well. There have been a few gameplay additions such as new power-ups, which give Rayman different sorts of weapons that specialize to solve certain problems. The weapons also come in handy when facing enemies. The difficulty of the enemies has been kicked up a notch, but the puzzles tend to repeat themselves.

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Even then, the enemies you’ll encounter are not too difficult to defeat, since you’ll see many of the same characters in each level and memorize their every move. That may seem bad at first, but its really not as the old villains will be accompanied by new ones presenting a new challenge. The bosses offer a reasonable challenge, but like any game tend to get more and more difficult to defeat. At the close of the levels you play a mini-game. The mini-game is very difficult at times, but it’s a blast to play over and over again.

The graphics are done well, and the environments look great. The detail in the environments really creates a good mood and atmosphere for each level. The frame rate is solid and there is no sign of slow down. There are some really cool colour effects which are used in the rail games which will “shock and awe” you. Not only that, but the color variation is brilliant. The cut scenes also look great, but Ratchet and Clank is still the king when it comes to graphics.

I do have a few problems with Rayman 3. First, there are quite a few camera issues. At times it's difficult to make jumps because its not easy to judge where you’re character will end up. Sometimes you’ll be facing a boss and for some apparent reason the camera will be rotated 180^o to look at Rayman's face instead of the boss. There are some puzzles in which you have to leave your character stationary and release your weapons around an object in order to advance. At times it can get very frustrating, because the controls at times are not very responsive.

Unlike Ratchet and Clank or Sly Cooper where re-doing a level was painless to retry, Rayman 3 may frequently annoy you. For example: There was one level where I was able to get to the boss at the end of the level. After I died I had to redo the entire level! The game length is a bit short. I beat the game in about twelve hours or so, but there are some extras, which may interest some.

The sound is a love or hate affair. The character voices sound great, but it’s just the things that they speak which will cause the love or hate. The game strives for comedy, but there are some cheesy lines, but overall the sound package is good. The best part is that the game doesn’t use an unknown actor for the voices. Actor John Luguizamo steps up to the plate and plays the voice of Globox.

With more 3D platformers being announced and hitting the PS2 left and right, gamers will have tough choice deciding which game to snag. Rayman 3 is a solid game, which presents an improvement over other previous installments of the franchise. Games like Sly Cooper and Ratchet and Clank seem to pass Rayman 3 because of the amount of innovation each game comes equipped with. Rayman 3 is still a good alternative to previous platformers, but fans of the franchise should definitely check this game out.

- Siddharth Masand

(May 3, 2003)