As an addendum to my Rayman quest, I picked up two different ports of Rayman 2. Comparing the two was informative, as each has been enhanced in different ways (for some good references for this check out the Rayman PC wiki). But first, a brief rundown of the game and my impressions.

Rayman 2 is unlike other platformers of the era. It’s fairly linear with frequent action setpieces but dynamic level design helps it feel varied. Rayman’s abilities are distinct and have potential, but the possibilities aren’t followed through on as much as I’d like. His omnipresent helicopter hover slows him down too much, and his core attack being a bouncing projectile is cool but only a few puzzles or combat encounters really make good use of it. The real strength of the game is the world and the tone that mixes moodiness with cartooniness. The robot pirates are also effective villains with a consistent theme that contrasts well with the natural state of the world and its other characters.

To talk more specifically about the version I played, on 3DS we have a port of the Dreamcast version, which itself was slightly enhanced from the N64 release. I previously played the iOS release which was also the DC version, but on 3DS the end-of-level minigames have been restored. But, they’re pretty useless and gave me a blister so I wasn’t fussed. Apart from that it’s a pretty sloppy port; a glaring graphical error in rendering the rotation of the skybox gives a poor first impression, and every cutscene has huge, almost opaque black bars letterboxing it. The difficulty has also been clumsily tweaked: health is restored fully upon returning to a checkpoint (for example, when falling in a pit), so expanding it as the game goes on is pointless. I’m sure that Lums are also more attracted to Rayman in this version, but I can’t prove it. It is a decent way to play Rayman 2 portably, especially if you want a more breezy time of it, and I certainly enjoyed it.

On PS2, it’s been retitled Rayman Revolution to signify how much it’s been upgraded. Frankly, I expected more differences; much of the actual content of the game was identical. However, adjusting expectations I appreciated a lot of the tweaks and added content, although it’s not all for the best: in a few small ways, I found that the Playstation 1 version actually comes out on top, with some extra characterisation and the different caged creatures. On the whole though, Revolution is certainly the definitive experience… it’s just too bad it’s not more widely available (I had to sneakily access the US PSN store to download it to PS3).

To expand on Revolution, it’s had an overhaul in the looks department with more detailed textures, added environmental objects, and—exciting—a dynamic Rayman-shaped drop shadow rather than a black circle! Woo! There’s also new music, the PS1 voice acting—while a bit flat—is back, Rayman can now upgrade his abilities beyond what he could do in the original game using Lums, and Dreamcast minigames have been restored and some level sections converted to minigames as a new way for Ly to give you health extensions. More importantly, the map screen has been swapped out for three hub world sections. While they’re a bit confusing to navigate I found that coupled with new level transition cutscenes and added character appearances (including a new character or two) they really add to the contextualisation and thus immersion of the game world. I also appreciated some new details such as Ly’s initial prison being a pirate dungeon rather than a non-descript cave, and the blue lums being replaced by permanent streams of bubbles. 3 discrete bosses have been added, which is nice, as well as a fight with a pirate ship in the Canopy, and Rayman gains Globox’s raindance ability during the game (although it’s pretty much just used as an excuse for backtracking).

Some bonus observations and points of comparison: Revolution (and the PS1 port) are missing an in-game lore menu called “the Knowledge of the World”. In first person mode, the y-axis is inverted on PS2, but it’s the opposite on 3DS. Certain sprite assets from the original game were converted to 3D models for PS2, but the rideable/throwable plum is still 2D… but on 3DS it is a polygonal model. Finally, due to Lums no longer being found in cages, some levels being rearranged, and there not being Big Lums (which are worth 5) on PS2, the distribution and placement of Lums in levels is quite different between the two.

Thank you for indulging me going into such detail, I at least find these things fascinating. Rayman 2 is not the most perfect or polished 3D platformer but for its unique points it’s remembered fondly I think, and rightly so… it’s just baffling sometimes to have so many different versions of the game with subtle or not-so-subtle changes. Taken together though, these two ports are I think the best ways to play it on handheld and console respectively. Quick plug for Haruka Tavares, who has complete playthroughs on Youtube for most Rayman games including Revolution and its Japanese localisation, which in turn has its own tweaks and changes, mostly to character designs.