Like the first game, Rayman 2 had its portable equivalent on the Game Boy Color. It’s a pretty good conversion, capturing the atmosphere of its counterpart well. I also feel that it improves on the foundation of the first GBC game, giving us an enjoyable product.
Firstly, it looks great. The pixelart is nice and while the cutscenes are very derpy the game itself uses colour well to make a gloomy atmosphere and the important bits like items stand out (for the most part; I missed a switch a couple of times). Switches are new and give the game a bit more depth than a straight obstacle course, but the level design is actually more straightforward and while it’s cleverly arranged it’s usually easy to tell what to do next, which is a good thing. The exception is the last few levels that turn into big mazes, but that’s fine as a break and final challenge.
The sound is… pretty much the same as the last GBC instalment, as that one’s soundtrack was based on Rayman 2 already. No complaints, but now that I’ve refamiliarised myself with the source the delightfully chippy tunes are even better (if a little repetitive). What’s not repetitive (segue eh?) is the levels and environments, which do a good job changing up the type of challenge and the look.
While the tone and environments are carried over well from the console game, sadly not everything made the 8-bit cut. A notable lack is the enemies, with only two actual Robo-Pirates appearing in the whole game. Two! One is a miniboss (as seen in the fourth screenshot), and the next is supposed to be Razorbeard I think, despite looking and acting identically to the earlier one. We have Zombie Chickens, spiders, crabs, and barrels, and apart from that a few returning Rayman 1 GBC enemies (red bats and the rare Antitoon), but I felt the primary threat of the game was not very present—the main representation of the pirates is a ton of flying bombs. No Jano either.
I think this game did a good job replicating Rayman 2 into a 2D sidescroller on the GBC. It’s also a fun game in itself, and I got to 100% (the reward is underwhelming), which wasn’t even too hard because of the linearity of the levels. I’d recommend it, it builds on Rayman 1 GBC and improves on it, in design and also the use of saves instead of passwords. According to the credits it was made by a different team, but using the same engine and some shared assets the result was better. Which goes to show the importance of design, or something.
Next up is Rayman M/Arena/Rush. That is, unless I can get Tonic Trouble working. It’s been a nightmare setting that up, you can’t buy it, and running a Windows emulator and finding the iso has been a pain. There’s the released game and also the beta “Special Edition”, not to mention the N64 version (unfortunately there’s no decent N64 emulator for Mac). At least I can play Tonic Trouble GBC without any issues. Well, see you soon, same Ray-time, same Ray-channel.
