The Rabbids are resented among some Rayman fans. For a while they “took over” the series with overly juvenile humour, minigame collections rather than platformers, and a shifting focus away from Rayman, his friends, and his world (after the first one, I think they’re mostly set on Earth, and Rayman himself disappears after the third). For the purposes of my series playthrough, I’m covering the first instalment only, as I think it’s still in the Glade of Dreams and its handheld iterations are platformers.
And if you’ve been following the series, there’s no way you’d want to miss this. The minigame focus of the first main Rabbids game was the result of a drastic change in design partway through development. This small GBA game is the successor not only of the original Rabbids platform adventure, but combines that with concepts from an unrelated cancelled prototype for “Rayman 4”. Not only is RRR GBA the closest thing to a “proper” Rayman 4, it honours the whole series.
Firstly, it follows closely on the heels of Rayman 3 GBA. A similar art style and feel, borrowed sprites and gameplay, even the Mode 7 3D racing levels (although on the whole it’s a bit less polished those bits are at least done better here, I feel). Rayman also starts with most of the abilities he gained over that game, which are supplemented by costumes, albeit more like personas than the implementation in Rayman 3 proper. Again we have undefined creatures in cages, yellow Lums (along with red, blue, and green), and even Ly and Murfy along to help (Globox and R3-type Teensies have cameo appearances). Certain sound effects and jingles are (like both previous GBA games) carried over directly all the way from Rayman 2. Finally, thanks to the Rayman 4 concept, the environments are either new to the series or updates to Rayman 1 worlds, complete with classic and classic-feeling enemies. So we’ve come full circle.
All this together made it feel nostalgic as I played. It plays well too, with secrets tucked away but not too hidden, and strategic combat. Levels are broken up occasionally with a shooting gallery minigame (hosted by a Rabbid with a Magician hat!!), or a timed speedrun-type level. Boss fights are varied in goal, but between the cool first boss (a large Antitoon replica) and the last, a giant robotic Rabbid, you fight the same buff Rabbid multiple times, which is a bit lame. The costumes are generally underused and a bit awkward to switch to, but not an inherently bad idea.
Now it must be said: the game is very short. For me, it was over in an afternoon. As I’ve said before, it doesn’t automatically lose points for that, but I do wish there were just a few more levels, or something to do in the village hub between worlds. It’s obvious after reading about the origins of the project that this represents a fundamentally cut-down version of the Raving Rabbids/Rayman 4 vision. But, it is the only version we have of it and for that I cherish it.
It’s interesting how you can draw a line through Rayman 1 to Rayman 3 GBA to Rayman Raving Rabbids GBA, and get in a fairly consistent tone a 2D platformer experience of the whole pre-Origins series: 1, 2, a bit of 3, and what 4 could have been. The other thing I noticed was the concepts that would work their way into the revitalised Rayman series: the Organic Cave is similar to the parts inside the giant dragon in Origins and Fiesta Run, and the Rabbids’ Lair world looks so much like Legends’ castle archetype. Cool stuff! Although it’s short this comes highly recommended, if only for the concepts, the synthesis of series elements, having a real platforming adventure against menacing Rabbids. Don’t overlook it!
And here we round out the Rayman 3 era of games; it’s much shorter than Rayman 2 with its many spinoffs. And even this group can’t shake a deep connection to Rayman 2, despite my feelings that each numbered entry was fairly distinct. For example, Hoodlums’ Revenge once again bases its soundtrack mainly off of Eric Chevalier’s R2 score (for the fourth unique game since R2 itself). Make no mistake, it’s in the R3 mold through and through, but it also reintroduces Yellow Lums as a collectible (they also replace yellow gems as the low-value pickup ideal for starting a combo) as well as Green Lums as checkpoints, and Blue Lums as they appeared in Rayman 3 GBA, but now paired with the Throttle Copter powerup can. As with R3GBA, it enhances the connection between the games and makes the world feel more full and alive.
Unfortunately the game itself is mediocre at best. It’s ambitious as a pseudo-3D isometric platformer on a system not powerful enough to do true 3D satisfactorily, like Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge, but it just doesn’t work too well. I guess Backbone felt it necessary to restrict the levels to right angles to aid the platforming, but it makes the world feel artificial in the process, a problem none of Rayman’s games have had so far. Even then, it’s difficult to determine your position and height relative to the ground, which coupled with the somewhat dodgy hit detection makes the game frustrating to play.
Water is now deadly to Rayman apparently. There’s a mercy in that you take only minor damage from landing in it once and can bounce back out, but the second or third bounce will invariably kill you. This does let them introduce the new mechanic of the coracle-style boat, as well as the fire immunity can for running on lava. Speaking of new gameplay, Globox is playable here, either solo or in some levels you can switch between them to solve puzzles. It’s a nice addition and gives that same feeling of buddies on an adventure that Rayman 3 had (the plot rehashes R3 pretty shamelessly). But Globox is slow and gets spooked by Hoodlums; you must drink plum juice to hit them. It’s not as fun playing as him since he has less options, but at least he doesn’t have to make tricky jumps and can’t fall into water.
Despite this appearance of variety, the game is quite short on content. Few levels, few music tracks, and short on visual variety in its too-bright environments. Shortness can be a virtue but the repetitive music is much less so. At least the Teensies you rescue from the requisite cages have a plethora of amusing one-liners (and they even have an unused Teensie tribe design from R3 as one of the randomly picked dialogue portraits, although the sprites are all palette swapped Minimuses).
The plot is ridiculous. Globox is possessed by Black Lum powers (for the third time), only this time it’s some kind of residual essence left by Andre from Rayman 3. As you progress he gets more belligerent as Andre influences his mind directly (which is a bit different to R3) until finally you find out that he’s been transformed somehow into a clone of Reflux. Which makes no sense. There’s also a lava monster boss that looks exactly like a Knaaren for some reason. There is some amusing dialogue between a temporarily-aggressive Globox and an unobservant Rayman but there’s little explanation for the Hoodlum activity, etc.
So Hoodlums’ Revenge is an attempt at a handheld Rayman game that’s not simply a 2D platformer, but it’s flawed in almost all areas of execution. The best I can say is “it’s fine”. Trying to keep a combo going is still engaging and combat is… well, fine, as long as you use the lock-on. As expected, it’s ultimately derivative of R3 but has its own small flourishes. It’s not good, but I guess that’s OK.
And that’s it for Rayman 3 stuff (R3GBA, R3, this, and that one Flash game). You can keep track of my Rayman Quest here. Up next we’re starting on Raving Rabbids stuff, stay tuned.
Whenever a new Yoshi game comes out, the only sensible question is “Is this a worthy successor to Yoshi’s Island?”. This time the answer is: yeah, probably.
It certainly feels like a Yoshi’s Island game. The mechanics in this game are either taken from YI, or seem to arise naturally as a consequence of everything being made out of crafted materials. It creates a mix of warm nostalgia and appreciation of clever new ideas. The game also looks amazing, with everything being knitted, felted, woven, or what have you, as well as incorporating buttons, knitting needles, etc.
It’s not all good news though. The health system is a more basic health point thing like Yoshi’s Story. I’ve seen a lot of baby backlash, ie. “I’m glad that annoying Baby Mario isn’t in this one.” That’s WRONG. The babies are great, they tie gameplay and story together in a meaningful way and provide motivation and a unique mechanics. That being said, the more streamlined system is more conducive to co-op and there’s circumstances where your partner acts something like a baby. The game is also devoid of story in that irritating Nintendo way; especially disappointing because its developmental predecessor Kirby’s Epic Yarn is entirely justified in-universe and coheres with the other Kirby games. This game hangs in an obscure plot void, its connection to other Yoshi or Mario games unclear.
Also the music is a very mixed bag. It frequently changes genre but it’s often boring. It sucks because Yoshi’s Island got so much right including story and music, but this game falls short of fulfilling every aspect despite its promise.
But enough fanboy whining. This is one of the most accomplished 2D platformers in the last few years, which is saying a lot when DKC Tropical Freeze and Rayman Legends are still current. Here’s one of my typical short praise lists: good controls, good level designs, amazing looks. To be more specific, it always feels like you’re doing something different in a level: you’ve got your normal left-to-right but also ascending, finding your way through a maze-like cavern, managing a Chomp Rock, not to mention the transformations. I found myself saying this a lot about different things in the game: it’s just like Yoshi’s Island (and that’s a good thing!).
And the game has Poochy! Always a plus (along with other things that caused me to spontaneously exclaim with excitement). You can even use him anytime with the badge system, but he’s not always useful depending on the level. And he doesn’t come to bosses with you. Boss battles are usually a highlight for Yoshi games; these are good, but the mid-bosses can be a little bit simplistic and I got irrationally angry over the re-use of said midbosses: you fight the same two 3 times each. It’s maddening that they would just drop the originality ball and let it roll under the fridge like that. Ok that analogy got away from me but the other bosses are quite good.
Since I played this totally in the company of my lovely wife, the co-op experience must be addressed. It’s great! The game is friendly and has concessions for new players, to the point where she remarked that this was the first ever platformer that she actually enjoyed. The co-op mechanics themselves are fair—as long as one player survives, they can revive the other as normal (and no life counter, thank goodness!) but you may find it quick to cut one player off when scrolled off screen. The amiibo implementation seems like a hack job, adding a simple clone into the co-op framework.
I feel like as with Tropical Freeze my high expectations for this game caused me to be overly nitpicky. But at least some of my criticisms are valid, or I think so anyway. Woolly World could have been even better than it was but for some fairly fundamental choices, but it’s still the best Yoshi game since Yoshi’s Island, which is all any Yoshi game could hope for.
What I’d heard about Rayman 3 led me to expect it to not fit in as well with the other games, with Michel Ancel not being involved and all. Playing it was a pleasant surprise, as I enjoyed it quite a bit! It actually fits quite well as a follow-up to Rayman 2; sure it does some things differently but what sequel doesn’t? 2 itself was very different to 1, after all.
So what’s new in Rayman 3? Well, it has a score system, which is the counter you can see in the corner in screenshots. Defeating enemies and collecting the gems scattered around gives you points and doing such actions in quick succession builds a combo meter for more points. The gems themselves are new; Lums appear as part of the story but only red ones (and black). Also new are the cans which give you a temporary power-up as part of a costume (and also double your points while they last). The scoring system has been integrated well into the game as a whole, even unlocking silly little minigames which is its only purpose apart from score-chasing, which people are into. Always thinking about your score is an interesting twist, planning your collection to maximise your combo.
Also new are the cinematic elements. There’s more plot, and the situation changes as you progress. The game is also fully voice-acted, more so than the Playstation versions of Rayman 2. Characters will natter at you throughout, and for the most part it’s endearing unless you have to replay a section. I guess John Leguizamo (Luigi Mario himself!) is the only real big name, but he does Globox, a major part, and he does a great job at it. He’s depicted as simple-minded but written well with lots of jokes. He plays off Andre, the Black Lum who Globox swallows early in the game, so there’s constant banter and contact with the antagonist a la Banjo-Kazooie or Portal. Billy West (who played Rayman in the Animated Series) is Murfy, unfortunately only for one level with many wisecracks and fourth-wall breaks. David Gasman’s Rayman doesn’t talk much, and the other minor characters aren’t bad except the three Teensie doctors you see for plot, who are crude German, hippy, and Asian stereotypes respectively.
This aspect of Rayman 3—the voices, I mean—may turn people off, but I liked it as part of what this game was trying to do. In fact the whole game left me feeling positive; the levels are well designed, it looks gorgeous, it expands the Rayman universe in clever ways. Sure there might be too many shoe-racing segments but it was just nice to play a 3D platformer again. The power-ups help change up the gameplay every now and then while restricting your moveset to keep things simple. It even made me feel a bit emotional at the end, when Globox starts feeling attached to Andre, and there’s a scene right at the end where you as a player have to transform him back into a Red Lum—reminiscent of the final moments of Snake Eater (ok I haven’t played it but I’ve heard about it).
So you can tell I would recommend this. It’s not on as many platforms as Rayman 2 but it’s easier to access the best one in this case, as the Rayman 3 HD port for last-gen consoles is it. You do miss out on the unique minigames on the GCN version when connected to a GBA, though. It may feel a little more linear than Rayman 2 but later levels open up a little more, with some doubling back and plenty of secrets to discover, and there’s still platforming here despite a bigger focus on combat. But again, I prefer to appreciate the game for what it’s trying to do rather than comparing it directly to Rayman 2′s gameplay. But that’s just me reacting to my perception of this game’s reception. Anyway, enough waffling, it’s fun.
Despite the name, Rayman 3 GBA is almost totally based on Rayman 2, but it also plays very much like Rayman 1. As such it goes a long way toward making the series feel cohesive and bridge some gaps. The speculation is that the team at Ubisoft (the Rayman PC wiki claims it was made by Ludi Factory, but I don’t think that’s true after reviewing names in the credits) was working on a 2D iteration of Rayman 2 for GBA when Rayman 3 was in development, and at the last minute added a few enemies and design elements from 3, along with the name and boxart for branding purposes.
As I said though, the gameplay very much makes it a sequel to Rayman 1. The large, detailed sprites also help it to look and feel like an extension of it, although as with the Rayman 1 GBA port (and Tonic Trouble GBC) they leave the playing area feeling cramped. (Another quick similarity to TT GBC: unused content from the main game makes its way in here in the form of Scaleman the Hoodlum boss who appears in R3 concept art.) You have Band Land-style sliding, swinging from Purple Lums, telescoping fist attacks, etc. Ly of course takes the place of Betilla to give you new abilities, some of which are unique to this game. Funnily enough the map screen is a hybrid of Rayman 1′s world-level overview and the 2D traversable screen of Rayman 1&2 GBC. Most of the environments (which look pretty nice) and setpieces though are taken from Rayman 2.
The plot involves the Black Lum (possibly Andre, although that doesn’t sit perfectly with the theory that this is a prequel to 3) inhabiting Globox as in 3, but Globox is not heard of again after that. Razorbeard seeks the power of the Black Lum and apparently joins forces with it at some point, and you have to fight through Robo-pirates, Black Lums, Zombie Chickens, and the occasional Hoodlum to stop him and his Grolgoth (again). The usual cages must be smashed, but it’s never actually established who is in them. Teensies appear in Rayman 3-style guise only at the end of each world.
R3 GBA also follows R1 in terms of its difficulty. Extra lives are scarce and deaths come easily. Without savestates I might even have ragequit as I did with the original game, where I didn’t have such conveniences. Luckily I was able to complete it, as I found the meshing together of series elements to be fascinating. Hint for finding yellow lums and cages: in each section, try walking left from the starting point. You’ll be surprised how often that grants rewards.
I couldn’t test the multiplayer modes, or the extra minigames from connecting to Rayman 3 on the Gamecube via the special Link Cable. The multiplayer seems to be expansions or competitive versions of existing gameplay; I haven’t mentioned the Mode-7 car racing levels, which control pretty badly. The GCN link though supposedly does some cooperative stuff using both screens, which sounds interesting.
I should mention that this game was ported to the Nokia N-Gage. It ends up looking better, with slightly smaller, cleaner spritework which may actually expand the visible play area, despite the horizontally smaller screen. Not sure about that, but it probably sounds much worse. There’s no way to emulate N-Gage games though so the GBA will do. There was also a version for Symbian that’s greatly cut down compared to this version, which I’ll talk about later when I cover other mobile games.
I have to reiterate how much this draws from the 3 main classic Rayman games to make something that feels cohesive. For that reason it’s essential for Rayman fans and really deserves its place as a “Rayman 2.5″. It looks really nice and has great conversions of Eric Chevalier’s Rayman 2 score to sound good as well. Just be prepared to use savestates if you’re going for 100%, especially on the kart racing or waterskiing levels.
It’s a treat for a game world I’ve become fond of (Rayman 2′s, that is) to have a spin-off centred around it. Rayman M/Arena/Rush has a complicated release history; but first, what is it? It’s a multiplayer-focused game (although the single-player modes are fairly robust) that’s split in two. One half of the game is the battle mode where the opponents’ health bars are depleted by your attacks, there’s random weapon pickups, and you’re in a small enclosed arena. The other is the race mode, where you run through an obstacle course, trying to get the optimal path to beat your opponents to the goal. Both modes are based on Rayman 2′s 3D platformer engine and controls.
So about the different releases: Rayman M was released on PS2 in Europe with lots of modes. Rayman Rush followed in Europe and NA on the PS1, with a big downgrade in visuals and physics (it seems based on the PS1 version of Rayman 2 while the lead version is most likely built off the PS2′s Rayman Revolution) and the battle mode completely removed. I didn’t mind that, the race mode is clearly much more fun to me. The content of the race mode is mostly the same but with simplified course layouts and one or two unique courses. The main NA release was titled Rayman Arena, on PC, PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox. From what I’ve read, while the PS2 and PC versions were similar to Rayman M, the GCN and Xbox version was significantly rejiggered with different menus, new characters and costumes (good), and crucially two whole sub-modes removed from Race mode. Unfortunate.
I played the versions that were available to me on useable emulators: GCN and PS1. I feel I got a good overview of the game from this (although not comprehensive) but the loss of Lums and Target mode from Race hurts. It can’t be overstated how superior Arena’s engine is to Rush: analog control, much smoother momentum, more options in race courses; it also just looks and feels so much nicer. It’s probably better to go for the PS2 or PC version though for the extra modes; Dark Globox and Dark Rayman are the only outright additions (and the latter is only a costume).
So what about playing the game? Well, I found the Race mode very addictive. Learning the best way through a level is reminiscent of speedrunning and traversing these obstacle courses on foot with tuned 3D platformer controls is just great fun, and the courses are well designed with multiple routes. Each character has their own personality in their animations even though their abilities are identical, a trait shared by the Origins games (and comparing, say, Globox’s balloon-like inflation as a hover to his corresponding Origins action is, well, it’s interesting to me…).
The Battle mode on the other hand just felt boring and slow. Combat was never the best part of Rayman 2 and it’s still true here, even with the bells and whistles. I didn’t bother much with this mode and as I said, Rush totally eliminates it, no great loss. The most interesting thing about it to me was having a look around the arenas and enjoying how they’re plucked straight from Rayman 2′s world; forests, beaches, pirate ships, graveyards, sanctuaries, etc.
The characters too are drawn from that game: Rayman, Globox, a Teensie duo, the pirate robot Henchman 800, and Razorbeard are here. Strangely Ly (who appears on Rush’s loading screens) is not in the game, seemingly replaced at some point by a smaller fairy, Tily. Other new faces are the Henchman 1000, Razorbeard’s wife, and Dark Globox who in this instance is a bigger, uglier, Glute. Also in the PS1 version a female Glute named Globette replaces the Teensie team. I’m not familiar enough to identify if there were musical references/remixes, but the music is funky and upbeat, a great accompaniment to the action.
This game doesn’t have a story as far as I can tell (no manual scans online either) so let’s make one up. The pirates and Razorbeard are still around after Rayman 2, as shown by Rayman 3 GBA and Rayman Kart, so this is probably just after Rayman 2. Polokus has woken up and decides to deal with the remaining pirates by challenging them to a contest with his Glade of Dreams champions, being the mischievous god he is. All through the land he sets up courses for his people to race and battle the pirates (and each other). The results? Inconclusive. As we’ll see the pirates aren’t finished after this, but Polokus may not have the absolute authority or inclination to outright get rid of them.
So this game is a strong concept in all its incarnations (well, the race half anyway); it’s just too bad that the later release had to remove features while adding others. I enjoyed Race mode very much, and it comes highly recommended if you’re interested in 3D obstacle course foot races (don’t worry, it’s much more fun than Donkey Kong 64′s race segments) or the world of Rayman 2. Those new characters are also nice to flesh it out a bit (it also introduced the enemy Cullcut, who starred in a Flash-based typing tutor). Finally, I’d recommend Haruka Tavares’s gameplay videos to check out the different versions if you can’t play them.
Just like Rayman 1 and 2, Tonic Trouble had a Game Boy Color version. Actually, this one came first and released around six months after the N64 version, whereas they came years after their progenitors. It was handled by a company called RFX Interactive and was in fact their first game. I was expecting a similar experience to said Rayman handheld titles, but it was not to be.
Tonic Trouble GBC runs on a completely different engine to those games. It has larger sprites, a wonkier camera and unlockable abilities (like its parent game). Of course, the GBC has even less buttons than the N64, so switching between the stick, blowpipe, magic wand/chameleon powder, and pogo stick requires opening and closing the Select menu which is clunky, especially in the final level since the blowpipe is required for combat but does not allow jumping. At least the pogo stick gets more use for traversal in this version. Ed also has a ledge grab ability—handy but not perfectly reliable—and can run by double-tapping the D-pad, which is not necessary but helps in backtracking for collectibles or switches.
The number of levels is cut back compared to the main game, and it ends up being very short in total. Each world has 3 smallish areas, which are often sort of free-roaming, with collectibles to find requiring platforming and combat both vertically and horizontally. It works pretty well, but enemy placement, large sprites, and spotty hit detection makes it very difficult at times—I made heavy use of savestates, naturally.
The large sprites allow for more detail and it looks pretty nice if a bit muddy at times, with lots of colour befitting its source material. The music is a tad more melodic but nothing special and still forgettable. An interesting point of comparison though in the conversion is the boss fights. Some are decent smaller renditions of setpieces from the main game, but others make use of enemies seen in cutscenes or artwork but not fought, such as the living capsicum or Grögh’s pharmacist. Good stuff!
Unfortunately the plot suffers on the GBC platform. Suzy is missing, Grögh has no presence apart from the final moments, the purpose of Doc’s collectibles is not even explained. At least Agent Xyz has gets an ugly full-frame portrait with advice and exposition. I suppose in those days the manual would be a crutch, but it hasn’t been scanned that I could find.
So it’s a reasonably competent little down-porting job, but probably surpassed by the Rayman GBC demakes that followed it. Fair enough, they were done by different companies. It was early days for Ubisoft’s handheld games. It is a little amateurish and small in scope, befitting a small company’s first game, but I can forgive dodgy execution because it was over quickly. Hm, is that really a good thing? Regardless, if nothing else getting to fight the Pharmacist justifies this game’s existence. Just expect frustration if you’re not allowing yourself an emulator’s conveniences.
EDIT: I forgot to mention a feature I couldn’t experience. Ubisoft’s GBC games often had a “Ubikey”; where by collecting a key in-game and then connecting to another Ubikey-enabled game via the GBC infrared port, you could unlock stuff—in this case, a bonus level. Since I don’t have access to the hardware, it’s a feature that’s lost to the ages… game preservation is a struggle sometimes.
I can finally get my Rayman series playthrough back on track after getting a decent N64 emulator working (Sixtyforce, requires registration). Try as I might, the PC versions just weren’t working for me. So Tonic Trouble then.
From what I’ve heard, Tonic Trouble was a test of sorts for the 3D engine that would power Rayman 2. Whether this is true or not, the games share much of their DNA and end up feeling very similar in atmosphere, gameplay, and music. Not to mention pervasive limblessness. It’s also established that they share a universe, with the General (“Mission accomplished. Sheer perfection.”) from Tonic Trouble’s FMV intro (in the PC version, not this one) appearing late in Rayman 2 to sell the Grolgoth to Razorbeard. Rayman also has a minor cameo or two in this game.
Tonic Trouble is more brightly coloured and cartoon-esque in its design and animation, but can still switch to dark, gloomy environments just like its successor. It does play up the surreal though, due to the effects of the mutagenic can as part of its plot, which gives it elements reminiscent of the first Rayman game as well as Origins. In fact one of the worlds, the Glacier Cocktail, is eerily similar to the icy parts of Gourmand Land in Origins and related games (Legends, Fiesta Run) with its large citrus slices among ice blocks.
But what about the gameplay? This is very much an early 3D platformer with all that entails. Levels are brief and linear with some hidden secrets, but fairly well designed I suppose. You unlock new abilities after each world, but each one has awkward controls associated with it; it doesn’t help that the N64 controller actually has not many buttons after the C buttons are used up on camera control. The gliding move especially is difficult to master, but they make a good attempt to base a level around it which feels very similar to Rayman 2′s lava sanctuary. Combat is not as smooth as Rayman 2, but it’s more puzzley and comes with fakey martial arts vocalisations from Ed, as part of the game’s mildly-lame wacky humour aesthetic. The final boss too is a nice multi-stage fight which uses most of the acquired abilities.
There’s a few oddities about this game that should be addressed. There are popcorn machines that briefly transform you to a muscleman to solve puzzles; inexplicably, they’re labelled with the logo for Newman’s Own brand of salad dressing and so forth. The PC version instead advertises Nestle Crunch. There’s also a beta version that was given out before the release of the game, which you will often find (named “Special Edition”) if you’re looking for the PC version. For the record, the PC version seems identical to the N64 one but with a graphical upgrade and voice acting; the beta version on the other hand is vastly different. Beyond merely lacking a jumping animation, there’s many level designs and concepts, collectibles, and enemies that were changed or unused for the final game. I couldn’t play it myself or find a full video playthrough but if you can, it’s worth trying both out.
Tonic Trouble was fine; I had fun with it, it’s pretty short so it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s a bit basic, the characters can be cliche, and the music aside from the main theme is forgettable. But it has heart. French heart. If you like Rayman and especially Rayman 2, there’s a good chance you’ll find something to like here. Now I’m off to play the Game Boy Color version.
If you look up “beloved PS2 games” in the dictionary, this one is top of the list. Whether its narrow focus is masterfully simple design or an obvious flaw is up to your opinion. I find myself torn; I appreciate the sensibilities of its design and aesthetic—when it’s good it’s very good—but there are glaring shortcomings and annoyances too. Oh and spoilers ahoy.
Let’s first talk about where it didn’t hit the mark, and get it out of the way. The story is pants. We’ll have to compare it to Ico since it shares so much DNA. In Ico the goal is simple: escape, and Yorda both helps with that and is tied up in the plot, being introduced to Ico at the same time as the player meets her so we discover as he does. SotC meanwhile has Mono who is a MacGuffin who starts the game stuffed in a fridge, and we learn nothing about her. The real companion, Agro, has no plot relevance; of course, this doesn’t diminish the relationship between her and Wander that the player feels.
There is meaning and story there, but it’s either stuffed in at the end, or too subtle as it’s unspoken. My motivation as a player was to see the gameplay offered by the next colossus or experience riding around the world, not to see what happens next. And that ending! The twist was appreciated as it’s something actually happening, but everything else was just a little weird. Reading into the events and crafting theories is interesting, but parts of it just come out of nowhere. And if Dormin was so scary and powerful then why was it so easy for Emon to destroy him? Yeah, I dunno, just dumping all the story at the end wasn’t very satisfying for me and it was far more emotional when Agro fell off the cliff, because the game itself had established a connection to her.
So as a good point, the reliance on Agro made you feel the partnership. The poor horse doesn’t care about your motivations, she’s just loyal. Riding her around also felt good (when the controls cooperated), the game has good traversal and a wide open land full of mystery to explore. That’s why I chose the above screenshot; battling colossi is the focus of the game (and what most screenshots feature, obviously) but exploring, hunting lizards, finding new hills and valleys is at least half the experience and can feel soothing, a nice contrast to the high-tension fights.
The fights are mainly satisfying as well, at least if you manage them quickly; figuring out what to do makes you feel accomplished, and climbing these huge creatures is a unique and epic experience. Unfortunately there’s a high frustration factor, as failing to grasp the more obtuse solutions will result in drawn-out battles with repeated failure. A colossus shaking you is not in itself tense as holding R1 will often leave you safe, but the slow burn of your stamina dropping can be both exciting and wearying. Falling to the ground will elicit a sigh as you consider how to exploit the creature’s behaviour again, and chip away at its life bar. Some colossi are exhilarating while others are tedious. I also tried Time Attack which exacerbated the tedium to new heights, as you struggle against a time limit and the AI. So unfortunately the main draw is something of a mixed bag (thank you vocabulary of game review cliches).
Similarly, the music is very memorable and often appropriate, shifting (a bit clunkily) to a more exciting track when advancing the phase in a fight. But on those drawn-out battles though the repetition can grate. The visual design of the world and the colossi are great, very evocative, although the colour palette tends to the drab. I did have minor technical nitpicks with the HD version; pretty severe pop-in of textures and world geometry being the chief complaint. Not that big a deal to me personally but a bit disappointing.
This game is so different to most games in what it’s trying to be that you have to forgive some of its flaws. I don’t mind a series of boss battles with open world roaming in between, I like it a lot in fact. But the execution of some fights and the story elements do drag the game down. It’s fascinating, artful, and strange. But forgive me if I don’t torture myself with Hard Mode.
Once again, a critical eye is hard to apply to a game that was so impactful on me in my younger years. It’s also difficult because I’ve been exposed to much discussion and analysis on the DKVine forums. I would agree with sentiments I’ve read there: that DKC3 may possibly in fact be objectively the best of the three, but it’s not my favourite.
It’s certainly ambitious. More involved map screens, a range of NPCs with item trading sequences, more creative level concepts. Its atmosphere is unique and beautiful in its own way. Its status as the black sheep of the Country trilogy can be put down to its late (post-N64) release, and its tonal dissonance. It was developed by a different team than the one who did parts 1 and 2; there are not the common enemies or sense of escalation that those shared. In some ways it’s a sidestep for the series as much as it’s an evolution of 2D platformer design. Ditching both Donkey and Diddy likely did it no favours either; I never did mind but “gamers” don’t like to play as a bawling baby. They should get over it.
So much for analysis. As for the feeling, well this game is deep in my heart. I don’t have it as memorised as DKC2, but only because the secrets are more well-hidden. But they’re not unfair either: every level has exactly 2 bonus barrels, and the DK coin is always accompanied by a setup with Koin and a keg. Control is perfect and Eveline Novakovic’s soundtrack is sublime.
The Wii U has the NA version published. This is actually an issue: I don’t remember there being slowdown with too many sprites on screen, but in this version there is. It’s especially noticeable on that one waterfall level with falling barrels. Speaking of VC versions though, DKL3. Don’t buy this on 3DS. Well, maybe buy it, but don’t play it there. There’s a far superior version for GBC that was released only in Japan. Ok, there are some compromises but those have been reversed and the game translated back to English by Blaziken257, whose ROM hack you can find here. It’s the definitive way to play the game and makes the VC (which doesn’t even support Super Game Boy palettes, still) look pathetic.
How is DKL3 as a game though? The highest compliment I can pay it is that of the three Land games, it feels the most like a Country title (especially the GBC version). Control and level design are a clear cut above the previous handheld instalments. Sure it doesn’t have the weird new ideas or new content of DKL1 but it sure plays better, and it’s more inventive than DKL2. It uses the familiar enemies and environments of DKC3 but in nice new ways and with new worlds (albeit feeling a little thrown-together) and a new (farcical) plot. It’s even got a unique minigame with a memory tile matching thing—it’s required to get to the Lost World.
Although Donkey Kong Land 3—a game that does not in any way feature Donkey Kong, outside the manual—is an odd way to end the classic DKC series, it’s quite good. In fact I’d say that DKC3 and DKL3 together are the strongest pair of the three. If you only play one of the three Land games, make it DKL3 (the GBC version, please). But all three Countries are solid gold blockbuster classics with magnifico graphics, amazeballs soundtracks, wondero-tastic gameplay, and fantabulous atmosphere. Splendiferous character. Lenticular design. Anyway they’re good.
This is the point at which playing the Lufia games in chronological order falls down. You see, this is the first game in the series in terms of production. As it turns out, many of the elements that made Lufia 2 unique and interesting, such as visible encounters, puzzles, a rotating roster of characters, the IP meter, etc. were all implemented first in that game. What does that leave this first instalment? A pretty generic RPG, unfortunately.
The plot and characters do approach the level of Lufia 2, albeit much simpler here. The writing is still good, even though the forced jealousy between Lufia and Jerin rankled more than Tia and Selan’s rivalry. There’s a good range of spells and items to spice things up, although I mainly just attacked to keep things moving quicker. There’s still a huge world to explore. It’s just that it seems a little primitive with its random encounters and clunky menus.
I even found myself in retrospect appreciating some of the things Ruins of Lore did, with its dynamic events, its take on the map screen and exploration, and its visual variety. In Lufia 1 (and 2 for that matter) you end up with a long list of towns on your warp list that all look very similar when you get into them. It’s a problem a lot of old-school RPGs had, unfortunately.
It’s too bad I found so much that compared unfavourably to the sequels, because playing the game is fine in the moment. There is a lot of repetition though, and RPG busywork. It ends up feeling like it’s dragging. Ah, what would I have thought as a youth had I sought out RPGs instead of platformers and found this first (impossible given it wasn’t released in Australia ever)? But I played Lufia 2 first, which simply exceeds this in every way. I suppose if you are looking for a strictly old-school style game without the action and puzzle elements, a more simple and basic game, this could be the ticket?
As it is, what I took away from this most was seeing all those bits and pieces that would be called back to in later games. The Ancient Cave in Ruins of Lore is based on this game’s version, and there are lots of little references that in retrospect tie it in closer to the series, as well as events in Lufia 2 that are inspired by this game. Not to mention character archetypes that are set up here. Although I was a bit puzzled to see that—I think—none of the towns are carried over to either 2 or RoL? Odd. Well, given all that I’m really dying to play the final game in the series: The Legend Returns on GBC. It’s the only Lufia game on the Virtual Console, and I’m happy to buy it even though I won’t have the emulator’s turbo button that helped so much in this game (although not as much as in the slower GBA one).
Oh and I finally met Lufia in this game; spoilers, but there is kind of a good reason the series is named that despite Lufia herself only appearing in this one game—Curse of the Sinistrals convinced me that the whole series is really Erim’s story. At least this one had a happy ending.
Forgive me, but I can’t be expected to talk rationally about DKC2, one of my favourite games of all time. Everything about it is so perfect to me. Playing it on the Wii U is such a treat; it still looks and sounds amazing, the sheer artistry shining through and blending with the tight gameplay to give one of the best experiences on this or any console. Anyway I like it.
Land 2 is also good, insofar as it tries to emulate DKC2. Of course, the music is less rich, although Kirkhope’s chippy renditions of the Wise soundtrack have their own appeal (worse is missing tracks, leading to repetition of tracks like Lockjaw’s Locker). You don’t get colourful environments and backgrounds and the detailed sprites (I realised that the DKC sprites remind me of claymation… random aside). The level designs and even item placement are also a noticeable step down.
DKC is very straightforward, and DKC3 is very ambitious with many tacked-on systems. DKC2 is a nice middle ground with rewarding collectibles, challenging gameplay, interesting gimmicks, and variety in level design. I think one of the more important things in its design is how the aesthetics work with the gameplay; for example, there’s sticky honey in the bee hives and the levels base their platforming around that.
Much of this carries through to Land 2, but scaled back for the Game Boy. While Land 2 is regarded as a port, in truth almost everything is ported over, except for the levels themselves, the layouts of which are brand new. This means that playing it is playing a brand new game, just sharing the exact same characters and world. The interesting part is seeing new platforming situations and enemy placements being done with the same basic concept. It should be noted that Land 2′s engine is greatly improved from Land 1; while jumps are still fairly high, the control and momentum feel much closer to the SNES.
Playing DKC2 was a breeze; my muscle memory practically plays it for me, including finding most of the secrets. DKL2, on the other hand is unfamiliar and thus feels more challenging; although I think that some of the setups are inherently more difficult, it could just be that I haven’t done them so many times that they’re trivial. The secrets in Land 2 though either are actually trivial to find or occasionally unfairly located, in which case I recommend Mario Wiki’s pages on each level to find them.
I absolutely recommend both of these games. DKL2 is not just a downgraded port, it’s new levels using (downgraded) DKC2 assets. But it’s fair to say it’s “overlooked” while DKC2 more than earns the title of “classic”. Good times.
I think I wanted to get this game after Disney said it wasn’t canon anymore. After playing it myself, there were some parts that I decided shouldn’t be canon either, like Darth Vader being responsible for starting the Rebellion vicariously. But it’s still interesting when they want to fill in parts of the story through the medium of video games, and there’s obviously a lot of design effort put into this project, with new characters and locations that fit right in, as well as the use of music.
Force Unleashed is set several years before Episode IV; you meet Princess Leia as part of the plot, as well as other more minor players from the films like Mon Mothma and Bail Organa (who shows up briefly at the end of Episode III), as well as obviously Darth Vader and the Emperor. I always like sources like this that are set around the time of the original Trilogy, but made after the prequels so they can insert lots of references to them. You do get all the lovely original trilogy Imperial visual design in the ships and installations though.
The game is about Vader’s so-called secret apprentice, Starkiller, who he’s training in order to one day overthrow the Emperor. Or maybe he was lying about that, there’s a few twists and turns so it’s not clear. Starkiller is the blandest of bland protagonists, coupled with a generic love interest in a bland blond pilot. His robot sidekick is cool, though. As the game progresses he supposedly is conflicted about his motives, but it’s not explored as fully as it could have been. At the end there’s a token choice with two endings; one leads into the next game and one interestingly leads to a series of DLC missions where you kill Luke and Leia and Han, etc. I was playing the basic game without extra scenarios, but it was still a fine, complete story.
Speaking of which, the different versions do have a number of extra levels and things; whether you’re playing on the HD consoles, Wii, DS, PSP, or even the N-Gage. The HD versions are the lead versions though, with the most fully realised physics engine; this is the main draw of the game and the most fun thing about it: throwing around debris and Stormtroopers with your Force powers, bouncing them off each other and plunging them off cliffs. Between this and your double jump and air dash, it turns into a fun sandbox-style traversal experience at times, although it’s quite linear and there are also a fair number of corridors.
As I said the environments look good with Imperial bases, jungle planets, and the scrapyard planet (Garbage World comes to mind for you Red Dwarf novel fans) (look out for easter eggs in the scrap, like a Clone Wars drop ship or a wrecked sandcrawler). Unfortunately the latter half of the game has you going back through the same environments—not backtracking mind you, there’s new level designs—while I was hoping for more new sights. But there’s reason to scour these places, as collectibles will help you unlock upgrades for your stats and Force powers, a nice addictive little system.
Combat is the main focus of the game though with your abilities giving you many ways to fry groups of enemies: lightning, violent Force Pushes to send them hurtling into walls, different saber comboes. Having a range of abilities makes you feel powerful but in a new play session I had to take a minute or two to remember all the controls. My preferred method of dealing with tougher enemies as I went on was to buff up my bar for Force power and just hold down the lightning button to drain their health. Maybe a bit cheap but it does get kinda brutal at times. Some of the boss battles too took many retries but you learn the tricks, that’s what it’s about after all.
So I did have some complaints, and the cutscene models were firmly in the uncanny valley, but it was lots of fun and felt appropriately Star Wars-y. From what I’ve heard the sequel improves on the formula so it’s on my wishlist now. I did feel a bit sore when I found out about the later release which included the DLC (and another extra non-DLC level), but it’s all extra stuff and the core of this game was enough. Plus you get to crash a Star Destroyer, cool!
I’m now playing the Lufia games in chronological order, so the last game made in the previous continuity is actually the second to play (I played Lufia 2 a few years ago). It’s supposed to be around 20 years after Maxim & co’s initial confrontation with the Sinistrals. This event is alluded to in Ruins of Lore’s intro but is barely ever brought up in the game; the only thing that places it is the presence of Dekar. This game is a sidestory and named as such in Japan, and it shows.
The plot has no bearing on the overall series; fair enough too, as it’s a different team to the one who made every other Lufia game. As a result it feels a little off, like it was made as a cash grab. A lot of elements are here: enemies, items, adventure aspects in the dungeons, a few songs. But it also tries several interesting new things, which is not a detriment in itself.
Any monster can potentially be captured and used as a party member; I never used them much because they replace a regular member, and why would I want that? The mechanics around using the monsters are very confusing, and were left largely untapped by me, but I didn’t feel the loss. It sometimes feels like party members are forced out in the early stages simply to leave you with an open spot to fill with these—boo!
Speaking of poorly explained things, again the plot. I had no idea what was going on half the time, we traipsed around half the world, seemingly happening upon magic stones that we then used at the end to get to some ill-defined magical realm to confront a vague threat. The cliche anime-style set-up of ten year olds passing a test to get a monster hunter’s license also put me off. Much of it was not in keeping with what I expected in a Lufia game, unfortunately.
Traversal is fairly unique, as each route between towns is a kind of dungeon in itself, and once completed becomes a fast travel location from the world map. Since you hop around so much it works well.
This game implements a job system to acquire skills. I picked one for each of the three who could get one (why not Bau?) and stuck with it for the whole game. So another mechanic that seemed unnecessary that I didn’t fully utilise. I had no trouble with difficulty by the way, except for the very final boss which takes a huge spike upwards. So there are some balance issues. Battles are also very slow and without my emulator’s turbo button (this game has never been released in my region, as with the first Lufia) I would have given up on the whole thing. Add on to this a clunky menu system and you can see how it approaches mediocrity.
Which is a shame, because there’s a fair bit to like. The areas, towns, and enemies have colour and character (despite a lack of recurring antagonist apart from the vague evil empire which you infiltrate no sweat). Dungeons are decent with each character having skills to help you through. It’s just that it doesn’t hang together so well.
All in all, I’d only recommend it if you have a turbo button. The Lufia-ness is about half of the game’s identity, with the other half being a range of other good and ill-formed ideas and tropes. It’s a decent RPG in its own right, but on a system overflowing with great ones like Golden Sun, the Final Fantasy remakes, and even Mother 3. Plus Dekar was a little underused, and they set him up with a young dancer girl! Quite a rude shock after the lovely relationship with Tia in Curse of the Sinistrals. Poor Dekar, he should get his own game that’s not this one.
Although the SNES has a reputation for being a haven for JRPGs, we didn’t actually own any on ours. Didn’t help that quite a few skipped our entire hemisphere: Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Super Mario RPG, even Final Fantasy 4 and 6, all never released in PAL. Sure most of that is Square’s fault, looking at the list. My experience of console RPGs was Secret of Evermore, Mystic Quest, and Lufia 2 (none of which have universal random encounters—what a skewed view of the genre I must have had!); all borrowed from friends or played at their houses.
I caught up with a lot of them through emulation later on, and one I was especially pleased to revisit was Lufia 2. It’s got a few good hooks to it, such as finding capsule monsters, the action/puzzle elements, and the optional random dungeon. A lot of the rest was novel to me at the time but on retrospect has been done. Still, the connection was there and the gameplay and story held up for me.
This game is a remake, or rather a reboot of Lufia 2, which is a prequel to Lufia… confusing. It changes the gameplay to action RPG, removes the world map, and streamlines the whole plot, drastically shortening it (no bad thing in my view: it moves along well and hits the important notes). The capsule monsters are gone unfortunately, but a new system is the mystic stone board which lets you power up characters by placing gems on a grid with bonuses and such on it. The customisability was nice and collecting and upgrading gems feels good, but I miss those little friends. Still, they wouldn’t have fit with the gameplay as they reimagined it.
Although the characters have also been redone, they’re all there in the same roles, but tweaked for the better. The writing is really entertaining and the secondary characters are memorable. More importantly, I felt a good connection to the main players, helped by the voice acting which although sparse was well done. I love all those goofs and in fact they inspired me to get into pixel art; scroll back in my blog to see some examples.
The streamlining of the plot helps give it more impact; the story of a pantheon of gods turning against the people of the earth and having a flipped evil nature is scary and effective. Gades serves as the main villain for the first half of the game, there’s a climax, and a lengthy epilogue-type series of scenes, before the characters find out that there are more Sinistrals to deal with. It’s a unique structure and although I knew about the late plot twist, it’s still emotional and the New Game Plus also hinges on it thanks to a nice post-credits scene. The second playthrough contains a few small additional lines sprinkled through the game in addition to an expanded Ancient Cave (the random dungeon I mentioned earlier).
The Ancient Cave is essentially the end-game content, but it’s a bit tedious and when you play for four hours only to fail at floor 99 of 100, it can feel very unfair. But I took up the challenge and I’m happy to say beat it the second time. The combat system is robust enough to sustain essentially four straight hours of dungeon crawling, or I thought so at least. Unfortunately due its nature it doesn’t contain the puzzley bits of the normal dungeons, which were a highlight.
I feel very positive about this game, it’s a real labour of love. The original game’s team got together again to do it, this time under Square Enix. They managed to redo the most popular game in the series very well, albeit with lots of changes, big and small. It’s inspired me to follow up with the series and play the other games; chronologically, of course. I also have opened a new comics project with the 32-page Lufia 2 special from Germany’s official Nintendo magazine, Club Nintendo. Look out for that later. After all, translating comics is the other thing I’m the best in the world at (psst, it’s a quote from Dekar in this game).
