Game Reviewed: Rayman 3 HD
Release Date: March 21st, 2012
Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: [Reviewed: Xbox 360 Live Arcade], PlayStation Network
Genre: 3D Platformer
Rated: E for Everyone
High Definition collections and updates have been all the rage lately and one of the newest ones is Rayman 3 HD. This is an HD update of Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc which was released in 2003 on Xbox, PS2 and GameCube. Another thing to note, Rayman 3 is a 3D platformer, which historically, do not age well.
I was not one of the people who had played the original Rayman 3. This being said, going into Rayman 3, I had no expectations of quality or what to expect in terms of gameplay. Starting off you are handless, giving them a chance to teach you the controls and try to be funny along the way. The writing in Rayman 3 is self-aware mentioning video games and past Rayman games in the tutorial. These jokes might have been funny when the game first came out but they are not funny now. This is not really the fault of the HD update as I did not expect them to rewrite dialogue, but in playing it for the first time, these jokes fell flat.
The game starts off with a black lum flying around turning red lums into hoodlums, who then stumble on Rayman and Glowbox resting under a tree. As I mentioned earlier Glowbox ends up taking Rayman’s hand and he has to go get them; after that he goes to the heart of the world to stop Andre, the black lum. Playing through, I almost never knew what I was doing and why I was doing it. The reasoning behind your actions is not explained well and it ended up being pretty frustrating.
The main part of the gameplay, other than platforming, is something called superpowers. You find these in “can” looking things and each one will give you different powers. The first power up you will get is some kind of shrink ray thing that when used will shrink enemies or other things that they let you shoot. You will then quickly get hammer hands, and claw hands. These power ups work just like your normal hands in that the longer you hold the attack button the stronger the attack will be.
The fact is today these 3D platformers do not hold up well at all. The camera gives you some sense of freedom but when you would want full freedom it screws you over by giving you the worst camera angle possible. This problem with the camera angle led to me falling off a ledge and either dying or having to climb all the way back up to the ledge which gets really annoying. Another problem with the controls has to do with the jumping. You have an option to hit the jump button a second time to hover for a small amount of time. When jumping normally, the jump is extremely floaty. That in combination with the bad camera is the worst thing that can happen to you in a platformer.
Since I have not played the old Rayman 3 I cannot say for sure if this is better or worse, but I can tell you that it is not fun to play. Rayman 3 has plenty of interesting things with its level design and power ups but the platforming and camera just kill any enjoyment I would have gotten. I would say if you have played Rayman before to not bother playing this HD update. If you have played Rayman 3 and you REALLY want to play this go ahead, but be warned that it does not really hold up well.
The Scores
Gameplay: 2/5
Visuals: 3/5
Audio: 3/5
Controls: 2/5
Value: 3/5
Overall Rating: 2/5
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