Rayman 2: The Great Escape

The Good
The first thing you notice is the graphics. They are detailed and were never seen in a platform game at that time. They are colorful and give the game it's dreamy atmosphere that makes you stick to this game for a while. The story is pretty good to: Robotic space pirates have invaded the world of Rayman, a character without arms legs or a neck, but with hands and feet and a cute big-nosed head. To save his world he has to set his friends free, collect the fragments of the destroyed Heart of the World called yellow lums, regain his powers and collect the four ancient masks that represent each of the four elements: Earth,water, fire and air. After he has collected them he can awaken the creator of his world, the god Polokus. After that he must infiltrate the pirate prison ship and defeat Razorbeard, the pirate admiral. This journey introduces the player to new friends such as Ly the fairy, Globox the frog, Murfy the flying encyclopedia to all kinds of gameplay elements and Polokus, the spirit of the world. These all look great and are fun and original characters. His rivals include, Razorbeard the pirate and his henchmen, titans and a one-eyed cave guard. The levels are challenging and have a lot of variation. You will travel from old forests to pirate hideouts and from ancient sanctuaries to caverns. You will find some weird and original gameplay sensations such as riding a walking rocket and racing over water with a snake. The levels are spread over 20 quite big worlds that grow steadily in difficulty. As I said before these levels look amazingly beautiful for a game of that age and have a dreamy atmosphere in them that makes you experience this game almost as if you were there. What also amazed me was the gameplay. It's surprisingly smooth and easy to pick up. Rayman has a lot of powers including a power fist and helicopter hair to hover. The further you get in the game the more you'll find. As I said before, the levels are challenging and you'll need all of your powers to finish them. Playing through this game will take you a sufficient amount of hours. Sound is dreamily beautiful and magically captures you to fulfill the experience.

The Bad
There really aren't many things not to like about this game. Usually I can find shortcomings about a game but I couldn't find any notable ones in this game, really.

The Bottom Line
This game stands out at almost every area, and is so well composed you'll instantly fall in love with it. Many people love this as one of their favorite platform games. It's rumored that Steven Spielberg himself ordered his own copy. If you didn't, what are you waiting for. HIGHLY recommended!