I think my words are being over analyzed a bit. "PlayStation Original" as in I am playing the original PlayStation game. Not the PSN version, not the PC version, not a sequel etc.
Great game, always will be good in my opinion. The graphics / artstyle look amazing, even today, and the OST is incredible. The main issue i would say is the ridiculous difficulty that ramps up over time. Also, i think with the jump at 29:30, on other versions (PC i think?) they added another ring in the middle to make it less impossible Another great video.
They made key elements easier in the later ports. They added more base health, easier jump windows in certain levels, and ting count not resetting, just to name a few things.
That's what I meant. haha. I just couldn't think of the most correct way of phrasing it. For example the ring being moved on Twilight Gulch and the gap on Bongo Hills' second stage w/ the double green music notes were easier in the GBA version
There is one caveat that the dev team snuck in called "Coyote Time"; for a split second when Rayman goes off a ledge, you can still jump (its similar to the Rolling Jump Trick in Donkey Kong Country). Its still tricky to use right, but its a LIFESAVER in this brutally challenging game. Both the GBA and DSi port went out of their way to alleviate the more cheap aspects of the game, and those are still challenging in their own right (the GBA port in particular due to the awful screen crunch)! GBA: Rayman no longer gets thrown backwards when hit, you have an extra hit point, you get more extra lives, you no longer lose all your tings when you die, and you can now see the trigger spots (presented as sparkles). It also axes out the first part of Bongo Hills to make it shorter and easier. Several levels have minor changes in them to make them easier too. Theres no autoscrolling in levels anymore either. DSi: You no longer lose tings when you die and you only need 50 for an extra life, default hit points is now 6 and can be increased to 10, you get 30 continues off the bat, there are more checkpoints throughout the level, and you can skip sections of a completed level by pressing Select, making backtracking MUCH less obnoxious. The frying pan in Mr. Dark's Dare no longer has any momentum--it moves at an even pace now. The game also has a map feature now, which comes in handy in the level where you have to use the firefly. Oddly, knockback damage is 'increased' in this port! Yikes!
imo this game even before the nerfs is not that hard, i beat it when i was 12. you all just expect an easy game because of the way it looks, if this had gritty art and rayman was a vampire killer with a whip no one would be complaining lol thnaks for all that info though, didn't know about coyote time
I agree with your verdict, It gets a lot right but it's just far too frustrating at times. I really enjoy the first few levels but after band land my enjoyment of the game drops considerably and I never even bother to try anymore when I play through these days.
You should try the fan remake, Rayman Redemption! Remade levels, new worlds, new bosses, a better difficulty curve, more content, you even actually explore Candy Chateau and fight Mr. Dark!
@@dapperfan44 no problem. Despite the original's flaws, there's a lot of brilliance beneath them, and the remake takes good advantage of it. More people deserve to know about it, especially those who grew with the original game, and found it either fun or frustrating.
You are right, the art design and sound track are fantastic in this game but the difficulty is way beyond hard. This game looks like it's designed for kids but really it's not hahaha. I also hate Space Mama, she is very unfair so much so that in my review of this game I had a nice little rant about her hahaha Just so you know most ports of this game were made a little easier with more hit points, starting at 5 instead of 3. Some extra platforms and rings in certain levels and some crates have been moved around making it "easier" to get through but still very difficult!!
that thing about the electoons is actually what made me stop the game first time I played it. After spending DAYS beating every levels with getting as much electoons I could but blocking the player from finishing the game without doing a 100% when you have to redo most levels in full without a "return to map" option is pure design flaw here
It definetly has problems but not as many as ImplantGames says, i actually finished this game and well... It as flaws, but is not flawed. Still a very good review, you bothered to finish the game when others would just give up.
I have fond memories of Rayman not because I played it, but for the time, it was the last truly great 2D platformer at the time. However, I can see why the game may not age well in this day and age. It was released at a time when developers made games with an arcade mentality. Games like this were insanely difficult for the purpose of nickling and diming the player for extra lives, or in the case of console games, to artificially extend the length of said games to justify the prices these games were sold at. Even though I grew up playing these types of games during the 90's, even I have lost patience with the hard and obtuse games. Thankfully, this game's critical and commercial success would pave the way for Ubisoft to make Rayman 2: The Great Escape. A game regarded as one of the greatest games of all time. By the way, you think you can make comparison videos between the two versions of a game to discuss differences between them?
It definitely has an 8-bit hard vibe to it. But I find that weird considering the game is so damn long haha. I don't own Jag Rayman anymore but I did throw in some old footage showing the shooting stage was different. I'm no Rayman expert though, I'm not sure I would notice all of the tweaks and changes. Someday I might revisit the GBA port, but it will be a while before I feeling this playing this again!
This is a very good analysis. I love that you went through the game level by level and actually beat the game before reaching your final verdict and went into detail just where the gameplay in Rayman is flawed. The game is a technological marvel and a very artistically stylish game, but I feel Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends are more successful in what Rayman 1 was trying to do, and I'm speaking as someone who did grow up with this game and beat it as a kid. (but that's because I bought a Blockbuster cheat code book and it included the 99 lives cheat; Picture City was impossible otherwise) I feel like the game would've been improved a lot if the Rayman sprite was just a little bit smaller and had a smaller hit box; I feel part of the gameplay becomes trial and error just because Rayman takes up so much of the screen.
Rayman 1 is absolutely fantastic and I managed to beat it as a child. The difficulty is absolutely high, but I see people complain that it's almost inhumane, which I disagree strongly with. The difficulty is what always made it fun for me.
It's a shame this game has so many design issues. I used to have this game on GBA and loved it. There is so much creativity to it. It is baffling why you have to save all the Electoons just to beat the game. I have a similar problem with the Ghouls and Ghosts series in that I hate the fact that you have to beat all the levels twice just to get an ending, though like you said, at least those games are much shorter. It's always sad when your beloved childhood games aren't as good as you want them to be. The farthest I got was to the last level in the Cave world (the one with the scorpion boss), after which I lost my game. I know the GBA version is supposed to be easier, with more health available and some level design changes. Also, the Tings don't reset if you die. If you ever tackle that version, I'd love to know how you feel it compares to this one.
The GBA version gives you more health points to work with which helps some. The most prominent change to the difficulty however is that the activation triggers in levels are now visibly marked with sparkles of light. You won't activate traps without knowing, or get stuck and wander aimlessly looking for a trigger to progress. No more auto scrolling either. They made alterations to some of the platforming bits (adding extra platforms or enlarging existing ones as well as toning down some of the hazards in places). Though due to GBA's lower screen resolution, there is a smaller field of view around you and you can't see as far. The Mosquito bosses can be beaten in seconds due to alterations made for the lower screen resolution (your jump can now reach him as he recovers from a punch and about to fly offscreen, just repeatedly time hitting him over and over and he won't even be able to attack). I will note that the GBA version is somewhat ambitious as far as ports go. It's a launch title and not the most impressive game on the system, but it is a fairly faithful conversion given that it's porting an impressive 2D PS1 game to a less powerful system. Visuals are mostly very faithful, sound of course is fairly poor (typical of GBA ports, particularly early ones). But surprisingly ambitious.
Thanks for the detailed list of changes! I agree with you on the ambition of the GBA version. Obviously some sacrifices (mainly sound) had to be given up since GBA hardware isn't as powerful as PS1's hardware, but the fact that it could fit GBA hardware at all is impressive! I'm wondering if the auto scrolling sections were removed because they were too hard, or removed so the game could fit in a GBA cartridge.
Angel Molina The auto scrolling parts were probably removed to make the game easier or perhaps due to the smaller resolution. They did retain the vertical auto scrolling in the monsoon level if I recall correctly. It's impressive for a launch title for sure, though I actually think the port had room for improvement even given the GBA's hardware limits. GBA sound hardware may not match Ps1 or the original orchestral tuned, but they could have still gotten some better sounding arrangements closer to a SNES like quality. Golden Sun shows what you can do on GBA with better programming, very few developers were good at programming decent sound on GBA. Some of the larger sprite objects could probably have been improved in image quality with a larger capacity cartridge. And they probably could have implemented some of the extra missing foreground weather effects (rain and snow) used in some levels. There would still be a quality difference between Ps1 and GBA of course, but it could be closer at least.
Makes sense. And if by the monsoon level, you mean that one where Rayman has to use his hair to cut the two ropes that are holding up the giant boulder in the third world, yeah they kept that. I remember playing that level in the GBA version. Given the similarities between GBA and SNES hardware, Rayman Advance could've been an amazing sounding game. I still liked the sound for what it was, but I feel where you're coming from.
It like many SD platformers had sprites that were too large and so the view port feels cramped and things you might need to see are just off-screen. I think the original Mario games got the feel just about right. I also think it suffers from visual clutter, but then so did Yoshi's Island, especially when it often had a lot of foreground in the viewport and with Yoshi moved further up the frame, putting the important things - things you interact with - often out of view. Compare and contrast how the player characters, enemies, and obstacles fit in the frames both in size and position: Mario 1: i.imgur.com/QtB1psL.png Mario 2: i.imgur.com/QA1bdl4.png Mario 3: i.imgur.com/q1McQEr.jpg Mario World: i.imgur.com/YvgB4df.jpg Yoshi's Island: i.imgur.com/O3f1wXK.gif Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse: i.imgur.com/gyBjmRz.gif Rayman for PSX: i.imgur.com/MvATmYI.jpg?1
The first world might suffer from some visuals clutter but I feel like the later areas do a great job keeping things clean and using contrast to separate elements. But overall Rayman could have used some fine tuning.
i had the game boy advanced version of this game and it's still so hard to beat the pencil and eraser level. to this day ive never even bothered beating it.
I wasnt much of a rayman fan when this first came out but it does look fantastic in tems of graphics and gameplay despite the bad collison detection and difficulty and i hate it when devs make u complete a game 100% just to see the ending.
Yep. Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends are the first truly great 2D Rayman games. Like for instance in those games you don't have to 100% to beat the game
I would still say it's worth a try if it looks fun based on this footage. It just hasn't aged well. I think there are versions of this game that are easier than the PSX version, so it's worth looking into.
I really enjoy the insight you give with these in depth analyses. Your exploration of game design has stuck with me while I play and I find myself better appreciating just what makes a game "good."
I'm glad you enjoy them! I find myself quite inspired by Michael over at Retropolis Zone so if you should check him out if you haven't already. But yeah, I find it both challenging and rewarding to really dive into games and find what works, doesn't work, and most importantly, why! And like you said, once you start breaking it down, it makes me really appreciate some of the amazing games I've been able to play.
i didn't play it for a long time cause i thought it looked like a kids game even though its one of the first games i got for the sega saturn... i played it and pretty much every thing he hates about the game i was loving about the game... i felt so clever and skilled when i got through the levels. i played with WAY more intent because if the life system. the end result was a very memorable experience for me. I've played it several times since and it's still a joy to be challenged by such an unassuming gem.
I remember the 4th world being extremely challenging. That's where most of my extra lives went. Lots of pixel-perfect sections and a ton of memorizing needed to succeed. Though, the game looks very good, even today (24 years later), and it's soundtrack is so memorable
Yeah, the game's difficulty in the later half is a huge sticking point for people. Apparently, the game didn't have a QA team, which meant that the devs were the ones who had to test the levels. As the people responsible for designing the levels, they probably didn't realize how difficult the levels actually were.
it's just great to know that this cute thing is deadly allergic to water in the first part, and after its "rabbit death" in the "big comeback", it swims so well that it surpasses any duck.
Rayman 1 is a truly stunning game for its time, I still find myself listening to the sound track, but it was brutally hard :p took me months of on and off playing as a kid to finally complete it (I didn't know about the 99 lives cheat so I had to start from scratch when my life/continue count got too low). It was probably the first game to introduce me to the fact that games can be hard :p
I played this with my dad when I was 5. We got to Pencil Penthalon, but could never get past that one jump (you know the one). I tried to play it again recently, but got frustrated and ragequit somewhere in Blue Mountains. I'm kinda impressed we managed to get that far back then.
I love this game exactly BECAUSE it's so difficult to beat. Sure, most of it is just trial and error, but the music and the worlds themselves make up for it. This was one of the first games I've ever bought, all the way back in 2000. It took me around six years to complete it fully, mainly because I gave up and had to look up some of the cages on the Internet. However, I still play it now every now and then. It's much more fun when you've memorized everything, but this game remains very hard. Sometimes I lose a life at the most unexpected places. It's extremely difficult to beat this game without losing at least a few lives. Though the last time I beat it I had 69 lives without any cheat codes and without using any of the continues. But then again, I've been playing this game for 18 years, so you'd think I would have gotten very good at it by now. Would I recommend this game to anyone who hasn't played it? No, probably not. It's so hard that it will probably just frustrate them.
I can definitely see where you're coming from. This game would objectively frustrate new people who start to play it, but of course, you can still like it personally, especially if it's nostalgic for you.
It's not difficult nor broken i beat it when i was 12 lol Yea things pop out of nowhere but other than like maybe 3-4 specific spots you have enough reaction time to dodge, it's fair
I have to agree. The later games are far better...and that's strange given most 2D games make a bad translation to 3D. Origins and Legends are also leaps and bounds beyond the design of the original. They're still tough as nails...but I didn't feel like I was being fucked with the whole time either. Visually and musically...this is still an incredible game. Gameplay just doesn't quite hold up sadly.
Being hard doesn't mean necessarely it is a bad game. It is challenging and I agree that sometimes it has some really unfair obstacles, but once you learned to overcome them, the challenge become a little more great. But well, that's my point of view, and I still respect your opinion. Even if I disagree with it.
I think the difference lies in why the game is difficult. Super Meat Boy was designed to be hard, but the game was built around that: unlimited lives, shorter levels, rapid respawning, etc. The game also controls well, so you are fully equipped to handle the challenge. Rayman's issue is that much of the difficulty comes from the fact that it isn't built around the insane challenge and doesn't give you the tools to handle it. There's far too much backtracking, far too few lives, no way to quit mid-level, etc. The controls are also far too imprecise to reliably make a lot of the jumps you are expected to make. If the game was more forgiving with its structure and more precise, the challenge would be acceptable. As it is though, it's often frustrating and just agitating.
@@ShiningDialga Rayman isn't meat boy hard though, if you die too much then it's on you. Backtracking isn't necessarily a bad thing, i loved going back to earlier stages with the new abilities and seeing how i can breeze through them while originally i struggled with them, which also showed i was getting better at the game, getting all the cages IS a huge part of the gaming experience, no one can say they completed Rayman 1 without it. Also i found the controls pretty good, all the sections this guy gets hit on and whines about have a certain method of passing which he doesn't seem to get, just watch any speedrun of rayman 1 to see the game really isn't that hard as you make it out to be lol
@@wanded Is ok to be wrong. Backtracking is a good thing in open worlds, maybe also in metroidvanias that have memorable map design, not on a linear platformer with confusing and frustrating level progression and zoomed camera.
I really hate when people say this game isn't that hard or unfair. If you've played it a million times, of course it will be easy to you. But just because you're good at it, doesn't mean it's good.
It's good because the game has prefectly tight controls and interesting level design, of course you'll get better the longer you play it and the high level of challenge it proposes makes it very rewarding to master. Just because you're bad at it doesnt mean it's bad.
It's so weird that nobody seems to know when some games came out; Did Rayman come out on Jaguar and PlayStation at the same time or weeks apart or ...? There is also no firm release date for Super Mario Bros on the NES in USA, one of the biggest games ever. Rayman started life as a SNES title, with co-op, different art style etc. Did you try the very early SNES prototype that was released about a month ago? Thanks for a wonderful video on Rayman. I'm amazed by all the effort you must put into making these for your viewers. Very high quality stuff man, keep it up :D
Ah, the first Rayman game. I have a love-hate relationship with it, for the exact reasons you gave. Love the artwork. A wonderful soundtrack. A very charming platformer with many creative and cool ideas. However, the difficulty was incredibly unfair. I got some nasty flashbacks watching all those spikes again. While I had a blast playing it on PC when I grew up, there is no way that I will ever go back and replay it, even less complete it. Bought Rayman Legends for my Nintendo Switch a couple of weeks ago and it is a far better game. It fixed all the issues when it came to gameplay and has a far more reasonable difficulty curve. I am glad that the franchise survived all these years so we got this game, because I can now consider Rayman among the best in its genre.
Rayman was developed for the Jaguar first than ported to the PlayStation so technically the PlayStation version is not the original version! Great Video!
I think my words are being over analyzed a bit. "PlayStation Original" as in I am playing the original PlayStation game. Not the PSN version, not the PC version, not a sequel etc.
I played rayman origins and finished it.....never in my life have I swear so many times That game will test you and requires a lot of skill and memorization
Had this on PC, the Saturn, and playeed it on GBA as well. So far, I've fully beaten the original, Rayman 2, Rayman 3, Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends and I'll play and beat all future main Rayman games. This game, for when it came out was a diamond in the rough
Wow! You have a lot of patience to be able to beat this one. I never have. Finding all the electunes just seemed too much of a pain. Also knowing I had limited continues, I found myself having to restart my save after having lost too many lives even after completing a level, trying to not use them. At my age, I had little patience for that. The game is undeniably beautiful, visually and in the audio department. I think this the first game that I listed to the soundtrack to. With the PC or PS version, I was able to get the tracks either just by exploring the files on my PC or using a special program. I still have my save on a memory card somewhere. Maybe I'll give this unfairly challenging game another chance some day. Great review!
Coming off sonic genesis I never cared for rayman's art style and slowness, I ended up giving it to a friend as a gift for showing me how to get past the sonic 3 carnival level. The days before internet. He loved it though and couldn't stop talking about it, he didn't realize there were platformers on his new ps1. and my name is Ray so that was a nice touch. I'm glad this video exists to give me a good idea of what I missed.
I understand where you're coming from when you're saying you generally dislike this game. There are so many problems from the trial and error gameplay to unfair elements like things literally appearing out of nowhere, and of course the 100 percent being mandatory. Yet, somehow, I still enjoy this game, and the art style is amazing , it probably has to do with the fact I played it a lot as a kid. Regardless, great review on this game!
"trial and error gameplay to unfair elements like things literally appearing out of nowhere, and of course the 100 percent being mandatory." imo thise are the things that make rayman 1 stand out among other games and make it better lol
I highly recommend the fangame Rayman Redemption. It DOESN'T force you to get all the cages for the final boss, said final boss is ACTUALLY WITH Mr. Dark (quite satisfying!) and actually leads into a true final boss if you chooooose to go for all of the cages and other collectibles added, lets you quit in the middle of a level while still keeping all cages found, the main mode features infinite lives, and while a lot of the design elements are completely different, there is certainly a greater sense of depth and care while still keeping the trial-and-error formula core to the game, though it's more methodical and compliments the increased amount of content. All of this makes for more satisfying gameplay in my eyes for sure. Oh yeah, I've also heard the Jaguar version is actually the easiest of the official releases.
I do wonder how I would have felt about this game if I actually played it back in the 90s. Growing up in the nineties my family had the SNES, Genesis, PS1, and N64 yet somehow we never played the original Rayman. My introduction to rain man was actually Rayman Legends on the Wii U which is awesome game! I later on got Rayman Origins for my Wii at a Blockbuster store that was closing down at the time, but haven't played it yet. through the Nintendo eShop on my 2DS I have played the Game Boy Color Rayman which I had some fun playing.
Rayman 1 is a 90's game in all aspects including difficulty-wise, if you aren't spoiled by todays baby level games and still have patience you still love it
yes rayman is hard, but that's exactly how i like it. there are enough easy games out there, it being hard as balls is one of the things that make rayman very special in my opinon
There's hard, and there's unfair and un-fun. Rayman 1 is the latter. I did beat it, but I didn't enjoy it. I believe there's a 99 lives cheat and I probably wouldn't play it again without using it. The first time I beat it I played the first level multiple times to rack up lives after each level, then went to the next level, then restarted and played the next level again while aiming to lose less lives Then repeat. Rayman Origins and Legends do a much better job at balancing difficulty for 2D Rayman. I believe Gamespot had a lame review for Origins, complaining about having to find Electoons in the stages to unlock later stages. Like dude, you're complaining about having to play the game.
@@dapperfan44 Only someone who wasn't an avid gamer during the 80's or 90's would say that, Rayman 1 isn't that hard compared to its brothers and sisters of that era like the early mega man or mario games, games today being nerfed to baby level doesn't mean rayman 1 is unfair lol Rayman 1 doesn't require memorization, everybody keeps claiming it does, but that's false, what it requires is good reaction time, even in this video when he complains about things popping out you can clearly see what he needs to do, of course under the stress of actually playing it would be harder but nothing in the game pops right on you damaging you instantly, THAT would be unfair...things usually spawn on the other side of the screen, whether you manage to act on time or not is on you. if i have to muster a complaint the only thing i can think of is that indeed a handful of cages (mainly at skops caves) require leaps of faith but personally i like even that because it simply fits with what this game is, a wolf in sheeps clothing. imo beating rayman 1 is about as difficult as beating Rayman Origins 100% with getting gold on the time trials and all, something i get the impression you also achieved.
@@wanded Sonic on the Genesis exists entirely in the 90s, and is not so hard it's unfair (although I imagine there are people today who think so). Neither is the Donkey Kong Country series. Yes, there are games that are babified today, but that doesn't change that there's a lot of unfair garbage in the original Rayman. Especially when you die in auto-scrolling levels just from touching the edge of the screen. What IS that?! The fact is, that now that games have the ability to save and that now they can be longer. the artificial difficulty of the past like Mega Man games has gone out of style outside of niche releases. Games no longer need to be hard to the point of being un-fun. For a kid's game example, Klonoa Door to Phantomile has an excellent difficulty curve, and probably one of the best I've ever seen. Lots of people complain that Jak 2 is hard, and it is, but it can be conquered with perseverance (T rated game). For adults, God of War provides options and gives you a healthy challenge on the highest difficulty. I believe all of these games give great examples on how to handle difficulty in games.
@@dapperfan44 Sonic, Donkey Kong and klonoa are relatively easy games, what i said is that the difficulty of rayman 1 was not rare in the 90's and 80's, not NOW, but the ERA IT CAME OUT, if you map all the games that came out at that era according to difficulty, rayman 1 would be about 7.5/10 in terms of difficulty (shmups exist for crying out loud) the auto scrolling levels in rayman are still not that tough eventhough the edge kills you, the game itself as a whole isn't that hard, i and plenty others managed to beat it when we were kids and now i can breeze through it without getting to the continue screen, you said jak 2 can be conquered with perseverance, it's the same with this game... like i said, beating rayman 1 is about the same difficulty as 100%ing rayman origins (getting all the medals, trophys etc), i can't see how you beat the time challenges in rayman origins yet find rayman 1 "unfair"
Thanks for another great video! I always got frustrated with this game and could never make it very far. How long did it take you to do the play through for this video?
When i was a kid i was never able to get past bandland... but i always came back to play through those first few levels, the music in dream forest is one of my favourite game tunes of all time. I'm also glad it got the sequel which i WAS able to beat from start to finish, though the biggest surprise was it actually being a good early 3D game!
Cool video 😄👍 this game is good indeed but iTS very hard to beat (i found out THE hard way) p's iTS cool That a few weeks a prototype of rayman on THE SNES was found and released 😄👍
I played this game briefly as a kid and remember getting stuck at band land, revisiting it later and finally beating it (with 99 lives lol) I realized how insanely difficult the game got later but I also had a newfound likeness for it, I just love the art style and soundtrack. Overall I really like this game despite the difficulty tbh, some parts were still enjoyable but space mama nearly killed me... not to mention some of those insane jumps for cages haha. Great review!
I never became aware of the flaws you're talking to until now that I saw your video. Still now I find it difficult to mind them. When I was a kid I found some levels really hard, but now that I understand the mechanics of the game I must say Rayman is a piece of cake from start to finish. For example, when you touch an enemy on a small platform and it knocks you back, just press the forward button and you will grab the ledge of the platform, nothing difficult here.
Also, 100% in this game is really not that hard. In most games when you 100% them that means you grinded for days. Rayman is a game that can be 100% in three hours. This is really not a valid argument when it comes to Rayman.
@@mononokehime3182 yea everybody complaining here simply suck at the game lol they are probably mad at it because it also looks kiddy like yet it still kicks their butt, if this had a gritty art and rayman was a vampire hunter with a whip no one would care it was this "hard"
I feel like the game's gimmick of making things appear from trigger-points is really neat, but executed poorly. I'd like to see something like that again, however, where the trigger was actually shown (there are a few instances in this game where a small sparkle is actually shown with a trigger-point, in Mr. Sax's Hullaballoo I believe) and where the effects of triggering where immediately much more apparent. That would still leave a vibe of mystery, which the beginning stages of this game was good at, but not be unfair and feel like trial-and-error.
Fantastic video Kris, I was hoping you would review Rayman! An absolute classic in both art style and music.. gameplay is sooo hard though. I never got that far into the game before getting all frustrated haha! By he way, is that an encoding glitch @8:00 min. or did you PlayStation get weird?
Dude, he meant that he was playing on the PlayStation not a pc or emulator the “original” is used to say that it is the playstation 1 not that it was the original platform it released on…..
Sorry, I know this review is old, but I completely disagree with you. I didn’t feel like most levels were trial and error. The auto-scrollers weren’t even close to the hardest levels. I also collected every electoon without a guide. Loved every second of it.
i will probably never want to attempt to finish it but i think it's so lovely overall! mainly the theme and artstyle, music etc. i agree on band land and picture city, with how the enviroments aren't as.. full as say the first level, that's why the PC version is cool cause it gives bongo hills that grassy area with bridges at the start, though i think that should of went on for MUCH longer and they should have used more clouds and less drums in the beginning levels since band land is like a passage through the sky to get to the blue mountains.
I remember I got this game for Christmas one year, for pc, I had to run through DOS which wasn't uncommon back then. I have never beat this game. But it's one of those games I've always liked, even if I could never beat it. Kinda like Ninja Gaiden, or the Super Star Wars games, fantastic games, that let's face it 90% + of the people who played them never got from start to finish. Still, it was a very beautiful game and sounded great, was decently fun enough and honestly, it still looks good today.
Growing up I rarely beat games haha :) It has been interesting to back and finally beat and/or complete games and see how the experience changes. Rayman is a game I like well enough, good controls and great graphics, but man is it tedious to beat!
@@implantgames Ya the 100% completion requirement... and the limited lives, though you can farm for them a little, if you don't mind gathering the blur orbs.
When I played Rayman last time (two years ago) I gave up after mountains stages. Difficulty of trial and error killed the fun for me, but I was impressed how sophisticated those fair elements are and those moment were really satisfying. However, if the game was remade today, then it wouldn't need a lot of level redesign if common modern 2D platformer''s solutions were implemented. These are increased field of view (no more blind jumps or not enough time to react) and unlimited lifes (no frustrastion due to restart). This should do the trick.
I find it adorable how you burned though so many lives. the game isn't hard if you just have a solid amount of patience, it really shows everything itself naturally, (the pens for example aren't a blind jump as on the last one the purple ring is shown, etc etc). i complete rayman 1 one time every year as an homage to my childhood. (with 4 deaths on my last run)
I have tried to go back to this game a few times and get further but it just maddens me with the ridiculous difficulty. it's a shame since the game looks and sounds beautiful.
I don't know where all the complaints of difficult come from, I mean it's challenging but it's not frustratingly hard. At the end you mentioned that a modern game would have very small levels with where you die over and over, I hate that design philosophy, I get so bored so quickly when games do that... what I do very much enjoy however, is Rayman
Even the devs who made the game say they made a mistake making it so hard. They said they ran out of time and so didn't play test the later levels at all, hence why they're so difficult. It's difficult by accident, not by design. And that's why on subsequent releases and later on remakes, they fixed all these issues and the game got much easier
Rayman requires a lot of patience, to be sure, but it's a great platformer. Its extreme difficulty is what makes it so good. Without that, it would have been a mildly entertaining but ultimately generic game. I've played through it many, many times over the years, and it doesn't seem so hard to me anymore. I can play from start to finish with no saves or continues - but it took me a LONG time to get to that point. I understand that most gamers don't have the patience/time to dedicate to a 20+ year old platformer, but if you take the time to really master the controls, you realize that it's unforgiving and challenging, but rarely unfair.
I think a lot of people forget how hard some games were at one point. I remember it took me months as a kid to finally beat the first Super Mario Bros on NES. Any good game takes practice to beat... if you can beat it first try, it stops being a game and starts to become an experience, and personally, I like my games to be *games*.
@@implantgames I know this is a two year old comment, but the best version is Rayman 2 Revolution which is only on PS2. You can get it on PS2 or in the PSN store for PS3.
Rayman is the best 2d western platformer ever made and its difficulty is vastly overrated. You have to compare it with the tradition of 8 and 16 bit sidescrollers that it was the culmination of, not with the piss easy games that followed it. Rayman 2 is to this day one of my most disappointing purchases because I easily beat it in two days, unlike the lengthy adventure that was the original.
Super Mario Land 2, DuckTales, Kirby's Adventure, Castle of Illusion, etc... not every 8 and 16-bit platformer was unfairly hard. Some had a nice difficulty curve with a fair challenge.
Looks like Rayman started like a Angry bird game with a story but later changed the angry bird part which i glad they did tbh...the first Rayman was beautiful but it was a torture to play because of the difficulty🙁
I own the PS1 version and you show levels before band land that I haven't even seen, like a second misquito boss and that you get your power to hang after that, but I haven't seen those levels and I have the power to hang..
Making a kids game this difficult was satanic lol. I could never get past the music levels as a kid.. and that was close to the beginning of the game..
Stumbled into your channel and been binge watching dozens of videos (awesome stuff, btw!), and I keep wondering to myself... Your accent is kinda peculiar... where are you from? If I was to guess, I'd say you're either from Sweden or from Nova Scotia.
No wonder I couldn't get into this entry. It makes so much sense to me. Like seriously, I feel like most of the times, Rayman 1 is a poorly designed platformer. The fact that Ubisoft themselves said they barely play tested it shows that they should have. Luckily, at least they learned not to do this stupid mistake with the following games especially Origins and Legends. Overall, good review man.
According to dash below, "It's the code name and acronym for the PlayStation because it was originally going to be called the PlayStation X, but then it was changed to simply PlayStation. The X came from and payed homage to the MSX which was a product that a few companies, including Sony, produced back in the 80s. Although the name of the console changed to just PlayStation, it's abbreviation remained as PSX simply because PS was too common of an acronym."
![กี่หมื่นฟ้า | Your Sky Series EP.1 [2/4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qJbQs_nhjD4/mqdefault.jpg)
![PASULOL รามเกียรติ์ ตอนที่ 4 นนทกพบรัก [Ramakien Ep.4: Nonthok in love]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tMUQgmZzf_A/mqdefault.jpg)
Pretty sure the Jaguar version is the original.
You'd think that, but the Sony Playstation version actually came first. But it was supposed to be on the Atari Jaguar first originally.
I think my words are being over analyzed a bit. "PlayStation Original" as in I am playing the original PlayStation game. Not the PSN version, not the PC version, not a sequel etc.
@implantgames
Fair enough. :P
You would think so, and that's also how it is. It came for Jaguar on september 1st in 1995, while the PS1 version came on september 9th.
@DaNes200581
I'd say the PlayStation version is the best version.
The saturn version lacks the same FMVs
Rayman: The most beautiful torture I've put myself through.
Good way to put it!
Facts
"YEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"Ubisoft really captured the essence of what I feel when beating a level in that game. 😄
I could think of a different four letter word ;)
implantgames Hahahahaha! 🤣
Accompanied by the jingle and chuckle, with a light ding at the end. The absolute best level-complete sound effect!
Great game, always will be good in my opinion. The graphics / artstyle look amazing, even today, and the OST is incredible. The main issue i would say is the ridiculous difficulty that ramps up over time.
Also, i think with the jump at 29:30, on other versions (PC i think?) they added another ring in the middle to make it less impossible
Another great video.
I'm not familiar with the ports and revisions, I sure hope they added a ring haha :)
They made key elements easier in the later ports. They added more base health, easier jump windows in certain levels, and ting count not resetting, just to name a few things.
They did not, but they made the jump easier :)
That's what I meant. haha. I just couldn't think of the most correct way of phrasing it. For example the ring being moved on Twilight Gulch and the gap on Bongo Hills' second stage w/ the double green music notes were easier in the GBA version
I've had nightmares about that gap. In the GBA version you could grab the ring without the run powerup
Protoon = Proton
Electoon = Electron
I can't be the only one who noticed this.
Never noticed it before lmao
Youre not :)))
Nuetoon
But what about the Neutoons? Or the Positoons, Photoons, and the controversial Gravitoon?
There is one caveat that the dev team snuck in called "Coyote Time"; for a split second when Rayman goes off a ledge, you can still jump (its similar to the Rolling Jump Trick in Donkey Kong Country). Its still tricky to use right, but its a LIFESAVER in this brutally challenging game. Both the GBA and DSi port went out of their way to alleviate the more cheap aspects of the game, and those are still challenging in their own right (the GBA port in particular due to the awful screen crunch)!
GBA: Rayman no longer gets thrown backwards when hit, you have an extra hit point, you get more extra lives, you no longer lose all your tings when you die, and you can now see the trigger spots (presented as sparkles). It also axes out the first part of Bongo Hills to make it shorter and easier. Several levels have minor changes in them to make them easier too. Theres no autoscrolling in levels anymore either.
DSi: You no longer lose tings when you die and you only need 50 for an extra life, default hit points is now 6 and can be increased to 10, you get 30 continues off the bat, there are more checkpoints throughout the level, and you can skip sections of a completed level by pressing Select, making backtracking MUCH less obnoxious. The frying pan in Mr. Dark's Dare no longer has any momentum--it moves at an even pace now. The game also has a map feature now, which comes in handy in the level where you have to use the firefly. Oddly, knockback damage is 'increased' in this port! Yikes!
imo this game even before the nerfs is not that hard, i beat it when i was 12. you all just expect an easy game because of the way it looks, if this had gritty art and rayman was a vampire killer with a whip no one would be complaining lol
thnaks for all that info though, didn't know about coyote time
I agree with your verdict, It gets a lot right but it's just far too frustrating at times. I really enjoy the first few levels but after band land my enjoyment of the game drops considerably and I never even bother to try anymore when I play through these days.
That sums up with how I played Rayman for a majority of my adult life haha.
You should try the fan remake, Rayman Redemption! Remade levels, new worlds, new bosses, a better difficulty curve, more content, you even actually explore Candy Chateau and fight Mr. Dark!
@@Mike14264 Thanks, never would've found out without this comment!
@@dapperfan44 no problem. Despite the original's flaws, there's a lot of brilliance beneath them, and the remake takes good advantage of it. More people deserve to know about it, especially those who grew with the original game, and found it either fun or frustrating.
*"As you're probably getting sick of me describing each level in detail, let's go ahead and summarize..."*
I wasn't 😥
You are right, the art design and sound track are fantastic in this game but the difficulty is way beyond hard. This game looks like it's designed for kids but really it's not hahaha. I also hate Space Mama, she is very unfair so much so that in my review of this game I had a nice little rant about her hahaha
Just so you know most ports of this game were made a little easier with more hit points, starting at 5 instead of 3. Some extra platforms and rings in certain levels and some crates have been moved around making it "easier" to get through but still very difficult!!
It was nice of them to extend the life bar in a game filled with instant death hazards :P I checked our our review and subbed, thanks!
I love how you always show old reviews for the games so you can see what people used to think of the game.
that thing about the electoons is actually what made me stop the game first time I played it.
After spending DAYS beating every levels with getting as much electoons I could but blocking the player from finishing the game without doing a 100% when you have to redo most levels in full without a "return to map" option is pure design flaw here
It's extremely obnoxious!
This. All of this. Without that flaw, it was just a really difficult, but still somewhat enjoyable game for me. With it? Didn't bother finishing it.
This is a wonderful platforming classic. I remember Rayman fondly, for the most part. Great review as usual.
Thank you Sir!
It definetly has problems but not as many as ImplantGames says, i actually finished this game and well...
It as flaws, but is not flawed.
Still a very good review, you bothered to finish the game when others would just give up.
I have fond memories of Rayman not because I played it, but for the time, it was the last truly great 2D platformer at the time. However, I can see why the game may not age well in this day and age. It was released at a time when developers made games with an arcade mentality. Games like this were insanely difficult for the purpose of nickling and diming the player for extra lives, or in the case of console games, to artificially extend the length of said games to justify the prices these games were sold at. Even though I grew up playing these types of games during the 90's, even I have lost patience with the hard and obtuse games. Thankfully, this game's critical and commercial success would pave the way for Ubisoft to make Rayman 2: The Great Escape. A game regarded as one of the greatest games of all time.
By the way, you think you can make comparison videos between the two versions of a game to discuss differences between them?
It definitely has an 8-bit hard vibe to it. But I find that weird considering the game is so damn long haha. I don't own Jag Rayman anymore but I did throw in some old footage showing the shooting stage was different. I'm no Rayman expert though, I'm not sure I would notice all of the tweaks and changes. Someday I might revisit the GBA port, but it will be a while before I feeling this playing this again!
This is a very good analysis. I love that you went through the game level by level and actually beat the game before reaching your final verdict and went into detail just where the gameplay in Rayman is flawed. The game is a technological marvel and a very artistically stylish game, but I feel Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends are more successful in what Rayman 1 was trying to do, and I'm speaking as someone who did grow up with this game and beat it as a kid. (but that's because I bought a Blockbuster cheat code book and it included the 99 lives cheat; Picture City was impossible otherwise)
I feel like the game would've been improved a lot if the Rayman sprite was just a little bit smaller and had a smaller hit box; I feel part of the gameplay becomes trial and error just because Rayman takes up so much of the screen.
Rayman 1 is absolutely fantastic and I managed to beat it as a child. The difficulty is absolutely high, but I see people complain that it's almost inhumane, which I disagree strongly with. The difficulty is what always made it fun for me.
same, everybody here complaining because they obviously suck at the game
It's a shame this game has so many design issues. I used to have this game on GBA and loved it. There is so much creativity to it. It is baffling why you have to save all the Electoons just to beat the game. I have a similar problem with the Ghouls and Ghosts series in that I hate the fact that you have to beat all the levels twice just to get an ending, though like you said, at least those games are much shorter. It's always sad when your beloved childhood games aren't as good as you want them to be.
The farthest I got was to the last level in the Cave world (the one with the scorpion boss), after which I lost my game. I know the GBA version is supposed to be easier, with more health available and some level design changes. Also, the Tings don't reset if you die. If you ever tackle that version, I'd love to know how you feel it compares to this one.
I'm pretty Rayman'd out at the moment but now I really want to give the GBA version a spin to see what has changed!
The GBA version gives you more health points to work with which helps some. The most prominent change to the difficulty however is that the activation triggers in levels are now visibly marked with sparkles of light. You won't activate traps without knowing, or get stuck and wander aimlessly looking for a trigger to progress.
No more auto scrolling either. They made alterations to some of the platforming bits (adding extra platforms or enlarging existing ones as well as toning down some of the hazards in places). Though due to GBA's lower screen resolution, there is a smaller field of view around you and you can't see as far.
The Mosquito bosses can be beaten in seconds due to alterations made for the lower screen resolution (your jump can now reach him as he recovers from a punch and about to fly offscreen, just repeatedly time hitting him over and over and he won't even be able to attack).
I will note that the GBA version is somewhat ambitious as far as ports go. It's a launch title and not the most impressive game on the system, but it is a fairly faithful conversion given that it's porting an impressive 2D PS1 game to a less powerful system. Visuals are mostly very faithful, sound of course is fairly poor (typical of GBA ports, particularly early ones). But surprisingly ambitious.
Thanks for the detailed list of changes!
I agree with you on the ambition of the GBA version. Obviously some sacrifices (mainly sound) had to be given up since GBA hardware isn't as powerful as PS1's hardware, but the fact that it could fit GBA hardware at all is impressive! I'm wondering if the auto scrolling sections were removed because they were too hard, or removed so the game could fit in a GBA cartridge.
Angel Molina The auto scrolling parts were probably removed to make the game easier or perhaps due to the smaller resolution. They did retain the vertical auto scrolling in the monsoon level if I recall correctly.
It's impressive for a launch title for sure, though I actually think the port had room for improvement even given the GBA's hardware limits. GBA sound hardware may not match Ps1 or the original orchestral tuned, but they could have still gotten some better sounding arrangements closer to a SNES like quality. Golden Sun shows what you can do on GBA with better programming, very few developers were good at programming decent sound on GBA.
Some of the larger sprite objects could probably have been improved in image quality with a larger capacity cartridge. And they probably could have implemented some of the extra missing foreground weather effects (rain and snow) used in some levels. There would still be a quality difference between Ps1 and GBA of course, but it could be closer at least.
Makes sense. And if by the monsoon level, you mean that one where Rayman has to use his hair to cut the two ropes that are holding up the giant boulder in the third world, yeah they kept that. I remember playing that level in the GBA version.
Given the similarities between GBA and SNES hardware, Rayman Advance could've been an amazing sounding game. I still liked the sound for what it was, but I feel where you're coming from.
It like many SD platformers had sprites that were too large and so the view port feels cramped and things you might need to see are just off-screen. I think the original Mario games got the feel just about right. I also think it suffers from visual clutter, but then so did Yoshi's Island, especially when it often had a lot of foreground in the viewport and with Yoshi moved further up the frame, putting the important things - things you interact with - often out of view.
Compare and contrast how the player characters, enemies, and obstacles fit in the frames both in size and position:
Mario 1: i.imgur.com/QtB1psL.png
Mario 2: i.imgur.com/QA1bdl4.png
Mario 3: i.imgur.com/q1McQEr.jpg
Mario World: i.imgur.com/YvgB4df.jpg
Yoshi's Island: i.imgur.com/O3f1wXK.gif
Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse: i.imgur.com/gyBjmRz.gif
Rayman for PSX: i.imgur.com/MvATmYI.jpg?1
The first world might suffer from some visuals clutter but I feel like the later areas do a great job keeping things clean and using contrast to separate elements. But overall Rayman could have used some fine tuning.
i had the game boy advanced version of this game and it's still so hard to beat the pencil and eraser level. to this day ive never even bothered beating it.
I wasnt much of a rayman fan when this first came out but it does look fantastic in tems of graphics and gameplay despite the bad collison detection and difficulty and i hate it when devs make u complete a game 100% just to see the ending.
Yep. Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends are the first truly great 2D Rayman games. Like for instance in those games you don't have to 100% to beat the game
I would still say it's worth a try if it looks fun based on this footage. It just hasn't aged well. I think there are versions of this game that are easier than the PSX version, so it's worth looking into.
I'm not a Rayman aficionado by any stretch, but I believe the GBA version has some tweaks making it less tedious.
You’re the first American I’ve ever heard pronounce Jaguar correctly. You’ve earned my like.
I really enjoy the insight you give with these in depth analyses. Your exploration of game design has stuck with me while I play and I find myself better appreciating just what makes a game "good."
I'm glad you enjoy them! I find myself quite inspired by Michael over at Retropolis Zone so if you should check him out if you haven't already. But yeah, I find it both challenging and rewarding to really dive into games and find what works, doesn't work, and most importantly, why! And like you said, once you start breaking it down, it makes me really appreciate some of the amazing games I've been able to play.
i didn't play it for a long time cause i thought it looked like a kids game even though its one of the first games i got for the sega saturn... i played it and pretty much every thing he hates about the game i was loving about the game... i felt so clever and skilled when i got through the levels. i played with WAY more intent because if the life system. the end result was a very memorable experience for me. I've played it several times since and it's still a joy to be challenged by such an unassuming gem.
same, this game is a masterpiece, anyone complaining is basically a spoiled gamer who got used to todays baby difficulty games
The music though. I still remember the songs and last time i've played the game was over 15 years ago.
I remember the 4th world being extremely challenging. That's where most of my extra lives went.
Lots of pixel-perfect sections and a ton of memorizing needed to succeed.
Though, the game looks very good, even today (24 years later), and it's soundtrack is so memorable
Yea picture city was the hardest part in the game with the hardest boss
Shamefully good graphics and music isnt enough to make a game good.
Good times! Finished it once back in the day. Very hard game for sure.
Yeah, the game's difficulty in the later half is a huge sticking point for people. Apparently, the game didn't have a QA team, which meant that the devs were the ones who had to test the levels. As the people responsible for designing the levels, they probably didn't realize how difficult the levels actually were.
Definitely not haha :)
it's just great to know that this cute thing is deadly allergic to water in the first part, and after its "rabbit death" in the "big comeback", it swims so well that it surpasses any duck.
i'm surprised about the play test part, given how many they had on the credits at the end lol. what where all of them doing?
i like how he said rayman on the play station one will kick your ass! i beat that game! i miss so much
Rayman 1 is a truly stunning game for its time, I still find myself listening to the sound track, but it was brutally hard :p took me months of on and off playing as a kid to finally complete it (I didn't know about the 99 lives cheat so I had to start from scratch when my life/continue count got too low). It was probably the first game to introduce me to the fact that games can be hard :p
that's why we love it
I played this with my dad when I was 5. We got to Pencil Penthalon, but could never get past that one jump (you know the one). I tried to play it again recently, but got frustrated and ragequit somewhere in Blue Mountains. I'm kinda impressed we managed to get that far back then.
That is pretty awesome :)
try again, it's really not that hard lol
this game always looked like an old-school point and click to me.
Yeah it does kinda have that vibe, especially the opening world.
implantgames This is most likely because of the high detail but low res, and cartoonish but realistic graphics.
I actually loved you going over every single part of every single level.
Hey, I still think you're wrong about Super Mario Bros (NES) and Ocarina of Time, but you do make good videos overall. Keep it up, man!
Dude been watching a lot of your videos and I love your reviews. Found you through all the Sonic videos and now I cant stop watching. haha xD
Glad to hear it and thank you!!
I love this game exactly BECAUSE it's so difficult to beat. Sure, most of it is just trial and error, but the music and the worlds themselves make up for it. This was one of the first games I've ever bought, all the way back in 2000. It took me around six years to complete it fully, mainly because I gave up and had to look up some of the cages on the Internet.
However, I still play it now every now and then. It's much more fun when you've memorized everything, but this game remains very hard. Sometimes I lose a life at the most unexpected places. It's extremely difficult to beat this game without losing at least a few lives. Though the last time I beat it I had 69 lives without any cheat codes and without using any of the continues. But then again, I've been playing this game for 18 years, so you'd think I would have gotten very good at it by now.
Would I recommend this game to anyone who hasn't played it? No, probably not. It's so hard that it will probably just frustrate them.
Never have I read a comment that so perfectly understands the difference between objective and subjective. Thank you!
I can definitely see where you're coming from. This game would objectively frustrate new people who start to play it, but of course, you can still like it personally, especially if it's nostalgic for you.
no it is just broken, not difficult.
It's not difficult nor broken i beat it when i was 12 lol
Yea things pop out of nowhere but other than like maybe 3-4 specific spots you have enough reaction time to dodge, it's fair
This is why the good Lord made emulator save states
I have to agree. The later games are far better...and that's strange given most 2D games make a bad translation to 3D. Origins and Legends are also leaps and bounds beyond the design of the original. They're still tough as nails...but I didn't feel like I was being fucked with the whole time either. Visually and musically...this is still an incredible game. Gameplay just doesn't quite hold up sadly.
Ah, now that is an interesting comment! "strange given most 2D games make a bad translation to 3D"
Being hard doesn't mean necessarely it is a bad game. It is challenging and I agree that sometimes it has some really unfair obstacles, but once you learned to overcome them, the challenge become a little more great. But well, that's my point of view, and I still respect your opinion. Even if I disagree with it.
I think the difference lies in why the game is difficult. Super Meat Boy was designed to be hard, but the game was built around that: unlimited lives, shorter levels, rapid respawning, etc. The game also controls well, so you are fully equipped to handle the challenge. Rayman's issue is that much of the difficulty comes from the fact that it isn't built around the insane challenge and doesn't give you the tools to handle it. There's far too much backtracking, far too few lives, no way to quit mid-level, etc. The controls are also far too imprecise to reliably make a lot of the jumps you are expected to make. If the game was more forgiving with its structure and more precise, the challenge would be acceptable. As it is though, it's often frustrating and just agitating.
@@ShiningDialga Rayman isn't meat boy hard though, if you die too much then it's on you.
Backtracking isn't necessarily a bad thing, i loved going back to earlier stages with the new abilities and seeing how i can breeze through them while originally i struggled with them, which also showed i was getting better at the game, getting all the cages IS a huge part of the gaming experience, no one can say they completed Rayman 1 without it.
Also i found the controls pretty good, all the sections this guy gets hit on and whines about have a certain method of passing which he doesn't seem to get, just watch any speedrun of rayman 1 to see the game really isn't that hard as you make it out to be lol
@@wanded Is ok to be wrong.
Backtracking is a good thing in open worlds, maybe also in metroidvanias that have memorable map design, not on a linear platformer with confusing and frustrating level progression and zoomed camera.
Weirdly enough, the Jaguar version is actually the original. The PS1 and Saturn versions are the best, though.
I really hate when people say this game isn't that hard or unfair. If you've played it a million times, of course it will be easy to you. But just because you're good at it, doesn't mean it's good.
It's good because the game has prefectly tight controls and interesting level design, of course you'll get better the longer you play it and the high level of challenge it proposes makes it very rewarding to master. Just because you're bad at it doesnt mean it's bad.
@@Inochih Is ok to be wrong.
This game has some of the most beautiful art and animation in the history of video games.
It's so weird that nobody seems to know when some games came out; Did Rayman come out on Jaguar and PlayStation at the same time or weeks apart or ...? There is also no firm release date for Super Mario Bros on the NES in USA, one of the biggest games ever. Rayman started life as a SNES title, with co-op, different art style etc. Did you try the very early SNES prototype that was released about a month ago?
Thanks for a wonderful video on Rayman. I'm amazed by all the effort you must put into making these for your viewers. Very high quality stuff man, keep it up :D
The great Rayman release date mystery :) Where is Guru Larry... he needs a Rayman Fact Hunt...
11:41 Oh, so it's just like the first stage of Parappa the Rapp-
11:47 No, no. I don't think that was there, nevermind.
Ah, the first Rayman game. I have a love-hate relationship with it, for the exact reasons you gave. Love the artwork. A wonderful soundtrack. A very charming platformer with many creative and cool ideas. However, the difficulty was incredibly unfair. I got some nasty flashbacks watching all those spikes again. While I had a blast playing it on PC when I grew up, there is no way that I will ever go back and replay it, even less complete it. Bought Rayman Legends for my Nintendo Switch a couple of weeks ago and it is a far better game. It fixed all the issues when it came to gameplay and has a far more reasonable difficulty curve. I am glad that the franchise survived all these years so we got this game, because I can now consider Rayman among the best in its genre.
Haha, I doubt I will ever play this game again either :D I look forward to giving Origins and Legends a proper go sooner or later. Cheers!
Great to hear! :)
Also, good video. Liked and subscribed. :P
Rayman was developed for the Jaguar first than ported to the PlayStation so technically the PlayStation version is not the original version! Great Video!
The Sony Playstation version came out before the Atari Jaguar version did, even though the game was originally built in mind for the Atari Jaguar.
Not according to official records, the Atari Jaguar version came out on September 1st and the PlayStation version came out on September 8th!
I think my words are being over analyzed a bit. "PlayStation Original" as in I am playing the original PlayStation game. Not the PSN version, not the PC version, not a sequel etc.
I played rayman origins and finished it.....never in my life have I swear so many times
That game will test you and requires a lot of skill and memorization
Thanks for the heads up! I'm tackling the rest of the Rayman games soon...
Had this on PC, the Saturn, and playeed it on GBA as well. So far, I've fully beaten the original, Rayman 2, Rayman 3, Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends and I'll play and beat all future main Rayman games. This game, for when it came out was a diamond in the rough
Wow! You have a lot of patience to be able to beat this one. I never have. Finding all the electunes just seemed too much of a pain. Also knowing I had limited continues, I found myself having to restart my save after having lost too many lives even after completing a level, trying to not use them. At my age, I had little patience for that.
The game is undeniably beautiful, visually and in the audio department. I think this the first game that I listed to the soundtrack to. With the PC or PS version, I was able to get the tracks either just by exploring the files on my PC or using a special program.
I still have my save on a memory card somewhere. Maybe I'll give this unfairly challenging game another chance some day.
Great review!
If you have a day off with 10 hours to spare... Rayman could fill that void haha :) Glad you are still around!
I beat this game when I was about 16 years old. I'm now in my late 20s and just wouldn't have the patience for this anymore
Coming off sonic genesis I never cared for rayman's art style and slowness, I ended up giving it to a friend as a gift for showing me how to get past the sonic 3 carnival level. The days before internet. He loved it though and couldn't stop talking about it, he didn't realize there were platformers on his new ps1. and my name is Ray so that was a nice touch. I'm glad this video exists to give me a good idea of what I missed.
I LOVE THE SERIES!!! I`VE BEEN PLAYING IT FOR SUCH A LONG TIME! I`M STILL PLAYING IT IN 2018!!! THE GAME IS STILL GOOD TO ME!!!
Subbed, great video!
I understand where you're coming from when you're saying you generally dislike this game. There are so many problems from the trial and error gameplay to unfair elements like things literally appearing out of nowhere, and of course the 100 percent being mandatory. Yet, somehow, I still enjoy this game, and the art style is amazing , it probably has to do with the fact I played it a lot as a kid. Regardless, great review on this game!
"trial and error gameplay to unfair elements like things literally appearing out of nowhere, and of course the 100 percent being mandatory."
imo thise are the things that make rayman 1 stand out among other games and make it better lol
@@wanded Yep, you are one of that machosists who enjoy poor level design just for the sake of being hard. I wouldnt waste more time with you.
I highly recommend the fangame Rayman Redemption. It DOESN'T force you to get all the cages for the final boss, said final boss is ACTUALLY WITH Mr. Dark (quite satisfying!) and actually leads into a true final boss if you chooooose to go for all of the cages and other collectibles added, lets you quit in the middle of a level while still keeping all cages found, the main mode features infinite lives, and while a lot of the design elements are completely different, there is certainly a greater sense of depth and care while still keeping the trial-and-error formula core to the game, though it's more methodical and compliments the increased amount of content. All of this makes for more satisfying gameplay in my eyes for sure. Oh yeah, I've also heard the Jaguar version is actually the easiest of the official releases.
I do wonder how I would have felt about this game if I actually played it back in the 90s. Growing up in the nineties my family had the SNES, Genesis, PS1, and N64 yet somehow we never played the original Rayman. My introduction to rain man was actually Rayman Legends on the Wii U which is awesome game! I later on got Rayman Origins for my Wii at a Blockbuster store that was closing down at the time, but haven't played it yet. through the Nintendo eShop on my 2DS I have played the Game Boy Color Rayman which I had some fun playing.
Rayman 1 is a 90's game in all aspects including difficulty-wise, if you aren't spoiled by todays baby level games and still have patience you still love it
yes rayman is hard, but that's exactly how i like it. there are enough easy games out there, it being hard as balls is one of the things that make rayman very special in my opinon
Had je hem ook op de playstation?
There's hard, and there's unfair and un-fun. Rayman 1 is the latter. I did beat it, but I didn't enjoy it. I believe there's a 99 lives cheat and I probably wouldn't play it again without using it. The first time I beat it I played the first level multiple times to rack up lives after each level, then went to the next level, then restarted and played the next level again while aiming to lose less lives Then repeat.
Rayman Origins and Legends do a much better job at balancing difficulty for 2D Rayman. I believe Gamespot had a lame review for Origins, complaining about having to find Electoons in the stages to unlock later stages. Like dude, you're complaining about having to play the game.
@@dapperfan44 Only someone who wasn't an avid gamer during the 80's or 90's would say that, Rayman 1 isn't that hard compared to its brothers and sisters of that era like the early mega man or mario games, games today being nerfed to baby level doesn't mean rayman 1 is unfair lol
Rayman 1 doesn't require memorization, everybody keeps claiming it does, but that's false, what it requires is good reaction time, even in this video when he complains about things popping out you can clearly see what he needs to do, of course under the stress of actually playing it would be harder but nothing in the game pops right on you damaging you instantly, THAT would be unfair...things usually spawn on the other side of the screen, whether you manage to act on time or not is on you.
if i have to muster a complaint the only thing i can think of is that indeed a handful of cages (mainly at skops caves) require leaps of faith but personally i like even that because it simply fits with what this game is, a wolf in sheeps clothing.
imo beating rayman 1 is about as difficult as beating Rayman Origins 100% with getting gold on the time trials and all, something i get the impression you also achieved.
@@wanded Sonic on the Genesis exists entirely in the 90s, and is not so hard it's unfair (although I imagine there are people today who think so). Neither is the Donkey Kong Country series. Yes, there are games that are babified today, but that doesn't change that there's a lot of unfair garbage in the original Rayman. Especially when you die in auto-scrolling levels just from touching the edge of the screen. What IS that?!
The fact is, that now that games have the ability to save and that now they can be longer. the artificial difficulty of the past like Mega Man games has gone out of style outside of niche releases. Games no longer need to be hard to the point of being un-fun.
For a kid's game example, Klonoa Door to Phantomile has an excellent difficulty curve, and probably one of the best I've ever seen. Lots of people complain that Jak 2 is hard, and it is, but it can be conquered with perseverance (T rated game). For adults, God of War provides options and gives you a healthy challenge on the highest difficulty. I believe all of these games give great examples on how to handle difficulty in games.
@@dapperfan44 Sonic, Donkey Kong and klonoa are relatively easy games, what i said is that the difficulty of rayman 1 was not rare in the 90's and 80's, not NOW, but the ERA IT CAME OUT, if you map all the games that came out at that era according to difficulty, rayman 1 would be about 7.5/10 in terms of difficulty (shmups exist for crying out loud)
the auto scrolling levels in rayman are still not that tough eventhough the edge kills you, the game itself as a whole isn't that hard, i and plenty others managed to beat it when we were kids and now i can breeze through it without getting to the continue screen, you said jak 2 can be conquered with perseverance, it's the same with this game...
like i said, beating rayman 1 is about the same difficulty as 100%ing rayman origins (getting all the medals, trophys etc), i can't see how you beat the time challenges in rayman origins yet find rayman 1 "unfair"
Thanks for another great video! I always got frustrated with this game and could never make it very far. How long did it take you to do the play through for this video?
+William Parks I did not keep track of the time for my non-recorded 'dry' run, but my second 'live' recorded run was 10 hours. It's a beast of a game!
When i was a kid i was never able to get past bandland... but i always came back to play through those first few levels, the music in dream forest is one of my favourite game tunes of all time.
I'm also glad it got the sequel which i WAS able to beat from start to finish, though the biggest surprise was it actually being a good early 3D game!
play it again and finish it this time
I love this game to bits despite everythinh it does wrong
Cool video 😄👍 this game is good indeed but iTS very hard to beat (i found out THE hard way) p's iTS cool That a few weeks a prototype of rayman on THE SNES was found and released 😄👍
That's Ubisoft for you, to this day they still don't playtest stuff.
oh snap
I played this game briefly as a kid and remember getting stuck at band land, revisiting it later and finally beating it (with 99 lives lol) I realized how insanely difficult the game got later but I also had a newfound likeness for it, I just love the art style and soundtrack. Overall I really like this game despite the difficulty tbh, some parts were still enjoyable but space mama nearly killed me... not to mention some of those insane jumps for cages haha. Great review!
if it wasn't so difficult beating it wouldn't be as fun
The 3rd bosses face looks like Tomas the tank engine
I never became aware of the flaws you're talking to until now that I saw your video. Still now I find it difficult to mind them. When I was a kid I found some levels really hard, but now that I understand the mechanics of the game I must say Rayman is a piece of cake from start to finish.
For example, when you touch an enemy on a small platform and it knocks you back, just press the forward button and you will grab the ledge of the platform, nothing difficult here.
Also, 100% in this game is really not that hard. In most games when you 100% them that means you grinded for days. Rayman is a game that can be 100% in three hours. This is really not a valid argument when it comes to Rayman.
@@mononokehime3182 yea everybody complaining here simply suck at the game lol
they are probably mad at it because it also looks kiddy like yet it still kicks their butt, if this had a gritty art and rayman was a vampire hunter with a whip no one would care it was this "hard"
rayman is basically kirby but with the difficulty flipped
I feel like the game's gimmick of making things appear from trigger-points is really neat, but executed poorly. I'd like to see something like that again, however, where the trigger was actually shown (there are a few instances in this game where a small sparkle is actually shown with a trigger-point, in Mr. Sax's Hullaballoo I believe) and where the effects of triggering where immediately much more apparent. That would still leave a vibe of mystery, which the beginning stages of this game was good at, but not be unfair and feel like trial-and-error.
it's not trial and error, it's reaction time
Fantastic video Kris, I was hoping you would review Rayman! An absolute classic in both art style and music.. gameplay is sooo hard though. I never got that far into the game before getting all frustrated haha!
By he way, is that an encoding glitch @8:00 min. or did you PlayStation get weird?
I believe the El Gato HD is starting to crap out for some reason. It happened a few times and I noticed while playing. Glad you enjoyed the video!
I agree with everything you said - and I still love this game. Great video!
Thanks Gerald!
I like how you said we're looking at the PlayStation one original when the Atari Jaguar is actually the original version of Rayman
Dude, he meant that he was playing on the PlayStation not a pc or emulator the “original” is used to say that it is the playstation 1 not that it was the original platform it released on…..
Sorry, I know this review is old, but I completely disagree with you. I didn’t feel like most levels were trial and error. The auto-scrollers weren’t even close to the hardest levels. I also collected every electoon without a guide. Loved every second of it.
everybody complaining about this game sucks at it
I remember i was so happy when i beat the game legit years ago
i will probably never want to attempt to finish it but i think it's so lovely overall! mainly the theme and artstyle, music etc. i agree on band land and picture city, with how the enviroments aren't as.. full as say the first level, that's why the PC version is cool cause it gives bongo hills that grassy area with bridges at the start, though i think that should of went on for MUCH longer and they should have used more clouds and less drums in the beginning levels since band land is like a passage through the sky to get to the blue mountains.
do it
the difficulty is insane and finding all the electoon cages is brutal without consulting a guide. but it's still a really fun game
Good game even if brutal at times. I didn't care at all for the forced collecting though, used a code to skip it.
I suspect many do use a code haha. Collecting the cages, ugh.
Tell us the code
I remember I got this game for Christmas one year, for pc, I had to run through DOS which wasn't uncommon back then. I have never beat this game. But it's one of those games I've always liked, even if I could never beat it. Kinda like Ninja Gaiden, or the Super Star Wars games, fantastic games, that let's face it 90% + of the people who played them never got from start to finish. Still, it was a very beautiful game and sounded great, was decently fun enough and honestly, it still looks good today.
Growing up I rarely beat games haha :) It has been interesting to back and finally beat and/or complete games and see how the experience changes. Rayman is a game I like well enough, good controls and great graphics, but man is it tedious to beat!
@@implantgames Ya the 100% completion requirement... and the limited lives, though you can farm for them a little, if you don't mind gathering the blur orbs.
Got this game in 1997 and beat it a couple of years ago(all tings released etc), this game is hard as F! Especially space mama
that's what makes it fun
It's hard to think of Rayman being so slow and clumsy when the two modern games are so incredible.
When I played Rayman last time (two years ago) I gave up after mountains stages. Difficulty of trial and error killed the fun for me, but I was impressed how sophisticated those fair elements are and those moment were really satisfying. However, if the game was remade today, then it wouldn't need a lot of level redesign if common modern 2D platformer''s solutions were implemented. These are increased field of view (no more blind jumps or not enough time to react) and unlimited lifes (no frustrastion due to restart). This should do the trick.
An HD treatment like what was done for Sonic CD (and others) would be great for sure!
@@implantgames What HD treatment?
It's not trial and error though, it's reaction time...
I find it adorable how you burned though so many lives. the game isn't hard if you just have a solid amount of patience, it really shows everything itself naturally, (the pens for example aren't a blind jump as on the last one the purple ring is shown, etc etc). i complete rayman 1 one time every year as an homage to my childhood. (with 4 deaths on my last run)
I find your nostalgia adorable.
implantgames thanks ;) but I do love the reviews though
Right on man.
I recently got it on the Sega Saturn, I hope my money worth it so much ^^
well how was it?
I have tried to go back to this game a few times and get further but it just maddens me with the ridiculous difficulty. it's a shame since the game looks and sounds beautiful.
I'm afraid to review the DKC games...
implantgames dkc isn't even hard compared to rayman
Yep, i couldnt agree more. At least Rayman Redemption exists.
I don't know where all the complaints of difficult come from, I mean it's challenging but it's not frustratingly hard. At the end you mentioned that a modern game would have very small levels with where you die over and over, I hate that design philosophy, I get so bored so quickly when games do that... what I do very much enjoy however, is Rayman
Even the devs who made the game say they made a mistake making it so hard. They said they ran out of time and so didn't play test the later levels at all, hence why they're so difficult. It's difficult by accident, not by design. And that's why on subsequent releases and later on remakes, they fixed all these issues and the game got much easier
Rayman requires a lot of patience, to be sure, but it's a great platformer. Its extreme difficulty is what makes it so good. Without that, it would have been a mildly entertaining but ultimately generic game. I've played through it many, many times over the years, and it doesn't seem so hard to me anymore. I can play from start to finish with no saves or continues - but it took me a LONG time to get to that point. I understand that most gamers don't have the patience/time to dedicate to a 20+ year old platformer, but if you take the time to really master the controls, you realize that it's unforgiving and challenging, but rarely unfair.
I think a lot of people forget how hard some games were at one point. I remember it took me months as a kid to finally beat the first Super Mario Bros on NES. Any good game takes practice to beat... if you can beat it first try, it stops being a game and starts to become an experience, and personally, I like my games to be *games*.
@@RichardCraig exactly
people here also seem to confuse "trial and error" with "reaction time"
Rayman 2 had so many flaws as well despite being great at the same time... it's very bittersweet.
Can't wait to give the sequel a spin someday!
@@implantgames I know this is a two year old comment, but the best version is Rayman 2 Revolution which is only on PS2. You can get it on PS2 or in the PSN store for PS3.
@@dapperfan44 what makes it the better version?
@@wanded More content and when you make a lot of progress in game, you get a Lum finder.
@@dapperfan44 interesting, i'll check it out next replay
Rayman is the best 2d western platformer ever made and its difficulty is vastly overrated. You have to compare it with the tradition of 8 and 16 bit sidescrollers that it was the culmination of, not with the piss easy games that followed it. Rayman 2 is to this day one of my most disappointing purchases because I easily beat it in two days, unlike the lengthy adventure that was the original.
Super Mario Land 2, DuckTales, Kirby's Adventure, Castle of Illusion, etc... not every 8 and 16-bit platformer was unfairly hard. Some had a nice difficulty curve with a fair challenge.
By the way, what do you use to capture footage? The game looks very crisp. Is it being played on the PS1, or emulated? Thanks!
This is real hardware and a Framemeister. On this particular video it was a PS2 and component cables. Looks pretty great :)
25:12 is that what youre talking about, cuz i knew to jump right when that boulder entered the screen
So will you do Rayman 2 next?
Not only does it tone down on the insane difficulty, it also made the transition to 3D extremely well IMO.
Someday, but I only own the N64 and PSX versions. Need to track down the PS2 or DC version to review it proper though.
*_YEAH!_*
*Awesome music plays*
I played this game. It's good but hard af
Wait, you actually beat this? Holy shoe! I never got further than Bongo Hills! I may suck at platformers, but that's still REALLY impressive!
Bongo Hills was way to long. I don't blame you for giving up at that point.
Great Video Dude:)
Thank you Sir!
Looks like Rayman started like a Angry bird game with a story but later changed the angry bird part which i glad they did tbh...the first Rayman was beautiful but it was a torture to play because of the difficulty🙁
Do you plan making videos for the Klonoa games (maybe even the GBA games)? These are one of the greatest platformers out there!
I own the PS1 version and you show levels before band land that I haven't even seen, like a second misquito boss and that you get your power to hang after that, but I haven't seen those levels and I have the power to hang..
Making a kids game this difficult was satanic lol. I could never get past the music levels as a kid.. and that was close to the beginning of the game..
this game is the only reason i got good at gaming
Stumbled into your channel and been binge watching dozens of videos (awesome stuff, btw!), and I keep wondering to myself... Your accent is kinda peculiar... where are you from? If I was to guess, I'd say you're either from Sweden or from Nova Scotia.
Close, Wisconsin ;)
No wonder I couldn't get into this entry. It makes so much sense to me. Like seriously, I feel like most of the times, Rayman 1 is a poorly designed platformer. The fact that Ubisoft themselves said they barely play tested it shows that they should have. Luckily, at least they learned not to do this stupid mistake with the following games especially Origins and Legends. Overall, good review man.
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks!
I played the saturn version it's good
Why do people refer to the Playstation One as the PSX? I thought that PSX was an emulator
The PSX was a Japan only PS2 and DVR hybrid.
According to dash below, "It's the code name and acronym for the PlayStation because it was originally going to be called the PlayStation X, but then it was changed to simply PlayStation. The X came from and payed homage to the MSX which was a product that a few companies, including Sony, produced back in the 80s. Although the name of the console changed to just PlayStation, it's abbreviation remained as PSX simply because PS was too common of an acronym."
+implantgames they could just call it the PS1 now.