The game does a great job of creating a colorful and magical world and
populating it with interesting and charming characters. The levels are huge and
are filled with streams, waterfalls, plants, trees, and plenty of other sights
which all work together to help bring Rayman’s world to life. The graphics are
colorful but for some reason the game is on the dark side, as if the brightness
level is stuck on too low of a setting. This can be a bit of a problem when you
are trying to jump over dark chasms and can’t quite see where they begin and
end. Perhaps this is a result of porting the graphics from the game’s console
versions to the DS, which would also explain why many of the textures become
pretty blocky when you are close to objects. Another issue with the game’s
display is that the camera can sometimes move to or get stuck at odd angles,
making it difficult to see where you are heading. There are even some
pulled-back wide angles that can reduce Rayman to a mere few pixels of screen
space.
The worlds in Rayman DS are huge, but your exploration of them will be hindered
by the restrictive save system. Portable games are often played in short bursts
as you are killing time waiting for something. Therefore, you need to be able to
easily save your game and jump right back into the action when you return.
However, Rayman DS will only let you save your game when you exit one of its
worlds. You can play for a long stretch of time only to lose all of your
progress if you don’t have time to backtrack out of the world and exit it to
save your game. Needless to say, this can lead to some frustrating moments as
you’ll be forced to replay large sections of the game the next time you have a
chance to pick up your DS.
If you can put up with the annoying and frustrating aspects of the game, then
there is some fun to be had with this port of a console classic. However, there
is a feeling of missed opportunity here … that if the game’s graphics, camera,
and controls were better translated from the console original then you would
have had a top-tier game here. Instead you have what in the end amounts to an
average platform game and your enjoyment of Rayman DS will depend on how much
you love playing platformers.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
69%. A great game at its core that lost a little in translation from
the home console version of the game.
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