Rayman DS Review (no fat)

Game Description

Are you looking for lots of fun and loads of action? Rayman DS is definitely not the answer to your prayers. As a port of Rayman 2, you’d expect the fun of the original to be translated on to the DS. However, Rayman DS lets the fans of the series down pretty badly.

Rayman DS Game play

The pirate Razor Beard has broken the “Heart of the World” into 1000 pieces (Lums) and scattered them over 45 individual areas. The quest for Rayman is to find all the Lums and also 4 masks which will awaken the creature Polokus. This would involve fighting with enemies, meeting new friends, collecting the Lums. The game starts with Rayman and his friends except one – Murfy – being imprisoned by the pirate RazorBeard. Murfy rescues Rayman and sets him on his quest to capture the Lums.

Rayman has various powers – including running, walking, fighting, shooting at enemies, making rain. Rayman can also adapt to various situations – if something is just out of his reach, he will extend himself and reach it. If he falls into the water, he will start swimming. He also makes use of his environment like substituting handholds with overgrown ivy and trampolines with mushrooms. Rayman can use his fists to shoot at his enemies but, even with all those powers, he has no legs!

The 45 levels in the game ensure that the player is kept busy for long hours. There are many types of levels, few being simple levels involving killing one or more enemies and others are complex levels that are time-based and involve a wider variety of characters. There are many cronies of RazorBeard to be destroyed. On his quest, Rayman meets humorous characters like Globox, the crybaby.

One of the problems with the game is the fact that you can’t save the game often. In fact there are save option at the end of levels so, once things get tough, you might find yourself playing the same level again and again.

Rayman DS Controls

The controls are simple in nature but if you are expecting them to work well then you are mistaken again. You can move Rayman using the directional component (D-pad) or the touch-screen, which is a new addition to the game. Unfortunately for Rayman DS, this new edition does nothing to enhance the Gameplay, in fact, it just piles up the mess.

The D-pad follows an all-or-nothing approach and hence difficult to aim for intricate play. You constantly keep mistiming jumps and the camera adds to the woe by pointing in wrong directions at times.

Rayman DS Audio

Since this game is geared towards having fun, the music is very peppy and complements the game environment. An important feature is the use of “gibberish” language instead of human speech, which should gel with the animated world. Of course the gibberish language is hard to understand but the subtitles help in this regard.

The gibberish dialogues are accompanied by sound titles. Some effects even go to the extent of sounding like static.

Rayman DS Graphics

The graphics are nothing to be praised; images are blurred, small objects are overlooked, sometimes the camera goes berserk and you lose important lives while trying to figure out what’s happening.. The 3D graphics are not impressive at all– one wonders if the 2D world would have been better compared to this.

Rayman DS Summing Up

With a story picked right out of Rayman 2’s pocket, the gamers are left to fend for themselves with the poor controls and muddled scenery. To top things off, guessing what kind of sound the DS is trying to produce is another mystery. All in all, Rayman DS looks like the underprivileged addition to Nintendo’s lineup…a safe miss in our books.

Rayman DS Price

Rayman currently retails for $29.99.