Don't worry, you don't have to be sad to buy Rayman anymore (Rayman Advance (GBA))

Member Name: adidadi_young

Product:	Rayman Advance (GBA)
Date:	18/08/01 (201 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Not bad for a sell out game!

Disadvantages: Sound isn't as clear

Well, to start off this opinion I’ll give a short, healthy introduction: This is a sell-out game.

In the times of 1996-ish, the PlayStation was on the market and was in its growth stage, still. Ubi Soft had developed a game, and they called it Rayman, which was named this after the main character’s name. This game was a 2D platformer, and some of the levels in the game were very bright and cheery. It involved Rayman going through plenty of levels to find, by jumping, punching, freeing little pink things, and gliding, running etc. It was a very under-rated and biased game, as many people thought it was stupid for it being so babyish.

But they didn’t realize that when you actually get into the game, this on one tough game. Harder than, for example: keeping alk from writing all of Jill’s opinions. Tough.

After this games half success, the game reached platinum level, and now a £9.99 price.

Well, that’s more or less the intro of the intro; I’ll get on with the intro. Rayman Advance came out on 22nd June, the Game Boy Advance’s release date. It involves Rayman, the previously said hero, must get to the top of the mountain of his homeward. But why?

Well, I’ll say it in my own words: Mr. Dark (original, don’t you think? I wish my name was that) steals the Great Protoon in Rayman’s world; this was the thing which brought peace here. Now, pain is brought to everyone! MWAHAHAHAHA! (Oh, Rayman must also get it back, by the way - Quentin)

And, to waste some word space, and mostly for proof of purchase, I’ll just copy it off the manual: In Rayman’s world, nature and people live together in peace. But one day, the evil Mister Dark steals the Great Protoon that provides energy and balance in the world… Betilla tried to stop him, but she wasn’t strong enough… Now strange new creatures appear and capture every Electoon they can find! They de
finitely need a hero… MykReeve (Rayman - Quentin) to the rescue! Quentin can also be played, too.

So, that’s the main storyline/waste of words. I’ll get on with the game when you play it. When you load up this game, you’ll have the language select, and so on. Then a choose file screen, I just took the top one. Then, you are presented with a world map. You choose a patch to take and choose the levels as you go, but the first is the only available yet. Each level has a gold thing. With space for 7 faces, this is for each of the Electoons you free. This gets a 100% status.

So, anyways… You choose the first level. After seeing a pretty picture, which matches what kind of place you’re in, you start in a bright, nice jungly place. But before you notice that, you think “GRAPHICS!!!” (How good they are – Quentin. I’ll go into that after. And then a long, hard path comes before you.

---Character Build
Rayman is a character with a difference. If any of you happen to have played Plok then you’ll know what I mean. OK, you haven't. So, he’s got this body, and ahead above it. No neck, no spine. He has loose hands and feet as well, no particular limbs. It’s quite original, really.

---Graphics
The stunning part of the game. This really, I think, pushes the GBA to its limit. The graphics are more or less exactly the same as the PlayStation, but this time they are clearer, more crisp etc. It’s absolutely beautiful to look, at what such a small thing can do. It’s just amazing. And no matter what you’ve seen in magazines, THE GRAPHICS LOOK BETTER IN THE GAME THAN THE PICS DO.

---Gameplay
Not a great deal is to be said about gameplay, except the levels, moves and things. The game is an exact port on the PlayStation version, like I already said. It’s got some good original levels inside, but I’ll go through each step slow
ly.

First of all, moves. When you get past each section, Betilla (fairy, personally looks a bit gothic – Quentin) will give you a new move. The thing that baffles me, though, is that – why doesn’t she give Rayman all the powers at once? It would make much more sense that way.

So, to walk you would use the D-Pad. Easy. To jump, use A. To punch, use B. To hang, jump to a ledge. To glide, press A while in a jump. To run, hold R. Most of these will only be available as you progress through the game. Now, there are over 64 levels to mess around in, or go through. Either way will do well.

OK, that done. Now, on with some other stuff (Pickups - Quentin).

1-Ups: If I were a farmer I’d probably farm corn.
Big (P) things: These make our max. health increase 2 hits.
Small (P) things: Bring you to your max. health again.

Well, is that it? No.

Silver Fist: Improves your fist.
Gold Fist: Corn farmer.
When the 2 are combined, it becomes nice and flashy and even more powerful.
S-Fist Shiny: Fist max. power.

Now, that’s all I’ve come across so far. There are also very little shiny things, which make something appear somewhere. Look out for them.

---Levels
This is interesting. You start on say, a particular level. Let’s make it the first. Say, the first world is called Jungle. And the first level is called The Deep Jungle Lake. Now, at the end of each level there is a wooden post with “!” on it. Now, there are around 3 of these levels in each ‘Level’. Each level is more or less different in some way, the first being a normal side-scrolling platformer, the next being Some level going up… you will understand when you (YOU – Quentin) play this game.

So, so far in the game I have come across:
The Jungle – Farmer?
Band Land – Music-influenced levels. All high up in the sky, and very nice l
ooking.
Pencil Zone – All things art related, and moving pencils.
Blue Mountains – watch out for rocks.

That’s it. But I know there will be much more for me to go though. I have only done 14% of it, you know.

Swah!

---Lastability
I can’t give a main focus on how long this game will take me, but I’ve had a good go of this game and, like I said, have only done a mere 14%. I expected a much higher percentage than this. So what can I say? I’d love to play through this game again, so good replay value is there too.

---Quentin’s final comments
When I bought this game after getting my precious cheque (thanks Dooyoo! - Quentin) I had got this game, as I am going on holiday for 2 weeks today at 10am. It’s 1:50am now, so it is the same day. Oh, right, right… I had got this game mostly for it being a new game to play, and also a good game for a long journey to France. This game was well worth buying; just make sure that you ignore all the biased ratings, which people dislike the game for one reason. It is an essential add to a Game Boy Advance, I sure am glad I got this. Could have got Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, but I’m leaving that till my next Dooyoo cash in (damn the new handling fee!).

Now, let’s do a short story of what you should do.

Buy the game.

Go home. Then, either

Scream in anger for wasting £35 and not having a GBA,
Scream in anger because you already have this game, or
Scream in delight.

Summary: