Rayman 2: The Great Escape (GBC)
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| Rayman 2: The Great Escape (GBC) | ||||||||||||||||
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 Rayman 2: The Not So Great 2D port.
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Rayman 2 Forever (known in the United States as simply Rayman 2) is the port of Rayman 2: The Great Escape released for the Game Boy Color in 2001. It is also the sequel to the Game Boy Color version of the first Rayman game.
Bad Qualities
- The main problem of this port is that many of the levels are just poorly designed to the point of feeling like they wanted to make the game harder than the first (which it did fail to do so despite that in the middle of the game, some levels are unfairly difficult) but instead of cleverly doing difficulty, instead they just randomly designed the stage with poorly placed enemies and platforms to make them harder.
- In fact despite the terrible level design, the game is incredibly easy and is way easier than the first GBC game, because not only does the switchs are completely pointless because you can get hit by the laser and then getting a health item, which give you back the health you lose (see BQ#8), and considering that it is hard for the enemies to hit you, then it make the game even easier and thus is possibly the easiest Rayman 2D platformer ever made.
- Howewer in the middle of the game, the difficulty is horribly unbalanced since some levels are so confusing that it's hard to even play this game with fun and the last levels are easily the worst in Rayman history.
- In fact, you find health everywhere, showing how unbalanced the difficulty is, even in the last levels you find them in lot of places, sometime they are even placed right at the end of a stage!
- In fact despite the terrible level design, the game is incredibly easy and is way easier than the first GBC game, because not only does the switchs are completely pointless because you can get hit by the laser and then getting a health item, which give you back the health you lose (see BQ#8), and considering that it is hard for the enemies to hit you, then it make the game even easier and thus is possibly the easiest Rayman 2D platformer ever made.
- The NA box art, while good, is the exact same from the first game, with only the 2 being slapped on it for having the title Rayman 2, it doesn't help that the background is red, which is the color of the PAL box art from the first game.
- The game is way too short, lasting for only 1h30m to 2 hours, even it is slighly longer than the first game, but to be honest, there's still some post game contents with challenges and new levels.
- While the graphics are still good, they are a downgrade from the first GBC game, because here they are less colorful and the sprites are slighly less detailled if you look closely, if you compare this with the first game, changes that you will prefer the 1st game is high.
- The Game Over is still disturbing, maybe even worse than the first game because here it seem that Rayman is dead, which could scare young childrens, especially if they are easily scared.
- The music and background that are in that screen doesn't help at all because the music is horribly creepy and disturbing and it is probably the main reason of why both GBC games game over screen are so disturbing, and it feel like a creepypasta to be honest.
- Something that make it somehow worse than in the 1st game is the fact that Rayman here is more detailled, which make it even more disturbing because here it isn't a dead sprite but an artwork that show Rayman dead!
- The levels are also confusing to navigate because not only they are poorly designed (as mentionned in BQ#1) but also had switchs that you "need" to active to continue progressing in some levels, which are hard to find, especially in the longest levels of the game and it's what make this port tedious to begin with.
- In fact, the switchs are completely pointless because despite having lasers, you can still take damages but pass that obstacle and for most of the time when you pass it you get energy lum directly, which make the interruptors absolutely pointless and is just there to make you backtraking for no reasons in reality.
- Also, they are for the most parts extremely poorly placed because you will directly goes in another place to land, such as platforms, and the fact that the lasers don't stop you from travel though them, which make this game very broken but howewer it is probably for the best.
- Because of the way the musics sound, much like the first game it feel creepy and it is even worse than the dark tone of the original Rayman 2, which the dark tone worked in that game but here it doesn't work quite as well because the dark tone here is mostly because of the music itself, not the cutscenes or ambiance.
- For some weird reasons, you doesn't even fight Admiral Razorbeard, instead you just fight a random boss and it's finished, to make things even worse, Razorbeard does appear a lot in the story which mean that all of this is just pur lies.
- Howewer it is mentionned that Razorbeard is no longer a treat by this point so it's possible that they just didn't made a sprite for him and instead replaced it with a regular pirate seen in many levels of the original game.
- The bosses are terrible, and are even worse than those of the first game, because they mostly feel like regular enemies only slighly stronger, and it doesn't help that the theme for them is ear bleeding.
- Even worse, both of them are the exact same, which is even worse than Yoshi Topsy-Turvy case since despite that game also having only 2 bosses and that they were also terrible, at least they we're both different, here it isn't the case and feel like they rushed the game extremely fast to release it as soon as possible.
- The soundtrack is once again godawful and is completely ear bleeding, and it was even recycled from the first GBC game, which already had unbearable musics to begin with.
- Little to no replay values, except for the new challenges at the end but even then you will need lums to get them, in which if you doesn't had enough of them, then you doesn't had access to some of those levels.
- It was also a bit too late to port this game because not only in late 2001 the Game Boy Color started to die but Rayman 2 was 2 years old by this time, and it doesn't help that this version didn't really get a commercial.
- Overall, it was a mediocre way to port Rayman 2 on the GBC, and because of this, it ended up being the weakest 2D Rayman game.
Good Qualities
- It is interesting to see a 2D platformer port on Rayman 2, considering that the original game was actually going to be a 2D platformer and not a 3D game like it did.
- While downgraded, the graphics are still good with decent sprites work and the colors aren't ugly and are pleasant to look at.
- Some peoples might enjoy this port, especially that the controls are still tight and responsive, and the gameplay remain the same as the first GBC game.
- Some of the levels actually had good level design and are enjoyable, even if the majority are poorly designed, this is especially true with the first levels.
- The soundtrack is slighly better than the first game because it is a bit less ear bleeding and had some catchy tunes.
- The cover art is cool, especially the PAL one because of the background being very good to look at and it make it epic for some reasons.
Reception
The game received mixed reviews by gamers since they consider it to be a downgrade from the first GBC game that they mostly founded it excellent, here it was criticized for the level design and the fact that you don't fight Razorbeard despite being mentionned through the entire game.
Trivia
- In 2011 a pirated Rayman game for the Game Boy Color known as Rayman Advance 2 was discovered, with a box nearly identical to that of the North American box art for Rayman Advance for the Game Boy Advance. Despite this, the game is in fact a tagged ROM of Rayman 2 Forever, in which the logo of dumping group Venom appears after starting up.
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