Rayman 2: The Great Escape (GBC)

From Qualitipedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Rayman 2: The Great Escape (GBC)
Rayman 2: The Not So Great 2D port.
Genre(s): Platform
Platform(s): Game Boy Color
Release Date: EU: December 14, 2001
NA: 1 January 2002
Developer(s): Ubi Studios
Publisher(s): Ubisoft
Predecessor: Rayman (GBC)

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

  1. 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) but instead of cleverly doing difficulty, instead they just randomly designed the stage to make them harder.
  2. 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.
  3. The game is way too short, lasting for only 1h30m to 2 hours, though it is slighly longer than the first game.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. The levels are also confusing to navigate because not only they are poorly designed (as mentionned in BQ#1) but also had activators 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.
  7. 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.
    • It doesn't help that the GBA version of Rayman 3 will not resolve this cliffhanger, because that one is an adaptation of Rayman 3, obviously, even if that one mostly had elements of Rayman 2.
  8. The bosses are terrible, unlike those of the first game.
  9. While decent, the soundtrack had some terrible musics that are ear bleeding, much like the first game for the GBC.
  10. 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

  1. 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.
  2. While downgraded, the graphics are still good with decent sprites work and the colors aren't ugly and are pleasant to look at.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. The soundtrack is decent and way better than the first game because it is less ear bleeding and had lot of catchy tunes.
  6. 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.

Videos

Comments

Loading comments...