Rayman 2: The Great Escape is basically a perfect game. About a year after its release, Ubisoft decided to meddle with it and what came to be?? Well...
It's so weird Ubisoft made a whole new Rayman 2 when the Dreamcast version was already definitive and would have taken way less work to port to the 3 other 6th gen consoles. Since Dreamcast was the weakest hardware of that generation, they even could have enhanced THAT version instead, give it better lighting on GameCube and higher resolution textures on XBOX or something
The thing that bothered me the most in Revolution was the inconsistent framerate compared to the other versions at the time, especially coming after the dreamcast version which ran really smoothly. I should also mention it was not impossible to make something like Rayman 2 run well on the PS2, there's plenty games near launch that targeted 60 fps thanks to interlacing tricks but Rayman Revolution weirdly didn't use those.
I played Rayman Revolution, about 5 days ago. I admit that I find it aged worse than Rayman 3 (which is my favorite), however I still find it to be a masterpiece. I agree about the combat system, it's tedious as hell, it's not funny that every fight against the red robot pirates, it takes about 15-20 seconds to defeat, it just slows down the pace of the game a lot. I also have one complaint about the bosses, the guardian of the fourth mask was a nice but useless addition, I mean, was there really a need for a third guardian identical in appearance (apart from the colours) to the first 2? The tank boss then (the one led by Razorbeard's cabin boy) was atrocious, too long and too difficult (especially due to the game chamber), then, the Ninjaws boss, what about him? On Rayman 2 he acted as the boss of the second temple and it was ok, but here on revolution he sucks, firstly because he appears randomly in an area, so his importance is equal to the basic enemies, secondly, the combat sucks, because I don't have to hit him with your attacks, no, since he appears behind you, you have to make sure that like an idiot, he falls into the lava holes that are behind you... excellent ninja indeed. Last thing, "The open world" is a good idea, but poorly implemented, first of all, every time you change zone, there are loadings and moments where the game asks you to save, EVERY TIME YOU CHANGE ZONE! it's boring right from the start, because you're playing and every change of location, loading takes 5-6 seconds, plus another 6-7 (even 15-20 seconds if you decide to save) seconds lost with the save screen. I say, couldn't they have made a free Open World without loading/saving like Jak & Daxter? Too difficult to program? J&D has a true open world with zero loading and auto saving, why couldn't Rayman Revolution do that? Ok that Rayman Revolution came out a few months earlier, but couldn't we really make an open world without loading each new area? Despite these shortcomings, I consider Rayman revulution an excellent game, but I still prefer Rayman 3.
I don’t understand people who say revolution is the definitive way to play R2. Revolution adds too much meandering new content without fixing any fundamental issues. + it only runs at 30fps xD
Having played both the ps1 and ps2 version of Rayman 2, I weirdly ended up preferring the ps1 version. While Revolution has all of the content from the PC and Dreamcast version, I can't help but find it tiring as an experience because of the way it bloats all of it, adds tiresome combat segments, hides health upgrades behind minigames, downgrades your capabilities for the sake of an upgrade system, ruins the pacing and adds some questionably designed level segments. The PC and Dreamcast versions are the best ones really.
I have no nostalgia for this game. I played through it this year for the first time and I started with the ps1 version until my friend who grew up with the n64 version, noticed that something was wrong. I upgraded to Revolution after a couple hours but to be honest, I was loving the ps1 version. Not more than Revolution, but I would say just as much. They both felt perfect to me, like the ps1 didn't need anything added and Revolution didn't need anything taken away. For what it was, the ps1 version succeeded imo and I actually think the Axel fight is a lot more memorable and a lot of the lighting is better in the ps1 version
Honestly those extra cutscenes in the PS1 version made it worth it to me, especially the ones before you fight the bosses that give them character and a reason to fight, as opposed to the other versions where you just run in and kill them because they're just there.
@@dvda9725 Yeah and Axel looks more imposing in the PS1 version because he's not always seen from far away. He looks so small in the PS2 version and it also makes it hard to see how cool his design is. At least the other bosses aren't dead in 10 seconds
@@onsnoreleave8674 And not only do you get more story content in the PS1 version, the voice acting is *so* much better in my opinion, in Revolution it sounds so rushed and lacking in heart and emotion, which isn't helped by the fact that the sound mixing is godawful.
Honestly, there are reasons to find Revolution inferior, but some of your criticisms seem kinda odd. That monster in the marshes of awakening absolutely fits in, and imo the new boss battles are a welcome addition. For one thing there's no excuse to still have the camera tied to the shoulder buttons on the PS2, especially in a semi-open world game. But I'd say the main issue with Revolution amounts to polish, it can really feel like a buggy mess at times and the sound mixing is just beyond atrocious. Another personal thing for me is the voice acting pales in comparison to the PS1 version which actually felt like it had some heart behind the performances, and it would have been so cool if Revolution included the PS1's extra cutscenes and bonus Rayman 2 beta.
