I remember finishing this game two years ago. My biggest challange was not getting to the end, but finding all those cages. I didn't realise that you had to collect all the cages until the end of the game. Realising I needed to play almost all locations over again made me quit the game for a few days, because I had no continues left making it almost impossible to finish the game. So I made up a strategy that 'worked'. First I farmed ten lives by replaying the first stages and saved the game. Then I did a 'discovery run' in each stage to find out where all the cages are, which is a nightmare because some cages are extremely well hidden. After I did the discovery run I reloaded the old save to get my lifes back. Then I did the stage again as efficiënt as possible, forcing myself to not lose too many lifes because farming takes way too much time. In conclusion, I had to do each stage three times. The first time just getting to the end, the second time discovering all the cages and the last time getting each cage as efficiënt as possible. It took me more than 20 hours to complete, but I was proud of myself finishing the game without cheats and I somehow enjoyed the game a lot :).
That's some dedication! They really should have mentioned in game that you need all the cages to finish, it's not even that clear that's what is keeping you from the last world. It is mentioned in the manual, but I'm sure not everyone read that.
Just wondering .If you were to have watched a video on where to find the cages would you consider that cheating? Im playing it at the moment I dont want to cheat but would accept help in the form of tips and guides.
This reminds me of megaman X 7. I would quit and redo levels to get all the rescue reploids. I got all but 2 first game, and all in new game plus. And then you didn't have to worry about it after you maxed it. But it was optional. I have no idea why I went hardcore on X7 like that on my first playthrough.
It's a great disservice that you don't have more subscribers and views. Your content is absolutely amazing and love hearing more about your personal game experiences. There is a strong, professional quality, while delivering a personality that is definitely your own.
Ahhh my first ever game I know it's far from perfect but for me i have so much nostalgia and joy playing it. I remember getting excited because i had managed to make it to a new level after being stuck. Great and fair review :)
@@Cannotbetamed1 this is the rayman game i have never compleated yet. By the way great video and nicely soft voice :) i must say.....very good work.....👏👏👏👏
Remember my first experience of this when ps1 launched in the UK. I was blown away, I thought I was watching a ink and pencil cartoon film akin to An American Tail or similar. Visually wonderful, and has aged well.
Michel Ancel, such a legend here in France. I'm really curious about Wild, while the news about this game take forever to release, the idea behind it is amazing, we will see. I never met him but that would be cool, along with other french legends of the video games industry. It's so good that Rayman came back with awesome games after the years of those Raving rabbids games.
I just started playing this game but have only beaten the first couple levels. Good to know I’m in for a challenge! I love your content, keep it coming :) -bianca
Man this brought back a lot of memories! I forgot how much I loved this game back in the day, and its cool to see how well it holds up today. Great review!
This is one of those games I just never dedicated the necessary time to. I grew up beating NES games. But by the time this came out, I just wasn't into putting that much effort into one game because I had a ton of games by then. I'd say it wasn't "are you kidding me" difficult like Contra Hard Corps, just "no thank you" difficult like Hagane. Still looks nice though.
@@Cannotbetamed1 Yes you explains very well, very clear and your statements are nice (+ the montages are well done).Thank you for the answer , have a nice day !
Back when games had personality in spades. Remember the idle animations in Earthworm Jim? Or Boogerman? Or if you didn't move Duke Nukem for a while in DN3D, and he'd say "what are you waiting for? Christmas?"
I introduced my 5 year old to Rayman Legends on xbox one. He’s now hooked. It’s very child friendly and there’s a ton to do in that game. He has never cared about video games before.
I remember seeing screenshots for Rayman and being blown away by how much it actually looked like a cartoon since, at the time, we were still used to 16-bit graphics. And I completely agree with your assessment of how it looks great but would have benefited from more play testing. I never made it all the way through, but I do like the modern Rayman games a lot more.
I never gave this game a chance because it never appealed to me back in my PS1 days. But learning about the back story you provided kind of makes me appreciate it now. So if I do give this game a chance I'll now remember teo important things. Pause before the finish line in case of any 1 ups popping up nearby and watch said finish lines in case of any hunters.
I remember my N64 broke and I saved up to get a new one but I couldnt find one, so bought a PSone. I then started to play games like Crash, Spyro, Skull Knight, In The Hunt and this game. This game was so addicting and it made me want to keep looking to play games like this on a foreign console.
Very nice review. The qualities and the defaults you noticed are exactly what new players will see when trying it for the first time. That said, I must admit I didn’t find it that difficult at this time. In the 90’s, many platformers were short but very difficult to increase their durability. And after completing several games from the infamous french publisher Infogrames (Tintin, the Smurfs,Spirou…), I can tell you that Rayman is a piece of cake! I love your videos. So keep on playing!
I remember back in the day Rayman had it’s own booth at the gaming section of Toys R Us in Times Square. Me and my sister made our parents buy it and we never even got close to beating it. The 2nd one was awesome though
Aaaahhh Rayman..... the game to play when u need that,(there's not a care in the world feeling back from when we were kids and everything was just way better) and when the nostalgia rush has gone and you notice that you are going game over in the second world like alot, its time to kick that playstation back in the dust closet and repeat this once every 3 year orso! great gaamee :)
Excellent video! Rayman was my first PS1 game :) I never forgotten that feeling when I launched it the first time, it looked/sounded so amazing! I really tried (hard) to complete it only 5 or 6 years later lol! I still remember how one of my buddies reacted when I told him I'm replaying that game, he said something like: "you're playing Rayman? ...why?" looking at me worried like I had a real problem (he couldn't know how I was not done with that game after all this years lol). Finally I'm not even sure I made it to the end, I don't remember the final stage, Dark Rayman etc, but I still have my passwords, I'll check this some day.
Rayman has a nice cartoony nature to it, along with a fine soundtrack. My favorite music pieces for this are: The Hard Rocks Crystal Palace And the main theme But I must say, I died countless times in this game. I also didn’t know you had to rescue all the Electoons in order to access the final level. I love some of the levels, but the countless times I died made it frustrating. Rayman is still loads of fun nonetheless! Great review on this game Pam!! 😉👍
as someone who legit did it i feel this game is underrated. when this crops up i always feel the need to say crash bandcoot 1. that was on the same level
No way, Crash 1 was insanely easy compared to this. Basically all of the Crash levels, bar Slippery Climb for the red gem, are relatively straightforward after a lot of practice (but N'Sane Trilogy is much harder caused of altered jump physics)
I used to have the Amstrad CPC 6128 back in the 8 bit days :P My Brother-in-Law gave me a ton of bootlegged games :) Nebulus and Double Dragon II were some of my faves. The Double Dragon II port was great, it was more like the arcade version than the NES version was :D
Rayman is one of the first games i played as a kid, imagine being around 4-5 years old and attempting Rayman.. When i was 6 i got a little bit better at it, but still remember asking my dad to do the jump in the pencil stage lol. I never got to beat Mr Dark though untill i was an adult xd.
@@Cannotbetamed1 It is.. Like i said in another comment, the Gba version is easy. I also played the Ps1 and Pc version and they are both hard, but the Pc version takes the cake imho.
Yup, this is definitely one of those games that I've played a good couple of times, tried to beat, realized how it is later on, and now never want to touch ever again :P ESPECIALLY after watching HippoCrit's hilarious, 3-part _epic_ on actually going through the dang thing (appropriately titled "Rayman is the hardest game EVER" Parts 1 thru 3). It's absolutely astounding looking at the breakdown of what the game does in places - you're definitely not the only one who ID's some examples of major cheapness in places :D He even broke down fundamental issues like how the jump momentum system doesn't really work in a way to facilitate the trickier jumps, or the enigmatic hitboxes and collision on Rayman himself thanks to his limbless body. Those vids absolutely made me never want to fire it up again, even though it's been on my PS3 as a PS Classic download for years XD I do really love the OTHER sidescrollers though, beyond Origins/Legends, I mean. The other games that tried to keep up _this style_ of Rayman, but aren't horrendously, unfairly, unrewardingly difficult - both the Game Boy Color version of Rayman, and then the GBA version of Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (that oddly enough seems to also include content from Rayman 2 re-imagined in 2D) have art that tries its hardest to emulate this original game. They don't quite get there, but they make a Herculean effort and are pretty dang good.
I just recently picked up Rayman from Uplay. I was rather shocked at just how hard it can be, and that was in the early levels. I kind of love it now for the same reason I never bothered with it back in the day. It's so colorful and cartoony. It's just the right kind of dumb to appeal to me now. But when it came out, I was at that age where anything attractive to children was "below me".
I never noticed how good this game looked and I have overlooked it for twentysomething years. Your editing has become very good and your videos look better than stuff that aired on G4/Tech TV. I would like to see you tackle Shining Force CD.
@@Cannotbetamed1 It is an amazing series. Me and my nephews played the first one years back and it was great. We played most of the second one and enjoyed it til I got stuck. But Shining Force CD was amazing. For me, it was that time story and gameplay created this great experience. Hopefully I didn't oversell it.
I guess that one of the reasons Rayman was not as remembered as other PS1 games is due to it being a 2D game. The Fifth Console Generation where the PS1 belongs was the one that stablished 3D graphics as the norm for videogames, people was crazy with polygons, as a 2D platformer many people saw Rayman was a remnant of the previous generations.
This video pop up in my recommendations but I do love Ray man so I'm not surprised anyway nice review I've only played the newer Rayman games so it's interesting to see how it all began I was always familiar with the first Rayman game but aside from a few bosses I didn't know that much about it
@@Cannotbetamed1 It had been a minute since I played it prior to the Mini's release and you are right on - very difficult. Frustrating even. I didn't realize there were codes to make the task more bearable, perhaps next time I dig it out, I'll experiment accordingly. For whatever reason, my strongest Rayman memories seem to be of playing Rayman 2: The Great Escape on N64 back in the day. Those early 3D terrors! Any experience there? It wasn't a complete train wreck from what I recall but I was so glad when Origins (and then Legends) returned to the 2D roots some years later.
Great review on a game i've honestly never played.I like how you went from gushing about how great the game looked and played to wanting to rip your hair out regarding the steep difficulty curve later on. Your suggestion of playing the newer games is exactly what I'll do, most likely, as this looks good, but i wouldn't want to waste that much time trying to beat it as a busy adult. I bet i would've loved this one when I was in high school. Shame I never got it. Also, dat Labyrinth clip.
Really well put together video, as always! I remember lots of people loving this game, and I wanted to as well, but it was stylishly tough. I thought the controls were inconsistently floaty and very punishing difficulty spikes made sure (to my shame) I never finished this little favourite!
Amazing review. Rayman doesnt get talked enough, which is why i wished he was in Smash U. Maybe do one of Rayman 2 and Revolution? Anways keep up the amazing videos. Cheers.
Although I've not put a lot of time into the Rayman series, it feels kinda like the same deal as Sonic where the first game is challenging and a bit lengthy, and the 2nd game is much more polished by addressing these issues. Though the release time is also different, coming out in the era of unlockable abilities and backtracking, I do give them credit for making a new mascot in a world that doesn't feel totally "Been here, done all that, sent all the postcards." Thanks for another great video review, Pam! :) -Mad Wolf
Perfect review. I have loved and still love the original ray man game, but generally haven’t made it very far into the third world. And usually give up before finishing the second. But you were spot on that it’s charm just wins me over anyways.
This really is a classic. This was so nicely designed, the only problem was how difficult this is. Rayman 2 and 3 where 3D platforms. I've only played this a few times, only making it to the 2nd level, recently I played this again and found how difficult it is. Are you going to review the windows PC Rayman games?
Hey Pam, I just thought I'd mention the new fangame Rayman Redemption in case you've not heard of it. It's basically a fan remake of the original but makes the game a bit more fare. I'm playing it now and have been able to get through to the end of Bandland with very little trouble, while on the original version I was never able to get past it. There are different difficulties though of you want that challenge back.
@@Cannotbetamed1 It's really good. Here a review to check out of you'd like more of an idea what it's like - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4qAnnOjEUSk.html
It really is like an acid trip and dreamland mixed together.... I like the GBA version as well and the sequel on Dreamcast is like eating cheesecake in a tornado. Perfect and challenging lol
When I saw this the very first time when PS1 was just released and my buddy picked it up, I saw this and kingsfield...They both BLEW me away at the time...just a beautiful experience
I also first saw this when a friend who got the console on release got it. I wouldn't get a PS1 until a year or so later. It looks so much more impressive than the games I was used to at the time.
Love Rayman. Still plays beautifully, and it's still a great game to play on the Vita or PSP today. I knew Rayman started life on the Snes before shifting to the Jaguar, but I never realised Rayman 2 was intended to be a 2D game as before. According to a new Fact Hunt video by Guru Larry, the surviving original 2D levels are hidden in the retail version of the game.
I remember starting off with only a couple of titles for my Playstation, I didn't own Rayman but my uncle did and I thought the game just looked phenomenal, giving the feel of interacting with a Saturday morning cartoon, much like how Crash would. But I agree that the levels got unfairly difficult later on. I got as far as that scorpion boss and stopped playing it until years later when it rereleased on PSN.
Rayman drove me insane in the best of ways when I was kid, classic example of a game where you're just thrown in and you have to figure things out on your own on top of some of the most ridiculously difficult platforming. I personally never could get past bandland either and it's one of the few games I never went back to finish. Probably should at some point haha. But I wish you all the best of luck with your channel and will def stay tuned for more! - it's really refreshing to see a ladynerd talk about dope ass video games from our past. It's also great that nerd culture is finally becoming mainstream and a lot more welcoming to all sorts. I really hope that one day the stigma and negative connotations around nerd culture and more specifically gaming culture, whether that be SNES games, Magic: the Gathering, DnD (or w/e else suits your fancy), will finally disappear and the mainstream will recognize them as the awesome community building fun as hell games they are.
I had this on the Atari Jaguar but I never finished it because of the insane difficulty and cheap one hit deaths. The Blue Mountain area was as far as I got. I loved Rayman Origins on Wii though!
I remember getting this a few years after it first came out. Amazing use of colours but insanely difficult. I gave up on the second world! Thanks for covering.
Rayman was my game back then. Me and my bro use to play it on the PC all the time.Then a few more years later I got really far, I also enjoyed the music. The only thing I hated was the Space Mama. Also at 11:37 the old Castlevania style death
I really loved this review, you've got a perfect voice for it, and your research and attention to detail is really quite attractive. I had it as a kid. Ahh games were so simple back then. I couldn't get past Bandland. Maybe I'll buy a PS1 and an old TV too. Maybe just need a PC. May I ask how you captured all this footage?
Very fair review! If anyone's interested in playing this game nowadays, may I also recommend giving the 3DS version a try, since it offers a lot more health points and lives (and infinite continues AFAIR) making the game a lot easier to stomach. That way, you still get to enjoy the beautiful visuals and animation, but with less headaches from all the BS deaths and enemies!
I've never beaten a Rayman game in my life. I've only played some of the first game and some of the second. Such an iconic character, though. I actually own Rayman Legends on Wii U but haven't touched it. Might have to address that.
I love this review, it's great! 😂 I've been playing Rayman literally since I was born so I can more or less beat the game with 3 lives or less. I always love hearing other peoples reviews and reactions to the original. I recommend the Dsiware version of the game (also on 3ds) for a less difficult version but its still tough 😈
Rayman 1 truly deserves a remaster ❤️ Fact: Rayman had limbs, way back when he was under development, but when they tried to test out Rayman's animations, his limbs started to glitch out, and basicly crashed the software aswell, so his limbs got removed, and i am actually glad that they did that 😁 Another thing is that Rayman got his name from the software that was used to develop him, but i do not remember the name of the software other than that it had "Ray" in it 👍
This is one of my favs on ps1. The saturn version came out first. And it had a little more sprites and better animations. Both PS1 and Saturn are the best. Great game.
I bought Ray Man P.S.1 at a store one or Two years ago for about $2 or $3 and I got stuck early on never pull at out since. But seeing this Video makes me wanna try again
Completely loved the game... for the first 2 hours. You're totally right about the seeming lack of playtesting involved. All the later games are great, especially 2 on Dreamcast, and Origins and Legends.
Rayman 2 literally raised the bar for 3d platformers. Beautiful as can be, funny, and way more fair than the first game. It's worth getting a Dreamcast for (along with many others).
There is Rayman Redemption which come out just month ago and its awesome. Remade level design and adding something new. Its far easier than original. You can download it for free its fanmade game.
I try this game every chance I can because I want to play it for all the reasons you give. its extremely inviting, but im terrible at it. I honestly didn't even know there were bosses and ive been trying it here and there since its initial PlayStation release. most recently ive played it on the ps classic. maybe ill give it another try now that I know theres a code for additional lives.
Rayman 1 is one of the first games i ever got from my mom and it was so freaking hard, i never finished it, even now I am not able to, and cheatcodes somehow wouldn't work
My first Rayman game was Origins and Rayman Legends is one of my favourite games. I've played the original Rayman but the difficulty is just waaaay too high to be enjoyable.
