Let's get something done right off the bat here: Rayman 2 is literally Ghandi Buddha Jesus rolled into one divine prophetic game that deserves nothing less than daily praise and love from all the subjects whom it allows to exist in the gaming universe. Now then let me do a quick review of the franchise so you can have a full breadth of understanding of what Rayman IS.
Rayman 1 was pretty beautiful and damned hard and unless you used the x99 lives cheat (which helped me fully enjoy the game) you are pretty much fucked unless you have the divine patience required to beat that game's ridiculous difficulty which is just a few pegs higher than Castlevania. It's a 2D platformer with epic bosses and a pacing that goes back and forth between being as fast as Sonic to being as slow as LIMBO. The french art design is pretty flagrant as it always is in the Rayman franchise and it's a quality platformer for a quality platforming IP. Though how much that IP is loved might be another story considering Ubisoft has these days been milking Rayman as nothing more than a touchscreen app unworthy of say a new 3D Rayman game like all Rayman fans have been wanting for around a decade now. This is the game which started the franchise and it was a landmark 2d platforming title though not as significant as Sonic or Mario.
Rayman Rush was a quality racing game where you run on foot against other competing ai. It was an oddly high quality racing game which let you attack other players while ensuring you had to dodge platforming obstacles. To be honest I am surprised racing games have not followed in the footsteps of Rayman Rush as this game was somewhat of an unknown landmark in racing games blending platforming with racing into some beautifully crafted levels reminiscent looks-wise to Rayman 2. Fun game very high quality not the absolute best racing game of all time but definitely important to the genre.
Rayman 3 was NOT particularly good. It had a great first few levels though they later dipped down in terms of looks and platforming mechanics. 10/10 fantastic short sections of riding some glowing roads in a hippie dimension (though those sections only appear like 3 or 4 times). The difficulty was way too easy and should've been increased. The powerups felt like a gimmick and were not explored to their full potential. As a whole the game felt unfinished in terms of length because interesting mechanics introduced here and there are not used as often as they should be. Had a bit of a bland laid back vibe which did not work well for it. It did have serious potential to be a fantastic game and all the elements needed are there it's just they were not fully explored to the point of ever actually making me have to think or really try hard to succeed.
Rayman 4... never happened. It was gonna happen but instead it was evolved into Rayman Rabbids. All core Rayman fans are pissed about this though Rayman Rabbids was an interesting game the first time around though the later installments were cringey and just BAD.
Rayman Origins was a godsend for platforming yet barely anyone talks about it. Even Yahtzee loved the game. It wasn't too hard and wasn't too difficult, yet could be VERY difficult towards the end especially in the final level. Loved it. It is a masterpiece and I'd say it is the best 2d platformer in the last decade, contested only by Shovel Knight and to a lesser degree Super Meat Boy. The graphics were fluid and all the art assets were hand-drawn masterfully. The pacing is fast, the lives system is set up to where the game can get as difficult as it wants without feeling unfair because you never run out of lives (which is by the way a smart concept Super Meat Boy also used and NEEDED to use to justify it's ridiculously difficult levels).
Rayman Legends was just Rayman Origins 2 with slightly easier platforming and better graphics with those interesting musical sections thrown in.
Now how do I put this...
RAYMAN 2 MOTHERFUCKERS IS BETTER THAN SEX AND DRUGS COMBINED AND IS LITERALLY THE 2ND COMING OF JESUS
I've beaten the game multiple times both in childhood and in adult years. Looking at the game from any angle I can only find glory in this thing. The plot was immensely interesting taking place in a fantasy world with pirate robots who are destroying and capturing all the magic and life. Rayman is fully rendered in 3D in this epic sequel to the first game. Frankly, this is the absolute pinnacle best sequel in video game history. It's like, if you were poured a shot-glass full of beer, followed immediately by a full glass of the finest wine in existence. Not to say the first game was bad because it was actually an important game in 2d platforming worth playing. It's just, this game blew the first one out of the water due to its ridiculously high quality. The music is ridiculously good atmospheric music from the Woods of Light to the Cave of Nightmares music which helped to dramatically increase the suspense of that level. This game seems to bounce back and forth between being adorably light-hearted to immensely suspenseful and scary. One of the levels is literally you flying through a level composed entirely of lava and thorns. ... A LAVA LITERALLY COMPOSED OF LAVA AND THORNS!! -that concept in itself deserves its own death metal album. In one level you're chased by a sentient Mike Wazowksky-looking beast and the entire level takes place from the 2nd-person view of the inside of the monster's mouth while you're shown running away in front of it. It was actually incredibly weird that level and I'm surprised horror games haven't tried showing a level from the perspective of a monster's mouth since Rayman 2 did it. Lee the Fairy is an interesting magical being in the world with a beautiful orange and purple swirly one-piece outfit and she's the one who gives Rayman his powers. It's just... everything about this game wreaks of perfection. The gameplay is so simple it's just you 3d-platforming like any other platformer but with tightly responsive controls, the later abilities to glide and fly, and a fist you can launch like a projectile at enemies. The only flaw I can find with this game is I can't give it an 11/10. But I will anyway. This game gets the Epyc Wynn official rating of 11/10. People will say otherwise but I personally believe the PS1 port is the best version of the game because the voices are in an understandable English and the filler gameplay is cut out of it which I found was actually a good thing.
Rayman 1 was pretty beautiful and damned hard and unless you used the x99 lives cheat (which helped me fully enjoy the game) you are pretty much fucked unless you have the divine patience required to beat that game's ridiculous difficulty which is just a few pegs higher than Castlevania. It's a 2D platformer with epic bosses and a pacing that goes back and forth between being as fast as Sonic to being as slow as LIMBO. The french art design is pretty flagrant as it always is in the Rayman franchise and it's a quality platformer for a quality platforming IP. Though how much that IP is loved might be another story considering Ubisoft has these days been milking Rayman as nothing more than a touchscreen app unworthy of say a new 3D Rayman game like all Rayman fans have been wanting for around a decade now. This is the game which started the franchise and it was a landmark 2d platforming title though not as significant as Sonic or Mario.
Rayman Rush was a quality racing game where you run on foot against other competing ai. It was an oddly high quality racing game which let you attack other players while ensuring you had to dodge platforming obstacles. To be honest I am surprised racing games have not followed in the footsteps of Rayman Rush as this game was somewhat of an unknown landmark in racing games blending platforming with racing into some beautifully crafted levels reminiscent looks-wise to Rayman 2. Fun game very high quality not the absolute best racing game of all time but definitely important to the genre.
Rayman 3 was NOT particularly good. It had a great first few levels though they later dipped down in terms of looks and platforming mechanics. 10/10 fantastic short sections of riding some glowing roads in a hippie dimension (though those sections only appear like 3 or 4 times). The difficulty was way too easy and should've been increased. The powerups felt like a gimmick and were not explored to their full potential. As a whole the game felt unfinished in terms of length because interesting mechanics introduced here and there are not used as often as they should be. Had a bit of a bland laid back vibe which did not work well for it. It did have serious potential to be a fantastic game and all the elements needed are there it's just they were not fully explored to the point of ever actually making me have to think or really try hard to succeed.
Rayman 4... never happened. It was gonna happen but instead it was evolved into Rayman Rabbids. All core Rayman fans are pissed about this though Rayman Rabbids was an interesting game the first time around though the later installments were cringey and just BAD.
Rayman Origins was a godsend for platforming yet barely anyone talks about it. Even Yahtzee loved the game. It wasn't too hard and wasn't too difficult, yet could be VERY difficult towards the end especially in the final level. Loved it. It is a masterpiece and I'd say it is the best 2d platformer in the last decade, contested only by Shovel Knight and to a lesser degree Super Meat Boy. The graphics were fluid and all the art assets were hand-drawn masterfully. The pacing is fast, the lives system is set up to where the game can get as difficult as it wants without feeling unfair because you never run out of lives (which is by the way a smart concept Super Meat Boy also used and NEEDED to use to justify it's ridiculously difficult levels).
Rayman Legends was just Rayman Origins 2 with slightly easier platforming and better graphics with those interesting musical sections thrown in.
Now how do I put this...
RAYMAN 2 MOTHERFUCKERS IS BETTER THAN SEX AND DRUGS COMBINED AND IS LITERALLY THE 2ND COMING OF JESUS
I've beaten the game multiple times both in childhood and in adult years. Looking at the game from any angle I can only find glory in this thing. The plot was immensely interesting taking place in a fantasy world with pirate robots who are destroying and capturing all the magic and life. Rayman is fully rendered in 3D in this epic sequel to the first game. Frankly, this is the absolute pinnacle best sequel in video game history. It's like, if you were poured a shot-glass full of beer, followed immediately by a full glass of the finest wine in existence. Not to say the first game was bad because it was actually an important game in 2d platforming worth playing. It's just, this game blew the first one out of the water due to its ridiculously high quality. The music is ridiculously good atmospheric music from the Woods of Light to the Cave of Nightmares music which helped to dramatically increase the suspense of that level. This game seems to bounce back and forth between being adorably light-hearted to immensely suspenseful and scary. One of the levels is literally you flying through a level composed entirely of lava and thorns. ... A LAVA LITERALLY COMPOSED OF LAVA AND THORNS!! -that concept in itself deserves its own death metal album. In one level you're chased by a sentient Mike Wazowksky-looking beast and the entire level takes place from the 2nd-person view of the inside of the monster's mouth while you're shown running away in front of it. It was actually incredibly weird that level and I'm surprised horror games haven't tried showing a level from the perspective of a monster's mouth since Rayman 2 did it. Lee the Fairy is an interesting magical being in the world with a beautiful orange and purple swirly one-piece outfit and she's the one who gives Rayman his powers. It's just... everything about this game wreaks of perfection. The gameplay is so simple it's just you 3d-platforming like any other platformer but with tightly responsive controls, the later abilities to glide and fly, and a fist you can launch like a projectile at enemies. The only flaw I can find with this game is I can't give it an 11/10. But I will anyway. This game gets the Epyc Wynn official rating of 11/10. People will say otherwise but I personally believe the PS1 port is the best version of the game because the voices are in an understandable English and the filler gameplay is cut out of it which I found was actually a good thing.
