What are the differences between all the versions of the Rayman games?
Rayman 2: The Great Escape, for instance has a release on 6 different system years apart and one is for a handheld which is a completely different game, besides being ported a few times.
Rayman M had a PC version? What the frick?! I was a giant Rayman fan in mid-2000s l, yet I had never heard about it anywhere until now.
Check out Nitrorad's videos on them. He goes into detail on the differences between releases.
Cool thanks guys. Still seems like a mess and leaves me inconclusive which versions to play.
honestly just play it on PC, it's pretty cheap on GOG
i'm not a fan of the PS2 version, has some horrible load times and the hub is just annoying. they also removed a level and you fight way more robots (to a fault)
GOG version is unfortunately not the best
the music order and repeating does not work nicely in this version
go for Rayman Optimum on PC
i can only talk for Ray2
N64: MIDI Music, maybe its my imagination but i think it has different lighting from the PC version
PC: Basically the N64 version but with CD Audio, better textures, framerate and resolution
DC: Has minigames, a new world map and improved graphics over PC and N64, also runs at 60fps at 640x480
PS1: only has 800 lums instead of 1000, either it has removed levels or combined two levels into one, health increase for every cage you break instead of every 10 cages, has more cinematics, rayman controls different from the previous versions (he has a slight delay on his movement), new final boss fight, rayman 2 beta as a reward for 90% completion
PS2: Basically a remake, new hubworld, improved graphics, new bosses, a few new abilities, an upgrade system, a different way to upgrade your health, new story elements, etc...
DS: Basically the N64 version but with worse controls and somewhat buggier
iOS: It's the Dreamcast Version but with touch controls and iirc a few sound issues
3DS: Dreamcast version but with worse performance, graphical bugs, muffled audio with looping issues and the secret lum is only obtainable via an exploit involving damage boosting.
Oh yeah, totally forgot about the DS/3DS versions. The latter was a launch title I think.
Rayman 1 also got that DSi port that let the Photographer take a photo of (You) with the system's selfie camera to put on your save file.
Rayman 1 was made for DOS, Saturn and PS1.
I am not aware how the Saturn port drived, but:
- DOS port is harder, and it's actually dangerous to run on some real DOS/Win9x computers because the CD detection mechanism is bugged to hell and backwards, it will likely destroy random files on your PC if you fail the CD check
- the PS1 port has more helpful pickups, making it the easier port in terms of difficulty, but has a lot less audio tracks on the CD
Rayman M as far as I can tell, was released on PC and PS2. Its main schtick is that you can play in multiplayer, making itself appear as a Quake/UT-style arena game but with Rayman content, but it fricking beggars belief why it's limited to 2 players when you can play with as many as 4 characters - 2 player controlled characters, and 2 computer controlled characters. Also, on the PC, it's near-impossible to configure the game to allow 2 players to use the keyboard, or move player 1 to a gamepad while player 2 gets the keyboard. Only player 1 can use the keyboard for some freak reason. Finally, all the TV reviews of this game I've watched, and online reviews even, touted that Rayman M can be played over the network meanwhile nothing like this appears to be possible
Following up - it's perfectly safe to play Rayman 1 in DOSBox. The CD detection doesn't fail there.
Also, if you're looking to play Rayman M on vintage hardware, you will absolutely need a better card than nVidia Riva TNT 2. I've got the best mileage with GeForce 2 MX. Also you will definitely need 128MB RAM. Besides that, the game is pretty conservative in terms of CPU - 533MHz Celeron should be good enough.
Doesn't PC version (and GBA based on it) have different level layouts then the ps1 version?
the only major difference I can recall is the first band land stage on each version is very different.
the pc version of band land starts you of on a dirt road with a bridge that's completely absent in the ps1 version, any other difference is probably so minor that it doesn't matter much
in addition to that, a very small amount of ting/trigger placements are kinda devious in DOS
anyone else notice how completely different the 3 main rayman games are? mario, sonic, crash, spyro...they all had a similar "style" throughout their games, but rayman 1 2 and 3 have almost nothing in common with one another.
As someone who's played basically every version of Rayman 2 I'd say DC, with PS2 if you ever feel like replaying it
This a Rayman thread? Neat.
Which ones yalls favorite?
OP here.
I only had pic related as a kid and never finished it for some reason. I got stuck, somehow.
I've finished Legends and had a good time with it and I plan on going back and finishing the GBC game and all the others.
I was obsessed with the first Rayman and had it for PS1.. I was a dumbfrick 7 year old who didn't realize i could put a PS1 memory card in my PS2 to save PS1 games, so I always used cheats or left my PS1 on to try to beat it. I've never played the rest though, do people think M or 2 is better I wonder?
Also Rayman Redemption should be mentioned as a way to play Rayman 1 nowadays
If added fan content is not your thing, Rayman Optimum is the best way to experience it on PC or any platform
Rayman 1 is a Jaguar game converted from an SNES proto, and had semi-immediate ports to PS1, Saturn, and DOS. The Jaguar version is the most different and least gimmicky. It's worth checking out, but not necessarily the best. The best is probably the Rayman Collector package for DOS, if you can find it. It comes with Rayman Designer and other goodies. After that, Saturn. PS1 is the least impressive version and is what most later ports are based on.
Rayman 2 is a Nintendo 64 game very loosely based on a scrapped PS1/Saturn 2D proto, and the versions to look out for are for PC, Dreamcast, PS1, and PS2. This time, there's not much going for the original N64 release, unless you really like the N64 controller; PC is a better version of N64, and the DC version is usually considered even better than the PC version. The Sony versions are the odd ones out. PS1 is like a stripped down version, but has a few exclusives like an unlockable demo of the unfinished PS1 version. PS2 is a remake, but mileage may vary on a few points.
Rayman 3 is a GameCube game and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.