I recently replayed this and it's still the same great game I remember it being, but now I have a fresher perspective for the levels.>Fairy Glade5/10. The main level itself is fine, but locking some of the lums and a cage behind a warp from a later level sucks ass and it's the only level where you can't fully complete it once you get there.>Marshes of Awakening8/10. Waterskiing controls aren't that bad, but like most autoscrolling segments in the game if you miss some lums you gotta die to retry.>Bayou6/10. It's basic platforming, but now you have a pirate ship blasting the scaffolding out from under you. Controls are wonky and your jump inputs can get eaten.>Walk of Life9/10. Straight platforming, and you get to accompany Ly.>Sanctuary of Water and Ice7/10. Has the fantastic beach aesthetic and swimming controls are fine, but it introduces the first of Rayman 2's cardinal sins: sliding. Slide controls suck fucking ASS, and since it's an autoscroller death-to-retry rules apply. Axel is a piss-easy Guardian.>Cave of Bad Dreams4/10. I know everyone likes this level but platforming can be fucky and it has an extended slide segment, which ALSO has random fucking spikes on it that get you killed so it's even more of a pain in the ass than usual.>Menhir Hills7/10. Introduces walking shell riding, which has really fucky hitboxes. Also has a puzzle for a cage/lum that requires you to use rocket keg, which you don't learn about until much later.>Canopy9/10. You get your full power here and Globox isn't that bad a companion. Cool aesthetic too.>Whale Bay9/10. Swimming controls are fine. The bay is cool, neat level.>Sanctuary of Stone and Fire2/10. I hate this level. It's the single longest level in the game, has multiple secrets and side paths that all require the new fucking plum controls, and takes fucking forever. It also has a walking shell segment, and a SLIDE SEGMENT. Fuck this place.
>>729287617>Echoing Caves8/10. This is where you're introduced to keg rockets, which have fine controls, and it lets you go back to the Fairy Glade to finish that level too.>Precipice4/10 Uuuuuuugh. The entire level is just the same as Bayou, except on steroids. >Top of the World7/10? Has an autoscrolling segment with a chair that rotates around the Z-axis, which can get disorienting. The second half is easy and there's a free gold fist.>Sanctuary of Rock and Lava5/10. Why does this exist? This is just the Sanctuary of Stone and Fire again. Same damn plum controls. >Walk of Power9/10, same as Walk of Life.>Beneath the Sanctuary of Rock and LavaHoly fuck 10/10. Flying controls are cool, and despite being an autoscroller has some really cool setpieces. Foutch actually puts work in as a Guardian.>Tomb of the Ancients9/10. Really cool level. You can get the 1000th lum here, when it died it came here. Spiders are bitches.>Iron Mountains8/10. Weird level. Cool platforming segments, but then you have to raid a reformatory and get the weird robot chicken outside to destroy some menhirs for lums, then control a pirate ship to rescue more Globox spawn. I took a lot of damage on the ship from dumb hitboxes.>Prison Ship5/10. The slide segment sucks ass. Flying shells are kinda cool, if disorienting a bit. What idiot thought it would be a good idea for full pitch and roll controls, but barely any yaw?>Crow's NestLike, 7/10. More flying shell wonkery, and it's too easy to dip in the lava trying to ditch the homing blasts chasing you. Also because the credits are endless you can only save by exiting the stage during the battle, which is dumb. Overall probably like an 8/10 game. Really cool, but also some really frustrating shit.
>>729287617I recently still replayed it on the NSO app, and yeah it's a great game. Albeit the soundtrack is the one big difference compared to the PC version, the N64 is fully MIDI.
Dreamcast version is the kinoest
>>729288326I never minded the midi soundtrack that much, I felt it fit the low-poly graphics pretty well.Oh one more thing I didn't like was the dumb as shit bonus stage. It's just a button masher and often times you can't win it, and the prizes you win are either just a health refill (pointless because Game Overs don't matter), or gold fist, which is situational at best and can be wasted if the next level is an autoscroller and you keep dying to retry collecting lums you missed. I did them for a while and won a few, but towards the end of the game just stopped trying and quit them out.
In the level "Tomb of the Ancients" in Rayman 2, if you stand outside the door that leads to the boss fight and face the door while quickly pressing "playjeff" on the PC version, a crate will spawn and you will be able to enter use the crate to enter a square hole high up on the wall. You will then be in a small tunnel with three signs with cryptic messages on how to renew your health and gain stronger power ups. At the end of the tunnel is the scene in the image
>>729287631Rayman 2 sure had great level names. Some have called them corny, but if they're corny then I'm a cornaholic.
>>729288607It's the whimsical shit I really really like. The same aesthetic for a lot of the lava levels I'd only see repeated with the Fire Sanctuary in Zelda: Skyward Sword. Lava, with overgrown plants and fruit you gotta use to cross the lava, amidst ancient ruins. You don't see that theming all that often but it's really cool when you do.
>>729288785Shit, I should replay Rayman 2. Maybe I'll give Hoodlum Havoc a try as well, I remember getting stuck in some area with undying zombie-like enemies. Have you played Hoodlum Havoc? If you have, wht's your opinion on it?
This is the best track in the gamehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5AOQTFT3lg
>>729288905Naw, never played Rayman 3. I did play Rayman M/Arena though, it continues the Rayman 2 theming and many of the characters return, and racing got really fun once you got into a groove.
>>729288905Rayman 3's good but it's definitely going for a different vibe than 2 was. I'd say it's worth looking at again, the level you're thinking of is about 3/4 the way through the game from what I remember
>>729288998>>729289053Thanks for the advice. I played Rayman M a ton as a kid with my cousins. I remember it being fun, but I'm looking for classical adventure games akin to other Raymans right now. And yeah, all 3 Rayman mainline games have very different vibes. I remember liking all of them when I played them like 20 years ago. I'll definitely start with 2 though. Hoodlum Havoc was good too in my memories. I was simply concerned that I might wast my precious vacation days on it if it was actually bad since my memories are hazy on it and I've seen it bashed here on /vee/.
