Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (PS2)

While I would consider myself somewhat of a Rayman fan, I’m not normally one to look forward to the next game in the series (at least not as much as my brother, who is a bigger fan than I). However, I do enjoy multiplayer sessions of Rayman Origins and will gladly do so when Legends comes out. As for the previous titles (before the Rabbids took over for a while, anyway), while they have been part of my childhood in some capacity, I didn’t actually have that much experience with them. About a year ago, however, as I mentioned in my review of Rayman 2: Revolution, I decided to play the PS2 port of Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc in a fit of boredom, wanting to experience the game for myself and getting to the end boss within a few days. I may be going somewhat by memory, but from what I recall of my experience, I actually had a good time with it, even if I didn't entirely finish it.

While the world is at peace, a Black Lum named Andre begins corrupting Red Lums by touching them, turning them into Black Lums. After Andre creates a swarm of Black Lums, they come together to create a Hoodlum, with Andre at the lead. Meanwhile, as Rayman and Globox are sleeping in the forest, Globox wakes up and sees Andre attacking and attempts to run away with Rayman, running off with his hands instead. When Rayman awakes to find Andre, Murfy appears and carries him to the Fairy Council, where Rayman reunites with Globox and gets his hands back. After his Hoodlum form is defeated, Andre flies off, but ends up being swallowed by Globox, leading Rayman to have to find a Teensie Doctor in order to safely remove the Black Lum Lord.

Rayman as he appears in Rayman 3.

While the story may not be as deep as Rayman 2, it does keep itself going by way of increased humor. Murfy, for instance, spends the beginning of the game berating the developers for the plot and the explanation of controls, in addition to reading Rayman the plot setup from the game’s manual and providing useful hints, before disappearing until Rayman 4 (which may or may not have actually happened, depending on who you ask). Overall the game has a more light-hearted tone and doesn’t seem to take itself very seriously, but this is a difference that I was okay with, since it helps the game stand out from its immediate predecessor.

Andre, the Black Lum Lord and main antagonist.

Like Rayman 2, Rayman 3 presents its own amount of variety, but in a different sort of way. While Rayman retains basic actions such as firing with his fists or flying with his hair like a helicopter, he can also gain new powers temporarily by coming into contact with a variety of floating cans, usually dropped by defeated Hoodlums with a “$” over their head, each power marked by the color of the can. The duration of each power also varies between them, but they last just long enough for you to use them to advance. Green cans give you the Vortex, which is used for twisting down spiraled mushrooms for use as platforms, but can also be used to spin enemies around. Red cans give you the Heavy Metal Fist, used for breaking down tough barricades or taking down foes a little faster. Blue cans grant the LockJaw, the power which lasts the longest, which is primarily used to swing on floating rings (replacing the Purple Lums in Rayman 2), but also has combat application by way of delivering an electric shock to your foe. Orange cans give you the Shock Rocket, one of, if not the, shortest lasting powers, which works by controlling a rocket fist through a first-person view to reach a target; this one usually requires having to stand where the can is for continuous use until it has served its purpose. Finally, Yellow cans equip you with the Throttle Copter, granting temporary full flight, but lasting just long enough for you to reach a distant platform.

The Throttle Copter in action.

Enemy and level design also provide some form of variety to keep things fresh. Hoodlums make up the generic enemies of the game, but rather than just a simple palette swap like with the Robo-Pirates in Rayman 2, each Hoodlum has a distinct look to them, telling you not only what type they are, but also what you must do in order to defeat them. Some are as simple as firing on them multiple times, but some require a little more strategy, such as having to heavily strafe in order to take down shielded Hoodlums. One particular form of enemy that takes a little more thinking to get around is the Knaaren, who are invincible, save for their champion Reflux, and must be bypassed by ringing a gong with the Shock Rocket power. Bosses also have a rather unique feel to them, in fact more so than the bosses of Rayman 2, providing their own ways of beating them to make them stand out from each other and become more memorable. As with Rayman 2, each and every level looks distinct, each one also varying in size, which really helps to allow the game to mix things up whenever it can.

One aspect of the level design is that there are some unique challenges present in some levels, such as shrinking down upon touching a false can and having to race around in your foot in order to stop the other one to get a reward. A particularly memorable one, which shows up after every major level, is a Funky-Boarding stage that has you flying across platforms until you reach the end; these stages can get a little difficult at times and you lose some points every time you fall down, but they are rewarding once you finally get to the end.

Funky-Boarding in action.

And of course, the game has its own sets of collectibles, primarily gems scattered across each level and cages containing Teensie prisoners. Each of the gems gives you points as part of a scoring system, the amount of points depending on the type of gem. Grabbing at least two in close proximity activates Combo Mode, which grants you extra points for each new gem collected; this mode lasts until you stop gaining points for a long enough time period. You can also gain points by looking around for hidden creatures in the environments which make a sound; one of the two types of these creatures requires you to zoom in with the camera at just the right angle to gain points, while the other requires you to approach slowly and carefully or else it will disappear without granting you points. A score multiplier also comes up while using the powers from the cans placed in each level, encouraging you to scour the level for gems while in your powered-up state. It is also a good thing to rescue trapped Teensies (usually they are held captive in cages suspended from balloons), since rescuing enough of them can give you a health boost, while sometimes they place down the can you need to come in contact with to advance in the level; often when they are rescued, the trapped Teensie will give some sort of (oftentimes ridiculous) reason for having to go away (such as being late for a drum solo or having to finish inventing chocolate toothpaste).

Due to this game coming out a few years later, the graphics are an improvement over Rayman 2, with character models appearing less polygonal and smoother, making the game seem (fittingly) more cartoonish to fit its art style. Despite this, that doesn’t mean the enemy design can’t get any twisted at all, as found in the designs of the Hoodlums and the general look of the Knaaren. The pre-rendered cut scenes also show some improvement over the previous game, with advanced lighting techniques to help the world seem more alive while still presenting a widely varied color palette. The English voice acting of this game is a great improvement over the English voice track in the PS2 version of Rayman 2, with the voice actors showing more range and characters like Murfy having more fitting voices. One particular voice actor of note, since the game box makes a big deal of it, is John Leguizamo (who you may recognize as Luigi from the Super Mario Bros. movie) as the voice of Globox; to me, he actually suited Globox rather nicely and brought more personality to the character than what was already there. The music of Rayman 3, like Rayman 2, is also very fitting and has its own share of memorable tunes. There is some good range here as well, from the calmness in the initial stages of the Fairy Council to the epic tones heard during boss fights.

Razoff, one of several bosses in the game.

This game also has some extra features which can be unlocked during play. Of particular note among them is a series of instructional Hoodlum videos on how to defeat Rayman, each one showing a different tactic from a Hoodlum practiced on a creature dressed to look like Rayman. Personally I enjoyed watching these videos whenever I unlocked them, especially whenever what was being shown backfired on the Hoodlum in question. There are also a variety of mini games you can unlock, ranging from playing ping pong with Hoodlum shields to playing as Rayman 3 Rayman in a 2.5D Rayman 1-like setting while fighting Hoodlums. If the game itself doesn’t provide enough entertainment for you, the unlockable bonus features are a surefire way to get more bang for your buck.

Before I finish this review, I would like to mention that, while I enjoyed this game, I haven’t exactly finished it all the way through. I mean this in the way that I got to the final boss like in Secret Agent Clank, except whereas Secret Agent Clank had a final boss that was too hard, this game had a final boss where I simply could not figure out what to do next. After getting past the first phase of the fight, my brother and I had a hard time figuring out what my next move was supposed to be and I stopped trying after several attempts. Now I do remember hearing what supposedly happens upon completing the game, but I still wanted to see it for myself in action; at least I can say I tried.

It may have been a while since I played it, but I remember enjoying my time with Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc. It’s funny, has some interesting game mechanics, and overall is a satisfying experience. I can’t think of any particular flaws due to how long it’s been since I played it, but there shouldn’t be any major problems with it. I would recommend this game to Rayman fans who have not yet had a chance to play it, but mainly to those who are fine with it being more on the silly side than previous Rayman games. Even if you’re not satisfied with the humor of the game, the interesting changes made to the gameplay should be enough to make any Rayman player curious about checking it out.

A Celebration of 400 Reviews

About seven months after our 300th review went up, we've reached the 400 mark. In some ways, I honestly didn't expect to do this much when starting this blog, but now that we've come this far, it feels amazing. We may not have very many people reading this for now, but at this point our dedication to task comes from the enjoyment of doing it, and as long as we like making these reviews, we will keep writing and posting them. Now that we've got a sort of stable schedule, I think the future is pretty assured, at least for now.

Personally, I think this is the point at which my style has truly come together. Whenever I look back at my older reviews, I perceive them as being authored by another hand, one which lacked experience. Even when I write something now I still think I have room for improvement, but at the same time I know that I'm really getting it and I know much better about how to review something, as well as lay out a post. It's interesting to see everyone, especially me and Tetris_King, improve with each new review, as well as how jarring it is to look at the older material. Right now is our best set of 100 so far, but I think each new 100 will continue to be better, even if we have some ups and downs along the way.

Below this paragraph, you will find a link to each review we've done up until this point (minus editorials, Comic-Con posts, the April Fools Day reviews and that one time Deadpool dropped by), in addition to a link to our previous celebration of 300 reviews. For the sake of easier reading, these links are broken up into chunks of 25 and each number will be color-coded like so: Movie, Video Game, Comic Book and DLC (Comic Book reviews are still marked as such to avoid confusion).

1-300. A Celebration of 300 Reviews

301. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
302. Silver Linings Playbook
303. Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault
304. Batman: Arkham City (Comic)
305. Braveheart
306. John Dies at the End
307. John Dies at the End (Second Opinion)
308. The Adventures of Sly Cooper (Comic)
309. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
310. Batman: Arkham City - Endgame (Comic)
311. Transformers: Prime - Darkness Rising
312. Les Misérables
313. Die Hard With a Vengeance
314. BioShock
315. Live Free or Die Hard (Unrated)
316. Cubixx
317. A Good Day to Die Hard
318. Flight
319. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
320. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
321. Five Easy Pieces
322. Rise of the Guardians
323. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
324. God of War III
325. Gears of War 3

326. God of War Saga
327. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
328. God of War: Ascension
329. BioShock 2
330. Transformers Prime: Rage of the Dinobots (Comic)
331. Minerva's Den
332. Little Inferno
333. Blade Runner (The Director's Cut)
334. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
335. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
336. BioShock Infinite
337. Hitchcock (2012)
338. Battleship
339. The Iron Lady
340. The Thing from Another World
341. Reefer Madness
342. Injustice: Gods Among Us
343. Iron Man 2 (Second Opinion)
344. The Avengers (2012) (Second Look)
345. Iron Man 3
346. 20 Million Miles to Earth
347. Ratchet & Clank Collection
348. Batman: Arkham Unhinged #1 (Comic)
349. Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
350. Star Trek (2009)

351. Daft Punk's Electroma
352. Star Trek Into Darkness
353. West Side Story
354. Lair of the Seamstress
355. Lair of the Seamstress (Second Opinion)
356. The Graduate
357. Ratchet: Deadlocked (HD)
358. Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault (Vita)
359. Uncharted: Golden Abyss
360. The Beginning of the End
361. The Beginning of the End (Second Opinion)
362. Batman: Arkham Unhinged #2 (Comic)
363. A Clockwork Orange
364. Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4
365. Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4 (Second Opinion)
366. Neptune's Daughter
367. Man of Steel
368. Man of Steel (Second Opinion)
369. The Last of Us
370. Monsters, Inc.
371. Monsters University
372. Kingdom Hearts
373. Deadpool
374. Deadpool (Second Opinion)
375. Despicable Me

376. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls
377. Asura's Wrath (+ DLC) (Second Look)
378. Despicable Me 2
379. Yankee Doodle Dandy
380. Transformers Animated - Transform and Roll Out
381. John Carpenter's The Thing
382. Overland Stage Raiders
383. Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories
384. Plants vs. Zombies: Lawnmageddon (SDCC Comic)
385. DmC Devil May Cry: The Chronicles of Vergil (Comic)
386. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
387. Batman: Arkham Unhinged #3 (Comic)
388. RED 2
389. Metal Gear Solid: Bande Dessinée (Motion Comic)
390. Metal Gear (MSX)
391. A Slight Case of Murder
392. Dust: An Elysian Tail
393. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
394. Safety Last!
395. Metal Gear Solid 2: Bande Dessinée (Motion Comic)
396. The Last of Us: American Dreams (Comic)
397. Ball of Fire
398. Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier
399. Rayman 2: Revolution (PS2)
400. The 400 Blows

And now, a statistic of how many reviews we've written in each medium (for your convenience):

Movies: 51 (205 Total)
Video Games: 32 (161 Total)
Comics: 9 (19 Total)
DLC: 8 (15 Total)

Here's to another hundred!

Stubs - The 400 Blows

The 400 Blows (aka Les quatre cents coups) (1959)  Starring: Jean-Pierre Leaud, Albert Remy, Claire Maurier.  Directed by Francois Truffaut. Produced by Francois Truffaut, Georges Charlot. Screenplay by Francois Truffaut, Marcel Moussy. Run time: 99 min France  Drama, French

As with the 300^th review milestone, we looked for an appropriately named title to review. Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows seemed like a natural choice for the blog's 400th review. The film also gives us a chance to expand our reviews to include non-English speaking cinema as well as the opportunity to look at one of the defining films of the French New Wave movement in cinema.

The French New Wave is a term applied to certain films made in France during the 1950’s and 60’s. Many of the major filmmakers in the movement, Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol and Jacques Rivette began as film critics writing for the publication, Cahiers du Cinéma. They are responsible for putting forth what has been called the auteur theory, in that a film reflects the creative vision of the auteur (author) of the film, or who we commonly call the director. This means that, as an example, despite the studio system in Hollywood in which films were often times assigned, the director made the project his own and his vision still prevails above all others (writers, actors, producers). Cahiers du Cinéma praised such Hollywood directors as Orson Welles, John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock amongst others. As an application of their theories, the writers themselves became film directors.

Many of the filmmakers of the French New Wave got
their start writing for this publication,

Claude Chabrol’s Le Beau Serge (1958) is credited as being the first of the French New Wave, but it was the international successes of The 400 Blows and Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960) that drew attention to the movement and enabled it to flourish until the mid-60’s, though many of the filmmakers continued on for much longer than that.

Usually shot on small budgets, French New Wave films share certain characteristics, including: long tracking shots, improvised dialogue, making references to other films, rapid scene changes, jump cuts and shots that go beyond the 180 degree axis. The films themselves deal with existential themes and are filled with irony and sarcasm (so what’s not to love?).

A literal translation of the French title, The 400 Blows doesn’t really refer to anything in the film. There are no brutal scenes of corporal punishment for example. The original title, Les quartre cents coups refers to a French expression, faire les quatre cents coups, which means to raise hell. Originally subtitled, Wild Oats, the American distributor didn’t like that title and preferred the literal translation.

The 400 Blows tells the story of Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Leaud) who we’re supposed to see as a misunderstood adolescent (are there any other kind?). One day at school, a pinup gets passed around in class and Antoine is the one caught by his teacher (Guy Decomble). While the teacher doesn’t let Doinel explain, the punishment is to stand in the corner and the loss of recess. Left alone in the classroom, Antoine writes something on the wall, referring to his teacher as Sourpuss. It is no surprise that Doinel is told to clean it up and when it doesn’t come out, told his parents would have to pay for the repairs.

Sourpuss (Guy Deconble) does not appreciate Antoine's (Jean-Pierre Leaud)
defacing of the classroom wall. 

Antoine lives in Paris with his mother, Gilberte, (Claire Maurier) and step-father, Julien, (Albert Remy). Antoine has chores, like preparing the charcoal stove and setting the table, but he never seems to have time for his homework, as he is sent to bed almost immediately after dinner. His parents argue, there is obvious tension between them, but nothing really gets out of hand.

At home with mother, Gilberte (Claire Maurier) and step-father Julien (Albert Remy)

The next morning is rushed, as the parents oversleep and so does Antoine. On his way to school, Doinel runs into René (Patrick Auffay), a more affluent classmate. René convinces Antoine to skip school that day and the two go to the movies and the amusement park. On the street, Antoine sees his mother making out with a man other than his father.

A day at the cinema with Rene presents an opportunity to steal a lobby card.

At the end of the day, the boys retrieve their suitcases which they’ve hidden behind a door, but are being watched by Betrand Mauricet (Daniel Couturier), another classmate. René and Antoine discuss what to do and René gives him an old note from his parents to copy. But as usual, Antoine doesn’t have time to make the copy, as his father comes home to make dinner. Mom has to work late at the office doing inventory. Step-father and son seem to have a good relationship. When the father asks Antoine about his Michelin guide, the boy responds that he doesn’t know anything about it.

Eventually, the mother comes home. The parents argue some more. Antoine hears his stepfather ask his mom about the Michelin guide, but she points the finger at the boy and when Julien says Doinel denies having seen it, she exclaims, “He’s always lying.” Julien counters with “like you.”

The next morning, after Antoine has left for school, Betrand comes by asking if Antoine feels better today, telling the parents that Antoine had not been to school the day before. (Can you say snitch?) That morning at school, Sourpuss asks Antoine for the note from his parents, but he doesn’t have one. Antoine then tells a whopper of a lie, that his mother has died. No note needed, but the lie is easily disproved. His parents are called to the school. Julien slaps Antoine in front of his classmates and tells him they’ll talk more about this tonight at home.

Antoine's biggest lie is about to unravel.

But instead, Antoine decides to run away from home. René helps him, finding him a place to sleep for the night, his uncle’s dilapidated print shop. But Antoine gets scared off and spends the night wandering the streets of Paris, stealing a bottle of milk for breakfast. Still, he goes to school, where, during English class, he is called into the Principal’s office and reunited with his mother.

Having run away from home, Antoine steals a bottle of milk for breakfast.

She takes Antoine home and bathes him. She shares her own secrets with Antoine, though she doesn’t draw him out. Trying to win him over, she promises him a thousand francs reward if his next paper in school is one of the top five in his class.

Mother trying one last time to reach out to her son.

At home one afternoon, Antoine reads a novel by the great French novelist Honore de Balzac. So impressed is Antoine by what he reads that he sets up a makeshift shrine to the author. When he gets his next assignment in school, he is definitely influenced by what he’d read to the point of copying Balzac’s story and making it his composition.

Antonie likes Balzac's writing to the point that he tries to pass it off as his own.

Back at home, Antoine lights a candle in his shrine, which, while the family is having dinner, catches fire.  Julien is naturally mad at Antoine, but Gilberte tries to ease tensions by suggesting they go to the movies. The family night out seems to bring them closer.

Nothing like a night at the movies to bring everyone together.

At school, Antoine is called out by Sourpuss for plagiarizing Balzac and given an F on his paper. He sends Antoine to the principal’s office to be suspended for the rest of the term. Instead, Antoine runs away. René, his table mate, also gets on Sourpuss’ bad side and is likewise kicked out of the classroom.

Antoine tells René that he can’t go home. Julien has threatened to send him to military school. René lets him move in with him. René’s mother drinks and his father spends his days at the race track, so no one pays close attention to him. During dinner, René sneaks food to Antoine and manipulates the clock so that his father will hurry off to his club.

Rene and Antoine shoot spitballs at unsuspecting pedestrians for fun.
 By the way, those spitballs are made from pages of the missing Michelin
guide Antoine told his step-father he didn't know anything about.

René and Antoine try to think of ways of raising money, before deciding to steal a typewriter from Julien’s office to finance their travels. But when they can’t fence the typewriter and get tired of carrying it around Paris, Antoine takes it back. That’s when he’s caught by a night watchman and turned in to the police by Julien.

Watchman catches Antoine returning the typewriter he'd stolen but couldn't sell.

The police lock the boy up with hardened criminals and Antoine is forced to spend the night in jail. A judge orders Antoine to be placed in a home for troubled youth where a psychiatrist examines Antoine’s unhappiness, which are revealed in monologues edited together with jump cuts.

Antoine spends the night in lock up,but is segregated from the other thieves and the hookers.

Antoine manages to escape one day, while playing soccer by climbing under a fence. His goal is to reach the ocean, a place he’s wanted to visit his entire life. Once he reaches the shore, he runs into the ocean. The film ends with a freeze frame of Antoine looking back at the camera as he is running into the waves.

Antoine reaches the ocean at the end of The 400 Blows. Now what?

The ending is less than satisfying, since the story doesn’t conclude so much as it just ends. There seems to be so much more story to tell. None of the issues raised about Antoine or his parents have been resolved.

The film is supposedly autobiographical for Truffaut. Like Antoine, he came from a broken family, had trouble at school and escaped into the cinema. However, Antoine is not as sympathetic a character as perhaps Truffaut would have wanted. Yes, things are tough at school and his teacher is mean, but many of the problems Antoine has are his own doing. Perhaps he gets unfairly punished for the pin up calendar, but Antoine chooses to deface the wall, chooses to skip school, chooses to lie to the teacher about his mother’s death and it is Antoine who chooses to plagiarize Balzac on his big paper. Antoine is not so much a victim of circumstance as he is a juvenile delinquent who gets caught and punished by a just society.

Filmmaker and historian, Francois Truffaut.

The movie also seems to drag throughout, showing us action that has nothing to do with the main story, like the scene with the gym teacher (Luc Andrieux) leading his class out onto the streets of Paris with no destination in mind. Unbeknownst to the teacher, one by one and two by two, the students in his class peel off to play hooky. Mildly interesting and comedic, the sequence doesn’t really add to the story. And then there is the extra-long sequence of Antoine running to the beach.

Whatever the shortcomings of the story, the film was nevertheless influential, even outside the French New Wave movement. Watching the film, I was reminded, naturally, of one of my favorite films, A Hard Day’s Night. I’m not the first one to see the influence of the movement on Richard Lester’s best known movie. Like French New Wave films before it, A Hard Day’s Night replicates the low budget, grainy film feel. While A Hard Day’s Night also contains elements of Hollywood slapstick films as well, it is clear that Dick Lester was influenced by The 400 Blows and other films of the movement.

Perhaps some of the power of the film has been diminished over the years since of the techniques that made this film revolutionary at the time are now old hat and have been become accepted tools of filmmaking.

But techniques alone do not make a film memorable. Citizen Kane, as an example, introduced a lot of modern filmmaking, but told a compelling story and the making of the film was itself a memorable yarn. Sadly this is where The 400 Blows falls down. As a writer you’re told to write what you know, so it is natural that Truffaut would write about his own childhood. And while it is interesting to see another culture in action, Antoine is not a sympathetic character. Oh, he’s a victim of inattentive parents and a strict teacher, but is as responsible as they are for what happens to him in the film. Some of the story telling may be cultural and the resultant film might not be the exact vision Truffaut had in mind, but this didn’t involve me.

For film historians who wrote extensively about American cinema, when they turned to filmmaking the resulting works did not emulate Hollywood. Whether it was out of necessity or experimentation, the films made during the French New Wave pushed the envelope adding terms to the language of cinema. While they were popular in their day, and are still in some circles, they don’t all stand the test of time. Watch The 400 Blows if you’re interested in the development of cinema, but don’t watch it if you’re looking to be entertained and drawn into the narrative.

Rayman 2: Revolution (PS2)

While there’s a ton of games scheduled to come out in the coming months, including highly-anticipated AAA titles like Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag or Skylanders: Swap Force, there aren’t that many that we collectively on this blog have actually been interested in playing. In light of this, with nothing coming out for us until the upcoming Saints Row IV, I decided to take a look at a game from the past, specifically from the Rayman series, since at one point I had played the PS2 version of Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc in a fit of boredom. Thus, in another fit of boredom, I played the PS2 version of Rayman 2: The Great Escape, called Rayman 2: Revolution (Rayman Revolution everywhere else). After spending about a week or so on this game, I found myself enjoying it, though it’s not without faults.

After Admiral Razorbeard and his band of pirates blew up the Heart of the World, splitting it into 1,000 scattered Yellow Lums (pronounced “looms”), Rayman has been captured by the pirates and imprisoned on their flying ship. Rayman’s friend Globox, having also been captured, is thrown into the same cell, where the two are happy to see each other. After sharing a brief hug out of joy, Globox gives Rayman a Silver Lum given to him by the fairy Ly (pronounced “Lee”), which gives Rayman back the ability to shoot with his fists. The two then make their escape, landing back on solid ground. From there, Rayman sets on a journey to not only rescue his friends, but also to save the world from Razorbeard’s clutches and piece the Heart of the World back together again.

Rayman as he appears in Rayman 2.

 

The story of this game is actually quite decent, with some amount of depth present to keep you wanting to play more. The main conflict involves collecting four masks which, when collected, can allow the creator, Polokus, to appear once again in order to eradicate Razorbeard’s forces. The story takes itself just seriously enough such that it creates a real sense that something is actually at stake in the world presented. The character of Rayman has some real motivations to want to take down Razorbeard, with rescued friends and prisoners helping him along the way. Overall, I don’t really have any complaints about the plot.

The gameplay has a surprising amount of variety to it, but done in such a way that none of it feels wasted. The basic actions include the aforementioned ability to shoot from your fists, as well as the ability to use your hair as a helicopter for limited flight. The helicopter hair ability is very useful for when you want to not overshoot a distant platform, though sometimes you might want to make a complete jump first so you don’t undershoot a platform. The power to shoot with your fists, aside from beating up Robo-Pirates and whatnot, has many uses, such as flipping switches to open doors and smashing cages open to free prisoners. There’s also the ability to swim, though you have a limited oxygen supply and must rely on air bubbles if you’re swimming for too long. These abilities, along with the ability to perform a rain dance on certain designated objects, lend a sort of puzzle aspect to some levels, which also help to create level variety. Sometimes you may have to ride a Walking or Flying Shell in order to get through a particular section of the game.

Hilariously, it whinnies like a horse once you get on.

 

Key to this game are several different types of Lums, which are a sort of bug-like species, which each have their own gameplay properties. As mentioned above, Yellow Lums are scattered collectibles which, when all 1,000 are collected, restore the Heart of the World as destroyed by Razorbeard and his crew. The aforementioned Silver Lums, given to Rayman by Ly (sometimes via Globox), restore Rayman’s powers and give him whatever he needs to fight against Razorbeard’s forces. Red Lums, like Yellow Lums, are also scattered across levels, or sometimes dropped by enemies in this case, but instead give you a small health refill, which can be very handy when you’re running low. Green Lums act as a sort of checkpoint system, allowing you to restart when you die at the last point you grabbed one, though if you die too many times you have to do the level over again (sometimes a big enough level will grant you mercy and start you at a Green Lum instead). Finally, Purple Lums are shaped like rings, and shooting at them allows you to swing up to a higher elevation with relative ease; some are even hidden inside of cages, so be sure to look out for them. Knowing the different types of Lums can help you out a lot on your journey, and can even save your life (in-game).

Admiral Razorbeard, the main villain of the game.

 

To go from level to level, you often have to navigate through a handful of interconnected hub worlds, each having a set of gateways maintained by a group of Teensies, an odd sort of group who know magic, but can’t seem to decide on who exactly their King is. Fortunately, talking to the King Teensie will give you a clue on where to go next, though the names of each level are sometimes a little inconsistent (for instance, is it Skull Cave or Skull’s Cave?). Regardless, each hub world is laid out fairly well, each one providing a rather unique look and design to them to boot. A few notable locations are the Magic Well, where you can spend Yellow Lums you have collected to gain further powers for Rayman (visit often!), and several places where Ly might show up, which, after you free enough Familiar Spirits from their cages, opens up challenges that can increase your maximum health once conditions are met. If you’re a completionist, you may also want to take the opportunity to use the Teensies’ portals whenever you can so you can comb through a previous level for any missed Lums or Familiar Spirits; doing so also grants access to further mini-games for a potential bonus.

One thing I can praise about the game is the variety present with each enemy and level. Every type of enemy looks very distinct, with repetition when needed, such as re-coloring the clothing of each Robo-Pirate minion to display what their durability and move set is. There is not only good variety in the design of each level, but also its size, which lends each one a unique experience to help keep the game fresh, even during their more difficult moments. There also appears to be a nice difficulty curve, where the game ups the difficulty gradually to create a genuine sense of accomplishment whenever you conquer a level. The bosses in some levels (including ones exclusive to this version), mainly the guardians of each of the four masks and the final fight with Admiral Razorbeard, also have a good amount of difficulty to them (when the difficulty is there), some forcing you to think on your feet as you figure out their pattern before you finally take them down. The graphics are also pretty good for a PS2 game, namely one that came out in the early 2000's, and they present a nice visual style and color palette that makes everything easy to look at, even the times when the game gets a little more (genuinely) terrifying.

I also give praise to the variety in the music, each song creating the right atmosphere for each level or situation, such as the use of scare chords when outrunning giant spiders or a nice ambiance in a calm grassy field. Some of these tunes are memorable for at least a little while after you last hear them, but are nevertheless quite catchy at times. One thing I can’t praise, however, is the overall quality of the English voice acting. Mind you, I willingly played with this option since this game is one of the few Rayman 2 ports that actually has an English dialogue track selection, but I can’t tell you that it’s that great overall. It mainly has to do with the choice of actors (I can’t really name anyone since it’s difficult to track down any sort of list) combined with how unnaturally quick some of the dialogue goes by, but for the most part you may as well just go with the Raymanian (nonsense) option, though you are entirely free to pick your choice of language (including the original French voice track among others). While it is actually balanced 90% of the time, sometimes the sound mixing can be a little off, causing some voices to be rendered a bit inaudible or sound almost like a different voice (ex. Murfy, a flying guide that gives you tips along the way, sometimes sounded nasally to me whenever the mixing was off in just the right way).

I also encountered a rather annoying audio glitch at a few points where the sound from the helicopter power would loop indefinitely, drowning out nearly every other sound. The only solution, I found, was to restart the system and then load my previous save, though I made sure to do this after finishing a level so as to not lose my progress. Again it’s rare, but it’s rather annoying whenever it happens.

Though this is the only version of the game I have played, Rayman 2: Revolution is a rather well-made port of a great game. Despite its faults in the audio department, the game has some great visual and story quality, with some amazing variety in the gameplay and level design. This is a version of the game I can safely recommend to new or existing fans of the Rayman series, even ones who started playing from the recently released Rayman Origins. The experience is memorable and will not leave you disappointed.

Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier - I Didn't Say When

After the release of Jak 3, and the later focus on the Uncharted franchise, it appears that Naughty Dog is done with the Jak and Daxter franchise, at least for the moment. During development of The Last of Us, they said that they had begun working on a fourth game, but couldn’t really come up with something that they felt the fans would be happy with, which gradually led to them developing their latest IP. While Jak and Daxter might not see something new from them anytime soon, Ready At Dawn, who developed God of War: Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta, released an entry known as Daxter, which took place during the beginning of Jak II. I felt it was a technical feat for the PSP, but overall unimpressive when compared to its console brethren. The franchise seemed dead at that point, but then in 2009, the studio High Impact Games released the first sequel to Jak 3, titled Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier. The prospect of a new game intrigued me, but it wasn’t really until recently that I finally got to play it. Before I review it, let’s take a look at High Impact’s track record. Previously on the blog, we covered two games of theirs: Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, which Tetris_King considered abysmal in quality across the board, and Secret Agent Clank, which the same reviewer thought was better, but retained too many of the previous game’s problems. I’m sure you can see the pattern here and where I am headed with The Lost Frontier.

After their previous adventures, Jak and Daxter felt they deserved a break. Unfortunately, the world always needs a hero and the world’s supply of Eco is running low, so the duo, accompanied by Keira, set off to find a new source. However, sky piracy is rampant and fear is once again in the hearts of the people. Despite the danger, the three set off and end up facing a new set of trials and tribulations on their journey.

Keira (left) with an Eco prism.

This would be an interesting story, but I couldn’t find any real reason to get invested. The back of the box claims that this entry picks up where the previous trilogy left off, except those three games managed to cap themselves off and tie the loose ends, which only leaves a time skip as a way to continue forth. Inside the manual, they also make it seem that Jak X is canon, though the game was ambiguously so and actually left a thread open that they could potentially have used for this game, but that makes the claim on the box even harder to believe. Also, the game starts out by dropping us into a situation with no real explanation as to why they are suddenly up in the sky, where they are going or why we should be worried about a pirate attack. Granted, Jak 3 did something similar by dropping the heroes off in a desert, but at least we were given a hint of why on the spot and were gradually filled in on the details. The Lost Frontier attempts to do something similar, but failed to capture my interest and the story is so boring that it should be a sin (I even fell asleep while playing at least once).

Not helped by enemy variety like this.

What doesn’t really help is that the characters are, simply put, uninteresting. The returning cast seems to retain their personalities from previous games, but the dialogue is a little lacking and Daxter’s one-liners aren’t as good as they were before (by way of having a small pool of things to say and then looping those things to the point where I yell “Say more things!”). New characters, on the other hand, have almost nothing going for them and any twists and turns that they may be involved in received only confusion from me on account of either uninteresting character development or lack thereof. The villain has no real motivation outside of the cardboard variety and the biggest twists at the end, or what are supposed to be the biggest twists, were met only with sarcasm from me. Bottom line: I had no reason to care about what happened to anyone. Heck, there is at least one perfectly good (perhaps nonsensical) plot thread (the introduction of Dark Daxter) that doesn’t go anywhere because even the characters in the game don’t care about it and seem to just brush it off like it’s no big deal.

Gameplay variety is equally thin. Within less than six hours you can accomplish basically everything the game has to offer, which isn’t much as there are only a handful of missions to complete. The controls are fine for the most part, but the camera can be a little hard to handle, which is made more frustrating by how the game sort of controls the camera for you at times, making it seem more linear than it should have. Sometimes during combat a foreground object would get in the way, needlessly complicating things further. Speaking of combat, Jak has access to a Gun Staff, which uses four different ammo types, and an assortment of Eco powers. The former is helpful in combat, and while the latter can have some combat applications, it mostly functions as a way to traverse the rather bland and uninspired levels. Remembering where each power is mapped to takes some getting used to, but even when I had the upper hand I was unable to feel any sense of thrill from combining Eco powers and gunplay to take down my enemies; I was just glad when each encounter ended, as it got me closer to the credits.

One of Jak's Eco powers in action.

New to the series with this entry is air combat, which involves aerial dogfights and a couple of new mechanics. You get to customize the plane Jak flies as you see fit, which is actually the only thing I found any fun in doing until I found a combination of plane mods that I felt most complacent with using. Repair patches are the key to surviving dogfights, as they fix the plane in a pinch, but you can only have so many without upgrades and I was never quite able to figure out how they got used. It is also possible to steal repair patches and mods from other planes, which is helpful if you don’t accidentally break the rope while trying to get them. If you successfully latch on however, you are to pass a few Quick-Time Events wherein Daxter essentially pulls the plane apart to get precious scrap metal before getting to the part you want. These are an interesting way of representing the danger involved, but I felt sometimes like these went on for too long and just wanted them to be over with.

Aerial combat.

As I played the PS2 version of this game, I must say that the graphics seem a little low-res for the system, but that’s due to the fact that the PS2 version is, in reality, a home console port of the PSP version, which came out at exactly the same time. However, this does not excuse other things, such as the long loading between certain sections of the game and the final boss fight which goes on far, far too long. I encountered a variety of glitches, the biggest being that in the very final section, my plane was suddenly completely invisible. The different parts of the game world have a decent variety in terms of appearance, but they weren’t as memorable as previous games. Also, the character models seemed a little off to me in places, but I couldn’t figure out exactly why.

As for the sounds, I like how a majority were from the previous games, which lends some familiarity, and the voice cast is partly the same from earlier games. However, no amount of delivery could help me care about what they had to say and I think the music tried way too hard to create atmosphere in places where it didn’t really exist. For instance, there is a piece that is clearly inspired by the theme for Pirates of the Caribbean, since I recognized one particular riff, but it didn’t help any situation feel as epic as High Impact wanted. It’s a shame too, considering that all that’s really left is the sounds of the planes, and that’s not fun.

Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier is a game that in no way represents the best that the Jak and Daxter franchise has to offer. The game lasts less than six hours, the story and characters are completely uninteresting and whatever fun you may be able to find will be shot down by excessive repetition and an overall boring and uninspired presentation. Even the most die-hard Jak and Daxter fans may want to stay away from this game, as the only thing it seems to want to do is go “LOL, Pirates” at any opportunity it can. Ultimately, it can just never quite get off the ground.

The most significant thing about playing this, however, is that now this blog’s build-up to Sly 4 is finally over! Now I really can’t wait to see how Sly Cooper will return this February and-

Oh...