Rayman #BestOfSaturnSilver

Rayman first hit the Atari Jaguar in September 1995 before being ported to the Saturn with slightly rebalanced gameplay and a superior Red Book soundtrack for a November release. The game received very positive reviews and went on to sell buckets of copies, becoming UbiSoft’s very first bona fide worldwide hit. A colorful platformer, the game is charming, whimsical, and very difficult — but in a good way.

The evil Mr. Dark has captured the Great Protoon and imprisoned the many Electoons across six worlds featuring several levels each. Rayman, our limbless hero, must traverse these levels in search of the many Electoons before the final confrontation with Mr. Dark himself. Luckily, he has help along the way — Betilla the Fairy appears at points to grant Rayman various powers, such as a flying fist, the ability to grab ledges, and the power to swing from floating O-rings.

Taking full advantage of 32 bits of processing power (64 bits in the Jaguar’s case… do the math!) the game displays wonderful colors, stylish characters, sweeping music, and cheesy cartoon sound effects. Rayman’s difficulty comes from needing lightning-quick reflexes to negotiate the tricky levels, and while many a gamer has complained that the game is quite brutal, it is by no means unbeatable. Completing it is very satisfying.

2D platformers were the staple of the 16-bit generation, and whilst Rayman doesn’t break any new ground from a design perspective, it takes full advantage of the hardware’s audiovisual capabilities so that it would never be mistaken for a 16-bit title. With great graphics, excellent music, challenging gameplay and high worldwide sales… what’s not to love about Rayman?

	Peter Malek
		A Saturn fan since the beginning, Peter plays Saturn almost exclusively. For Peter, Saturn represents a moment in time where 2D games were at their best, 3D was just rising, and fascinating gaming 'firsts' were commonplace.  There are very few Saturn games that Peter cannot find some enjoyment in!