Rayman Advance

Description

Ubi Soft is a company that has its multiplatform strategy down pat. The original Rayman came out for the PlayStation, Saturn, Game Boy Color, PC, and Jaguar, and now it has's arrived for the Game Boy Advance. Few games released after Pac-Man's generation have been ported that many times. You can almost imagine some decision -makers over at Ubi Soft sitting in theirhis offices, twirling his moustache, and rubbing theirhis hands together at the thought of new systems to bring the game to. "Oh, a new portable system from Nintendo? Excellent! Excellent!"

And that's not a bad thing. As platform games go, Rayman is easily one of the more memorable- - and for the right reasons. In it, you play as France's interpretation of Nintendo's Mario: a spiky-haired hero who has to be awakened from his hammock in order to save the world. Rayman resides in a sort of surreal cartoon dreamland that feels like what Euro Disney really should've been like-- - one full of bright pastel colors, but with a lot of sharp objects and trench-coated villains as well. Main among them is the malevolent Mr. Dark, who has stolen the magical Protoon, scattered the peaceful Electoons across the valley, and wiped away all of the good fairy Betilla's powers. Now you must walk the land, collecting the Electoons, fighting Dark's forces, and ultimately return the Protoon to its rightful place.

You begin the game with only the most basic abilities, and pick up more from Betilla as her powers return. You'll learn skills such as throwing your fist as a projectile weapon, grabbing hold of ledges, swinging from hand-holds, and using your hair as a helicopter to fly through the air. Each stage contains areas that can't be accessed until you have one of these skills, so a certain amount of backtracking is required, which can become somewhat repetitive at times.