Rayman was Ubisoft’s first major commercial success, the company going public a year after its release in 1996. A PlayStation launch title, it was originally conceived for the unreleased Super Nintendo CD-ROM before being developed for Atari’s Jaguar. A fantasy platform game that pops with oil paint colour, its stages encompass themes like the musical Band Land and sugar-laden Candy Chateau.
Rayman, a limbless, affable character, seeks to save the land from Mr Dark, a nefarious sorcerer. To do this, you must free six caged Electoons on each of its 17 stages set across six different worlds. As you earn new powers of combat and scenery traversal, backtracking is necessary to find cages previously out of reach. It’s a simple platform game, but one graced with charm and affection.
Despite the number of Rayman games and spin-offs released, this collection focuses only on the initial game. It includes the PlayStation original, the Atari Jaguar release, those for the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, and the MS-DOS PC version. The Sega Saturn release isn't present. While the PlayStation and Jaguar games are largely the same, the Jaguar lacks FMV, doesn’t look or sound as good, and nerfs the ice physics - but has an Arkanoid-style minigame included. Originally, it benefited from no loading times over the PlayStation, but that’s moot here.
While Rayman still looks good, its platform collision needs learning and its impressive animation means it takes a couple of seconds to duck and perform other actions. There are also many leaps of faith involved. The Game Boy Color version is the only other game in the collection that’s totally original, and is surprisingly good despite shorter stages. The Game Boy Advance version is cropped in, but like the Game Boy Color is a little cleaner to navigate thanks to fewer animation frames. For some reason, this version suffers frame-rate issues, however.
The MS-DOS release and its add-ons are of most interest, featuring 24 additional stages designed for expert players, 40 stages designed by fans, and another 60 levels designed by Ubisoft. Elsewhere is a single-stage 1992 prototype of the Rayman’s original Super Nintendo build. There’s almost nothing to see or do and it's over in seconds, but it’s interesting to see the game’s origin.
The package includes screen filters, cheats for every game, save states, and a rewind function. Like all Digital Eclipse releases, the History section is superb, charting every beat of its development and featuring over an hour of documentary footage.
If you’re a super fan of the original game and want every possible version of it, the package totally delivers. But considering how many Rayman games there were, including its sequels and spin-offs, it would have been nice to at least have had Rayman 2 included. The elephant in the room, however, is the absence of the original soundtracks. They have been remixed or replaced across the board with a nice composition by Rayman Origins and Legends composer Christophe Héral, likely due to Ubisoft not fully owning the rights to the original audio.





Comments 18
Wow, not having the original soundtracks is a massive L for this release and Ubisoft. The main reason people will pick this up is nostalgia, and with such a crucial element missing it will be very disappointing for most.
Rayman and I never quite clicked, but I wish everyone a lot of fun with this game, if they're going to get it! The lack of the OST is very regretable. Even as a non-fan of Rayman, I really enjoyed the OSTs.
Does it require Ubi Connect to play?
JFC, what is it with licensing and video games? Why isn't the deal just: "If you agree to create content for this video game we'll own the rights to, we have the right to use that content indefinitely"?
Replacing the music in a classic video game is tantamount to replacing Debbie in her Dallas film. You just mustn't.
Totally taints this release. Not sure I'm going to be able to accept that.
Thanks for the review, it further confirms my interest in this when the physical version comes out (in addition to finally playing Rayman 2 now that it's luckily on NSO) - that said, fingers crossed they'll be able to fix its straight up issues and hopefully also include the original soundtracks although that likely depends on licensing as already mentioned here!
"The original soundtracks are absent across the board"
0/10, total failure, what were they thinking? 😵💫
i guess licensing? they should explain themselves if they haven't.
(HOW did this release get a 7/10 without the music? it's not even published by Nintendo! 😂)
@theberrage No Ubisoft Connect, the game was published by Atari under the Ubisoft license.
These days, it’s a bit underwhelming to only include one entry in the series. A more robust collection with at least Rayman 2 would’ve been a more fitting celebration, imo.
After the initial disappointment that the original soundtracks weren't included, some of the replacement tracks grew on me. And the GBC soundtrack in general is FAR superior to what was originally on the cartridge.
That said, hopefully Ubi/DE is able to secure the rights to include the original OSTs as an option in an update.
Criticizing a Rayman 1 collection for not including Rayman 2 seems like criticizing something for not being what it isn't.
I disagree that including Rayman 2 wouldn't have been such a stretch. If anything, Rayman 2 would also be a prime candidate for a collection of different ports just like this.
My childhood version was the original PC Rayman 2, and this is the one I'd want to see the most. I know the Dreamcast version is the fan-favourite version. The PS1version has some significant level design differences. And the PS2 version significantly revamps the game and introduces a hub world, adds more collectibles and powerups, and rearranges the structure of the adventure.
I would argue that the different versions of Rayman 2 are MORE different to each other than the different versions of Rayman 1 in this collection.
It's NOT a simple matter of "this collection of Rayman 1 versions should have just snuck in Rayman 2 for good measure". .... That criticism seems ridiculous to me.
I'll get this on a sale. The backlog is out of control. Glad to see it's decent
I don't get why whenever company release compilation or games from the GBA library they always used an outdated emulator that can't stable the framerate or don't know how to turn those frame buffer off. All you had to do was go to the emulator setting, go to frame skip and turn the number to 0 or Off instead of Auto (or whatever number is there). Putting that crap on Auto will unstable the framerate. If you can't do your job of offering decent emulation of the game then at least give players the option to set the option themselves.
@gcunit Right?? Game music contracts never need to have any time restrictions, and supposedly this is also why Arkham Origins hasn't been re-released again because SOMEHOW the soundtrack is no longer licensed, again, SOMEHOW.
@The_Nintendo_Expat I was just about to ask the same thing. Maybe IP law works differently in France, but in America, that sort of thing tends to be either work for hire or publisher buyout.
@canaryfarmer
i actually potentially get it w Batman since the entire game is based in a license, and might include music from other games or movies and tv shows.
I do not get it here, and I suspect this is just Uni being completely out of touch with what users would want. especially since theyve already said they are "working on" making the OG music optional in settings.
@Serpenterror
its sad that I can have a much better experience "stealing" the game.
not the same. better.
@EarthboundBenjy
"I disagree that including Rayman 2 wouldn't have been such a stretch. If anything, Rayman 2 would also be a prime candidate for a collection of different ports just like this."
I feel the exact same way. 👍 if anything, limiting the scope of this project is one of the things they got right, in my esteem. this game is worth it and so is Rayman 2 (providing they got the emulation and music right...)
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