Not The Rayman We All Know And Love

Rayman 2: The Great Escapepacks more charm and surprises in a single level than most games can muster in their entire length. This 3-D platformer is designed in the same vein asSuper Mario 64for the Nintendo 64 and theGexseries on the PlayStation. With the notable exception ofSonic Adventure, Dreamcast owners have suffered through a dry spell when it comes to action jumping games on the 128-bit system.Rayman 2was worth the wait.

The back of the case describes Rayman 2's graphics as "lush," but that may be an understatement. The game's environments and effects are impressive. We were awed by the amount of detail that has been designed into many of the game's environments. Perhaps more amazing is that the game suffers no slowdown despite the high-resolution visuals.

Pretty graphics aside, Rayman 2 delivers solid gameplay that will suck in both casual and hardcore gamers. The controls are intuitive and special moves are easy to pull off. Rayman has a limited set of moves--basically he can run, jump, and shoot energy balls. Analog speed control is fully implemented, letting users pounce through a field of butterflies or tiptoe around a sleeping guard. Several puzzles are scattered throughout the game, but they are so ingeniously designed that you'll never feel overwhelmed by their complication.

We were hard-pressed to come up with many drawbacks to this game. One slight flaw is the camera angle, which can sometimes interfere with your ability to accurately control the on-screen ...