Rayman 2: The Great Escape was a game that essentially changed 3D platforming forever. Although Mario 64 was first, Rayman brought wonderfully brilliant new colors, bright and interesting gameplay, intuitive controls, and a limbless mascot to what could be a very flat genre. The plot this time around is that Globox has an evil Dark Lum trapped in his stomach and you have to go from doctor to doctor to try and get the stupid thing out of him. Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc pushes the platform genre one level up once again, but is it the same revolutionary kind of game as Rayman 2? You'll have to read to find out.

Mmmm, Rayman swinging through yummy particle effects.

G R A P H I C S
Delicious particle effects and lush environments are aplenty in the newest installment of the limbless-Rayman series. Hoodlum Havoc, in one word, is beautiful. The characters - Rayman, Globox, the enemies, etc. - are all rendered very well and are smooth in texture as well as in animation. Rayman is displayed particularly well, with no jagged corners or edges and clothes and garments that actually look real. The whole propeller-ears/flying thing looks great; the ears start up floppy and slow instead of jumping to a blur no one can see. Rayman's moves and punches look great, with small trails and whoosh-type swirls revolving around your flying fist. The enemies, especially the Hoodlums, look very good, although it sometimes gets odd-looking when they are being attacked. You can't really tell what part of them is moving sometimes, and you can't tell why you aren't hitting them other times. Textures look exceptionally good, and the environments are just amazing. Wherever you look, sets and objects are piled up to the sky, reaching and spanning the whole screen. It's amazing, and at the same time there's tons of color (although, as you get deeper into the game, the colors tone down a little bit). Even though you can't reach most of the things you see, it's nice to be able to think that you can, just because they look so damn good. In the game, there are short levels between areas that could only be described as boarding on platforms through a swirling vortex of color. These parts look wonderful. The colors are constantly moving and you get the sense that you're flying through a tube that's moving in a larger world, as if some huge being was tossing and turning it. That's not what it is, it just looks that way. One of my only (and largest) gripes about the graphics would have to be the camera. Most of the time it is fine, but sometimes it just craps everything up. It seems to happen most when flying - the camera circles around Rayman so you see his face, and you can't tell where you're flying or where that really important platform is. You know, that one that you must land on or you'll float down slowly to your death? Yeah. Fortunately, this doesn't seem to happen too often, and the camera is easily movable.

Wheeee!

G A M E P L A Y
Platformers can be some of the most fun games around if done right. This game is done right. There is the perfect mix of platforming, adventuring and fighting. Miraculously, it's all cram-packed into one game. Although Rayman 3 loses some of its wonder thanks to timed power-ups that give the game a more gimicky feel. The levels are all well designed, with objects and items all close together and they always seem to be within reach. The main thing that bothers me in the gameplay section of this game is that you have no idea when a level is ending. You're walking through the level collecting lots of items and doing your duties when all of a sudden you step through a cavern that looks like any of the others you've passed through and you get a score of 37% because you have no idea where to turn around and go back to collect more. That is very, very annoying. In most other games there is a litle podium or some different coloration to step into. That's when you know what you're doing. Too bad. Fortunately, Rayman 3 has some humor. Now, I'm not talking that humor you find in most games that really, really isn't funny. This stuff actually causes some laughs, especially with friends over. The character Globox, voiced by John Leguizamo, acts as the comic relief. Unlike in the previous Rayman games, Globox is a bumbling pile of humor, spitting out funny lines here and there during the gameplay as you progress. The new powerups, although they subtract from the platforming quality of the game, are pretty interesting. There are powerups such as the grappling hook, the helicopter, and a couple kinds of upgrades to Rayman's powers, like harder punches. One of the most unique types of gameplay is the surfing through the "swirling vortex of color," as mentioned above. It is incredibly fun. You jump around from each long, thin platform to the next. On some of them are items that can rack you up some Combo points. Which, by the way, are a good addition. You get Combo points if you get a bunch of items (or other means of points) within a couple seconds of recieving other points. Yes, that does make sense. It's a good way to get scores up. In almost all games like Rayman there are ongoing side-missions to free something or find something. Yes, that's present here too. You have to break the cages of cute little characters who have been imprisoned. Sometimes they help you, other times you don't need to break the cages. Of course, they say a short, often comical line as they fly away. It's usually something really common like feeding their grandmother's cat or something. Overall, the gameplay is fresh, bright, and most importantly, fun.

Better hang on there, Rayman.

C O N T R O L
For the most part, the controls in Rayman 3 are right there where they should be, doing what they should be - but sometimes they don't do what you want. The button setup seems rational and is easy to get used to (although playing Wind Waker at the same time as this game gets you all confused). The best part of the control is the new fighting system. Instead of just throwing your fists at the baddie straight on as in most games, there is a new feature to throw the fist at a curve to hit the side of the enemy. This new feature is implimented very well into the game - the bad guys you end up fighting the most have boomsticks they can wave around and block your punch with. This is a really cool feature of the game that is used well - not just one of those features that is awesome but isn't used. It's too bad the camera in this game is not great. Mostly when flying, the camera circles around to face you instead of staying behind you, so it's impossible to see where you're going. That gets a little annoying. Also, there isn't really any slow speed for Rayman to walk. When pushing the control stick with the tiniest amount of force, he runs a step or two until you let go. That little game gets old when trying to get right to the edge of a ledge or in the perfect spot to do something. So, although these controls get the job done, they could be a little better.

You should probably go kill him instead of floating there flabbergasted, huh, Rayman?

S O U N D
Following the trend of most platformers and adventurers, this game has some high-quality sound and upbeat music. The music is great. It's so happy and joyous pretty much throughout the whole game, you want to hug it. The music flows seamlessly as you pass into a darker, deeper, more evil part of Rayman's world.. Somehow, even in the "spooky" parts of the game, the music seems happy and floaty, as it probably should. As you load the game, you can watch a Rayman-music video of Groove Armada's "Madder," which fits right along with the game. However, in this music video, there are plenty of explosions and sound effects, and it seems like they were having trouble with the volume level of the song and these effects together. Thus, the music gets drowned out at various parts of the song. This seems like something that could have been easily fixed... but wasn't. For the fir st time ever in a Rayman game, the characters have voices. Finally. No more mindless slobber-speech with text rolling across the screen, as was in Rayman 2 and games like Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64. Even better, there is a known name in the cast: John Leguizamo, who plays the voice of the clumsy, mumbling Globox. The coive acting is pretty good overall. The only reason it would be considered "bad" would be if someone factored in the fact that some of the cast's voices are kind of annoying (they're supposed to be, based on their character). The sound effects are pretty good, but get repetitve if you, say hit a guy five times in a row. A couple more sound effects could have done the job better. A good job on the sound.

You can see that this game has high production values. A beautiful game. It's a blast.

I N - B R I E F
Graphics - 9.6
Gameplay - 9.1
Control - 7.8
Sound - 8.9
Overall - 8.9