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Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc Review

Stephen Leyton

28/02/2003

Our favourite limbless hero is back with a whole new bunch of moves and grooves.

Rayman is one of those games that rarely disappoints; the second title on the Dreamcast ranks as one of the finest platforming moments in history, offering a varied selection of levels together with a good sense of humour and refreshing, colourful graphics. So with the release of No.3 âHoodlum Havocâ on the GameCube we all had a little jump for joy.

Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc begins when a small Red Lum (Lums : tiny creatures of positive energy) sees something so terrible it turns black with fear and evil. Wishing to create an evil army, the Dark Lum passes on the fear and evil to other Red Lums, until he has amassed a strong and powerful enemy. Weaving costumes from animal hair, the Dark Lums became an army of HoodLums â“ raring to spread their mischief and idiocy throughout the land.

On a mission to spread further mischief, the Dark Lum is spotted by Rayman, who recognising when something is up, gives chase after the evil one. Channelling their fury into an army of Hoodlums, Dark Lums will stop at nothing to free their Lord and unleash an insidious rule of darkness upon Rayman's world.

After watching the initial intro, the game immediately begins and the first 15 minutes are spent developing the opening plot, mixing gameplay and cut scenes complete with humorous comments that we have all come to expect from a typical Rayman game. By your side is Globox the overweight blue-blob type creature who has swallowed the leader of the evil Lums and Murphy the tough fly-guy, whose got the speed and the sass to zip into enemy camps undetected, then report back with the best way for Rayman to proceed. Murphy is never at a loss for words - even if it means making fun of Rayman whenever the opportunity presents itself. Murphyâs voice-over is done by Billy West - a voice behind some of our favourite animated characters from Ren & Stimpy to Bugs Bunny (in Looney Tunes: The Movie) to the Red M&M character!

Typically Rayman 3, follows the same style of âjump and collectâ adventuring that we have all fallen in love with over the past. With a total of 44 levels set over 10 different worlds, Rayman 3 is filled to the brim with adventure and exploration with a vast selection of levels that have enough variation to keep most gamers satisfied. With the developers building upon the success of Rayman 2, a nice new addition is the 5 super powers which become available to Rayman these are: The Power Fist - Break through walls, locked doors etc, Grapple - Chain attached to a 'wolf trap' that enables Rayman to swing through the air, Super Helicopter - This enables Rayman to fly upwards, Sniper Fist - 1st Person view of Rayman's fist, powered by a rocket, Tornado - Causes everything Rayman shoots to spin to the ground.

The level designs have also been improved over Rayman 2 and are split into smaller sections making progress though the game a lot easier. Each level is filled with treasures and secrets for Rayman to explore, youâll find yourself spending a lot of time collecting the vast amount of Rupees and Gems scattered across the various levels. A superb new feature to Rayman 3 is the point system, which increases when you find treasure, defeat bosses and when you find hidden areas etc â“ however combined with the system is a combo structure that allows you to multiply your points for an even bigger score if you collect different items in a sequence, the more you collect the bigger the score and the better the background music becomes, ingenious!

The control and combat system has also been enhanced, allowing you more freedom over the control of Rayman. Using a targeting system you can lock onto an enemy and fire your fist at them from multiple directions, for example pressing R2 will lock onto the nearest enemy, allowing you to move Rayman around the opponent whilst keeping them central. With the lock on you can then fire a fist from Rayman either straight forward or by holding left or right Raymanâs fist can go round corners and objects, with this feature you can use surrounding objects to hide and then sneak an attack from the side without getting hit back.

The graphics and overall presentation is superb, from the initial menu screen to the smallest level of detail on the characters faces and actions. The developers have certainly spent a vast amount of time in making sure the games overall looks matches the quality of the gameplay. Rayman himself is built up of 2206 polygons; for someone with no limbs thatâs mightily impressive! He also has over 200 animations, including some of the coolest facial animations youâll have seen in a game to date; like Zelda on the GameCube, the developers have used Raymanâs facial characteristics to portray his actual emotions and thoughts, whilst not as serious as Linkâs in The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker, Rayman will certainly have you laughing throughout.

If all that wasnât enough, as you progress though the single player game you unlock bonus and multiplayer features. The more of the game you open the more bonus games you unlock, from single player bonus games to multiplayer and GameBoy Advance link-up modes allowing interaction between the GameCube and GBA for more levels, new options and even more fun.