Rayman 2: The Great Escape, originally released in 1999, is the first 3D title in the Rayman franchise, bringing with it a fully 3D world, a wide variety of skills that the player character could do, and a much more fleshed-out and consistent backstory, to the point of (until the Arc Welding sequel Rayman Origins 12 years later) essentially being set in an Alternate Continuity from the first game altogether and setting the stage for the rest of the series to build upon.The story begins when Rayman's homeworld, the Glade of Dreams, is suddenly invaded by an evil armada of Robo-Pirates from space, kidnapping the world's inhabitants en masse and using them as slave labor – including Rayman himself, who has lost all his strength after the Pirates destroyed the Heart of the World, shattering it into a thousand pieces. All hope is not lost, though, as Rayman's froglike friend Globox winds up captured too, smuggling a Silver Lum into his and Rayman's cell aboard the Pirates' prison ship, giving the two a chance to escape. Now Rayman is the Glade's inhabitants' only hope for defeating the Robo-Pirates, but he'll have to regain all his strength first – and to do that, he'll have to find the four magic masks that will awaken Polokus, a magic being who dreamt the Glade into existence.If the above paragraph didn't clue you in, Rayman 2 is signifigantly Darker and Edgier than its predecessor, but most players will agree that the tonal shift was done particularly well, resulting in a game that's more or less split evenly between fantastical whimsy and dark, spooky bits. Combine that with sublime art design, tons of gameplay variety and a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack, and you can see why Rayman 2 still pops up on the occasional Best Games Of All Time list.Rayman 2 is also particularly infamous for having been ported to countless platforms following its release: The game was originally released on the Nintendo 64, and since then has seen versions on PC*
Two PC versions even, because Technology Marches On —- the original 1999 release flat out doesn't work on 64-bit OSes; an issue that is the main fixing point of the 2011 digital rerelease by Good Old Games.
, PlayStation, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, Apple iOS and Nintendo 3DS, each version bringing at least some new features with them. Out of all these ports, the most comprehensive is the PS2 version, retitled Rayman Revolution and featuring a whole new hub-world to explore, along with a graphical update and a slew of new minigames.
Rayman 2 (and any port or re-release thereof) contains examples of:
Alternate Continuity: There are few references to the previous game at all and reconciling them is very difficult, although Rayman Origins appears to be trying to do this.
Ancient Tomb: Literally called "Tomb of the Ancients."
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: According to The General, the Grolgoth can kill, crush, destroy, torture, and pull ears.
Benevolent Architecture: Floating rings and platforms that are uncannily useful, or objects/switches that coincidentally allow you to use them only with a specific power you happen to have acquired…
The Cameo: The General from Tonic Trouble shows up near the end of the game to sell Razorbeard the Grolgoth. Rayman himself likewise shows up during the end credits of Tonic Trouble.
Capcom Sequel Stagnation: Ubisoft seem to be intent on releasing Rayman 2 on every new platform that comes out. It's saying quite a bit that Rayman 2 was a launch title for both the Nintendo DSand its successor system, the Nintendo 3DS.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Most of Rayman's friends that appeared in this game didn't appear in later entries, aside from Globox.
Collision Damage: One type of Mook will charge towards you(surprisingly fast given their appearance) in order to squash you flat. Even more annoying in this game is that small creatures like ordinary-sized spiders and innocent-looking crabs will hurt you if you touch them. Luckily, they aren't encountered very often.
Cranium Ride: Knocking a plum onto the heads of certain Mooks allowes you to jump onto their heads in order to reach otherwise unreachable areas and items.
Energy Ball: Rayman's primary method of attack. It can be charged up for more damage once the Silver Lum for it is collected.
Everything's Better with Chickens: Subverted with the zombie chickens, which are introduced in this game and are far creepier than their name would imply.
Everything's Deader with Zombies: This installment adds a lot of zombified mooks to the Rayman universe, including zombie chickens, zombified arms that try to drag Rayman to his death, and the zombie henchmen in some of the versions.
Game-Breaking Bug: The PC version bugs out at the start of the 'Top of the World' level on some copies, smacking a big 'no CD' alert that obscures the action, making the level impossible to beat unless you're a psychic.
Giant Spider: You get to fight a couple of these. They're pretty tough.
God's Hands Are Tied: Polokus is nigh invincible on land, but extremely vulnerable when airborne.
Juggle Fu: A quite famous part of the game requires you to carry a powder keg towards a machine, in order to destroy it. Flying bombs move towards you while doing this, so on the way you have to throw the keg into the air, shoot a bomb and grab the keg again, multiple times.
La Résistance: Rayman and co. If not in The Great Escape then at least in Rayman: Revolution.
Lethal Lava Land: If the names 'Sanctuary of Stone and Fire' or 'Sanctuary of Rock and Lava' aren't a dead giveaway, there's something wrong with you.
Magic Mushroom: Entertainingly enough, a certain mushroom in Rayman Revolution that you can trigger to appear from a raindance prompts an onscreen message that says "EatMe." Rayman can choose to eat it, which will cause him to shrink down to minuscule size. This allows him to enter a hidden area through a small opening that contains a cage. And of course, another mushroom in the area will bring him back to normal size again.
Mini-Game: In Rayman Revolution, collecting enough Familiar Spirits will unlock a multitude of mini-games, which will increase Rayman's health bar upon winning.
Non Standard Game Over: Telling Jano you want the treasure at the end of the Cave of Bad Dreams results in one of these.
Nothing Is Scarier: The "head start" Jano gives you tends to put you on edge. In reality you can leave Rayman standing there for hours and nothing happens...
Remember the New Guy: Rayman's got a lot of friends that never appeared in the first game. This will be solved in Rayman Origins, at least with Globox.
Sentient Phlebotinum: The lums. They're glowing orbs of energy with enough intelligence to float towards you. The Backstory reveals that They created Polokus by combining their collective thought, and Polokus created the world.
Speaking Simlish: The voice-acted dialogue is spoken in a fake gibberish language called "Raymanese". The PS1 port, however, included new voice acting in English, French, etc. ThePS2 and Dreamcast versions also include the dubs, but the gibberish option still exits, and is arguably far more fun.
Sssssnaketalk: Oddly averted with Sssam. He only uses it once and speaks normally the rest of the time.
Stomach of Holding: Globox in the opening, and how he sneaked in the Lum that gave Rayman one of his powers back.
Updated Rerelease: Apart from the PC and Nintendo64 versions, no two versions of this game are the same.
You All Meet In A Cell: The game starts with Rayman and Globox reuniting in a cell on the prison ship.
Zero-Effort Boss: One would expect Umber, one of the four Guardians (in this case, of the Sanctuary of Stone and Fire), to put up quite a fight. Instead, he simply waits for Rayman to jump onto on his head and then walks along the lava corridor and eventually is submerged completely, but not before enabling Rayman to jump off onto the platform bearing the mask Umber is supposed to protect. Umber explains this in Revolution: Ly contacted Umber, telling him about Rayman and his efforts to defeat Razorbeard. He knew Rayman was the chosen one without a doubt, and willingly gave him passage to the mask, where Rayman then met Razorbeard's robot pirates waiting to ambush him.
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