Rayman Arena

"More time could have been put into this game."

Intro: I've always believed that Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and Rayman competed against each other. They're the "sleeper-hits" I guess you could call them. Well, now it's Rayman's turn, and it's sort of disappointing.

Graphics: 8/10 The graphics are very well done. The characters look a little blocky sometimes, but that isn't too big of a problem. The levels themselves are also impressive.

Audio: 6/10 They're ok....but not superb, by any means. Once more, as in most games, the sound effects are awesome, it's when the music kicks in is when your disappointed. The little "HA" and things like that are well done (like when your jumping), but the music is kind of sad.

Gameplay: 5/10 Just barely a passing grade. Let me explain how you play this game. There are two modes of gameplay. One is a race. You just simply do 3 laps before your opponent does. The second is this ice, beam, shooting, gun, collecting thing. What you do here is freeze your opponents (lasts for about 5 seconds), and then race to get the coin, or whatever you collect. But the problem is, neither of these is very entertaining. Sure, you might get a few laughs, but nothing spectacular. You can race with up to four people, but if you force your friends to play this game, you might find yourself friend-less. I think maybe if this was a classic platforming Rayman game, it would have been much better. This game should have been in development for more than a couple years.

Replayability: 4/10 There just isn't a voice in the box saying "Play me...Play me...." It's more like, "Trade me in....Trade me in...." With only about 12 characters in the game, 15-20 tracks, and a few bonus levels, you won't seem to unlock that much. There are also color changes, like in Advance Wars 2, but personally, I like AW2's color edits better.

Final Verdict: Rent I don't think there is that much in here that makes you want to buy it. If you find it under $15, I'd say go ahead and buy it. But don't spend any more than that.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/05