Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc

"Could have been better..."

Rayman isn't known much as Mario or Sonic but his games are just as fun.

Story: 7

It all seems nice in Rayman's world. Until one day a Red Lum full of anger and hate turned into a black lum. Andre, the black lum that started this, acts like a virus and goes around and starts infecting other lums and turning them into black lums. The black lums fuse together and become hoodlums. Hooded monsters with boom sticks. Thier mission is to taint the heart of Rayman's world. But, due to a weird twist of fate. Globox, Rayman's best friend, accidentally ate Andre. All seems well when it turns out Andre isn't dead. Now Rayman must take his friend to a doctor that can cure him, defeat the Hoodlum army, and free captured citizens.

Graphics: 7
Not ground breaking like Kingdom Hearts or MGS2 but good. There is jaggies but this is the PS2 were talking about. The worlds are big and original with nice textures. The character models look ok but they could have done alot better.

Control: 9

Rayman responds well. No jerking with the controls or anything. The controls are simple to learn. All you really need is Lock-on, shoot, and jump memorized and you got it made. They could have made better use of it though.

Gameplay: 7.5

It's a cool action adventure game. The boss fights are original but they can get tedious. At least they are more exciting then the POS game Dark Cloud. The battle system has stepped up ALOT. The game basically revolves against the battle system. Rayman and also grab some power ups and learn new abilities that helps him cross over obstacals and defeat enemies. To keep the game exciting there is different kind of Hoodlums with different abilites to keep you on your toes. The game though....is too easy. There is unlockables but they are just new minigames to play. The mini games are kinda boring but you can also unlock little cartoon shorts featuring the hoodlums. The cartoons is funny as hell as well as the dialouge in the game.

Audio:

The music is catchy and never is repetitive. The sound effects aren't really breath taking but there isn't much impressive SFX to expect from the game.

Replay Value: 0
By the time you be the game. You might have unlocked all the minigames and videos.

Buy or Rent: Rent unless you love Rayman games and want this in your collection.

Final Score 7.5

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/03, Updated 04/09/03