So that's a thing. When it comes to this blog, it basically means that I've had to replay what I played of Rayman from the start. Very thankful that I hadn't gotten that far.
Anyway, tangents aside, let's talk gameplay.
As far as I can tell this far into the game, there are essentially three parts of the gameplay that flow into each other. These would be, in no particular order, platforming, collectibles and combat. I was this close to count combat and platforming as the same thing, but for the sake of explaining a point I'll keep them separate for now. Keep in mind that I in no way mean that it feels like these three don't blend well together. They do! They very much do! But I'll get to that in a bit. Let's once again bring up the bullet points, because that's a system I enjoy.
1. The Platforming
Basically the bread of the game, with the platforming being the butter. It's a platformer, so it should come to no surprise that the game has a lot of it, and it is good. There are a few key components to making a platformer in this style work. Fluidity, responsiveness, speed and level design is what I'd name as the most important. Let's use Super Meat Boy and Super Mario World as examples. Both fine platformers. They have several similarities, first of all being some very fluid and responsive control schemes. Hell, Super Meat Boy you wouldn't even have a chance at if it was less responsive. The platforming feels fluid partially because of the responsiveness of the controls, but also because of the speed of the games and because of the level design. Both games are fast, you need fast reflexes and good response timing in Super Meat Boy, and Super Mario World, while not as fast, is still a very fast game. The level designs of both games are there to add to this. Super Meat Boy is largely based on the jumping, be it wall jumping, timed jumping or just jumping in general. The level design is made to compliment this, with you being able to go horizontally, vertically, diagonally, and I'm sure several other -ally's more. The puzzles and dangers are also set up in a way to compliment this, the dangers often requiring, as I mentioned, swift response time. Super Meat Boy is basically a game built up around one ability, jumping.
Super Mario World, however, is built up like a Mario game. It has some vertical elements, but it's made for you to go horizontally and it doesn't have the crazy jumping mechanics Super Meat Boy has. Instead it's based around not one mechanic, but several. First of all we have Mario's basic abilities, jumping and spinning. Those give several options to how you can design a level, but it'd be hard to have variety. So that's why you have all the different upgrades Mario can get. The game is still mainly based on just the jumping and spinning, which is amazing to me since that seems so limited, but the fire flower, the cape and so on just add a bit of variety to the mix.
It should be noted that both games share something in addition to this. Both have worlds that give a basic theme to a few levels and in both games, every level has it's own spin that gives it a unique twist and makes you remember it, which is so important for engrossing a player that I cannot stress it enough.
Both games are expertly designed, and every part of the platforming bleeds into the next, from the mechanics, to the fluidity and speed and finally to the level design.
Does Rayman: Origins do that?
I'm going to keep part of my opinion to myself for now, because I want to keep playing the game and see if my suspicions hold true. But basically: Yes. The platforming feels great and is amazingly responsive and fluid even on a keyboard. Big kudos to Ubisoft for that. The level design and everything, it's just a great thing that they've done.
I'll get more into it when I finalize the gameplay portion here, but I believe it's going to have to be split into parts. Part 2, talking about the collectibles, should be up tomorrow.
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