Rayman 2: The Great Escape

About Rayman 2: The Great Escape

Rayman 2: The Great Escape (1999) is Ubi Soft's 3D platformer for the Nintendo 64, PC, Dreamcast and PlayStation, in which Rayman frees his world from robot pirates, rebuilt in 3D after starting life as a 2D sequel.

Rayman 2: The Great Escape in Depth

Rayman travels a mostly linear series of 3D levels, with a controllable camera, fighting robot pirates, solving puzzles and collecting lums, shards of magical energy. Enough lums open new parts of the world, and some are locked in cages along with imprisoned Teensies and freedom fighters. He begins with few abilities and gains more: firing energy orbs from his fist, later charged for more power, a strafing stance for aiming while dodging, swinging across gaps on purple lums, and using his helicopter hair to slow his fall and later to fly. He throws explosive barrels, rides giant plums across dangerous surfaces and rockets into new areas. Murfy, a "flying encyclopaedia", explains the mechanics, and collected lums reveal the world's back story.

Robot pirates under Admiral Razorbeard invade the Glade of Dreams and destroy its Primordial Core, stripping Rayman of his powers and capturing him. Freed by his friend Globox with a Silver Lum from the fairy Ly, Rayman must gather four magical masks to wake Polokus, the spirit of the world, and then take on Razorbeard aboard his ship, the Buccaneer. Collecting every lum and cage in a level unlocks a race in which one of Globox's children takes on a robot pirate.

Making Rayman 2: The Great Escape

Development began in early 1996 as a side-scrolling 2D game with a team of six and a budget of 10 million francs, planned for release that year. With the rise of 3D games, the team rebuilt it as a 3D platformer inspired by Super Mario 64, and 70 to 80 developers, many inexperienced, worked on it for more than two years. The Dreamcast conversion, begun in March 1999 by about 25 people in Paris, prioritised 60 frames per second.

It was released for the Nintendo 64 and Windows in October and November 1999, the Dreamcast in March 2000 and the PlayStation that September, followed by the enhanced Rayman Revolution on PlayStation 2. Critics acclaimed it: Next Generation said it "can honestly claim to have something to offer any gamer of any age or skill", IGN called it "the most impressive feat of game design and execution the platforming genre has ever seen", and GameSpot judged the Dreamcast version the best. It was nominated for game of the year at the Interactive Achievement Awards, and Rayman 3 followed in 2003.