Rayman DS review (DS)

At a glance, the graphics in Rayman DS are exceptional. The environments resemble the kinds of tropical, cave, and volcanic settings you might expect to see somewhere in Africa. They're also huge and heavily stocked with trees, rope ladders, and swings to interact with, as well as dynamic features such as streams, waterfalls, and air currents. All the characters are extremely detailed and have a good variety of different animations for things such as walking, jumping, reacting to danger, and landing on their backsides. Some of the textures look muddy or blocky if you look at them close up, but the trade-off to that is the ample draw distance, which makes it possible to see most of the level at any given moment without worrying whether objects and hazards will just pop into view up ahead.

While the graphics are gorgeous in some spots, there are problems related to the DS screen and the in-game camera that have negative consequences toward the overall graphical quality of the game, and, frequently, toward its gameplay as well. The game uses the graphics from the original Nintendo 64 version, but the DS screen is much smaller and darker than a television screen is, which often means it's difficult to make out small objects or to notice dark pitfalls, even when they're right in front of you. The frame rate has a tendency to vary between silky smooth and full-on jumpy...so much so, in fact, that in addition to making it tough to make precise jumps, you may also find yourself feeling physically ill because of how the animation is constantly speeding up and slowing down in certain levels. Worst of all, the camera has a mind of its own and tends to shift focus at the most inopportune moments. It's easy to just walk right off a platform or fly the wrong way because the camera failed to change position or decided to point in a useless direction. Three different buttons can be used to shift to a first-person viewpoint, as well as move the camera around. This helps a little, as do unlimited continues. Regardless, these screen and in-game camera issues are extremely bothersome.

Those who do manage to cope with the game's graphical problems will probably manage to squeeze a fair amount of enjoyment out of Rayman DS. Every level offers a wide range of places to go and things to do, and you'll gain access to new areas within earlier levels once you upgrade Rayman's abilities. All told, the story mode includes 45 individual areas spread across 19 levels, along with 19 short bonus levels and three minigames.

In most respects, Rayman DS is a passable 3D platformer and a good alternative to Mario 64. However, due to the various camera and graphics-related problems, you should probably stick to playing Rayman 2 on the Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Dreamcast, or PlayStation 2, assuming you either already own the game or happen to own one of those other systems and are just now interested in playing it.