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Friday, June 18, 2010

I WANT this game

4:43 PM / Games / 1 Comment

The facts:

• A new RAYMAN game is coming out.
   
• It's an actual RAYMAN game, not one of those infuriating "Rabbids" activity packs.
   
• It's a 2D sidescroller.

Can someone pinch me to make sure I'm not dreaming?

After RAYMAN 3: HOODLUM HAVOC turned the once-adorable platforming hero with no arms and legs into a snarky, 'tude-infested wise-ass and the "Rabbids" spin-off games on the Wii aimed at the so-called casual games market proceeded to urinate all over my once-cherished memories of the first two games, I was pretty much ready to give up on the whole series. Then, quite by chance, I stumbled across this post on Cartoon Brew, and the attached video was enough to cause the game to leap straight to the top of my most anticipated releases of 2010 (well, behind STARCRAFT II, that is...).

This stunning-looking game, developed by new start-up group UbiArt, is apparently the work of a mere five people, and if it plays have as well as the video suggests, then it should more than make up for all the indignities visited upon the Rayman character over the last few years. Billed as a prequel to the original RAYMAN, it looks set to take full advantage of its two-dimensional nature, embracing the fact that it is, ultimately, an interactive cartoon and giving us a taste of what highly polished, high resolution 2D can look like.

Yes, this is an actual in-game screenshot.

As for availability, from what I can gather it will be episodic in nature and released for download rather than on physical media (boo). It has been announced for release on Xbox Live Arcade, PSN and the Maxipad, and while IGN seems to think it will be coming out on the PC too, I haven't been able to find any confirmation of that elsewhere. You know, I might just have to break the habits of a lifetime and buy a console game... and a download-only one at that.

1 Comment

 
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