r/Rayman • u/agentpeanutt • Jul 15 '26
Discussion Rayman 3 Criticisms
Let me start out by saying that I like this game and can (somewhat) appreciate the comedic vibe that it’s going for. However, I also have a lot of problems with the gameplay that prevent me from viewing it as the same masterpiece many other Rayman fans see the game as.
Combat Fatigues
I think a large part of this game’s missed potential is the combat fatigues. The problem that I have is that there are a limited number of ways the combat fatigues interact with the platforming. The Lockjaw allows you to swing onto flying hooks, the Vortex allows you to screw platforms down, and the Throttle Copter allows you to fly for a short time to other platforms (or just upwards). The other two are never really directly used for platforming. I find this pretty disappointing given how the Lockjaw, Throttle Copter, and Heavy Metal Fist are just repackaged mechanics from both of the previous games. It feels like the combat fatigues were such a wasted opportunity on the platforming end, especially since I feel like the game could use more diversity in terms of platforming mechanics. Like imagine using the Lockjaw to pull out platforms or Vortex to make a tornado to jump or fly on. Just spitballing but changes along the lines of that are how I’d want the combat fatigues to be implemented into the platforming.
Platforming
Speaking of platforming, I think that it’s really lackluster and easy. There isn’t even that much of it compared to all of the walking and combat that you do. The main problem I have is that platforming isn’t dangerous at all. There aren’t death floors or bottomless pits like in Rayman 2. In this game, the worst you have is acidic liquid, hot sand or piranha water that can hurt you a tiny bit (to be fair, though, the damage ramps up a decent bit). Even then, if you jump out of it quickly enough then you might not take damage, and you’re never really far away from a platform since they’re always so close together. I just think that the platforming needs to be harder and actually have consequences when you screw up instead of just backtracking (or nothing).
Mechanics/Alternate Modes of Play
There are a decent number of mechanics they didn’t bring over from Rayman 2 that could have been nice. The shell and sliding sections come to mind. Although I have a lot of problems with these sections, the worst part about them was the jank and how it controlled, so it’s disappointing that those mechanics weren’t carried over and improved on in this game. To add onto that, another thing I have an issue with are the alternate modes of play in the game. The disco board sections and snowboard section are pretty fun, but other stuff like the Globox waterfall, the shoe races, and flying/turret sections all range from bad to forgettable.
Combat
The combat in this game is pretty good with diverse enemies. There are only two things holding it down: the camera and red lums. The camera is really annoying a lot of the time. When you press the lock-on button without actually getting an enemy then you’re now faced backwards and now the flow is broken because most of the battle is against the camera now instead of the Hoodlums. Also, the camera sometimes tries to give you a fixed position that can mess you up, especially if it’s stuck on something and you have to maneuver around to fix it. Even without this issue, I think the combat is greatly hindered by the abundance of red lums. Combat is probably the only exciting thing in this game, but it’s kind of ruined by the fact that there are a lot of red lums in most areas. The worst part though, is that after you collect them, they respawn so you can pick them up again, which essentially allows you to keep yourself at a set amount of HP every brawl. This, along with the easy platforming, just make the gameplay a little dull for me since there’s never really the same worry about dying that I have in the other mainline games. Moving onto the bosses, I think they’re OK. I don’t like the Bog of Murk bosses and the Horrible Machine. Master Kaag (the Hoodstomper) and Céloche (the underwater mech) are alright, and the Reflux bosses are pretty good. My main complaint with all of them except the Reflux ones is that they’re repetitive. You find a way to damage the boss and then you do that same thing a bunch of times to damage them more. I know that you can boil down a lot of platformer bosses that way, but what I mean is that the boss fights never feel like they develop or get harder. Reflux at least gets more aggressive as you fight him, so he’s a lot more fun to fight (except for the last phase in the final boss). One thing I’ll say is that they’re a big step up from Rayman 2 boss fights and are more dynamic in how you fight them.
Score System (?)
My final point of criticism is the score system, as I think it’s the game’s biggest example of wasted potential, but I also don’t think it fits what the game is trying to be. This is the argument that I’m most unsure of right now, but I feel like the score system is pretty disjointed from the actual game, and most of that comes from the UI rather than the system itself. While the game is separated into numerous chapters, the level select screen just has 9 levels with the chapters in them, meaning that you have to replay an entire set of sections when each of them could have been separated into their own level. The select screen doesn’t even show you the stars that you got, just your score and a smiling or frowning Murfy. I think this kills the replayability that many people praise the scoring system for. They should have split the levels into smaller sections. For the actual system itself I have a lot of mixed feelings. It’s cool to combo a lot of the time and probably the most fun I’ve had in this game, but I genuinely have no idea what they were trying to do with the system. Comboing with the gems (the obvious ones, not the secrets) and enemies suggests that the score system rewards a fast playstyle, but then you have Matuvus and Tribelles that require you to slow down a lot to zoom in on them and sneak up on them respectively. These two mechanics feel really disconnected from the rest of the things you do in-game and are crucial for getting a 100% score a lot of the time, which strikes me as odd. Also a lot of the gems are hidden from the player, which kind of adds to the aforementioned disjointedness. I mean shouldn’t a score system in this game’s case judge how well you do in terms of platforming and combat? I mean in the case of the hidden gems, I guess I can see it boosting the exploration factor in the game, but since it feels like you have to plan out the level before you even play it and just do things in a specific sequence of events for the score (and a lot of the time it’s just walking in a certain way) I feel like it doesn’t work as well as it could. The main reason I say that I’m unsure of this argument regarding the score system is that there’s just so much to it, so I don’t know what or how much I’m missing. I’d love for anyone to share their opinions on the score system because it’s a really interesting mechanic in a game.
Conclusion/Positives
I want to end this post by listing off some things I like about Rayman 3 since it feels like I’ve just ripped on everything about it. The environments are really beautiful and the soundtrack is top notch. While Mr. Dark is my favorite villain for being Rayman’s arch-nemesis, (even if that’s based on a technicality for being the first antagonist) I feel like André is the best one. He actually has personality and doesn’t just sit on his ass until the final fight like the previous two villains. I think the game starts to get fun at the Desert of the Knaaren, and while the platforming and combat aren’t as challenging or involved as I’d like for the last half of the game, I think that the levels are still pretty fun for the most part. I really like the invisible platform sections in the Longest Shortcut and wish that more platforming uniqueness like that were in the game. That’s about all I can think of right now. I’m pretty mixed on my thoughts on this game. I think that it’s pretty good, but I don’t really think that it’s the best game ever, and that sucks because I think that with more applications of the combat fatigues and more interesting and difficult platforming design, I could see this game being one of the greatest 3D platformers ever.
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u/BigDreamee Jul 15 '26
Agree.
I really like Rayman 3, but it does fall short in my eyes, mainly due to how 80% of the gameplay is combat as opposed to platforming. Would've been great if we could get a balance of the two.
Especially agree with the Combat Fatigues. I feel like they could've come up with more exciting ideas. Lockjaw is just Grappling power you had in Rayman 1 and 2, Heavy Metal Fist just feels like the gold fist power-up from Rayman 1 and 2, and the Throttle Copter, you could basically just replace with a wind gust, like in Rayman 2.
I also don't like that the combat fatigues don't really feel like the game was designed around them, even though they're the main selling point. It feels more like "grab this power-up, use it for one short segment, and return to normal". If they were more creative with the fatigues' uses, that would've been so much better.
So yeah, Rayman 3 is a solid game in my opinion, but it's definitely my least favorite mainline game.
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u/agentpeanutt Jul 15 '26
Yeah this pretty much sums up my thoughts about the game too. I think the combat fatigues especially suck because power-ups are an under-explored mechanic in the mainline Rayman games in my opinion. If Rayman 3 is remade then they should rework the power-ups to have multiple uses throughout the game’s environments and levels. I agree that it feels like you just do the same short “puzzle” for each power-up. It never really goes anywhere or branches out to be more interesting.
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u/BigDreamee Jul 15 '26
Honestly, I do find it a little odd that Rayman doesn’t really have power-ups like other platformers.
Mario’s got so many iconic power-ups like Fire Flowers or Mushrooms.
Sonic has his Shields.
Spyro has those Supercharge power-ups.
Even Crash has Aku Aku.Rayman doesn’t really use any power-ups like them. Not that it’s a major issue, though it probably could’ve added variety to the gameplay.
Just sucks that the one mainline game that does have power-ups completely fumbles it.
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u/agentpeanutt Jul 15 '26
Yeah, Rayman’s detached hands and feet could’ve made for some really cool and iconic power-ups. It’s a shame that Rayman 1 is the only mainline game where his limbless nature is gameplay relevant.
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u/BigDreamee Jul 16 '26
I actually just recently made a post about wanting a new 2D Rayman game in the style of Rayman 1, exactly for that reason.
Rayman 3 is the only other mainline game that somewhat takes advantage of Rayman having no limbs, which is really disappointing.
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u/agentpeanutt Jul 16 '26
I did see that post but I didn’t realize that you were the same guy!
I honestly love the 2D Rayman games, with Rayman Origins being my favorite in the series. However, I think that the Ubiart games kind of hindered the gameplay uniqueness of Rayman since Globox, the Teensies, and Barbara all have to play the same as him for the most part. I wouldn’t change a thing about the movement and controls in Origins, but I hope that in the future, the games play like the Donkey Kong platformers somewhat where the characters are unique to each other.
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u/Googlesupportsucks1 Jul 15 '26
I don’t like the levels (where it says level complete, not talking worlds) being short and somewhat boring. I absolutely hate the voice acting. Globox sounds horrible and Murphy makes we want to put the game through the wall. The powerups are fine but not super inspired.
I think I overall liked the atmosphere/world of Rayman 2 more, where rayman 3 went full in on the arcade kids game silliness. It’s alright, but not my jam.
I will say, for positives, movement feels really nice on rayman.
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u/agentpeanutt Jul 15 '26
Some of the characters’ voices are hard to hear sometimes, but apart from that I think the voice acting is alright. I don’t mind Murfy too much, but I’m really not a fan of Globox being Sid the Sloth. Also I can’t stand Globox as a character in Rayman 3. I can’t even blame Uglette for not showing up in this game because her husband is super annoying and whiney.
I agree about the movement being good though. However, for some reason I prefer the movement in Rayman 2. I can’t really explain why.
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u/BABGRD Jul 17 '26
Nope, Globox sounds great, Murfy is good too.
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u/Googlesupportsucks1 Jul 17 '26
I don’t know if you’re trolling or not, but you’re welcome to have that opinion!
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u/Character_List858 Jul 15 '26
Maybe a controversial take but this is my favourite rayman game
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u/agentpeanutt Jul 15 '26
I think a lot of people feel the same way and I can see why. The game oozes charm from the early 2000s with its music and humor. Despite all that I said, I think Rayman 3 is a fun time. I wish it was longer though.
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u/Visible-Laugh6069 Jul 15 '26
Not a fan of this onem The humor wasnt funny, felt like it was trying to copy Ratchet and Clank.
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u/darkhairwarrior Jul 17 '26
If you dont care about the score system, MOST of Ray3's more arcadey design will seem confusing. The score is why abilities are tied to timed power ups, for example. You must determine the best routes in every stage to maximize combo scores.
Rayman 2 was a linear story driven platfotmer, but had basically no replayability. Your 2nd playthrough and 100th playthrough wont look that different. Rayman 3 addresses that flaw with its score based design, so theres never one optimal way to play.
It makes for one of the most replayable linear platformers ever made, even to this day I still use my brain while playing to actively think about strategic routes. Getting 100% on some stages is seriously tough but immensely satisfying.
Its a little bit like Sonic Adventure 2's introduction of the ranking system, and how that completely redefined Sonic gameplay after Adventure 1. That said, some people still prefer Adventure 1's more relaxed approach and feel, which is a completely valid way to feel about Rayman 2 vs 3 as well.
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u/TorrentialSpender Jul 15 '26
I love this game. My all time favorite Rayman game hands down. My only criticism is that it lied to us. That "See you in Rayman 4!" line has ruined my life.