Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (2003)

I finished now the game and I think it is an interesting and varied platforming game. There game consist of in the game platforming areas mixed with action and fights, but there are also Levels where you have to skate, to fly with kind of space ship or absolve shoot em up parts.The game has many facettes and for a game which is nearly 20 years old the controlls, the mechanics or the camera work well. The power ups are very useful and are often necessary to solve a level's puzzle or beat a special enemy type. They also are very creative and well embedded in the game. The length of the game with about 10 hours playing time is also optimal. Not too short but also not too long and repetitive.

I enjoyed this game very much. But there are also some aspects that I see critical

The plot is a bit confusing because you do not notice when you change the world or even why you are in the next world. What has Rayman brought there exactly? Why exact this world? Furthermore characters are barely introduced for example the Knaaren. Who are they? Why does Rayman meet them and why do they hate Rayman? Questions that let the player lose orientation in the plot. Another critical aspect is in my opinion that the characters (in the first place Globox) talk so much stupid stuff that it annoys. Globox is portrayed a bit toooo dump..like a stupid naive child. Good written "stupid" characters say things that seem to be stupid but are just creative thoughts normal people do not have. But Globox... Insists that he opens the doors by dancing and not because of Rayman's obvious work ... Or thinks that Rayman wears costumes instead of that these are power ups which save their asses.

This is a 2003 game, but I played the HD release from 2012 that upped the resolution to 720p and 60 FPS, then played that on Xbox Series X which adds auto-HDR. Kind of wild.

A throwback to the old 3D platformers obviously. Smaller self-contained levels and a camera that you frequently have to fight with. I enjoyed the old school charm and super colorful art style. The color scheme reminds me a little of the old Unreal Tournament.

Rayman is such a goofy and fun character with his lack of arms and legs. However, the other characters are kind of annoying and all of the voice acting is awful.

Fun time overall, I wish the 3D platformer genre was more popular these days.

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc is a worthy successor for the second game. It adds new game play mechanics, new enemies and a fun new story filled with jokes, new challenges and beautiful locations.

In terms of story, Rayman 3 stays true to the previous games. You got your villain, in this case a Hoodlum called André who wants to take over the world by turning all the Lums into the black, plushy Hoodlum enemies in the game. Rayman (and Globox) need to stop him and his army of Hoodlums and save the world.

You travel trough many different worlds with the help of the Teensies, who are always partying and sometimes take a moment to teleport you to the next world. Every time you are about to enter a new world, you need to complete a skateboarding level in a space dimension with rails that you need to stay on. You go to swamp worlds, icy mountains, forests and fairy landscapes. It is all great fun and no level looks the same. The levels are linear but designed in a way that you can explore them however you want, and you can backtrack almost any time.

The mechanics in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc have been greatly improved. You now have a targeting system to hit enemies more effectively, can throw punches in an arch around them and the best new feature of all: The different suits that you collect, each with their unique power. You got power fist armor which can be used to insta-kill most enemies and break wooden doors, swinging grappling hook armor which lets you swing on rings, a rocket suit that let you guide a rocket towards a target or enemy and many more. They last a short amount of time but when you got a can (yeah, they come in cans), you can recharge the suit infinitely. Although the cans and their use are heavily scripted in order to progress (a button out of reach that you need to hit with the rocket suit for example), you can still use the suit for an advantage against enemies or discover hidden locations in the area. Many times, I walked back to a can so I could get a stronger punch against the enemies.

Speaking about the enemies, I really like their appearance as sack like dolls with sewed mouths and wobbly movements. They make funny noises when punched and can present a real challenge sometimes. I thought they were just as fun and well balanced as the Pirate Robots from Rayman 2: The Great Escape.

The graphics are also improved from Rayman 2: The Great Escape. Although Rayman himself and Globox look the same, the environments are all completely fresh and filled with live and moving objects. The artwork and colors are just stunning for a game from 2003.

The sound effects are great, and you can feel the punches that you throw at your enemies. The snappy sounds when you grab rings, the destruction of a wooden door that you break, it all sounds perfect. The music tracks are also a work of art on their own. The best examples are the swamp levels, in which the music is a tragic, almost depressing tune that fits the flat and lifeless environment, and the boss battle, in which you get pumped up and the tracks increase in intensity when progressing trough the different phases of the battle.

The controls are fluent and a big improvement over Rayman 2: The Great Escape. Although the controls were all right in that game, in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, they feel more responsive and less stiff.

The end boss battle was epic. It did not have the right to be this amazing and thrilling but it did. Conquering the three phases of the final battle was, as a kid, one of my proudest achievements and one of the best boss battles that I experienced.

The best feature in this game is the sarcastic and humorous approach that the game takes on all of a sudden. Murfy reads from the original Rayman manual and makes multiple jokes about the first games and video games in general. Globox is portrayed as an idiot and lives up to that title. His facial expressions and commentary are hilarious, and I still think the humor in this game is one of the best I experienced.

Overall, I think Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc is a very good game, and I loved every second of it.

Definitely recommend it.

Recently I caught myself badmouthing this game a bit in comparison to Rayman 2: The Great Escape. Later it occurred to me that I'd never actually finished the game. I decided to remedy that.

I was pleasantly surprised by many aspects of it. For 2003, the game is frequently beautiful, with plenty of varied and lush environments, varied lighting and cartoony characters. The game's emphasis on combat might feel out of place to Rayman 2 fans, and it can get repetitive and occasionally awkward to control, but it makes for some memorable and creative enemy encounters and boss battles.

Where Rayman 3 falls short is its tone. A very accomplished voice cast (including Billy West and John Leguizamo) is wasted on a heaping pile of groan-inducing one-liners, artless fourth-wall breaking and jokes that rarely land. At its best, this fluff is dissonant and unnecessary. At its worst, it scrapes the bottom of the barrel with "original" characters like "hippie making jokes about 'killer weed'" and "Asian stereotype interchanging consonants." Thankfully, these moments are mercifully brief.

The Rayman 3 development team had good reason to be nervous about this entry: It was the first created without the direct involvement of creator Michel Ancel. It's just a shame they lacked the confidence to know their game didn't need all the snarky punch-up, and the foresight to predict how poorly those choices would age.