Rayman 3 HD. Hoodlum havoc originally.

Rayman 3 HD is the improved and enhanced version of Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc. Now We like Rayman. He’s cool and has some fun games. X35 Earthwalker himself played Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc back in the days on the Nintendo Gamecube and the game was great. Silly humour and bad jokes but that’s what also made it funny too. The game knows the jokes are lame but they do in some ways work. When Rayman 3 HD showed up, we just wanted to give it a try.

Straight away it’s exactly how we remembered it and some parts you don’t want to remember. For example some gamers had trouble getting past the desert of Knaaram. This was because it is easily the scariest part of the game. There are invincible beasts known as Knaaram which just have nothing better to do than just chase Rayman down and apparently eat him. Some Knaaram dialogue show that Rayman would taste better with salt. They also say other horrible things like “spit in his eyes”, “poke him in the eye”, “stick bamboo under his nails” and “Make him write bad checks” So good to see that they kept the original dialogue. But the scariest part is carrying a water melon through the under tunnel areas but then those creepy ghosts or spirits show up with the loud fear inducing music.

So in terms of giving gamers but the Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc feel, the enhanced version certainly does that. We remember everything and man is it fun again. Collecting the laser-washing powder, which by the way look like tin cans, turn transforms Rayman’s clothes into combat fatigues which is exactly what he needs (see what we did there?) all over again certainly brings back memories. The Vortex, Heavy metal fists, Lockjaw, Shock rocket and Throttle copter. We still think the throttle copter doesn’t last as long as it should. Shock rocket is still awesome. lock jaw is the only one that makes you feel like you have actual powers. Make sure to watch the intro for each can.

Now the types of hoodlums that you face are all back and mean business even though they are a complete joke. First of all they are basically just potato sacks when you think about it but with guns. Try buying gun wielding potatoes at your local market. The standard one just fires at you one single blast. You have another in lighter clothes that fire a faster blast at you shaped like arrows. There is the third variant who has very distinguished colours who fires three blast at once but two go off in a v shape pattern. There are flying ones that dodge and fire shots from above. Bigger mechanical ones that really rapid fire from above and large armoured one who you need the heavy metal fist power up to defeat. There are much more but all are silly and a big joke.

Rayman 3 HD does have it’s issue though. Honestly we don’t really see anything that’s HD. Sure the game flows more nicely and even plays more smooth but everything else looks the same. Which was disappointing. The only thing that seems clearly upgraded is the loading screen which looks very HD indeed but everything else you can’t really tell. It’s certainly not like Halo anniversary and Halo combat evolved differences. Also the game has a problem with voice syncing. What we mean is the dialogue is behind we think. For example Globox would have finished talking about slightly still hear the voice after. It’s a minor thing but really annoying. Lastly the scene where you encounter Reflux for the first time the music and background noises are higher than his voice volume meaning we could hardly hear anything Reflux was saying. It’s only because we remember that he says during that scene that we understood. So not happy about that at all. We do agree that the sounds have definitely improved though. Much better sounds and the music is a bit better.

Overall Rayman 3 HD is good and may just be worth getting. Because of the graphics we would say that if you have the original still on your Gamecube you might as well just play that again. Even so it would be great to have to see the difference for yourself because there are some differences but that’s for gamers to experience for themselves. Hey, we don’t do spoilers. Now Rayman 3 may have gotten enhanced but nothing is more enhanced… that the ‘Earth Walk!’.