The last two years has been a great time for the 2D platforming genre with indie releases such as ‘Splosion Man and Super Meat Boy making their way to the Xbox Live market to huge sales. The classic genre has even seen a very important return to the big leagues thanks to Nintendo with titles like New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and Kirby’s Epic Yarn.

2011 has been pretty good to this once forgotten old school style of game and November alone saw the release of two games that proved to be a return to form for their respective properties. Sonic Generations and Rayman Origins both came out to outstanding reviews, but one is certainly much better than the other. Rayman, the charming character without limbs returns for the first time since Hoodlum Havoc back in 2003. How does his re-debut fair?

In a word: Perfectly. Rayman Origins, in my opinion, is the pinnacle of everything 2D platforming. It is what every modern day project like this has built up towards. It is a wonder why he ever had to disappear in the first place and be replaced for a time by those snow like substance abusing Rabbids. Rayman by all means should have been a mascot on the level of Mario and Sonic, he is charming and he exists within a world that is easily one of the most imaginative within gaming. His games have largely been solid and praised for their precise controls and impeccable level design and he is an easily recognizable character.

From the moment the game is powered on, it is obvious the boys and girls at Ubisoft Montpellier have a particular love for this character and the world he resides in. The game is full to the brim with whimsy and charm, so much so that it is difficult not to smile and feel joyful about the opportunity to explore every nook and cranny of it. Every character, enemy, item, and level is hand-drawn with some of the best animations I have ever seen in a 2D space. The animations are alive with so much color and personality that the fact that there isn’t much of a story to follow is hardly an issue.

The amount of care and time in the animations and art is not wasted in anyway as the games mechanics are perfectly handled. Gone is the all too familiar double jump, but as the game progresses, Rayman and his friends are given other powers that continue to increase the challenges they will face in each level. Players will start the game with nothing more than a standard jump and wall jump. Later they will unlock the ability to punch, hover, swim, and even run on walls. With each move learned, the game stacks on the difficulty, and oh man does it get hard.

Don’t let Rayman Origins’ beautiful hand-drawn images fool you. This is not something just for kids, even for long time gamers, this game will kick your word that rhymes with crass. This is a platformer that will challenge players on a similar level that ‘Splosion Man and Super Meat Boy did, but what those games did well, Rayman Origins perfects. Just like with From Software’s Dark Souls, Rayman Origins’ difficulty is a big part of why this game is so good. Never does a death feel cheap, and never does a level or a challenge feel impossible. Every death, every misplaced jump, and every little slip is a chance to learn and get better.

Never is this more the case than with the secret levels unlocked by collecting a certain number of electoons. Just like the stars in Super Mario Galaxy, electoons are the goal to each level and can be collected by not only completing a stage, but by completing certain obstacles within that stage. There are hidden areas in each level whose location is given away by an audible cue, there are yellow floating looms which, if you take the time to collect a certain amount of, will unlock an electoon, and there is even a speed run that can be unlocked after completing the level the first time. Up to 5 electoons can be rewarded on each level, and it can easily become an obsession to get them all. For me, the time trials were often the most fun as each of them meant I had to rush forward as fast as I could, getting around each and every obstacle in the level without dying once in order to reach the goal. If you die during a time trial run, the level will restart from the beginning. That alone was a big part of the challenge, more so than hitting the goal in time.

Rayman can only be hit once before death, and the only thing that can protect him are hearts that will act as a shield, protecting our limbless hero and his friends from a single hit (only one heart can be collected at a time). If my warning of the difficulty wasn’t enough to go by, it is really easy to get hit in this game, and every time you do…it is your damn fault. I cannot stress enough how beautiful of a thing that is in a game like this, that the mechanics and the camera are so precise, that a death is never the games fault. One of the things that annoyed me the most about Sonic Generations was that often the camera or a screw up with the control would cost me a difficult challenge. Never is that the case here, its mechanics have been fine tuned to perfection.

Even though Rayman Origins level design is some of the best I have seen this side of Super Mario Galaxy’s, the game will sometimes throw you for a loop by introducing new level types. Most worlds will have a level that has Rayman or one of his pals flying around on the back of a mosquito (or in the case of his big blue pal Globox, a mosquito riding him) in a horizontal scrolling shooter like Gradius. These levels never cease to be just as fun as the platforming stages, and by the end of the game become nearly as difficult as Gradius itself. Be prepared to float around through a hail of fireballs and on-screen chaos.

If players become dedicated to collecting as many Electoons as they can, they will be rewarded with secret levels that will have Rayman chasing a treasure chest. The animation that begins these sequences, with the treasure chest seeing his foe and imagining what he will do to him if he catches him, is hilarious. What follows is a fast paced chase that is quite possibly one of the best parts of the game. Each of the ten chase levels in the game are designed to require quick and precise jumps. Later they will even call on the ability to lightly tap the jump button to clear certain obstacles, rather than hold the button down and correct in mid-air like mostly every other level in the game.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to remember this tip for these levels: Never use the hovering mechanic. It will slow you down and almost always guarantee failure. These chase levels are so well designed that every obstacle can be cleared with a perfectly timed regular jump. They are also so difficult that the smallest mistake will mean death. They have to be cleared just shy of perfectly.

Speaking of secret levels, if you are able to collect all ten jewels from these chests, they will unlock the Land of the Livid Dead hidden stage. This is by far the most difficult level in the game and will call on everything you’ve learned from playing through the game to this point. I had to take many smoke breaks during that level to clear my head and get back to it. It is seriously hard, but just like every level in this game, it is fun as hell.

Rayman Origins also has a multiplayer mechanic that can make life a little easier with two players, or chaotic with more than that. In Co-Op the other player can resurrect a fallen friend by popping a bubble they are stuck in. It makes some of the more difficult levels a tad bit easier. At least that is what I’ve heard, since I beat the entire game with all Electoons and the secret stages all by my little self. I never got the chance to play co-op, but I can say as a single player game. This is one of the best I’ve played. I will eventually sit one of my friends down (who are all too busy with Battlefield 3) to play some Rayman with me.

Final Call: Rayman Origins is one of the best games I have played this year, and in my opinion is the best 2D platformer I have ever played. I know I used the word “perfect” quite a few times in this review, yet it is a descriptive phrase with a lot of weight. A word that this game deserves, I truly can not find any flaws worth noting. It is everything I look for in this style of game. The art style is incredibly detailed, filled with charm, and one of the most beautiful things I have seen in execution. The soundtrack is whimsical and brimming with just as much personality as the rest of the game. The level design is impeccable from the first stage to the last, and the difficulty is one of the best things about it. As far as I’m concerned, Mario can have the 3D platformers, because Rayman has just taken the crown for the 2D kingdom.

Pros

• Beautifully hand drawn everything
• Perfect gameplay mechanics
• Great soundtrack
• Some of the best level design in the genre
• Plenty of replayability for those who need to complete every challenge

Cons

• May be a bit too difficult for casual gamers
• Might get confused for a kid’s game

SEGA has a beautiful way of announcing a new Sonic game just about every year and claiming that the newest title is going to be THE Sonic game that fans have been hoping for. And with each release, SEGA beautifully disappoints almost everybody. To their credit Sonic Unleashed, Sonic 4, and Sonic Colors all received marginally increasing review scores compared to the 2006 “Sonic the Hedgehog”. It is now time for Sonic Generations to step up to the plate.

Sonic Generations sets out with the grand goal of combining the best elements of classic Sonic with modern Sonic. Part of the game plays as an old school side scroller while the other plays more like the Sonic Adventure series. One of the more interesting things is how they take a Sonic Adventure level, like the opening city escape, and convert it into a side scrolling level and vice versa. The idea of taking something old and making it new, while appealing to nostalgia, is something I think everybody can appreciate.

The demo for Sonic Generations, however, shows few signs of delivering on the potential. The first problem is the fact that the demo features a single level,  the same first level we have all played for the past 20 years. SEGA did the same thing with Sonic 4 and I can’t figure out why they would do it again. Considering the level takes all of 2 minutes if you suck at the game, SEGA has now put out the two shortest demos in existence. I spent more time downloading and waiting for the game to load than I did actually playing the demo, minus the couple of repeat plays.

The second big issue that concerns me is the terrible blurring of everything on screen. You can’t see it in screenshots but as soon as Sonic gets up to his full speed next to nothing is actually visible. I can’t tell if this issue is being caused by low frame rate, a rendering effect or both. What I do know is that it makes it very difficult to play the game and it strained my eyes after a while. I don’t think I can stress enough how instantly noticeable the blurring effect is. It makes the game difficult to both look at and play.

Visuals aside, I did enjoy most of what the game had to offer. It appears as if they have removed the silly enemy lock-on mechanic, a welcome change. The jumping and spinning and overall speed of the game do feel improved from what I remember of Sonic 4. It is hard to get a good feel for the game based on a single level but the foundation is there. I am still looking forward to getting my hands on the finished game but my expectations have been taken down a notch. I still think the best version of Sonic that I have played recently is the fan made remix. With the game coming out in November, Sonic might become the game I play to take a break from Skyrim or Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.

So Sonic 4 is finally out for XBLA and maybe some other platforms like PSN and WiiWare. I haven’t played the full release, but I can tell you that it is the most ridiculously short demo I have ever experienced. And I don’t just mean on XBLA, I mean of anything, ever. The demo consists solely of only the first level of the first stage. The time it took me to finish the level was just a hair over 1:30. If I figure in the time it took to launch the game, load the level, and then go back to my dashboard, I spent all of 3 minutes with it.

You should really just go download the demo if you are remotely interested in the game. Now that I think about it, it probably took you longer to get on your computer, go to our website, and read this post than it would to take to just go and play it. You should probably just stop reading this. Also, the best part of the demo was definitely the old school “SEGA” opening in the nice soft voice and its two note tune.

Sega recently announced what many gamers have been hoping for years: a return to the 2D roots of the series. After years of failures in the 3D realm, Sega has made the move back to the fast paced 2D side scrollers that put them on the map as a console maker. Before you go getting too excited and all nostalgic, let me remind you that even this switch back to 1991 is going to suck. When is the last time that you dusted off your Genesis or hell even bought one the old titles on the current generation of consoles download services?

Let’s take a short history lesson here. Sonic The Hedgehog (That’s right, capital ‘T’ in ‘The’. First, Middle, Last name as trademarked by Sega) in its 2D form exist as Sonic The Hedgehog 1, 2, and 3 and also Sonic and Knuckles. The original Sonic The Hedgehog was produced and packaged with the Genesis console and was intended to be the Mario killer to get the Genesis to compete with the SNES. It was a decent game but also the first game in the series and it didn’t quite have all the kinks worked out. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 nailed it and stands out as the gem of the franchise even though it introduced us to one of the worst game characters of all time with Tails. Sonic 3 was a step backwards and Sonic and Knuckles took the legs out of the franchise literally. It slowed the game way down by adding more platforming elements and jumping puzzles.

Now back to the present day and keeping in mind that the 2D games are not nearly as good as you remember them to be, the new release is already setup for failure. The game is going to be sold exclusively as a download on WiiWare, Playstation Network, and Xbox Live Arcade. What this should tell you is that they don’t have a good enough game with enough content to put it on a disc and sell it in stores. With the recent success of a game like New Super Mario Bros Wii, you would think that Sega would be chasing those dollars down just as they have been doing with the Mario Factory for years. Sega has released game after game that is nearly a direct descendant of a recent Mario game from 3D platformers to arcade racing sims to DS RPGs. They have even been collaborating with Nintendo on the Mario and Sonic at the Olympics games but this attempt to duplicate the success of NSMB Wii will fall short.

So what’s the final verdict here? While it’s a relief to see that Sonic won’t be suffering through a new 3D piece of crap, don’t get your hopes up for this one. Sega needs to let Sonic go the way of the Dreamcast and live on fondly in the memories of our childhood. Or perhaps he can die a slow death at the hands of Mario in the new release of the Smash Bros series just as he has been doing on store shelves for years.