Rayman is one of the most unusual franchise mascots. He's basically a collection of floating body parts with misplaced limbs. He started as a standard mascot character but eventually ended up in minigames, turn-based strategy titles, and even kickstarted the proto-minion Rabbid franchise. It all began with one little game, and Rayman: 30th Anniversary Edition is a celebration of that game. Is it worth it? That really depends on how much you love Rayman and how willing you are to accept some compromises, but by and large, it's a solid celebration of a somewhat obscure hero.

Rayman: 30th Anniversary Edition is a collection of various ports of the first game in the franchise, the titular Rayman. This includes the PS1, Atari Jaguar, MS-DOS, Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color versions of the game, in addition to an early demo prototype intended for the SNES. Most of the games are almost identical, and the game even mentions that the PS1 version is the definitive version. I can't recommend bothering with any of the others except out of sheer curiosity, unless you want to play the extra levels in the MS-DOS version.

Rayman is a straightforward platformer where you play as the titular limbless hero as he hops, swings and punches his way through some gorgeous 2D platforming worlds. Your general goal is to finish each level and collect the hidden Electoons scattered throughout the lands. Perhaps the most distinctive feature is that Rayman gradually unlocks new skills while progressing through the game, including an extending punch to hit enemies from a distance, the ability to twirl his hair like a helicopter to slow his falls, and the all-important ability to run faster.

Rayman is a difficult game to get into if you're a newcomer. The basic controls are fine, but the level design very quickly trends toward the sadistic. There are lots of blind jumps, pixel-precise platforming sequences, hidden collectibles you must find to see everything in the game, unforgiving traps that will drain your lives like they're going out of style, and more. In this way, the collection is probably one of the best ways to experience it, since it comes with a packed-in Rewind option that lets you to zoom backward a few seconds, and that can take a lot of the edge off things. You also have access to a cheat menu that lets you have infinite lives, start with all abilities, and more.

Overall, Rayman, regardless of form, is a pretty fun platformer. The difficulty is perhaps the biggest sticking point for newcomers, but if you can get past that, there's a lot of excellent level design and incredibly fun gameplay to be had. It's easy to see why the franchise remained a long-lived part of Ubisoft's stable, even if it never quite reached the heights of a Sonic or Mario. It's worth a shot if you're not easily frustrated because it's a darn fun game.

It's a difficult to disguise the fact that the collection is lacking in variety. It's extremely cool to have the different versions of the game available to play, but there's no meaningful reason to play anything but the PS1 version. The bonus levels from the PC version are neat, but they're reminiscent of old-school level packs in that most of them are various levels of average to mediocre. The only version of the game that is really different is the GBC version, which is a different game based on the same concept. It's a tad more basic (and far less punishing) than the main game, but that might be a plus rather than a minus. I'm glad the collection does its best to preserve various different versions of the game, but compared to other game collections that have more variety, you really have to like Rayman 1 to get much gameplay out of anything but the PS1 version.

There's also the elephant in the room that despite otherwise being a very accurate collection, the game does not include the original PS1 soundtrack. Instead, it's been remastered by Christophe Heral, who did the fantastic soundtrack for Rayman Legends. It's a difficult subject because the remastered music isn't terrible, but it doesn't necessarily fit the original game. More to the point, it's strange to have what is otherwise such a dedicated bit of preservation that is missing one of the defining features of the original. If you're curious about Rayman but never played it, you might not notice, but die-hard fans may see it as a dealbreaker.

In addition to the games, the 30th Anniversary Edition also includes a massive amount of behind-the-scenes information. In addition to the aforementioned SNES prototype, there's also a ton of concept art, behind-the-scenes development details, and a nice documentary about the history of Rayman that follows it from conception to release and provides some very cool game history. It's not necessarily something you'll care about if you're not a fan, but it's probably a very worthwhile watch for franchise fans.

By and large, Rayman: 30th Anniversary Edition is a very nice bundle if you loved the original Rayman and would like a nice, concise package of its history. You are effectively only getting mostly slightly remixed versions of the same game, so it depends on whether the price tag is worth it for essentially one platformer. The lack of the original soundtrack is probably the big blemish on the collection, but it's still a solid package for those who want to see where the weird, limbless hero began his adventures.

Score: 8.0/10