3.5/5 ★ – james_i_think's review of Rayman Redemption.

This is, in my eyes, the ideal type of fan-game. The original Rayman was an extremely flawed classic. It had the potential to be good, but relied too hard on unfair platformer difficulty, which, combined with slightly clunky controls, made me one of the many people who gave up on it in the second world. The aptly titled Rayman Redemption seeks to re-make and in some places re-imagine the original game. It tweaks the controls, level design, difficulty and even adds some totally original areas and boss battles. In many ways, it turns Rayman into the platforming classic it was always supposed to be. The biggest flaws with the game come with elements from its original design that were left untouched. While very visually appealing, sometimes the art style doesn't lend itself well to a 2D platformer. It can be confusing what you can jump on, what counts as a solid wall, what is simply a background element and what is or isn't actually an enemy. Sadly I found the last main world of the game, Candy Chateau, to be the worst. Visually it's far too busy to the point of being ugly, and the difficulty is seemingly left unaltered for the most part. I get that it's the penultimate area of the game, but it's hard in the frustrating way it was originally designed, not so much challenging in the way Ryemanni reimagined most of the game. Though the endgame is a bit annoying, thankfully the new final area and final boss are challenging in a much more reasonable way, and make for a great palette cleanser. Despite some flaws of the original game creeping its way in, this fan remake is for the most part an excellent platforming adventure. Given that Rayman Legends is one of my favourite platformers, it's lovely to have a Rayman game that can serve as the beginning of that series.