My Thoughts on "Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc"
Foreword:
This was originally written and posted on DeviantART on Sunday October 23, 2022. Remember in the foreword of my post about Neill Blomkamp's career and the possibility of him making a sequel to District 9 I said that I would repost my review of Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc? Well now I'm doing it. I'm trying to increase my quotation of post for September since I was kind of lagging at the beginning of the month, and I thought this would be a good one to post since I talked so much about Rayman in that post I just mentioned. I would appreciate it if you that one after this one or read it simultaneously. I've already provided a link to it a couple of sentences before.
It was either a toss-up between reposting this or reposting my review of Wednesday Season 1. I thought that I had already posted that review, especially after I posted my review of Ruby Gloom (which you can go read by clicking here), but I guess I didn't, and I think it's a better than any to repost especially since Beetlejuice Beetlejuice just came out recently earlier this month, and that was also directed by Tim Burton and stars Jenna Ortega. But, I felt like posting this one first since I have Rayman on my mind right after playing the Rayman in the Phantom Show DLC for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope.
I just finished playing that DLC a couple of days ago, and it was great, I had a lot of fun with it, I really enjoyed it. It ended pretty much just as I had predicted in the foreword of that Neill Blomkamp post I mentioned earlier, the Phantom did turn out to still be evil, and the invitations to his studio that he sent out to Rayman, Rabbid Mario, Rabbid Peach, and Beep-0 was all an elaborate trap. Even though he's no longer under the influence of the Megabug, he's still evil and he's out for revenge for the Heroes defeating him in the first game, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.
So, he cooked up this whole scheme to lure Rayman, Rabbid Mario, Rabbid Peach, and Beep-0 over to his studio, and then defeat them and humiliate them on live television, so that he could both get rid of the Heroes who caused him so much trouble in the previous game, but also increase the ratings of his own show and network which was negatively affected by his defeat in the previous game. Killing two birds with one stone basically.
It really wasn't that hard to figure out that the Phantom was still evil, and this whole thing was a ruse and a trap. I mean, they wouldn't have brought back one of the biggest bosses from Kingdom Battle (both literally and figuratively) for this DLC expansion only for him to be reformed and now a good guy. No, they were going to keep him a bad guy, and have him go up against the Heroes one last time. There was clearly unfinished business between them that needed to be resolved.
And you could easily tell that's where they were going after you clear the Medieval set. I've seen so many movies and played a few video games with stories that just recognize narrative language like that, and I could easily tell by the way the scene played out, and the way the Phantom acted up until that point that they were going to reveal that he still a bad guy and that this whole thing was a trap. It would've been way more surprising if he had turned out to be a good guy who was reformed. But, that wasn't the case. Even Rayman and Beep-0 could see through the Phantom's ruse, even they knew that he wasn't reformed and still a bad guy out to get them.
But besides that obvious and predictable twist, I did still enjoy the DLC a lot. Like, the three stage boss battle which closes out the main story of the DLC is pretty great. It's one of the best boss battles of the entire game. The Phantom is performing and singing different types of music in each stage of the fight, and they're all representative of his temperament during the the fight. Like, in the first stage, he sings this very jazzy musical number with a lot of glitz and glamor when he's feeling invincible and as if he's going to win.
Then in the second stage, he switches to rock n' roll or punk-type music when the Heroes wound his pride by beating him in the first stage and he's all angry. And the third and final stage is him singing opera which Beep-0 says is him going "retro," and it's a sign of his desperation as he's throwing everything but the kitchen sink to take down the Heroes. The Phantom is a character who speaks entirely through song, so this works perfectly for him at least from what I've seen of him in this DLC. I don't know how he is Kingdom Battle, but I'm pretty sure he's more or less the same as he is here.
Oh, and after the battle, Rayman lets go his hatred or distrust of Rabbids, and embraces, at the very least, Rabbid Mario and Rabbid Peach as his friends and allies. Seeing that not all Rabbids are bad, and that some of them at least can be good. Perhaps, this was meant to be a message to all the Rayman fans because the Ubisoft staff has to know by now that the Rayman fans hate and resent the Rabbids for replacing Rayman as the main focus for Ubisoft as far as their kid-friendly games are concerned.
Maybe this ending was their way of telling the fans to let go of any hatred or resentment they might feel towards the Rabbids for replacing their main man ♂︎, and just embrace them for who they are, or at least embrace who they became in the Mario + Rabbids games. Being inside the Mario universe changed them, and they're no longer the same Rabbids from the Raving Rabbids series. Like, "if Rayman—the character you claim to love so much 😍—can let go of his hatred of Rabbids and learn to embrace them, then so can you" sort of thing. But, that's just my interpretation, I could be way off with that one.
Then, after I completed the main story of the DLC, I did the last remaining quests I didn't do while I was playing through the story focusing mostly on the main quests, which is what I did with the base game and The Last Spark Hunter. There were only two left, there was cauldron one where you have to find the ingredients for that same wizard back from Terra Flora to make his potion, and there was that quiz one where this red Spark asks you a bunch of trivia questions about the characters featured in this DLC, and then after you answer all the questions correctly, or at least 8 of them correctly, then have to clear a Darkmess puddle hidden behind the stage and do battle with Darkmess entities.
Though, if I'm remembering it correctly, it was a "Get to this location" type of battle rather than a "Defeat all Enemies" type of battle or "Survive" type of battle. You don't earn that Spark after you won the battle as the Spark is still there at that podium ready to quiz you again if you choose. After that, I was satisfied and I stopped playing even though I had only completed 78% of the DLC, and still hadn't reached 100%, but I was fine with that. Like with the base game and The Last Spark Hunter, I didn't feel the need to 100% this DLC.
Playing through that DLC made me want another 3D Rayman game as it many other people. Like, I want Ubisoft truly bring back Rayman in a big way and give him own game again and make it a 3D platformer like the older Rayman games prior to Rayman Raving Rabbids. And if not, then at the very least do a remaster or remake of one of the older Rayman games like Rayman 2: The Great Escape, or this game, the topic of this post, Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc. I don't want Rayman to just be relegated to him being DLC from now on. Like, the character deserves a lot more respect than that. He deserves to have his time in the Sun ☀️ again and to reclaim his spot as the mascot of Ubisoft.
To be fair, Ubisoft did say that if the Rayman DLC for Sparks of Hope was successful than they would maybe consider making a new Rayman game that wasn't just another mobile game. I don't know how successful Rayman in the Phantom Show was, but considering that Spark of Hope was a bit of a commercial disappointment according to Ubisoft and didn't sell nearly as well as they had hoped, I don't know much more successful Rayman in the Phantom Show could've been. DLC expansions tend to do well if they're attached to an already successful and popular game, and despite how good Sparks of Hope is, it just wasn't that successful or popular, at least compared to other Mario titles at the time.
So for now, Rayman's future in gaming is uncertain, though there is still a glimmer of hope that he may get his own game again. But, even if he doesn't, like I said in that previous post, I wouldn't mind seeing him in the third Mario + Rabbids games if they ever make another one, which I'm sure they will considering that Sparks of Hope apparently underperformed. But, if they do make a third one, and if Rayman is included in it to some degree, I really do hope that they make him a main playable character in the base game that he interacts with Mario, Princess Peach, and Luigi, not just interact with the Rabbid versions of those characters. Though Rabbid Luigi was not included in Rayman in the Phantom Show, just Rabbid Mario and Rabbid Peach were.
I even said that if they did go in that direction by making Rayman a playable character in the base game, they could title the third game, Mario + Rabbids + Rayman. And hey, since I mentioned it in this review, maybe that game could mark the return of the classic Rayman villain, Razorbeard from Rayman 2. That cliffhanger at the end of Rayman 2 still has not been resolved and Razorbeard is still out there, ready to seek revenge against the guy who defeated him last time. So, if the third Mario + Rabbids games does feature Rayman as a main character, maybe they could make Razorbeard the bad guy of that game.
After completing Rayman in the Phantom Show to a satisfying degree, I then started playing Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (quite a mouth full of a title), which I did mention that I bought in the previous post. I've been playing through the Story Mode because that's what I was the most interested in playing when I learned of that game's existence and watched the longplay of it on YouTube. The game's plot fairly simple, especially considered to the complicated lore-packed story of Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope. In fact, the story is so simple in this game that I wouldn't be surprised if game reviewers who reviewed this game said that it shouldn't have even bothered with a story. I know that's something Honest Game Trailers would say if they did an Honest Trailer of this game.
The plot of this game is that Eggman create this gaming system called "Tokyo 64" which he and Bowser hope to use trap both Mario and Sonic inside in time for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics ☀️. But, it all goes wrong, when Sonic presses the button on the device that he supposed to press so that he would get trapped in the game with Mario, and they all trapped in the game. So, now Mario, Sonic, Toad 🍄, Eggman, and Bowser are all trapped inside of this 8-bit video game representation of the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics ☀️.
Luigi witnessed all this, and is therefore the only one who actually knows for sure what happened to them, and he starts going around to the Olympic Games venues in Tokyo asking for help from the various characters in the game, both Mario and Sonic characters, to try to rescue both Mario and Sonic from this game that they're trapped in with Eggman and Bowser. Having to compete in the various events of the Olympic Games to do so. Luigi ends up teamed up with Tails for the majority of the adventure, though they get help from Amy, Princess Daisy, Silver, Toadette, and Vector to name but a few along the way.
But things don't go right for Luigi and Tails in their efforts to rescue their friends, and brother in the case of Luigi since Mario is his brother, as the gaming system ends up falling into the hands of the bad guys of both franchises, particularly Bowser Jr. and Eggman Nega. So, the mission then becomes getting the gaming system back from them so that they can figure out a way to get Mario, Sonic, and Toad 🍄 out of there. Meanwhile, Mario and Sonic try to find their own way out of the game that Eggman and Bowser trapped them in, which mostly amounts to them competing in the Olympic Games against Eggman and Bowser and winning as many gold medals 🏅 as they can since they can only escape from the game if they have enough gold medals 🏅 along with something that has not been revealed yet at the point of the Story Mode that I'm at.
That's the basic plot of the game. It's simple, but it works for what this game is, which is a Mario and Sonic crossover game that's a sports game that exists primarily to promote the Olympic Games, mainly to a younger audience. The thing that struck me about the cutscenes in this game is that Mario doesn't talk in them. The cutscenes are not fully voice acted, and whenever a character speaks, their dialogue is conveyed through text on a screen similar to Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope. But not Mario, he doesn't talk at all. He just makes noises and nods along with whatever the person talking to him says.
During the 8-bit sections, he just jumps in the air whenever he's communicating with someone. But, we never actually see say any dialogue, not even in text form. I don't know why they made that choice. Maybe they didn't want to ruin the magic of Mario as a character by having him talk, or maybe in their minds, Mario is just a character doesn't talk. I don't know, but for whatever, he's the only character in the game so far that doesn't have dialogue. I'll see if they gave Princess Peach any lines if she's even in the Story Mode at all.
I imagine that she is since she's a major character in the Mario franchise, and her man ♂︎'s trapped in a video game, of course she'd have something to say about that. But, like Mario, she's a character who tends not to talk during cutscenes. The only time where she has actually talked during cutscenes in a video game would be Super Mario Sunshine ☀️ and of course all of the RPG Mario games like Super Mario RPG and of course the Paper Mario games.
Right now, I'm at the part during one of the 8-bit portions of the game where Sonic has just defeated Bowser in a judo competition since judo was an event in the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics ☀️. Speaking of which, that is something that I appreciate about Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is that does have 8-bit portions interspersed with the modern-day gameplay sections.
I thought that was a nice touch, and gave this game a unique identity especially to the other Mario & Sonic games, which didn't have 8-bit sections as far as I know. It's nice to see Nintendo go above and beyond and add a lot of creativity in something that is pretty much just a commercial for the Olympic Games. Though I should mention that both Sonic and Eggman are in 8-bit during these sections of the game. Instead, they're represented by 16-bit sprites since they came from the 16-bit era of gaming rather than the 8-bit era like Mario did.
The gameplay itself is pretty challenging, even during the 8-bit sections, though for me, it wasn't so hard that I wore me down and I couldn't progress further because I got stuck on a certain part. I would say the hardest part so far was the Vaulting event, where you had to beat Eggman in the Vaulting event in order to get a gold medal 🏅 to aid in your escape. You could choose which difficulty you wanted to play this event on, but even on Easy difficulty, it was still tough for me and I couldn't get passed it. So, I just skipped it and moved on with the story.
The games does give the option to skip Olympic Games events throughout the Story Mode, and so far the Vaulting event in the 8-bit section of the game was the only I utilized that skipping feature. I'll see if I run into another section of the game's too hard for me that I need to skip it. But, besides that Vaulting challenge, the gameplay has been pretty fun for me so far. Even though I'm not into sports, doing each of these Olympic Games sports in this game is fun. The gameplay is very fast paced and energetic, it never feels dull or draining, besides that Vaulting challenge as I said, and does leave you wanting more. And you can play these Olympic Games sports by themselves without the story, though playing the Story Mode does allow you to unlock certain characters.
Speaking of characters though, can I just say that I absolutely despise the character of Zazz? He was so annoying to go up against in the table tennis match, it took me several tries to even beat him. I just hate everything about him, his laugh, his personality, and his design. He's just like an abrasive little prick who you just want to punch 🤛. He doesn't even look like a Sonic character, he looks like a monster from Juniper Lee, he just looks so out of place. But then again, Sonic characters can pretty much look like anything, as some of the games feature characters that look nothing like the main Sonic cast, like they were designed with a completely different sensibility than the main Sonic characters were.
I mean, one Sonic game featured realistic humans in a realistic city environment, making Sonic look completely out of place. The Wisps from Sonic Color look like they came from completely different franchise entirely, and look nothing like you would expect characters from a Sonic game would look like if you only went by the main animal characters and Eggman. So, I guess having a character like Zazz who looks like a reject monster from The Life and Time of Juniper Lee isn't that much of a stretch. But still, I hate him. He's an arrogant little douchebag with annoying laugh, like he just laughs in your face everything he beats you in table tennis. It's so irritating 😤. And he just has this whole demeanor that makes me not like him. I'm just glad I finally beat him, and got past that part.
But, probably my favorite aspect of this game, even more than the story or the gameplay, is the music. The music in this game is fantastic. I love all the happy and cheerful Japanese music 🇯🇵 they incorporated in this game to show that this game does take place in Japan 🇯🇵. It's the Tokyo Olympics (both of them), of course they're going to have Japanese music 🇯🇵 in here.
My favorite theme would have to be the one that they use when you're in one of the Olympic Games venues. Not competing in the events, but just walking around, interacting with the patrons there. The music used in those parts is wonderful, I love it so much 😍. There are other pieces of music in the game that I like such as the one called "General" which is used in cutscenes that are in a neutral tone, not overly cheerful or overly serious, just neutral.
I like that theme, it gives the cutscenes a very relaxing feeling, which is what a lot of people like about a lot of Nintendo games overall is they feel very relaxing and cozy. Since this game is the last game in the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series (at least for the time being), I guess it is fitting that the final game in the series is set in the country of origin for both franchises, Japan 🇯🇵. And since it was in Japan 🇯🇵, Nintendo pulled out all the stops for it, at least as far as the music went.
But, part of me still wishes that this wasn't the final game, and that this series was still going on so that we could get a Mario & Sonic game out of the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics ☀️ in the future. They could still make one, especially if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) changes its mind about renewing the license and allows Nintendo to make another one of these.
But, enough about other games that I've played, what about this game, Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc? Well I've never played it, but I like what I have seen of it on longplays on YouTube. It's so interesting writing a review for a video game that I personally never played. In most cases, I probably wouldn't do such a thing, but I had a lot to say about this game after I watched a longplay of it on YouTube, so I wrote it down and made a full review out of it.
And to be fair, these longplays are probably the only way I'll ever get to experience this particular game since it's never been remastered or remade for current gen console. It is firmly stuck in the sixth generation of console gaming, as the PlayStation 2 and the original XBox were both sixth gen consoles. This was yet another video game that I had missed out on during my youth. In fact, I was pretty unaware of its existence until recently when I started getting into the Rayman series more.
I would like them to remaster or remake this game, and if I do, then I'll buy it whenever I have the money 💵 to and then play it and then either write an update to add to this review or write an entirely separate companion piece for it like I did for both my reviews of Akudama Drive (which was bundled up with my review of Yashahime Season 1 Part 1) and Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045. I'll link you the companion piece to my Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 review if you're interested. I'll also link the one for my Yashahime/Akudama Drive review as well. Ubisoft making a remaster or remake of Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc would give me the opportunity to experience it first hand, not just watch someone else play it which is all I've been able to do. And I really do want to play this game because it looks so damn fun.
I was a lot more negative about this game than I probably intended to come across. I don’t exactly remember what my frame of mind was when I wrote this review, but I was more critical of it than I am of it. I am much more positive on it now two years later than I was when I originally wrote this review. Which is kind of reflective of how this game was received when it was first launched, and how it’s received nowadays.
Some people at the time it came out thought that it was a step down from Rayman 2, especially since it was much more linear, but over time, the love for Rayman 3 has grown over time 🥰. It is a bona fide cult classic as more and more people appreciate it for what it is, rather than comparing it to Rayman 2 and complaining that it wasn't exactly like Rayman 2. I mean, if Rayman 3 is good enough to be referenced in Rayman in the Phantom Show, then it's good enough for me. I obviously can't exactly comment on gameplay since I've never played this game myself, but I can speak on the story and I think it's pretty good. I like how simple it is, and how much the main conflict is started by one little innocuous thing.
It all started with a lum (which are these magical firefly-like sprite creatures) getting scared 😨, but when a red lum specifically gets scared 😨, they turn into black lums and black lums cause a lot of destruction and chaos, which happens after this one red lum gets scared 😨 and turns into the black lum known as André. He leads an entire army of black lums through the Glade of Dreams to cause as much mayhem as they can, and some of the black lums join together to form these scarecrow-like creatures called Hoodlums, which is where the game gets its title from, using the fur of animals that they stole while wrecking havoc in the forest. And now it's up to Rayman and his friend, Globox to stop André and his army of black lums and Hoodlums and save the Glade of Dreams once again.
This was the game that introduced those alternate costumes that Rayman wears that give him different unique abilities, which he refers to as "combat fatigues," and this is perhaps the last pre-Rabbids Rayman game in the main series. That's probably why some Rayman fans have grown to appreciate it over the years because it wasn't Rayman Raving Rabbids. It represented what Rayman was, and what Ubisoft treated it as before the Rabbids came along, and in the minds of Rayman fans, "ruined" everything.
I still have somewhat mixed feelings about Globox being voiced by John Leguizamo. I'm not one of these people who's against celebrity voice actors in animation or video games, I think they can work, and I think people who complain endlessly about celebrity voice actors are full of themselves are overreacting. It's just that I got so used to his voice in Rayman 2, Rayman M/Rayman Arena, and Rayman Rush, that it took me awhile to get used to John Leguizamo's voice as him.
He plays him a lot differently than he came across as in Rayman 2, or in Rayman M/Rayman Arena, or in Rayman Rush. He doesn't even really feel like the same character at times, like Rayman 2 established that Globox was a family man ♂︎, he had a lot of kids, and yet, there's pretty much no mention of his kids here. But, I did eventually get used to the voice over time, and accepted John Leguizamo as the voice of Globox, despite the changes made to the character in terms of writing.
My opinion has changed about the Hoodlums. Reading my review again, I said that the Hoodlums were not as memorable of enemies as the robot pirates were in Rayman 2, I don't think that anymore. I think the Hoodlums are pretty cool enemies and are just as memorable as the robot pirates from Rayman 2. And André him is a pretty good bad guy in his own right, he stands on his own two feet (figuratively since André doesn't have legs) compared to Razorbeard. I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote any of that. I was pretty much falling into that trap of comparing this game to the second one, and bemoaning that it wasn't as good as the second one. But, Rayman 3 is a good game, and it holds up and stands on its own. No comparisons should be between it and Rayman 2. That includes the enemies and the bosses, which distinguish themselves quite well from the enemies from Rayman 2, despite what I said in this review.
One of my favorite parts of this game, from watching it, are the shoe driving sections, the parts where Rayman shrinks down and sits and drives around in one of his shoes like a car. Those were really funny and fun sections, and I'm sure that they were fun to play. But, I would say that the best part about them is the music. The music used in those sections is fantastic, it fits perfectly. I'll link you it to so you can listen to it for yourself. That's all I'll say about the game, I'll let you read my review below to see what else I had to say about it.
Oh, but one more thing before I close out this foreword, there is one more thing that I would like to talk about. It doesn't have to do with video games, but it is something that I feel I should talk about and give an update on especially since I mentioned it in the foreword of one of my previous post, and that's the situation surrounding our new SUV. We have not received our new vehicle yet. It was supposed to come to us on Monday, but it's been delayed for the past couple of days because the people at the dealership are working on, making it sure that it's in tip-top shape when they finally deliver it to us.
They added new brakes, they changed the oil, they filled up the gas tank, and they tinted the windows. Now all they need to do is evaluate it, make sure everything's in good shape and that no stone has been left unturned, and the people are the work shop didn't miss anything. They don't us to have to deal with any unforeseen complications with the SUV all because they overlooked something, especially when they're still in the position to do something about it. So, we still haven't received our new vehicle, we're still using the same car we've been using for about 5 or 6 years now.
But, we don't mind waiting. We want a working vehicle, and we don't want it to be in bad shape when they bring it us, and we don't want them to rush it out to us because if they do, they might miss something and something might go wrong with the vehicle. So, we'd rather them take their time and work on it so that it's in the best condition that it can be when they bring it to us, or we go down to Albuquerque and get it. They said that it should be ready by today, and if it's not ready by today (which increasingly looks like it won't be), then it should be ready by tomorrow. When we do receive the vehicle, I'll be sure to update you and let you in the foreword of my next post, probably the Wednesday Season 1 review. With that out of the way, onto the review of Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc.
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Well, I finally finished watching the Rayman 3 longplay, and it definitely looked like a fun game. I would've to play this game back in the day when I still had a PS2, even if there certainly parts of it that look hard as hell and probably would've taken me days to beat. Maybe, I wouldn't have even finished the game at all, maybe I wouldn't have gotten past the first couple of levels. I had a tendency to do that as a kid, where I would start a game, play the first few levels and then stop playing entirely.
There were very few video games that I played as a kid that I actually completed to the end as a kid. This game probably wouldn't have been any exception. But, either it definitely looks like a good game. I would definitely like to play a remastered version of this game in the future if they ever decide to do one.
It wasn't as good as Rayman 2, I did watch a longplay of that game as well, and I think it is a bit superior to these game. I do prefer the more serious and mysterious tone of that game compared to this game's more light-hearted fourth wall breaking approach. Plus, I think the robot pirates 🦾🏴☠️ are cooler and more memorable enemies than the Hoodlums. Certainly, Razorbeard is a better bad guy than André. I also, wasn't that big of a fan of John Leguizamo as Globox. I didn't think he did a bad job or anything, he did a pretty good job, it's just that his voice is inconsistent with Rayman 2.
In Rayman 2, Globox had a deeper voice, almost like Patrick from SpongeBob 🧽 but a little deeper. But, in this game, he has a more higher-pitched voice. He sounds like Sid from Ice Age 🧊, probably because that character was also voiced by John Leguizamo. He literally sounds exactly like Sid, but without the lisp. Even the "whoo-hoo" sound that Globox makes throughout the game is the same one that Sid makes in the ice slide 🧊 scene in the first Ice Age 🧊 movie. And to make things more inconsistent, Globox's voice is completely different in the two pre-rendered cutscenes that bookend the game, than it is in the actual gameplay.
Like, what's up with that? Did they have different voice actor do Globox's lines in the opening and ending cutscene and then got John Leguizamo to voice him in the actual gameplay? Plus, Globox was a family man in Rayman 2, like he had a wife and kids, and they were integral to the plot of that game. But, in this game, his family's no where to be seen; they're not even mentioned. So, that makes me wonder, is Rayman 3 a prequel to Rayman 2, like is this supposed to be Rayman and Globox when they were younger (as in teenagers) or does the Rayman series not have a continuity and does each game just stand on its own, not beholden to the continuity of the previous game?
But, at least, Rayman's voice is pretty good in this game, even if he doesn't talk that much. The most he talks in the whole game is in the ending cutscene where he's talking to Globox about being able to get good night sleep 😴 after defeating the black lums, and Globox laments not having André around, even though he invaded his body and took it over like a parasite. But, I guess, Globox developed some kind of Stockholm Syndrome affection for André, which is why he wanted to save him, even though he was clearly evil and clearly a danger to the entire world; I don't know, maybe Globox is just an ultra kind fellow who's willing to forgive everyone 🤷♂️. And Rayman has to explain that to him why the world would be a better place without André and the other black lums.
They did change Rayman's design a little bit, and they even consulted the original creator of Rayman, Michel Ancel to help them come up with his new design for this game, and I believe they use this same design in all the Rayman games that came afterwards, like the two Rayman Raving Rabbids games and the two 2D side-scrolling Rayman games, Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends (which actually do have continuity between them according to what I read on Wikipedia). His design isn't that different from what it was before, like they maintained his original basic look. They just changed his red handkerchief to a red hood, so it's like he's wearing a hoodie, and they made his hair slightly spikier, and made his shoes more detailed and angular.
The game ends on a cliffhanger, sort of. It happens right after Rayman and Globox return to their same spot after they defeat André and the black lums, turning them all back into red lums, and they have that conversation I wrote about earlier. Globox tells Rayman that red lums can turn into black lums if they are scared, which I guess is something that he learned from having André inside of him (he's able to feel him and read his mind or something and that's how he learned this secret about the lums), and Rayman says, "I don't want to imagine what can scare a lum" before falling asleep 😴.
But, then his hands come to life because they're sentient I guess (I know Rayman's body parts can move independently on each other, but I didn't know that they were alive), and then "walk" over (using the fingers as legs) to this red lum that's nearby, and they start creating shadow puppets with the intention of scaring it.
This works, and the red lum becomes so scared by Rayman's hands's shadow puppets that it turns into a black lum, pretty much starting the cycle all over again. I don't know if this was meant to be a real cliffhanger or just a joke cliffhanger that pokes fun at the idea of cliffhangers (the game does break the fourth wall and is somewhat of a parody of 3D platformers), but regardless, it was never followed up on.
Rayman 2 also kind of ended in a cliffhanger because Razorbeard escaped, and swore revenge against Rayman for destroying his robot pirate army 🦾🏴☠️ and foiling all of his evil plans. And yet, Razorbeard is yet to make any sort of return in a main series Rayman game. So, this wasn't just something that Rayman 3 did, Rayman 2 did it as well.
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I forgot to talk about the Teensies, the magical creatures that were first introduced in Rayman 2. They returned in this game, and were even more integral to this game than they were even in Rayman 2. They were a bit more comical in Rayman 2, like they were just these creatures that didn't know which one of them was king 👑, so they all they decided to take turns being the king 👑, like they literally lined up in a single file line and each put on the crown 👑 to be the king one at a time. And their main purpose in that game was to open the doors to the next stage or next set of stages in the game, like you would pay them in lums (which were yellow, green, and red in that game instead of just red like in this game), and if you had enough lums, then they would open the door for you to next location with the next set of missions.
But, in this game, they're still pretty comical, like they all have different personalities, have different accents, and they all wear different outfits from each other, but they're more important to the gameplay. They're ones trapped in cages this time, whenever you free them from their cages, they'll first say a weird funny, and silly non sequitur usually what they're going do now that they're free (like "Now if you'll excuse me, I got to wash my fish" or "Now if you'll excuse me, I got to go dust my socks" or "Now if you'll excuse me, I got to go typewrite on a bed of nails" or "Now if you'll excuse me, I got to go teach seashells how to dance"), and then they'll give you a costume or ability upgrade that you can use to fight enemies or reach certain platforms and areas that would be inaccessible otherwise.
Rayman wears these superhero-like costumes throughout the game and he gains different abilities and weapons depending on which costume he gets, like the ability to fly to greater heights or the ability to fire rockets, or the ability to fire these spring gauntlets that allow him to either grab onto hoops and swing better or do more damage to enemies while punching them. They'll also give you those gems which you give you more points in the game. And as far as the plot goes, they're actually more important to the story of this game than they were in Rayman 2 arguably.
They're the ones that Rayman has to go to try to get André out of Globox's body, which is the main goal or conflict for the first half of the game. Globox has André the black lum inside of him, and he needs to get him out. On top of that, the Teensies emphasize the threat the black lums pose to the Glade of Dreams, the fantasy world that the Rayman games all take place in (except maybe the Raving Rabbids games), and telling Rayman and Globox that the black lums must not reach a power source like the heart of the world otherwise they'll multiply out of control and the entire world will be destroyed.
They do expand upon the Teensies even more in the other Rayman games particularly in the two 2D Rayman games, Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends. One of the Teensies even becomes a playable character from what I understand, so that's cool. I mean, I'm not saying that the Teensies were never playable in the Rayman franchise before. They were playable in Rayman M (AKA Rayman Arena), but that was just a spin-off game. As far as the main series is concerned, they weren't playable until Origins and Legends. The Teensies are definitely fun, silly, and unique creatures that set the Rayman world apart from other video game worlds.
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