i know i'm always saying this about older platformers, but this game is evil as shit. and it may be the most evil of the lot; although i admit i'm still learning about the intricacies of this generation of platformers ( and older ), i feel confident saying that. the design of this game is just ... cruel.

the two most noteworthy mechanics contributing to said cruelty -- in my opinion -- would be 1) the "magic pixel" system, and 2) the save & continue system.

a fundamental part of progression in rayman is the use of magic pixels: invisible triggers that, upon stepping on them, will activate some sort of event on the map. yes, map -- not in your immediate area, not what's currently on screen, but somewhere on the map. if traversing the world of rayman were more pleasant, this might not be as agonizing as it ends up being ... but unfortunately, levels in this game are hard, brutally so, and having to backtrack a hellish gauntlet of projectiles & precise platforming challenges means that, once you hear the audio cue that you've stepped on one of these magic pixels, you are filled with indescribable dread as you frantically try & imagine where this "thing" could have spawned ( and it really can be anything, from new enemies to a mandatory collectible ). rayman himself taking up a substantial amount of screen real estate means you're afforded very little space & time to react to off-screen threats, as well, so if one of these triggers a fast-acting enemy, you might find yourself having to backtrack even FURTHER after you die unceremoniously to their attack.

now. consider this. rayman presents players with 5 continues, after which you get no more, no matter how many lives you accrue. seems generous at a glance, right? given other titles of the era gave you 1 or 2 continues at their starts, that feels like a pretty sweet deal? right? WRONG. your continues become a constant vector for stress when you take into account how difficult progression is, how fragile rayman himself is, and now, how the save system functions: when you save your game, you are saving how many lives AND continues you have at that time, and there are no passwords to easily get right back to where you want to be. so the drama of this then becomes, do you risk saving your game after finally overcoming that hard as hell level, despite having lost dozens of lives & several of your precious continues? or do you reset to your previous save -- wherever that may be -- and try to go through the level(s) again to see if you can come out less scathed, now wiser to the game's tricks? who knows how difficult the following levels will be, after all.
i will say that i do appreciate the tension of this decision on paper, but given how exhausting rayman is to play, it ends up being kind of a hindrance rather than an exciting part of the overall flow.

but ... like many platformers before it, rayman benefits substantially from memorization & subsequent playthroughs. fixed continues no longer become an issue when you know how to deal with every threat ( and can reliably survive or amount lives as a buffer ), and hunting for magic pixels becomes trivial once you've got all the locations wrote to heart. and there is certainly something to be said about the feeling of growth these sorts of games can afford you -- there is nothing quite like revisiting something that once caused you grief, only to effortlessly navigate through it like a pro. that feels good! but that requires a lot of patience & time, and the speed at which rayman ramps up its difficulty might end up turning more players off than encouraging them to persevere & try again.

it's just a deeply unwelcoming game. i don't know how else to describe it. i've never experienced a game as lovingly-yet-hatefully made as this. unless you were a kid when it came out ( and were thus both entrenched in the inherit cruelty of game design back then ) or have a very peculiar approach to playing games now, it just feels like rayman is too threatening to enjoy playing. this game wants you weeping & pounding your fists into the ground. this game wants you dead. this is a zero mercy experience.

... and it is kind of good because of that. but ONLY kind of. i do think that overall, rayman is too antagonistic, but like i just said, overcoming challenging can be very fulfilling to some. like, the end of this game is one of the most pitiful conclusions to a video game i've ever seen, almost certainly because the bulk of the game involves so much effort to get through -- so the only point of beating this thing is to have said, "yeah, that's right. i beat rayman."

there's more to be said about the unique gameplay mechanics that give rayman its particular identity as a 2D platformer in the 90's, but i don't really care to discuss those. you can go read contemporary reviews for that. but i will say, here at the end, that this is one of the most beautiful pixel art games i've ever seen from this era. there is a stunning amount of attention to the color palettes, and the charm in its animation is so good. fairly pleasant sound design & music too, but thing that's stuck with me the longest since seeing this was its visual art direction ... and its evilness. of course.