I got into Ubisoft’s Rayman series quite late with Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends around the time I got my PlayStation Vita. At the time, I loved both games, but completely forgot that I had played a bit of the original on DOS back in the day. I didn’t realize that until getting a Nintendo Switch code for Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition from Digital Eclipse and booting up the DOS version. Getting hit with an old memory is good, but the complete package here is sadly not consistently good.
Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition features five versions of the original Rayman, quality of life features in select versions, and nearly an hour of documentary footage with interviews across the key members of the team who worked on the original game and the new Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition. On paper, you really need to love the original Rayman game to spend $19.99 on a celebration package focusing on it, and that’s where the cracks start to show.
Like I said earlier, I hadn’t played most of these versions before so I don’t have nostalgia for them, but I value preserving the original experience while offering options to make games more accessible or even expanding upon them. The elephant in the room is the replaced soundtrack. The new (to me in general) soundtrack ranges from good to great, but its implementation in the collection is lacking. The Jaguar version plays two songs at once and the original PlayStation version didn’t play any music in one level. Beyond that, some of the tracks, while great on their own, feel a bit out of place in-game.
I adore the Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends soundtracks, and I was glad to find out that Christophe Héral who did those soundtracks worked on this new one. Like I said, I enjoy the new tunes, but sometimes they feel out of place even as someone who hasn’t played the original games. The vibe is off in parts if that makes sense.
I want to give you a bit of history of how I approach Digital Eclipse games. I value the documentary videos, interviews, and bonus content more than many of the games included in these collections usually, but I still care about the emulation or port quality from a preservation stand point. Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition has me at a crossroads essentially because I love the History section with interviews, documents, scans, and more, but the different versions of the games included are of varying degrees with how they feel to play on the original Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. Some have more input lag than others, some have audio bugs, and it is disappointing that not every game has quality of life features or enhancements barring rewinding.
As an example, only the PlayStation and DOS versions let you unlock or toggle all levels, unlock all abilities, infinite continues, max HP, and infinite lives. Speaking of the DOS version, I very much appreciated having the base game and new level packs.
If you grew up with these games, I can’t comment on how the new music will hit (or not), but even assuming the original soundtrack was not possible, this collection doesn’t have the Digital Eclipse polish I love in past releases. In fact, I think it is a shame that the two recent Digital Eclipse releases I have played with the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection and now the Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition both have too many caveats for me to recommend them at full price.
I want to specifically highlight the SNES prototype included here because it is now present in an official capacity and playable on modern consoles. Beyond that, I would’ve loved to also have the SEGA Saturn version and even the mobile release playable here in some form.
Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition is an original Switch game and I played it on both my Switch and Switch 2 consoles in handheld mode. I have no complaints with how the game looks on both, but this would have been nice to have with 4K support on Switch 2 in a native release for watching the documentary content on TV.
If you care about just the documentary, interviews, and history section of the Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition and want to have easy access to the SNES prototype from 1992 or the Game Design Bible for Rayman, this is worth buying, but I can’t recommend it at full price right now. Once the music is patched in and bugs ironed out, this will be a lot easier to stomach. I hope we see all of that addressed before the physical release is out because this is one release you’d want to own for the shelf.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch
Review Copy Provided by Ubisoft
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