2nd to Gameboy's version, and it makes me mad!

I doubt that there's anyone out there who's gotten themselves an N-gage and doesn't look up to GBA for many reasons. The problem is half of N-gage's games seem to be mere ports of GBA games with nothing changed. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Great Game Boy Advance games are always welcome on my Nokia N-gage. It helps the N-gage library just the same. But why does it always seem like Nokia truly wants the GBA versions to stand on top against the N-gage versions? Well, let's not confuse you here. Let's just look at the good side of things first.


Rayman 3 is a great game. It's a strong title for the struggling N-gage library and it shows in the game.
The original Rayman was a breakthrough for side-scrolling games with it's mind-blowing colors, it's zany and comical appeal, and it's simplistic and fluid gameplay. You're some kind of strange creature/animal with floating body parts who's way of life is always being enslaved by otherworldly forces of evil. Also in this series, you are befriended by Globox who becomes Rayman's best friend in the whole world. Rayman 3's plot revolves strongly around Globox as he is kidnapped by Raymans' enemies Admiral Razorbeard and The Guardian of the Cave of Bad Dreams (great name, huh?).

Rayman 3, sadly, is well-known for not being any kind of big step forward in the Rayman series, and the portable version is just as tame. Rayman is supposed to be all about big colors and graphics and the graphics of Rayman 3 for N-gage are not EXTREMELY detailed. Sure, everything looks beautiful and appealing, but the graphics are never anything to drool at. Sure you might say, "Well, it's just the little N-gage." Why is that logic always applied? The N-gage does 3-d games very well. Why can't it do justice to games that are simple 2-D??

As far as gameplay goes, all I can say is that this game will keep you satisfied. I can honestly say that I enjoy playing this game over and over again (mainly because it's so short! HEehee!). Rayman moves very easily and changing direction in mid-air is easy and smooth. The button layout is also absolutely great. The jump and shot buttons are close enough together for comfort because you gotta shoot while in the air all the time. And the pound button is directly under the jump button making blasting through the ground a sure thing virtually everytime. It takes some getting used to, but it's not bad at all.

Alright, I implied that the game was "so short" earlier and it's only KINDA true. The game consists of 4 worlds with about 5-6 levels in each level. In each level of a world, you have to collect every lum and rescue every trapped friend of Rayman's. If you complete all of that in every level, you'll open up the bonus level of each world and then have to do the same thing there too. Once you solve those problems in every level of the game, one FINAL bonus level is opened up and then you fight the big boss and win the game. I always find it fun unlocking bonus levels of any kind, except every bonus level looks just like the other levels. It's not even something worth fighting for. The game is not all THAT hard either, although it had me going for a few days. It's just that the four worlds leave you craving just a bit more. It feels more like a $14.99 experience rather than a $29.99 one (if that makes sense).

I probably would have been just happy with the N-gage version of Rayman 3 if I had never played the GBA version. You can't argue with the clarity of N-gage's screen. Rayman 3 looks much more crisp, hi-rez, and well-lit on the high quality N-gage cell phone screen, but Gameboy players get more out of their technology. There were 6 levels in the GBA version that weren't in the N-gage version! And what's more, those levels were some really cool 32-bit looking levels. One level is a big 32-bit swamp race with your eel friend (which is repeated in half of these new levels), and the other version of these levels is a hot lava race through the caves). In the N-gage version, I walked to the very spot of the levels where these cool levels were in the GBA version and N-gage has a regular boring side-scrolling level in replacement of each one of these GBA exclusive levels....!!!!! Were the creators of the N-gage version too lazy to get these levels on N-gage for us too??? It's such a shame, since these levels really enhance the enjoyment of Rayman 3 adding a whole new level of gameplay and graphics to the lackluster sidescrolling experience. Upon learning that N-gage missed out on these special levels, it makes me wonder what the creators were thinking! Why would they take the time to make the GBA version much better? Especially when the N-gage is capable of doing those levels even better than the underpowered GBA. Spiderman 2 was proof of how N-gage can do graphics like that more justice than GBA can. But apparently they just didn't have to time to make the N-gage version what it should have been, and it's left me feeling rather left out.

Gee, first it was Sonic N, and now Rayman 3. When are you going to realize, Nokia, that when you port a GBA game to the N-gage, you have to make sure it's better, not worse! Not a shorter, dubbed down version with less features. That doesn't make people flock to your system. Kinda makes me wonder why I ever did too!