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Rayman
Product:
Rayman for Pocket PC
Developer: Ludigames
(http://www.gameloft.com/)
Price: $20
Among
the number of games already available for PPC I decided to take a look
at Rayman, one of my favorite Genesis (Sega) console game. I remember
playing for hours at a time on Genesis and GameGear. Rayman became available
almost a year ago but after many hours trying to unlock the game for
the review, I simply gave up; I was suspecting my old H3600 and possibly
some corrupted hard drive file to be responsible for the unlocking of
the game.
After recently upgrading to an H3970 and reformatting my drives, I decided
to give Rayman a second chance (well more like a fifth chance but I
had high hopes for the game).
The install:
The
install of Rayman is quite unusual from a registration standpoint of
view. The activation of the program is performed through Active Sync,
with an application running on the PC and without anything to enter
on the PPC itself. It does take time to get used to but if you follow
the instructions everything should be fine.
Once you launch the install procedure, the Rayman install files will
be copied to your device as well as your PC. From there, you'll need
to remove the Pocket PC from the cradle, and proceed with the registration
process that is automatically initiated (though you can manually start
it from the desktop through the Start Menu). So far so good. Once the
Pocket PC has been removed from the cradle, you'll also need to select
Rayman to synchronize with Active Sync; this process will allow you
to upload information directly on the Ludigames website. You'll be able
to compare scores with other players on different levels. This process
is very innovative on the only one of its kind. From the Start Menu
icon on the desktop you'll be able to start the Rayman sync process
that basically allows you to synchronize different levels of the game
at different time. The game itself fully installed will take about 4-5MB
but you may want to select the first levels first and progressively
add new levels as you go further in the game. This is very well thought
for a game that large.
Now, onto the registration
process: after trying to reinstall Rayman on my new system and Pocket
PC, I was amazed when the game wouldn't register again. Since the systems
were brand new and in perfect working order I started to think (and
yes I can do that too). The registration process is done by launching
a desktop program that apparently checks for the validity of the registration
key (or so I thought). Since I am running several firewalls of protection
on my system I figured that one possibility would be that my firewalls
simply wouldn't allow for communication with the remote server. Bingo,
after setting up my firewall to DMZ (turn off the firewall) I was able
to successfully register that game.
Bottom line, TURN THE FIREWALL OFF FOR REGISTRATION.
Unfortunately this process isn't documented in the FAQ on the Ludigames
site and had prevented me from registering and enjoying the game for
months. Another minor problem was after the registration process and
once my firewalls were back up, the Rayman option in Active Sync wouldn't
get resolved; similar problem, with the PC not able to communicate with
the remote machine. Quite honestly I did try to look for the specific
service Rayman uses but couldn't find it so for now I'll live with no
online gaming option (as opposed to no network security). Not too bad,
especially since the game remains unlocked once you've register it once.
So all these minor problems aside, what about the game itself?
Well, the graphics
are simply amazing. You'll feel like using a GameGear again. Enjoy fast
scrolling levels, colorful themes and characters and quick play. I loved
this game on Genesis and GameGear and now I love it even more on my
Pocket PC. Rayman is one of the best game currently available on Pocket
PC (from a graphics standpoint, it is probably the best 2D game ever).
The first few levels aren't very challenging but the difficulty rapidly
increase as you go along. The game also feature secret bonus levels
and you can always go back to a previously visited platform by simply
using the "World Map".
One minor problem I did experience with my H3970 is the loading time
of the game. I installed Rayman on a Sandisk 128MB SD card and it does
take a good 30 seconds to load. I'm unsure whether this is an issue
with the new Xscale CPUs or simply SD access time problems but I'm leaning
towards the second option. Once the game is loaded I does run fine from
the SD card. I remember having the demo installed on my old H3600 CF
Microdrive and the game also worked great (loading time was normal then).
So bottom line is that this game is simply amazing; probably the best
$20 invested in a game for your PPC. The graphics are beautiful and
you should enjoy many hours of play. The minus sign goes for the tech
support (don't get me wrong these people are great and knowledgeable)
that couldn't figure out that my system wouldn't register because of
a firewall issue.
Finally, I wanted to thank the Ludigames team for sending me a copy
of the game for the review and for the long wait (has been a while since
I was supposed to be done).
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