Rayman

Rayman on the Sega Saturn offers one of the most polished takes on the classic 2D platformer, with a hand-drawn art style and richly animated characters. The player controls a limbless being named Rayman, who fights his way through colorful, fantastical worlds full of enemies, collectibles, and carefully designed platforming challenges that demand precisely timed jumps, using flying fists and helicopter-style hops. Along the way the player gradually gains new abilities, such as hovering or a stronger punch, which open up previously inaccessible areas and add a satisfying element of progressive unlocking and revisiting earlier locations.

The Saturn version is among the most complete releases of Rayman from the nineties, as it includes bonus levels and expanded content not found on other platforms, offering a somewhat longer and richer experience. The visuals benefit from finely detailed backgrounds and fluid animation of the main character, while the soundtrack rounds out a fairy-tale atmosphere that can nonetheless turn demanding at times. The difficulty rises gradually and requires patience and mastery of precise jump and punch timing from players, especially in later levels full of narrow platforms and timed traps.

Rayman remains one of the titles that still shows how high a classic 2D platformer could reach even in the era when 3D graphics were taking over and two-dimensional games seemed to be fading into the background. Its artistic presentation, careful level design, and rewarding progression make it one of the best-rated platforming experiences on the Saturn, comparable even to top-tier platformers on rival consoles. For fans of the genre, it remains a pleasantly challenging, aesthetically timeless game that holds up well against later entries in the series and ranks among the best the Saturn has to offer in the classic platformer genre.

Why play it: For lovers of classic 2D platformers, Rayman offers an aesthetically timeless, carefully crafted experience that ranks among the best-rated titles of the genre on the Saturn.