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Over the past few years, Rayman has become one of the bigger names in the platform game genre. Best known for his lack of limbs, Rayman has become an UbiSoft’s mascot of sorts. Hoodlum Havoc, the third installation in the Rayman series, blends the best of the old with some fresh new twists.

The games storyline won’t win any praise for complexity or depth, but it’s light hearted and somewhat reminiscent of a Saturday morning cartoon. All is well throughout the land, until a black lum (tiny, evil flying creature) named Andre decides to stir up trouble with a clan of likeminded lums. Being the resident hero and overall nice guy, it’s up to Rayman to save the day. Things become rather difficult though, when Rayman’s bumbling buddy Globox swallows Andre, the head lum. As this obviously poses a problem for Rayman and his pal, they set off to visit some of the top doctors in the area to try and help poor Globox.

Rayman has always been known for its vibrant and colorful areas. Rayman 3 is no different. Each area you’ll explore will be full of various bright, bold colors, making every area pleasing to the eyes and further emphasizing the cuteness factor of the game. Rayman himself, along with the other characters in the game are modeled nicely, and animate as smooth as one could wish. Some of the areas of the game, such as the crystallized staircase, have very impressive lighting and particle effects, pulling you deeper into the cute, magical world Rayman creates. The games various boss characters also look very impressive. They vary nicely from size and color and each one with it’s own particular moves. They give off some of the previously mentioned nice particle effects to boot.

Rayman 3 marks the first time that voice acting has been implemented for the games characters. The voice acting for the entire crew of characters is very memorable. Pleasantly, each voice suites their respected characters very well and the voice actors themselves are excellent. You’ll find yourself enjoying the little quips that Andre gives out while trapped in Globox’s stomach. There are some ambient effects that will probably end up annoying the hell out of you by the end of the game, such as the trapped ‘teensies’ calling out for help.

Rayman has always been known for simple, yet fun gameplay and Rayman 3 helps keep that tradition going. Most of Rayman’s moves are all old school from Rayman 2, but he has a few new surprises for this third adventure. Rayman can now gain power-ups from cans littered throughout the games 9 levels. Given abilities range from the ability to shoot tornados out of your fists, to being able to smash down certain gates that block your progress. For the most part, Rayman is straight platform gaming goodness from beginning to end. If the typical platform game has started to bore you, UbiSoft has politely thrown in some nicely fleshed out, fun mini games to keep you from getting bored, which also helps the games replay value. There are 9 mini games to unlock, ranging from a first person target shooter, to a wacky, Rayman take on tennis. The games themselves are not very long, but that’s forgivable, because they’re not supposed to be. You can also unlock various small movies, which pose as the hoodlums ‘training videos’ for learning how to deal with Rayman. There are 9 of these videos, and just like the mini games, are unlocked through points.

Rayman 3 is the first of the series to implement a point system. After each level, Rayman is awarded a number of points based on how many gems and jewels you collected and how many hoodlums you killed. If Rayman kills more than one hoodlum in the course of a few seconds, or collects multiple gems or jewels in the same period, he is awarded a ‘combo bonus’, which will help to boost his score even higher. At the end of the level, the points are stacked up and Rayman is given a star score out of 5 for level completeness. Rayman can go back to earlier levels to help boost his score and unlock more games and movies. It’s sort of like Kung-Fu Chaos, if you’ve played that.

Overall, it can definitely be said that Rayman 3 brings a lot of firsts to the series, making for a fresh experience even if most of the gameplay is recycled from Rayman 2. The game’s colorful environments, fun characters and fun storyline will keep you interested right until the end, while the games various unlockables will have you coming back for more when you’re done. Hoodlum Havoc is a smart choice for anyone looking for a good platform game, or anyone looking for an easy ‘pick-up-n-play’ game.