• $20

• Nice graphics
• Good game play

• BIG program
• Conduit takes awhile to sync
• Runs slowly on color

Design:
Cost/Benefit:
Coolness:
Overall:

Game Play
Rayman, like many other games, has a very simple yet unique story line. You are Rayman - a strange guy who is basically a collection of floating body parts. His quest in life is pretty simple - stay alive. More specifically, Rayman needs to free the toons and kill Mister Dark.

Along the way, Rayman makes several friends, and has a few enemies to deal with. The friends are mainly inanimate objects like plums and trumpets, but the enemies are more vicious things like piranhas and bats. All of these enemies hurt Rayman, but he can use his friends to help him get out of some tricky situations.

But game play isn't based solely on characters and plot line, a lot of it has to do with actually playing the game. Well, Rayman uses the six keys on the bottom of the Palm with a tap on the screen to pause. In fact only six buttons can be used - the power button is disabled! So, if you wanna stop to talk to someone during a game you're just going to need to leave it running or ignore the person you want to talk to.

On color units, the game runs sluggish but it is still perfectly playable. Although climbing a vine may seem like a chore that takes forever, all of the other characters have slowed down too. I'm not sure whether this speed makes the game easier or too obnoxious to play. One solution to this problem is overclocking, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the idea of over-working my processor to enjoy a game a little more. Monochrome devices run smoothly without overclocking, but that of course has its drawbacks too.

Graphics
One really important part of a game is the graphics. If a game uses poor graphics, it can really take away from the excitement.

On the color, Rayman has pretty decent graphics. There are dark scenes that seem full of evil and bright scenes that are as cheery as a summer day. The game makes a nice use of backgrounds that add to the game without being cluttersome. Although the graphics may seem a bit cartoonish, I think that's the point.

On greyscale, the graphics aren't quite as nice. When Rayman is just standing there, looking at you, the graphics certainly aren't bad for monochrome. But when Rayman starts to move, you lose any hopes of actually seeing what is happening. The graphics disappear into a hopeless blur. With a little fiddling of your contrast, you can get it to a playable level. If you have an on-screen contrast bar, you will need to exit the program every time you try to adjust the contrast.

Odds and Ends
Aside from the big things like game play and graphics, there are a few things in the program that should be mentioned. Most notable on this list is the huge size. Rayman takes up an amazing 1.7 megs! Unfortunately, there isn't yet a version that is compatible with SD cards, and if you try to run off of SD you will soon find yourself performing a reset.

Another item worthy of being mentioned is the registration process. It is four steps that involve restarting your computer, launching programs, and logging onto their website.

Also worth stating is the conduit. Rayman, like many other add-ons, has a conduit which greatly adds to the Hot Sync time. I've found that Rayman takes nearly as long to sync as AvantGo.

Conclusion
Rayman is a good game, but some details need to be worked out before I would pay $20 for it. Mainly, either SD support or a smaller size. Until I see this happen, I wont be playing Rayman because it just doesn't fit.

Update: I've just heard from someone at LUDIpocket who said there will be a patched version, with SD card and Memory Stick support, ready in two weeks. This upgrade will be free to everone who already owns the game. -Ed