Customer Reviews

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc Official Strategy Guide

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How much can you say for a game guide? Well, quite a bit actually--some are little more than a cursory walk through, while some may have more about the game (or game series) history than it devotes to walk throughs, and secrets. The Rayman 3 guide is not like that at all. While it doesn't give you much about Rayman's history, or the story, it certainly has everything else you would expect it to have. It has no maps, but you don't really need them--Rayman's world in R3 is fairly linear, and there isn't much chance of you needing a map. The walkthroughs are adequate, and more importantly highlights major scoring opportunities, and reveals the tricks to accessing secret rooms. It also spotlights the scoring threshholds needed to unlock the bonus games, and hoodlum training tapes. Having a scoring table for the various levels was a very nice touch as well since most platform games tend to focus as much on score as story, and being no exception, Rayman 3 also gives the player much incentive to play for a score worthy of posting on the hall of fame at the site. Being given an enemies list was another good touch, and can be helpful, but not as much so as the score table. This guide is also very well organized, complete with callouts on all the collectible creatures (which can be worth BIG points if acquired correctly) in each area of each level, as well as the maximum attainable score. The collectible creature callouts are especially useful because they can be quite eaily overlooked otherwise. If there is any down side to this guide, it's that some of the screenshots are a bit dark, so it can sometimes be difficult to tell what you're supposed to do.

The guide covers all platforms Rayman 3 is available for, is logically laid out, well organized, and very easy to read and use. You can't say enough for good layout and organization; few things are more irritating than guides whose information is poorly organized, which ultimately insures allot of flipping back and forth, and keeping track of a bookmark. My primary reason for giving the guide a good rating is because before I picked it up, and began playing for 100% level completion, and as near to optimal score as I could get, I was overlooking much of the challenge Rayman 3 has to offer. It's hard not to believe the game might have been more popular if more people had bought the guide along side it. This guide is also out of print, and is a rare find even in second hand outlets. Overall, Brady has done an excellent job on this guide. It is an indespensible companion for the game, is very helpful, and comes highly recommended.