Developed internally at the French-Canadian studio Ubi Soft, Rayman Arena takes their popular mascot (and a handful of recognizable characters from the Rayman universe) and pits them in racing and battle contests. And while these modes were fairly fun to play, I just don’t see the game having content to warrant a $50 purchase, though it does seem like it will turn out to be a great rental.

To begin with, Arena allows you to select two modes of gameplay (which can be played with up the 4 players), racing and battle. The racing aspect is very similar to the Xbox’s Mad Dash (and the PSX’s Running Wild), in that your character must run (3 laps) across tracks filled with platforming elements. The tracks, while relatively short for the most part, have some very cool designs to them. One second you’ll be bouncing off trampolines which are speckled across a lava pit, and then next you’ll be sliding down a watery ramp, carefully avoiding area’s blocked by lasers. The racing aspect is fast paced and quite fun, as you also have the option to transform certain areas of the track by shooting red buttons with balls of energy. By hitting these buttons, paths, which once were open, will suddenly close off, often opening up a separate path. The races always involve a multitude of racing, be it sliding, climbing, swinging, jumping, and more.

The other half of Rayman Arena is the battle mode. There are two different battle modes, with the main one being a fairly basic third person arena deathmatch. You have the ability to jump (and subsequently glide) and pick up weapons by running into orbs with question marks on them. The weapon orbs reward you with multitudes of firearms, ranging from multiple energy ball blasts, to defensive shields, and decoy question mark orbs. The other battle mode option has less to do with combat, then it does collecting. Two to four players compete in an enclosed area, with the sole objective of trying to grab special crystals (lums), which are randomly generated on the map. The only offense you have is a freezing energy ball, which renders your opponents unable to move for a couple seconds when hit. The battle mode of Rayman Arena feels very tacked on, unfortunately, and it won’t offer much entertainment to those over the age of 12.

Graphically, Arena is not too good and not too bad. The characters animated adequately, the colors are sometimes vibrant, and the lighting and textures are all right. The game controls fine, as pretty much every mode of gameplay only requires you to use 3 or 4 buttons at the most. Overall, I had some fun with Rayman on the show floor, but just like the majority of arcade games, I can’t see myself recommending this one for a purchase.