Every established character seems to be getting a multiplayer-oriented title nowadays. But although some have labeled Rayman Arena a Mario Party style game in the past, that really isn’t the case. Rayman Arena takes Rayman’s world and turns it into something like Mario Kart on feet. Close to completion, there are two main games in Rayman Arena: Race and Battle. The racing game features 12 circular platforming levels in the Rayman style, each with multiple routes and various obstacles. Controls are similar to the Rayman games, with jumping and floating being the most important moves (A) and . I only played the first few tracks, but I found it fairly amusing. I’m not sure how well this will work multi-player, just because a competition requires people to be of the same skill level. Battle mode could be likened to Mario Kart’s Battle mode, with question spheres containing various weapons in an enclosed arena. Once again, controls are taken from the Rayman series: you can lock on to an enemy with R and shoot with B, avoiding attacks by jumping and floating. With twelve different battle arenas and a secondary freeze mode, there should be enough variety, at least with four people. Both games handled quite well and have a lot of potential on the multiplayer front.

The PC and Xbox versions will be online, but GameCube and PS2 owners will need to play multiplayer the old-fashioned way. Unfortunately, this fun game only has two modes, both multi-player oriented, making the online-capable versions more appealing than GameCube’s.