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As a fond Trine series fan, I enjoyed the games from the first to the more recent Trine 5, and I was looking forward to Trine 6, the soon to be latest game in the series.

However, I came across recent news about that game. After its demo launched, and many players feeling... unsatisfied of its present state and specific mechanics that derived from what they enjoyed in many past games, it got delayed, by 6 months, after being close to its former release date, which was September 2026.

For those at VGMaps that don't know, Trine is a 2.5D series created and developed by Frozenbyte, stationed in Finland. It features three heroes, Amadeus the Wizard, who mainly does boxes, Zoya, a thief who prefers to be called an entrepreneur, and Pontius, an aspiring knight who longs to fight off evil by becoming one.

The first game, launched in 2009, had them as regular people with their own lives, but in a kingdom that was prosperous fell into darkness because its Old King died with no planned descendant to rule it, and more than just domestic life alone was destabilized, it was under siege by an evil undead horde that took advantage of the madness. At the midst of the mayhem, these people met at the particular spot beneath the abandoned Astral Academy's pile of treasure and laid physical contact of an ancient artifact that dragged them together into its grasp, leaving them unable to leave each other's company. There, they would be later tasked in saving the kingdom from that horde and restoring peace and order in it, and that would be the first of their adventures to come.

After the first Trine did well, Trine 2 was made and launched in 2011, and continued the 2.5D gameplay and placed the now established heroes on a new adventure in a different land, held under siege by a wicked witch and her jealousy of a particular sister... and goblins. Many goblins. It had a story expansion, The Goblin Menace, months later, and gave additional levels focusing on the goblins' attempts to take over the kingdom, with new powers that are retroactively applied to all past levels.

Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power, released in 2015, would follow, but this game went full 3D and featured the backstory beneath the being called Trine and her sister, Rona, and their struggle against the vile sorcerer, Sarek the Deathless. However, an experiment with Steam's Early Access, and underestimating the costs of a 3D game left the story incomplete... and the series on a hiatus.

But, that ended with not only a spin-off set in the same universe, but Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince, released in 2019, and returned to its proper blueprint the previous two games set, and focuses on a particular student seen in said spin-off, Prince Selius himself, whose attempt to learn magic by himself created a crisis involving nightmares manifesting to life, and placing the heroes on a new quest to save him, which leads them to confront their own nightmares in the midst. It received its story DLC, "Melody of Mystery", centering on the Astral Academy's students under deep sleep by a particular music box, and under Selius' guidance, the heroes trek through the students' dreams to save them from the box's influence. Its on PC, but still not on consoles YET. I really hope it can be brought to consoles before anything else happens.

Later, Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy, launched in 2023, and it thrusts the heroes into an evil scheme of royal intrigue and treachery involving the use of mechanical constructs, not robots; completely different, and tarnishing the heroes' name through psychological manipulation and some essence exploitation. With their good images smeared, and allies in danger, its up to the heroes to stop the villains, Lady Sunny, a self-proclaimed royal mistress who seeks dominance, and Lord Goderic, the inventor of the Clockwork Knights, and her criminal accomplice, and come to the rescue... and keep their morale together.

That brings up to Trine 6: Together in Time, and it not only continues the blueprint, but adds in two new characters to add in the hero roster, and have more characters for multiplayer to play, rather than using color-swatched clones of the three heroes, who have fallen into the exact grip by messing with Trine's magic and properties the three heroes still feel, and they will have no choice but to cooperate, whether they like it or not, and save the kingdom from a villainous warlock.

Now, I don't like delays to games for numerous reasons, but in such a case as Trine 6's, I can understand why it is so; there's much revising work to be done to make sure its better than before. Now, its set to March 2027. Honestly, the delay will do that game good. I saw and like how it continues the blueprint, but I couldn't bear to play it in its present state.

So, while we wait, I'll ask you this; have any of you played Trine's games before? If so, what do you like about the series, the heroes, and their adventures?

I think those of you around the VGMaps community, both newcomers and long-time members, may not notice, in case you haven't been informed, but the forums has been recently updated after, well, larger images choked the  bandwidth there and then, and caused our regular connections to become sluggish. Everything else remains OK.

You'll find the layout's been rearranged a bit in the update, which takes a little getting used to, yes, alongside a good sleek, brighter look, but, the usual login procedures remain the same. If you can't seem to find where you're going to log in to post and hang with us, you'll find your way in up at the top of the layout.

When you do log in, if you have unread messages waiting, look for an icon that lets you know when you have them, right at the very top, close to the left, where your logged in name's at, and "My Messages" a little to the right.

Oh, for those wanting to make accounts to join and hang, the "Sign Up" button's located at the very top alongside "Log In", too.

Just thought you needed a bit of context. Hope you don't mind, Jon.

That's all. Have fun, everyone!

I felt I should share a quaint, NES-esque game series from an indie studio stationed in Brazil, Galope Studios' Ravva.

Oh. I think not many of you in the VGMaps community heard of that fantasy-based platformer game series. Well, I'll give you the rundown and the word-of-mouth spreading about that.

It stars a young owl summoner, named Ravva, who is accompanied by 4 familiar-like companions, each with their own powers the summoner uses to defeat enemies and overcome obstacles across different stages to stop threats coming in that owl's way.

The games are clearly hi-bit in their own way; the graphics are NES based, but the music and sounds were mace with the YM2612 soundchip, a rather mix of flairs of 8-bit and 16-bit aesthetics.

The first game is "Ravva and the Cyclops Curse", where it started.



It puts Ravva on a quest to rescue the summoner's mother, who was put under a curse by a monster called the Cyclops Lord, and its up to the little one to save her by going to his castle and stop him.

The game has 3 stages, that are split into 3 levels; Swampomile Forest, Takenouchi Desert Wasteland, and the Cyclops Lord's Castle With No Name, but the last has 4, the 4th of which is the fight against the beast himself.

Traversing through the levels require good eyes, and keen senses to overcome the many dangers the levels are infested with, and using Ravva's companion powers will surely help the summoner to reach the castle.

There is a hidden ending in the game, but the requirements for it are quite tricky. And a few hidden surprises, too.

Here's some screenshots...







Here's the trailer for the first game, too...

The second game is "Ravva II and the Phantom Library".



In it, Ravva and the companions are thrown into a rather haunted library filled with worlds made of books, the kind that aren't for reading or show. They're portals to actual worlds, each holding a unique boss to face in the end. They're challenging, but fun to face!

After going through the first stage, The Forgotten Forest, you get to select the 6 stages that are all books with portals to their worlds.

The game features Ravva's companions being able to become combo forms to unleash incredible powers to blast away enemies and blockades. There's many to find and use!

The main villain herself can be fought after finishing off all the worlds, and like the previous game, it has a different ending, but the requirements are different.

There may be a few clever nods to select games you could find(one of the stages has a Bounce Man callback! its neat!).

Here's the sequel's screenshots...







And the trailer for its launch...

And now, here comes the third game in the series, "Ravva III and the Netherworld Train".



The new, upcoming sequel places Ravva on another new adventure; this time, to save the summoner's father by traveling through the land of the dead and its many deadly landscapes by using the one vessel that can help the little one around; the titular Netherworld Train itself!

Expect to seek out surprises and dangers beneath the new stages the game holds, because in this adventure, Ravva gains a new power, to merge with each of the 4 companions to inhibit new forms and utilize new abilities!

Here's Ravva III's screenshots...









And its recently made trailer...

That game's not yet released, but I have a feeling it will be very soon. The previous 2 games are out, so give these games a try!

The games are all made with Aseprite and Tiled, and they run in the engine, Unity, to let you know.

I also have a few behind-the-scenes images about the games' stages, enemies and bosses you should look...

































The first was made in paper, but the rest were made digitally, through Clip Studio Paint, as I've looked into.

There's another game Galope Studios' been on the bakc burner time and again; the long-awaited platformer Meawja. IT showcases a ninja cat overcoming many obstacles across different stages to take down evil.

I'll give you a screenshot of that game that has its title for proof. Here it is...



Bear in mind, that studio's only got very few people(fewer than I thought, actually), and yes, their games take quite long to release, because they only have very little full-time people brought in to work on them. Hopefully with more attention and people purchasing them, it will help bring in more full-timers to lighten their load.

Here's Galope Studios' website's and social channels' links for those who want to visit.

Galope Studios' website - https://galopestudios.crd.co/

Galope Studios' YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@GalopeStudios/featured

Galope Studios' Twitter/X Account - https://x.com/GalopeStudios

Galope Studios' BlueSky Profile - https://bsky.app/profile/galopestudios.bsky.social

For the mappers, should you purchase them, feel free to map their levels out, so more people can feel ready to traverse them.

If you're eager to play them, give them a go! I'm having some fun with them.

I already know so many played and enjoyed Star Fox 64, the 3DS remake, but Star Fox Zero gave another retelling of the same story again, and what really gave me ire is this...

ANOTHER Star Fox 64 Remake.   No direct continuations of any Star Fox game; not to Assault, not to Star Fox Zero, not even Star Fox 2. No. Just Star Fox 64, remade again, and again, and again.

The newest Star Fox game from Nintendo is, what else another remake to Star Fox 64; another reliving of the same old story, Andross seeks conquest of the Lylat System, General Pepper calls Star Fox to stop Andross, defeat his forces, destroy the heart of his operations, save the Lylat System, all the same.

As an individual, and a gamer who actually enjoys sequels a lot more than remakes, I have to say this, I am completely sick and tired of Nintendo redoing that one same game from the Nintendo 64, which was a redoing of the SNES original, over and over and OVER again! I truly think in my perspective, I'm beginning to question the direction Shigeru Miyamoto and the staff at Nintendo's putting through the Star Fox series right now.

It leads me to think they've got no actual fresh ideas for any future Star Fox game, that is to say actually continuing the story without redoing the same game again; no ideas for new main villains, no new different solar systems and planets, no new original bosses, no new rivals, nothing. All they can do with their genius is this, "Remake Star Fox 64 again, get people to play Star Fox more with this! Pure genius!". I feel its already gotten too old as rotten, curdled milk, doused with aged mildew to sour the appetites and taste a lot.

They think and believe its going to make the Switch's successor sell more, but anyone with actual intelligence(in gaming, that is) that has had enough of remakes of one same game needs to see that they're trying the same old blueprint, and understand that doing it again is not going to work anymore. All that'll do is drive away the audience a lot more rather than attract more.

Not to mention that there's already been too much re-quoting of Star Fox 64's lines, "Do a Barrel Roll!" - Peppy Hare, "I've been waiting for you, Star Fox." - Andross, and, of course, "You've become so strong, Fox." - James McCloud, and more'll keep on repeating said quotes when people act and imitate said quotes even more with that remake they want to play. I feel I've had enough of it already. We really need to, and have to, move forward, and so does Nintendo.

I'm not saying this to deprive anyone from playing the games, even though there's very little, but to actually garner some common sense to see through the old bait and tackle blueprint from Nintendo. I've kept having thoughts on NEW Star Fox games for long, not more remakes of Star Fox 64.

What do you think of what Nintendo's doing with the franchise itself? I think, unless something changes with their plans by actual initiative to move on and forward, never to go back and repeat over and over again, it'll head downward towards less interest in the series for people, and place it into a bleak, directionless future.

And, what will you endure when you actually play the remake on the Switch's successor system? I say to those willing to play, good luck enduring more of the same again. You'll need it.

Don't worry about me, though; just had some frustration I needed to vent out. I know you really love Star Fox, but we need to think and consider about its well-being more.

I would like to let you know that SNK's Metal Slug series is celebrating its 30th anniversary right now!

From the first game where it started, we've witnessed great run and gunning action and loads of bullets fly against numerous warmongering enemies and threats through the always beautifully pixel made games the series has provided!

Though it started from the Neo Geo brand arcade and consoles, the series went to other systems, too, and even though it retains the look and feel from past games, they're no longer bound to tech constraints of said past systems.

My real hopes for the series is to retain the same gameplay for Metal Slug 8, which a lot of people really wanted time and again, but go straight into putting health systems for players instead of one-hit only(but can become an unlockable for those wanting the original challenge's fidelity), become hi-bit to retain the beloved pixel art style, go for the actual widescreen resolution of 424x240, and perhaps 480x270/2, and have actual health indicators for ALL bosses, as well as plenty of additional side content to have and some good unlockables, including bestiaries, art galleries, sound tests, and more!

This retrospective video SNK just made commemorates the series and its amazing installments so far! Give it a watch!

SNK's come that far, let's keep that series going!

For those of you who played the games, what are your favorite entries and bosses in the series so far?

It's been quite at my mind towards memory lane lately, but does anyone actually remember playing Expert Software's Casino CD Game from your young years?

As much as I can remember, I enjoyed playing the many casino based games in that CD, on Windows 98 then, and much I could remember are the recognizable casino sound effects heard in many TV shows before and later on when I was in the midst of selecting any game. I still remember having fun playing them again and again for many days... just not too crazy long, that is.

In case some of your memories are hazy, here are some images as proof.







I love those fond memories, but, so far, I don't see anyone posting gameplay/longplay videos of Expert Software's Casino CD Game online. I've been trying to search for them wherever I could get the chance, and, so far, no dice(no pun intended).

I hope and feel someone who can utilize their time to create and upload said videos online to give us a good time reliving it, wherever we are.

To those who have played it before, what do you remember about that CD game? You can tell us your memories here.

I couldn't help but notice only about very few maps of the Super Star Wars Trilogy on the SNES hasn't been finished and put up yet. The first game, obviously named the same, has the rest of its maps yet to be documented, as well as the remaining two games.

I've seen Will Mallia's work on it, but, I felt that he got sidetracked with other mapping projects, or whatever else he was busy with in general, that he may have forgotten to return and finish mapping the rest.

Will Mallia, wherever you are right now, hope you read this and return to mapping the rest of that game and the trilogy on SNES sometime soon.

[Sonic Unleashed]

Hey, I just had a quick thought about Sonic's 3D stages, in square kilometers.

Back at GDC, from a presentation video I was watching on YouTube, I happen to come across some interesting info about Sonic Unleashed's process and how long their levels were, before the DLC levels were included.

The GDC '09(yes, that took place years ago, but that was rather interesting, to say the least) presentation video link's here, in case you may want to watch it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHSDZQH3sgk

Tech specs speaking aside, it does give us insights on how the Hedgehog Engine, Sega's own engine created for later Sonic games, was made and how Unleashed's levels were built, along with the many challenges Sega and Sonic Team's devs faced there and then.

I understand not many of you in the VGMaps community understand much tech talk, but, I'll lay it to you simply as I can. I'll start from what I've been watching from Chapter 19 of its presentation. Find it at minute 43:46.

To be brief, at the time Unleashed was in the works, many PCs were underpowered to handle such a game that required Sonic to run at very fast speeds on long levels, made as the Day levels in that game, especially with the boost's introduction and other additional moves to get around them. The more prominent of such problems was having it run on the 360 to fit the limits in it.

To cut down on lots of computational time to work around it before launch, Sega and Sonic Team had to set up a distributed system with their arrays of PCs by the dozens linked up to the management PC and it followed up with a link to the artist's PC. Then...

Their underpowered PCs couldn't handle the workload for the game's development. So, they had to acquire new PCs with upgraded RAM to fit their texture data into their memory, install hi-performance hard disks, and compressed their light network data for optimization.

Then, just as they were about to get it on, another major problem hit them; power overload to their offices' old circuit breaker. Total darkness I'm talking about, here. Ceasing usage of their appliances wasn't just enough, too. They had but no choice but to completely upgrade their offices' power system to keep the overload from occurring again. And, of course, additional solutions to their other problems were met.

There's more info to hear in the rest of the video. Give it a good watch and listen, if you like.

Now, to the matter of 3D Sonic's stage lengths.

Sonic Unleashed stages, in that example, and talked about in that presentation video, were poised to be 5 to 20 kilometers long(NOTE: This does NOT include open world games unrelated to Sonic, nor its hi-speed platforming formulas), especially Eggmanland's Crimson Carnival, which is quite long, and from what I kinda pieced together, other later 3D Sonic games kinda cut down on their length before we had more new hardware for game development.

Sonic's 3D games have come quite long since then, and we've had much more stronger hardware that guarantees more than just breathing room for running Unleashed on PCs without lag. And, I still felt like newer 3D Sonic games should have stages longer than Unleashed, Generations, or even Forces' stages.

Regardless of their length and size, they're still fun to play through, all the same.

So, I ask you this, did you sometimes think of how long other 3D Sonic games were, in kilometers? If not, maybe give it a try in calculating them. Sure would like to know sometime soon.

I'm having this question in my mind, how can anyone see any game's maps made through Clickteam Fusion and prior versions with what tools to use?

I have no idea about their sizes, even the more recognizable games, like Freedom Planet, Aggleos, and Spark the Electric Jester. They're still yet to be documented.

Anyone with prior experience with them, any answers? I'm asking.

So, I went and found a rather promising action-packed indie game, made by Strange Matter, consisting of, I think so far, PrototypeTheta, taking place in its own galaxy, and its home planet to two playable characters, Alpha, the latest creation from the antagonistic organization, Grey Imperium, and Cassie, a salamander-like alien with her right arm somehow lost in a dangerous infliction from her past and replaced with a cybernetic arm that turns into a multi-purpose, weaponized tool of her liking.

...I'll be honest, the details of its story are, so far, scarce, but, the overall goal seems to be clear; trek through numerous stages with Alpha and Cassie, tear through numerous robotic legions of Grey Imperium, find and collect numerous weapon mods, along with secrets, avoid many hazards and overcome challenges and obstacles, and, what else, fight numerous bosses to get to the goal.

Though each character does have their own perspectives, along with their strengths and weaknesses, they'll no doubt travel through much  of the same stages, but they'll have to go to their own stages at particular points in the story, example being, they have their own intro stages.

Did I forget mention this before? The stages in Starbuster are going to be huge, perhaps even more than Freedom Planet 2's stages, and whatever 2D Sonic game that held the longest/largest map yet. Should the game get launched(hopefully sometime soon), let's hope the mappers can handle doing its maps.

The inspirations of the game's development are surely from Mega Man Zero, Sonic Advance, the novel series, The Culture, and, moreover Freedom Planet 1 and 2.

The game's got a demo, and it's available for anyone to play and try the game. I'll leave a link for it here for anyone to give it a try - https://strange-matter.itch.io/starbuster

I have to say, the pixel art is GORGEOUS!

There's a Twitter/X account about the game, and, so far, the deliverance of sneak peeks are amazing, and neat to watch. Here's its link if anyone wants to go give a talk - https://x.com/Starbuster_Game

There's a few preview clips, too. I have about one featuring Cassie grinding and fighting against a massive robot as a boss fight to a stage. If you pay attention to the video's bottom-left corner, there's a distance indicator showing how far Cassie's grinding to, well... you know what and where, exactly.

Here - https://x.com/Starbuster_Game/status/1665010449417658370#m

Drop on by to chat. I hope we hear some details in the story soon enough.

And another featuring a clip collection, including those that have new stages made so far. Video link is here - https://x.com/Starbuster_Game/status/1984666209283887118#m

I must say, with each few new stages seen in more clips, makes the anticipation to play the game all the more thrilling! Even their pixel art scenery's getting more gorgeous every time.

Hope the game gets ported to consoles soon, once its launched on PC.

And, I also hope we get some story insights from Strange Matter... really.

Give the demo a try, and see how well you could go along with others.

[Azure Striker Gunvolt]

I have no idea, but if anyone has any input, what are the key tools/programs needed to do maps made from Inti Creates' games to document on?

So far, they're known for their original games, like the "Azure Striker Gunvolt" series, "Mega Man Zero", "Mega Man 9" and "Mega Man 10" and the "Blaster Master Zero" trilogy, but after many games, my curious mind got me thinking lately, "Why haven't their game's maps been documented yet?".

The thing is, while Inti Creates' 2D games are enjoyable, there's still some lingering confusion to how long their stages are, what hidden secrets to uncover, and what paths to take in certain stages that can be confusing, like False Zonda's(GV2 explains why later on) stage, "Sinner's Row", in "GV1", where certain mirror panels are touched to progress, sections of the intermission stage has been flipped upside down to create disorientation to anyone's perspective before facing the actual boss, Copen, for the first time.

I can pretty much tell from sight that the Gunvolt games' tilesets are entirely Photoshop made, rather than handmade pixel art, although the characters themselves are made and animated through it in-game.

Inti Creates' games are all made through their own in-house engines, one of which is called, well, "Inti Creates Engine"(I.C.E.; yeah, yeah, a pun.), the second, "Imperial Engine", used for other games, like "Gunvolt 3", and the third, is used for "Luminous Avenger iX 2".

If, by chance, no compatible tools are present, maybe somebody can make some to streamline the process.

Hope there's good recommendations for anyone to get into documenting them soon.

[Riot Gunheads - Hyper World Injustice Fighters]

I just happened to come across a rather neat new card game and set on the way to the Barcode Battler II, and I read it's Tanukii Studios, who approached Epoch Co., inventor behind Barcode Battler and Barcode Battler II, making that game.

The new card game set's called "Riot Gunheads - Hyper World Injustice Fighters"!

I just took a moment to think this, if you're reading... You're probably thinking these questions in your heads, "What is Barcode Battler?", "What card games does it have?", "Do we even know how to play it?", alongside a few other questions.

Well, perhaps for those that don't know(or even remember if you've not played it in a very long time), it's time to give you a crash course.

Barcode Battler is a handheld game console that works very uniquely compared to other handhelds, like Game Boy, Game Gear, or even DS. While the controls are different, the system does have card sets sold at retail, comprising of players, but they also comprise of enemies, power-ups, even bosses.

The first model only had stats appear on-screen, for players seeking to battle against each other with their own playable warriors of their choice.

All anybody has to do, upon finding said cards in sets, is to scan by swiping them on its scanner while playing their barcode games in order to progress in their own adventures and face dangerous threats standing in their way.

The first model, unfortunately, while popular in Japan, didn't had actual graphics, sounds, and controls of its own, and its quickly forgotten by people...

Later, Barcode Battler II came along, and improved lot from the first model, to deliver better enhanced functionality to that handheld, including having single player mode. That model also gave way to link up with the Famicom and Super Famicom via an adapter, and allowed them to play games using the handheld's card battle system mechanics(too bad other regions' versions, like NES, didn't receive it), thanks to Epoch's partnership with Nintendo. It also brought up created card sets based on Nintendo's IPs, like, Super Mario and Zelda, along with other games based on T.V. IPs, like, Spider-Man, for instance.

No other new Barcode Battler game was made after '95... until now.

Tanukii Studios' hand in reviving the Barcode Battler itself could pave for later new games and card sets... but of course, their success may also well lead to the rise of Barcode Battler III, a more better model that pars very well to other stronger gaming handhelds(not counting mobile phones) and improved connectivity for multiplayer.

There's an interview done by Time Extension featuring Epoch Co. and Webb himself. You can take a read at that with this link I've left for you here - https://www.timeextension.com/features/we-live-in-an-age-where-even-bubsy-can-make-a-comeback-meet-the-developers-trying-to-resurrect-the-barcode-battler

There's another card game set coming up, called "Woggle Ball '94 SuperSports Cards", but I'm not certain its Barcode Battler material. Still, its fun for anybody to try.

So, with that history trip done, I ask you this, would you give Barcode Battler a try? And, what cards would you collect?

Anyone around in here, would you please take some time to support Tanukii Studios' latest card games when they come out? It'd be neat to see some people get into the Barcode battling games once more. Hope you'll get your sets soon!

[Sonic: Mega Drive]

I can honestly admit, when Archie Comics had the Sonic license for comics, and after it got a severe continuity redoing(don't ask, but some that heard of what happened behind the scenes might know that rough story), I've heard of an original Classic Sonic adventure that commemorates Sonic's 25th anniversary, not throwing Sonic Mania in it to count, "Sonic: Mega Drive".

Yes, it is obviously references to the first game and the console's name outside of America, but what's beneath that adventure's name is its actual originality of its contents.

That adventure featured an all-new setting, Eastwatch Islands, and had actual original Zones Sonic and his friends traversed through, and had its story centered on Dr. Robotnik's next world conquering effort; finding and harnessing all the Ancient Gears to power his most powerful creation, the titular Mega Drive itself, deploying his newest batch of Badniks and Super Badniks to try and stop Sonic again.

I only watched it through online YouTube videos, but I gotta say, it was brilliant! Sonic and his friends trashing more Badniks at every corner, outwitting the mad scientist from one Zone after another, and collecting the Ancient Gears to stop his plans was great... however, Metal Sonic ambushed them and stole these gears and delivered them to Robotnik at his deep sea base, and the twist was that after Sonic gave the 6th Ancient Gear he held, Metal Sonic REALLY had the 7th Ancient Gear installed in him all along as his latest opportunity for a revenge rematch, which ended in another loss for Metal Sonic, but I never got to see him actually unleash that gear's full power for his once-looming final fight in Robotnik's deep sea base.

In my mind, I imagined Metal Sonic undergoing a new, original transformation into a more larger, far more faster form of himself, fittingly called "Overdrive Metal Sonic"(and, no, its not meant to be deriving from Metal Sonic Kai from "Knuckles' Chaotix", an actual new form), with loads of all-new attacks and powers, but he'd still get defeated and finally lose that last gear, only to get plugged into Robotnik's Mega Drive in the actual final battle we never got to see. I really enjoyed seeing Robotnik's latest well-armed aerial fortress, said to be not quite sleek as Wing Fortress, but bigger than Flying Battery.

What I could still imagine in Robotnik's deep sea base we could've seen in the finale, it would've been quite massive(mainly to me, massive that 2 Acts, not even 3 Acts could be considered enough for it; I'm thinking 4 super-huge Acts), and it would have had a new collective group of robots more powerful than Super Badniks Robotnik created to protect that base before confronting him again. I mean, he does build great bases Sonic and his friends came by to destroy, but he could still learn and fortify his strongholds quite more.

That celebratory mini-series had 2 issues made, but sadly, the 3rd issue meant to conclude it never got launched after Archie cut ties with Sega and lost that license. I felt great disappointment in my heart there and then, as others have. Never even got to see the potential all-new Special Stages, too.

However, I do have strong hopes of that adventure getting revived and potentially adapted as another 2D Sonic game... but, I think it might be better suited as part of a NEW Sonic anthology game, likely in the veins of Kirby's own anthology game, "Super Star", and its DS remake, "Super Star Ultra". By the meaning of its veins, I meant only the blueprint of an actual anthology game. Not sure if we have more anthologies outside of Kirby so far...

I didn't even think of Sonic having an actual anthology game consisting of only all-new adventures before, honestly... but the possibilities are intriguing.

And, had Sonic 4's 3rd episode not been cancelled, I can collectively count that we'd have about over six times Knuckles had been tricked by Robotnik, rather than four(TailsTube's 5th episode missed that count by one, "Sonic Advance 2").

I did enjoy Sonic Mania that brought back the original pixel art aesthetic, but I still feel more new Classic Sonic adventures should still continue that aesthetic on, and they really don't have to adhere to the Genesis' tech limits, even for parallax background layers.

So, I ask you this, if "Sonic: Mega Drive" gets adapted as a game, or as part of an anthology game for Sonic, would you play it? I would, and it would be one of the more brilliant Classic Sonic adventures yet!

[Grand Theft Auto V]

Mappers of the VGMaps community, I got a good challenge in mind about keeping track of open world games' maps' sizes and comparing them, from smallest to the biggest maps yet.

In open-world games, mainly 3D, they comprise of singular, vast landscapes that are sort of like playgrounds, mere sandboxes for people to roam about and explore, but they provide loads of missions, secrets, and loads and loads of optional tasks to take on.

What people take in charting their maps, they calculate by square miles, or alternatively, square kilometers, and they center on how far they've explored, and how far can anyone go.

As far as many know, we had not many open world games, because many games were platformers, and others different, but we also had hardware that limited scope, size, and scale of said maps, mainly is that to those working on games, they didn't had much RAM memory and strong CPUs to work with. Time went on and we were able to have it. The question is, how would people utilize all the increased RAM and CPU processing power to create more massive maps in open world games?

The more prominent game series that propelled the open world genre to elevation is the Grand Theft Auto series, likely GTA III. Mature as they are, they do provide vast landscapes for freedom of exploration, though they do have stories to progress through in order to unlock particular methods of traveling, and later abilities to reach other places.

Later games gave out more bigger maps to explore and more missions to undertake, but other than that, people do have their fun ideas on experimenting with traveling to heights normally deemed impossible by normal means of playing these games. I also think others like to see how long their playable characters can fall from extreme heights before they go splat out of boredom.

Of course, there are many other games that follow the open world blueprint, including others that had the maturity toned down to broaden to slightly younger people, but how they make their maps' sizes can be less than those, but there are those trying to come close to matching them, or even surpassing them, even if its not a GTA game.

On top of all that, so far, there's no patch update and DLC that expands any existing open world game's maps by adding extra land mass outside of regular borders. I don't know of any game that did it, but until there's one, I don't think I can count them. Of course, it would be interesting to see any open world game to do it...

So, I simply issue our challenge to keep a collective track of any open-world game that have the biggest maps yet.

I do have a couple inputs in mind, in order from biggest to smallest...

1. - Grand Theft Auto V (75.84 sq km/29.28 sq miles)
2. - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (38.2 sq km/14.75 sq miles)
3. - Grand Theft Auto IV (16.14 sq km/6.23 sq miles)
4. - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (9.11 sq km/3.52 sq miles)
5. - Grand Theft Auto III (8.12 sq km/3.14 sq miles)

I can't place in GTA VI's map size, but I can say it's going to be bigger than GTA V's.

The many 3D Spider-Man games, on the other hand, all do tend to take place in New York, but how their differing sizes between them besides them sharing New York's layout is puzzling me.

If anyone has their own input, please go ahead. I welcome the effort. Show us what you can find as the biggest open world map yet.

ADVISORY: Flight simulations, sandbox only games, life simulation games, MMOs and such, cannot count to this.

I couldn't help but notice that there's a GBA port of Disney's Aladdin not present in the Atlas.

I already saw the maps from Capcom's take on Disney's Aladdin game on SNES, but did anyone here not notice that the game got a GBA port? I did.

What I saw from a few longplay Youtube videos online, that game's GBA port is mostly the same, but there's numerous changes, such as having one additional area in each stage, and all the 70 red gems relocated to accommodate them, barring the "Whole New World" carpet ride stage labelled as a bonus stage, which I kinda feel is not one at all, the extra actual bonus stages, like one where you land the Genie's face during the "Break Time" bonus game that gives you a chance to gain more goods, but ends shortly if you take a dead end with an extra life in it, replacing the password system with an actual game save, and the removal of Alan Menken's songs, "Friend Like Me" and "A Whole New World", replaced by all-different original themes, due to additional costs from that movie composer, I'm guessing. They're rather neat to listen, though. One upside, you don't have to turn off the handheld to replay it all over again after seeing the credits and being stuck there until then.

Overall, the adventure to thwart Jafar's Agrabah conquest still remains the same.

The additional areas in each stage does address a few complaints about the game being quite too short, in my perspective, and the additional changes do make the game a bit more enjoyable.

If any mapper's interested, the port's maps are needed to be seen.

[Hollow Knight: Silksong]

Well, the launch of "Hollow Knight: Silksong" is only days away, and loads of people are really itching to venture through all of Pharloom with Hornet taking the reins as the main heroine in the sequel to "Hollow Knight".

I'm just really glad Team Cherry's able to put the brakes on delaying the game again and again while working in absolute silence, after so long. Complete lack of communication really hurt so many people eager for at least a few updates on its progress.

What previously started as a planned campaign after backer funding, it went into becoming a whole game in itself, because of its increased size, scope, and length. Team Cherry's minimal staff creating a far larger world compared to the previous did also contribute to said delays, but, out of my opinion, they could have, and perhaps, probably would have, avoided much of it if a few more people were brought onboard to help out and guarantee a more sooner launch date, but their choice for doing all that solo dev work is their choice. Not pinning any blame, though.

Team Cherry's got talent, but more people may be necessary for their later projects. Just saying.

Hollow Knight's come quite far, and despite the long wait for Silksong, people are really thrilled to play that game and enjoy so many additions, not to mention exploring a more bigger map than Hallownest's.

With this, of course, the process of mapping all of Pharloom will once again be done by the one mapper that did Hallownest's, Theembracedone. I'm sure those of you in the VGMaps community remember, as well as the praise Team Cherry gave for it.

However, as much as Theembracedone would really have the honor of mapping it with the same tools and programs to do it, I feel it may be on wait, due to that mapper being occupied with work on the choice-making, mystery, mature horror-induced, visual novel, "Where Birds Go To Sleep".

That is not to say Theembracedone has to do it alone this time. Any mapper, if willing, can feel free to contribute to the process, so it would be done in less than years' time. I do commend that mapper doing Hallownest, but a little help now and then is needed, and given the increased size of Pharloom's map, that may be a necessary requirement. The more volunteers, the better, I say.

Who's looking forward to playing it, as I am on the former, and mapping Pharloom, if any for the latter, may volunteer to it?

There may be a load of technical talk here, but I came across an interesting blog series about the depths of how Sonic the Hedgehog 3's coding works, its very interesting details about its coding operations, some oddities, and more of all, the knowledge of how Sonic 3's stage segue from one to another!

The series on that blog, Sonic 3 Unlocked, centers on how Sonic 3's acts instantly segue from Act 1 to Act 2 in a Zone, then to the next Zone via in-game scenes after the stage score tally finishes, the likes of which was from Sonic 1 did so at Scrap Brain Act 2's ending after finishing that act, where the game segues from the results to an in-game scene showing Dr. Robotnik sending Sonic to Act 3, but entirely expanded to encompass the WHOLE GAME, WITHOUT each Zone's Acts fading out and in from one to another.

It's all from the whole game, including its split halves.

For those that don't know what the word "Segue" means, and its applicable to video games, it means to make a transition directly from one section to another. Ergo, finish one level, instantly continue to another without fade-outs.

I was completely AMAZED about how that game managed to pull off such seguing within the Genesis' capabilities! Made me think at times, "Why can't other games like Sonic 3 do that kind of thing?". That kind of thing didn't happen for YEARS, until Freedom Planet later on, which its stage structure followed Sonic 3's act seguing formula, before it got slightly modified as it changed from a Sonic fangame to an indie game, and Sonic Mania would resume it suitably.

The coding was all done by Assembly, mind you. And, I'm kinda sure that kind of stage-to-stage segue coding was replicated into other programming languages, if I could only know how to adapt that kind of thing into said languages.

Well, Sonic 3 Complete's fixes did take care of very minor inconsistencies from music placement in select Acts & such, but still...

It's divided into eight posts, starting from August 28 2017, and ended on September 6 2017. They cover everything on how the Act transitions work, including how Icecap's maps instantly segue to the next before facing the miniboss, Big Icedus, there. I'm sure those who may be interested in seeing the inner workings of its coding.

Here they are, from Sonic 3 Unlocked's blog posts...

Act Transitions Part 1: The Beginning - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/08/act-transitions-part-1.html
Act Transitions Part 2: Angel Island Zone - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/08/act-transitions-part-2-angel-island-zone.html
Act Transitions Part 3: Icecap Zone - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/08/act-transitions-part-3-icecap-zone.html
Act Transitions Part 4: Whither Offset? - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/08/act-transitions-part-4-whither-offset.html
Act Transitions Part 5: Horizontal Underflow - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/09/act-transitions-part-5-horizontal.html
Act Transitions Part 6: Deferred Execution - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/09/act-transitions-part-6-deferred.html
Act Transitions Part 7: Putting it Together - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/09/act-transitions-part-7-putting-it.html
Act Transitions Part 8 (FINALE): Sandopolis Zone - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/09/act-transitions-part-8-sandopolis-zone.html

That kind of coding knowledge can be useful when re-adapted to other languages for games that may need that kind of seamless seguing in stages, even their maps.

And it felt too good not to share this with the rest of the VGMaps community, even those that may be thinking of seamlessly making maps from one stage to another for their games... so, I needed to, and did.

Drop by sometime, and give it a good look! You may find this very amazing and interesting to know the process and how you could use that kind of knowledge for those into level designing and more.

[Spark the Electric Jester]

Any in the VGMaps community that may need to know, I have come across a rather neat 2D game that has some Kirby, Mega Man X, and Sonic influences, but stands well on its own as an indie game.

It's "Spark the Electric Jester".

It shows the main hero, Spark, setting out to reclaim his job as a rather entertaining jester after being "let go", inadvisably, and stop a robot rampage threatening the world, led by a rather unknown individual, and must plow through swathes of robots to get answers, including a rather obvious look-a-like robot copy of himself(Fake Spark, I call it), and save the world, with some allies Spark may meet on the way.

Its been made by one whole person, who some of you may be familiar with some Sonic the Hedgehog fangames, preferably "Before the Sequel" and "After the Sequel".

I'm talking about LakeFeperd. He made those previous fangames with Clickteam's Multimedia Fusion 2 engine, until he upgraded to Fusion 2.5, paired with a framework, "Sonic Worlds", which was also used by Galaxytrail(not Feperd, mind you) to make Freedom Planet.

It got funded through Kickstarter to help out finish the game, despite no stretch goals being funded, unfortunately. The music was done by composers Feperd picked while he kept working on the game.

I found a few YT videos about it, including playthroughs, and watched some.

Here's one to watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEbz95ypPX0

I'm fond of the game, because of its familiar speeds to Sonic, and it harbors plenty of content, including an unlockable, tougher campaign as Fake Spark himself. The game holds a total of 16 Stages, each having at least a mid-boss in most, and a main boss at the end of them.

I've seen how long each stage can be, and later stages can go for more than 5 minutes, especially the later stages that have more than one map. And, speaking of maps, they are LARGE. I mean, QUITE LARGE, as in within, or above, the size range of 20,000s, mostly horizontal. There's even a few stages that go vertically taller, or deeper. I mean WAY tall or deep.

Comparably, their maps' sizes are much more larger than Freedom Planet's, but the map amounts in stages are lesser than the latter.

The few things that kinda bother me in that game are the minor, numerical grammar problems in the dialogue. I mean, just mainly lacking of commas, periods where question marks should've been, etc..(I've been paying attention while watching)

The story did get an overhaul in a patch update(unusually in a game, but, understandable), because its former plot didn't felt consistent and in-line with specific elements in its story.

The more bothersome thing of it all, for me, is that it didn't get a port to a Nintendo console first, before Feperd went to work on its sequels.

In my perspective, any console port after launching a game in PC, if such a choice was made first, should've been a priority before doing another or a sequel. Even more, Feperd went to port sequels to consoles WITHOUT doing the first game. It could've been given a better priority, at least. I could've enjoyed playing it on a Nintendo console.

If anything, Feperd could contact any console porting team to do the work on porting the first game.

Though, should that be made, I would mind a few updates and cosmetic changes to improve the adventure, like additional sound ambiance in stages, grammar corrections, maybe a speed  boost, refined and streamlined defeat sequences to bosses, the timer stopping for doing conversations and resuming after finishing them, resolved inconsistencies with the bosses' health bars' appearances(that should've been lesser for mid-bosses and perhaps more for main bosses), and, OH! I almost forgot...

In a prior Kickstarter demo, the game's second stage, F.M.(Flower Mountain) Canyon, HAD a mid-boss to fight, plainly called Tank SECR-01. A later demo removed it, and I felt disappointed it got removed. It should be reinstated to make it less dragging and more fun.

Here's an image link showcasing that mid-boss itself, as proof, from the game's artbook album - https://i.imgur.com/eAnzSua.png

To add more on it, here's the mid-boss' whole body sprite - https://tcrf.net/images/e/e5/STEJ_tank.png

And, in accordance to its artbook launched for free later, the 10th stage, Luna Base, HAD a boss planned, but for some reason, it got scrapped, leaving that stage to be the only one WITHOUT bosses, even a mid-boss that should've been fought midway.

Luna Bay's Scrapped Boss Pattern Design Doc. - https://i.imgur.com/a9N0OjD.png

Luna Bay's Scrapped Boss 3D model - https://i.imgur.com/mmCEe0K.png

I should say this, Luna Bay needs all-new bosses, or at least, at least have a new mid-boss or two in it, THEN have a new main boss in the end that's more fun to fight and would suit well to use the magma against Spark.

I happen to come across YT vids from SparkleGem that's working on a mod to the first game that may give a few updates and changes, called "Spark the Electric Jester: Recharged".

Now THAT'S sounding like a good name for an updated edition to the game! One that's worthy of a Nintendo console port!

I leave these video links for you to see what I mean.

Spark The Electric Jester: Recharged Mod Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex3vLbxv5k8

Spark The Electric Jester: Recharged, Shopalo's Goods Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTUK-RKjRNM

Well, overall, aside from it not being mapped yet, Spark the Electric Jester is a fun game to play. If you've not played it, give it a go. You'll enjoy some of the hi-speed action and adventure!

And, of course, if you want, give Feperd a good talk on his Twitter Account, here - https://twitter.com/LakeFeperd

I don't ever recall such a time before mini-bosses came to the video gaming history, but I think I wasn't around when these weren't yet officially classified into the terminology for bosses as a whole...

I kinda thought someone may remember what point in gaming history mini-bosses were included in games of different kinds, besides platforming, because, well, I don't know what day and time that occurred.

But, other than that, I felt I should ask anyone in the VGMaps community about Mini-Bosses and what their best favorites are.

What I always remember, mini-bosses are fought in the midst of any stage, or in a select stage in a world, or, whichever, and they're ranked below main/major bosses as weaker than them, but still stronger than regular and/or big enemies, especially when they're unique opponents with attack patterns of their own to stand out from enemies... but, their goals to defeat them still remain the same.

For me, in any platforming game that has them, I expected them to be unique and fought in each world or world's stage in its mid-point, or midway in a stage, on the case that more than one are present. My fond of mini-bosses came quickly when I saw Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and felt more should be seen in games since.

Sure, people do have different thoughts and opinions about them, but I have my fondness.

What also stands them more are the many battle themes they have to distinguish them from other bosses, and it helps accentuate them.

And, no, to any thinking, copy-and-pastes of any kind, even resizes, do not count towards that classification as mini-bosses, not without even trying to make changes to make them distinct. Any dev or designer doing so can be shortly described as a "lazy thinker" with no thought, effort, nor originality in their creation, even if they think and believe its for cutting corners in design.

Also, I kinda don't feel how mini-bosses can be brought back as enemy fodder to players that have gotten stronger through their journeys in many games. Kinda takes away brevity and their uniqueness, especially when they're still trying to stand out from them.

Oh, and, in some games, mini-bosses seem to surpass main bosses in their power, health, and attack patterns, and that seems kinda unfair and balance disrupting in different difficulties, regardless of level order. They should be weaker than main bosses, not the other way around. I can remember some games that gave the opposite case.

The one thing I could think outside of gaming is that there should be some encouragement and/or tutorials/crash courses in making mini-bosses to games, with simple steps in making them, their distinctions on making them stand out, etc., etc..

They came in all different kinds of shapes and sizes as main bosses do, such as monsters, robots, rivals, for-hire thugs and mercenaries, and so on, but they all never stood a chance against heroes, and more were still coming.

Of course, in the days of early gaming, if any can remember, many games didn't have any additional boss types because of their size limits, like in NES' time of game carts, for instance. I can understand there's not much storage space to cram them in, even with devs and programmers using clever know-how and trickery under their tight limits, but games grew bigger in size capacity and we we're given much more than plenty of room to create them.

Not that I could remember any, but I think so far, I've not seen any placed in the Internet. I mean, the present tutorials in my spare time seeing them do cover bosses, but the accommodation of other boss types, especially mini-bosses should be included by updating whatever available tutorials so far... or make new ones.

I mean, we've got the tools and programs for designing and implementing them. Only thing to cover is the knowledge in doing it, along with the processes and inspiration sources.

That was quite much to talk about, but that was to give something in the community to talk about from time to time... and to kinda make sure they're not forgotten to most.

Now, for this...

I can remember favorites of mine fought so far... In fact, I've got a list's worth.

1 - Cyclone W, Acid Man's Stage, Mega Man 11
2 - Drap Trappers, Forest Area, Blaster Master Zero
3 - Heavy Gunner, Studiopolis Zone, Sonic Mania
4 - Totemer, Block Man's Stage, Mega Man 11
5 - Unknown Cell-046, Immigration Ship L-229, Blaster Master Zero II
6 - Mosquitus, Doppler Laboratory Stage 2, Mega Man X3
7 - Fire Breath, Angel Island Zone, Sonic the Hedgehog 3
8 - Melon Bread, Dice Palace, Gunstar Heroes
9 - Hinox Brothers, Hinox Mine, Bomb Storage, Legend of Zelda: Tri-Force Heroes
10 - S.A.M.U., Fortune Night, Freedom Planet
11 - Dodongo Snakes, Key Cavern Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
12 - Bullet Kahn-I, Mass Driver Facility, Blaster Master Zero III
13 - Red Eye, Death Egg Zone, Sonic & Knuckles
14 - The Absolution, Battle Glacier, Freedom Planet
15 - Super Gondola, Dice Palace, Gunstar Heroes
16 - Rover, Face Shrine, Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
17 - Kahn-Forbidden, Forbidden Sector, Blaster Master Zero III
18 - Hey Ho, Mushroom Hill Zone, Sonic & Knuckles
19 - Tricastle, Old Castle, Mega Man 10
20 - Greenfist, Greenhorn Forest, Wario World
21 - Big Icedus, Icecap Zone, Sonic the Hedgehog 3
22 - Giant Buzz Blob, Color Temple, Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
23 - Syntax Spider Armor, Thermal Base, Freedom Planet
24 - Photophage, Industrial Area, Blaster Master Zero
25 - Heat Arms, Lava Reef Zone, Sonic & Knuckles

What mini-bosses are your favorites you've fought and defeated so far? You can place your favorites here.

For a little spare time fun activity/challenge to anybody as a bonus of my own, what original mini-bosses could you conceive in what game and game series of your choosing? Try a simple timelapse of any and let your imagination flow. Uniqueness and/or distinction necessary.

Just a little something for the creative juices and perhaps motivation to any game developer and programmer or dev-to-be, if you don't mind.

(ADVISORY: Other boss types DON'T COUNT. Games not yet released don't count either, because spoiler protection reasons.)

I know this section of the forums is called "Map Gab", but I do have a good reason to bring this up.

As many of you in the VGMaps community may or may not know, Rayman's 30th anniversary is coming up, and I felt I should share this discovery to honor the long-standing, albeit too long-dormant, series from Ubisoft.

The VGMaps Atlas' PlayStation, Saturn, GBA, DS and PC pages all don't currently have numerous maps from the Rayman series thus far, even though the 3D Rayman games and the Rabbids sub-series do all kinda count(which I may talk about another time), but I found one website that holds them; RaymanPC, the site's name, not the PC version of the first game.

Its a neat community wiki site that keeps track of numerous Rayman information across numerous games, including the games' concept art, screenshots, maps, and so on.

Rayman's games have been through... rather different directions in gameplay formula and art style, even though Rayman 2's been the more well-loved and remembered game in our lives, but the heroic, limbless hero has always come through against numerous evil forces.

I just only feel the series should have a more well-deserved return with a new game having Rayman being less too silly and idiotic from "Origins" and "Legends", but not too serious and dark, and more competent, well-meaning and slightly goal-focused and heroic once again, and, yes, his allies can be with him, including Globox.

I mean, don't get me wrong. I was kinda fine with Rayman returning to his 2D roots, but the tone, story direction and structure from Origins and Legends all kinda veered away from what we've been through before.

Honestly, in my opinion, the series kinda lost some sense, plot cohesion, continuity grasping, and focus after the launch of Origins and Legends. Would be nice if all that would be straightened out.

Well, anyway...

Through my searches, I found uploaded maps from 2D Rayman games across different versions and ports, including the first game's DSiWare port, canned games and prototypes, and though some members at that wiki did their part in putting together their maps, their image quality wasn't sharp, so to speak, but one member was able to do so and provide them in the sharpest PNG quality no prior mapper previously could've thought of, despite that option already available to them.

That member I'm talking about is RayCarrot, responsible for the high-quality maps of many 2D Rayman games... so far. That guy's a huge Rayman fan and has done many map uploads on that wiki time and again. He's quite a chronicler. If and of you'd like to contact him, well, the link I've left here should take care of it.

They were already completed and uploaded by him, and seeing them really helps out to those struggling to get through the game's levels. Even I had such tough times trying to win.

And, let me tell you, you should definitely see many differences between many maps from the first game's different ports, even the GBA and DSiWare ports!

So, if you're looking for Rayman maps, I've got one source that covers it. Here are the site's pages' links as proof...

RaymanPC's site link - https://raymanpc.com/wiki/en/Main_Page
Category: Rayman Maps link - https://raymanpc.com/wiki/en/Category:Maps_from_Rayman
RayCarrot's RaymanPC page link - https://www.raymanpc.com/wiki/en/User:Raycarrot

There's loads of maps to look at, all of which needs to be uploaded to VGMaps. I hope it helps.