RAYMAN ORIGINS

I'm sorry, but Rayman has always looked stupid to me. I don't mean the game, I mean the characters. Especially that blue thing.

If I can't like any of the characters I won't enjoy the game.

Wow, so much Rayman hate. I honestly don't have a problem with the series as in the past they did offer some cool gameplay mechanics. This game looks like it could be fun.

author=Mitsuhide_The_Vagrant
If I can't like any of the characters I won't enjoy the game.

That's a pretty bad attitude to have. In practice Pokemon look stupid, but it still sells bucketloads with every release. Alot of people hated Raiden in MGS2, but it still had amazing gameplay. Hating the character design shouldn't distract you from your overall enjoyment imo.

I've never played the series but it looks great.

Nope. I was never a fan of this guy, sorry.

author=StarSkipping
That's a pretty bad attitude to have...

No it's not. It's completely legitimate. That's how I am with most things, and since I'm pretty lenient on aesthetics, I generally like at least one character from any game/movie/whatev. But, Rayman (and especially that dumb blue thing) has never looked appealing to me.

author=StarSkipping
...Hating the character design shouldn't distract you from your overall enjoyment imo.

But the character design does factor into the game's overall enjoyment. I'm not saying that the game is bad or absolutely cannot be fun because of it's design, but it can take away from some of the game's appeal.

You said it yourself: most players hated Raiden; but the game was fun, right? Then, sensibly, it would have been even more fun if the game had allowed you to play as Snake for the entirety of the game.

I'm going to point you to an article that I read a while back that made total sense to me...
http://www.zeldauniverse.net/articles/gameplay-is-more-important-than-graphics-a-different-look-at-an-old-proverb/

It is probably true that people should wait to judge the graphics until they play the game, but in the end, some people will end up not enjoying the game simply because the graphics don’t appeal to them. And that’s perfectly fine, because for them, gameplay is more than just battles and puzzle-solving. For them, graphics are part of gameplay.

I've said it already, but I'm really lenient on aesthetic things like graphics and character design, but that doesn't mean I'm going to like every single design for a character or every single graphical style.

So, sorry, but the design of these guys would probably just make the game less enjoyable to me. It's not about being shallow or not judging the game on it's own merits, it's about a completely legitimate aesthetic attribute I find unappealing.

Honestly, if you say you don't play any game or watch any movie without considering the the way things look even if just a little bit I'd find you hard to believe. It's the reason why some people hated the 8-bit era and why there are so many more gamers out there nowadays--with all these super-realistic looking games--than there used to be. It's also the reason why people might not go see one of these recent comic-to-film movie adaptations, because they might have changed the classic design of said super hero into something more "realistic."

And, to cover my bases, I'm not going to deny that there's a possibility that I may enjoy the game if I played it, but they didn't do a good job in capturing me and making me want to play the game with the characters; I don't want to control that decapitated, banana-face man.

I've had college professors and classes that shoved all this artistic mumbo jumbo into your head, so I know a lot about aesthetics.

TL;DR - Rayman, the character, makes his games less enjoyable.

EDIT: Hmm, I should write my own article about this...

Wow so much Rayman hate. I always preferred him over Sonic and Mario. I found the level designs so much better in Rayman games and the fact that enemies always adapted to counter you was a nice touch.