Rayman (Series)

[Moonface]

Who else here is a fan of the Rayman games? Which ones have you played, what are your favourites, which songs from the soundtracks do you like most?

I've played every mainline Rayman game and I'm torn between Rayman 2 and 3 as my favourite. They both have completely different tones from one another and each have their own strengths and weaknesses. I find 2 has a better story but 3 has better gameplay.

[Mr EliteL]

I've played and owned Rayman, Rayman 2, Rayman 3, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Rayman Advance and Rayman Origins. Haven't completed Rayman Advance, though. Remember playing, or at least watched you (Moony) play Rayman R.

Rayman 2 and 3 are my favourite out of the bunch. Origins was cool and all, but would place that third. Feel the same about 2 and 3 like you, Moony. Did like Reflux as one of the main baddies from 3, also my favourite stages were Land of the Livid Dead, Desert of the Knareen and strangely enough The Longest Shortcut, as I enjoyed the downtime from action during that part. Count Razoff was a great boss. Need to be reminded of 2 though.

If there were possible remakes of Rayman's earlier games then I'd like to see Great Escape, possibly a little more than 3. Not sure though. I know for sure I'd like to see a better new design of the final boss from Hoodlum Havoc, as that model has not aged well, and looks terribly ugly now. Normal Reflux still looks OK though.

[Moonface]

Which version of Rayman 2 did you play EL? There's a few different ones and I didn't realise for the longest time that my PS1 version was the one with the most cut content.

Doubt they'd remake Rayman 2 since they pretty much did that with Rayman Revolution, and 3 got a HD version for PS3 plus it originally never sold that well so that's likely the most we'll see of that.

[Hotspot]

I've played Rayman Arena, and one of the Raving Rabids games, I thought they were both fun!

I'm a Razorwife main, and I also liked Globox a whole bunch too!

[Moonface]

Rayman Arena (or Rayman M as it was outside the US) was a good spin off and felt rather unique for a racer due to keeping with the games platforming roots. I remember the last battle challenge in that game giving me so much trouble. >.<

Razorwife was great to me for her victory animation. I still remember the tune she sings in my head. XD

[Mr EliteL]

Huh, never heard of Razorwife, having not played Arenas. Might have looked at it once online or something, but just don't remember that character.

@Moony: Played the PS1 version. Have the double pack of Rayman 1 and 2.

AGDQ are currently doing a speedrun of Rayman 2 at the moment, which I randomly caught on Twitch. First time watching a speedrun of Rayman 2, myself.

[Moonface]

If you can find a copy, get yourself Rayman Revolution for PS2 EL. I'd say go to mine and borrow it but I brought it with me, although if you want you can wait for me to bring it to you.

I do have Rayman M at mine though if you want to borrow that and give it a go.

[Grungie]

I've only played the first Rayman, never finished it. Not sure if I'm just terrible at the game, or it gets really hard after awhile.

[Moonface]

I've only played the first Rayman, never finished it. Not sure if I'm just terrible at the game, or it gets really hard after awhile.

Nah, the first Rayman game can be horrendously hard. Even the developers admitted to never playtesting it during development, and so they had no concept of how difficult they were making the game at times.

[Moonface]

So after that Crash Bandicoot Reimagined video I shared yesterday, I found out that someone did a complete remake of the original Rayman game and called it Rayman Redemption:



I haven't watched much yet to know what extent the differences are, but at a glance it seems there are way more boss fights and the overall game is probably harder since Rayman starts with all of his powers immediately. I'm curious to see what else was changed or added but the most I could find was this snippet from the author, saying that this includes "new worlds, levels, minigames and other stuff to collect and complete."

[Mr EliteL]

Watched the first 31 mins, ahh takes me back but also made me realise there's details I don't remember of the original. Did Bzzzit have that much life, was there a boss fight immediately at the start (I think it's part of this "Redemption" remake), when did you encounter Tarayzan in the original, when did the power ups happen normally?

They've done a good job it seems, will watch more later. Makes me want to play the original again but as I don't have my own PS1, I still have my GBA port I can whip out and play.

[ShiraNoMai]

I skipped around a lot to see if I could see anything neat that didnt seem to be part of the original experience

Very impressive though, it's like a Rayman romhack with folks utilizing the level assets to create whole new experiences with the old feel. There was a dark level I came across in my skimming and it looked pretty forgiving for what I would think a dark level would entail.

[Moonface]

Watched the first 31 mins, ahh takes me back but also made me realise there's details I don't remember of the original. Did Bzzzit have that much life, was there a boss fight immediately at the start (I think it's part of this "Redemption" remake), when did you encounter Tarayzan in the original, when did the power ups happen normally?

I just reached the Bzzit fight, and I think in the original he had 5 hit points, so he only gets one extra in this version. The other difference to his fight is his ability to spit projectiles at you; he couldn't do that in the original in neither his first nor second fights.

The Darktoon boss in the first level is not even a character in the original game. Bzzit is normally the first boss, and he shows up in the same place in both Redemption and the original. I've not reached Tarayzan yet but in the original he turns up at the start of the level that features rising water and gives you a seed to grow plants to help you climb up.

As for power ups in the original: you got hanging at the end of Anguish Lagoon (the second level, the one that features Bzzit's fight); the grapple fist is at the end of Moskito's Nest which is the last level in the Dream Forest; the helicopter is at the end of Allegro Presto in Band Land; and sprinting is the last one you get which is at the end of Mr. Stone's Peaks in the Blue Mountains. All but the grapple fist are available right away in this remake (although the grapple fist also grants the power to grab life-ups from a distance by punching them, which is actually granted right away in the remake), and that fist is used to swing from pink lums that are shown as transparent when you lack the ability. There was another transparent object that looks like a spring that I noticed, which is entirely new and I have no clue what that does or if it requires a brand new power or is just another thing for the grapple fist.

I've noticed new enemies too. The green guy who throws purple spike fruit at you in the first Magician's trial is brand new, and so are the small green enemies that are disguising themselves as pink flowers. The shooter wearing purple shoots actual bullets now too; in the original they were flying planks of wood with a hammer on top.

I like how the Magician's trials were made into their own thing for this, especially since in the original they were used to get extra life-ups, which would be pointless in this game if you're playing with infinite lives turned on. Not sure what purpose tings have, since in the original 100 would get you a life-up, but the playthrough I linked has the counter constantly going up so I wonder if they're a currency or something instead this time around.

@ShiraNoMai: I don't recall the dark levels in the original ever being punishing for being dark levels. There was never any bullshit hiding in the dark that you wouldn't see like how you get in dark levels in Mario Maker.

[Moonface]

Just read this article talking about how the creative director of Mario + Rabbids wants to make a new Rayman game, provided he's given the opportunity to do so: Nintendo Everything | Mario + Rabbids creative director wants to make a new Rayman game

If I had the opportunity, I would be crazy to not take that chance. To be honest, yes. I mean, Rayman is the type of game that has no realistic element. And because there is no realism, everything that you create in the game comes from your fantasy and the fantasy of the team. And so, [everything] from a chair to a table to an enemy to the environment is a form of art, is creating something from scratch. So to me as a developer, it’s the pinnacle of all the possibilities. You can go crazy and create your own stuff, as we did in Sparks of Hope. I think I would be crazy to not take that opportunity if given the chance.

Man I really hope Ubisoft gives him the chance to do this considering his work on Mario + Rabbids, and as the article says he also has experience with the Rayman series already too. I wonder if they'd go for a 2D style since that was what they worked on way back in the day or if they would go for a 3D approach since Mario + Rabbids is a 3D game. I'd love Rayman to go back to 3D because I don't know what more could be done with the 2D format; Origins did an incredibly good job and while Legends was also good it felt a lot like more of the same.

My biggest curiosity with the possibility of a new Rayman game though is whether the Rabbids would be involved or not. Although the Rabbids aren't really viewed favourably alongside Rayman due to how the former kicked the latter out of the spotlight when they were introduced to the Rayman series, the Spark of Hope DLC had Rayman and the Rabbids together (not that it was really avoidable unless Rayman just doesn't show up) and it probably introduced a considerable number of younger gamers to Rayman. I'd love if the Rabbids were made villains like they were originally intended to be for Rayman 4, but there's no way Ubisoft is going to want that and having them as allies to Rayman runs a huge risk of them overshadowing him, especially when they're considerably more well known than Rayman these days and are probably like a mascot to Ubisoft now.

[Mr EliteL]

I know Rabbids unfortunately stemmed from Rayman but ugh, I do not want to see them at all if a new Rayman game is made. Origins I believe didn't have them but as it's the creative director of Mario + Rabbids then it's likely unavoidable. So I may settle with in the background but not as villains. Globox also has to return, Teensies and the Fairies/Nymphs too, but can introduce new characters and such too as he said, the possibilities for the Rayman world is far and wide.