Rayman (game)

Rayman is a platform game for the PlayStation, Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, MS-DOS, PC, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Network, and the Nintendo DSi as apart of (DSiWare). The game was published and developed by Ubisoft. A Sega 32X release was planned, but was cancelled due to the system's low popularity. 
== Plot ==
When the mysterious Mr. Dark steals the Great Protoon which causes all the Electoons to become scattered across the land and imprisoned by monsters, Rayman must restore the world's harmony and balance by recovering the Great Protoon. During the course of the game, Betilla the Fairy is kidnapped by Mr. Dark and sealed within a crystal ball. 
== Gameplay ==
Rayman is a side-scrolling platform game in which the player character is the titular Rayman, who must travel through five worlds (Dream Forest, Band Land, Blue Mountains, Picture City and The Cave of Skops) to free all of the caged Electoons, of which six are located somewhere on each level. Only when all the Electoons are freed will Rayman be able to reach and confront Mr. Dark at his lair in Candy Chateau. Each world has one of Mr. Dark's boss minions which Rayman must also defeat.The player must traverse the levels and reach the end goal, a signpost with an exclamation mark on it. Since all of the game's levels in the game are divided into several parts, the goal post post also acts as a transition to the following part of a level. The player is given a certain amount of lives, which are lost when Rayman is hit by an enemy or falls into water or a pit. If all lives are lost at any point, the "Game Over" screen will appear, in which the player can continue or quit playing. Scattered around each level are small, sparkling blue spheres called Tings. If Rayman picks up 100 of them, he gains an extra life and the counter resets to zero. When Rayman dies, he loses all of the Tings he collected. The player will come across a variety of other power-ups and bonuses, such as a golden fist, a faster punching fist, a power to restore Rayman's lost life energy, and flying blue elves that will shrink Rayman down in size to access new areas. Tings can also be used to pay a Magician found on certain levels to enter a bonus stage, in which Rayman can win an extra life if he collects all of the Tings within a certain amount of time.
In early stages of the game, Rayman has the ability to walk, crawl and punch enemies. He obtains additional powers during the game (telescopic punching, holding onto ledges, grappling onto flying rings, flying with his hair as helicopter blades, and running) from Betilla the Fairy, while others are given temporarily from his friends that are used for a specific levels only.
== Development ==
The Rayman character came from sketches in 1994 made by Michel Ancel under the influence of Russian, Chinese and Celtic fairy tales. Ubisoft decided to support Ancel's project, and funded everything they had into it. The absence of limbs on Rayman was due to various technical limitations encountered. In its early development, Rayman was produced for the Super Nintendo console which featured a two-player mode. Ubisoft decided to move the project to a CD-ROM console, and the developers hired animators from a cartoon company that considerably improved the graphics. When the Super Nintendo's CD-ROM feature was canceled however, the game moved to the Atari Jaguar for to its superior hardware. The PlayStation version came later in the development, developed by Ancel's team.
== Other versions ==
=== Rayman Gold ===
Later, on September 28, 1997, Ubisoft released an updated version of the game for the PC. This bundle had the original Rayman in its entirety, as well as a level editing package, known as Rayman Designer. The package contained 24 original levels, with the same gameplay but a few new concepts: now Rayman has to collect 100 Blue Tings in a level before he can finish it. A few other features were added, like colored tings that trigger special events, additional objects and a timer to show the player how fast they can complete this level. With Rayman Designer, players could make their own levels and share them with others via the Internet, a feature that did not particularly catch on.
The British Focus Multimedia edition of Rayman Gold does not include the music tracks at all; the game should have redbook audio tracks. Since the soundtrack was quite popular with fans, this is a significant error of omission.
=== Rayman Forever ===
Around a year after that, Ubisoft released Rayman Forever. It contained everything from Rayman Gold, plus a bundle of 40 new levels designed by fans, a video entitled The Making of Rayman 2, and a fridge magnet. However, various sections of the soundtrack were erased in an effort to save space on the CD.
=== Rayman Collector ===
Another compilation, entitled Rayman Collector was released in late 1999, exclusively to France. It featured all of the levels from Rayman Gold and Forever (i.e. the levels from the original game, Rayman Designer's 24 New Levels, and 40 levels from Rayman by His Fans), as well as 60 new levels by Ubi Soft themselves (titled 60 Niveaux Edits, "60 new levels"). It also includes the video The Making of Rayman 2. A bundle with the same configuration of levels was released in the Netherlands, titled simply Rayman. This version is not rare, unlike Rayman Collector. Lastly, the collection, or at least the latter two bundles of levels[clarification needed], were also released as Rayman 100 Niveaux.
=== Rayman Advance ===
Rayman was ported to the Game Boy Advance with similar qualities to the PlayStation and PC versions (there are a few missing levels) as Rayman Advance. The music, however, is of lesser quality, due to the GBA's limitations. The game was edited to be easier. Examples are: Rayman has extra life point, which gives him four from start. His sprite is big, so things cannot harm him from above, flickering time is longer, and any items collected are also retained on death instead of resetting to zero on each death.
In 2005 Rayman Advance was bundled with the GBA version of Rayman 3 on a single cartridge entitled Rayman 10th Anniversary.
=== DSiWare ===
Rayman was ported to the Nintendo DSi's Nintendo DSi Shop as apart of the DSiWare games for 800 DSi points. The game is also available to owners of the Nintendo 3DS in the DSiWare section of the Nintendo eShop for USD$7.99, though not in 3D. This version featured reduced difficulty, implemented via an increased number of health points and bonus items, and also had the in-level music edited to loop rather than simply end and begin again (though some music tracks were removed). The game features a map on the touch screen to so the player can see ahead, however enemies, platforms, and items don't appear on the map. An achievements system called "Anti Dark Matters" was added. The most notable change is whenever Rayman gets his picture taken by a photographer, the DSi takes the player's picture.
Category:Games that are rated K-A
Category:Games released on the PlayStation
Category:Games released on the Sega Saturn
Category:Games released for PC
Category:Games released in 1995
Category:Games by Ubisoft