Rayman

> *This article is about Rayman's appearance in Super Smash Bros. For Nintendo Switch. For other uses, see Rayman.*
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## Voice Actor

### Japanese

Katsuyuki Konishi

**Rayman** (also known as レイマン, *Reiman* in japanese) is a returning newcomer final unlockable character in *Super Smash Bros. For Nintendo*. He is the titular main protagonist of the enponymous series of the same name. He also appears as a playable character in the *Super Smash Bros.* series, although first playable in *Super Smash Bros. For Nintendo 3DS and Wii U*.

Design wise, Rayman takes his appearance and animations mostly from *Rayman Legends*, onwards, with references to previous games in the *Rayman* series.

## How to unlock

* Play VS. matches, with Rayman being the last character to be unlocked.
* Clear Classic Mode with Mario or any character in his unlock tree, being the 2nd character unlocked after Sonic.
* Have Rayman join the player's party in World of Light.

With the expection of the third method, Rayman must then be defeated on Fairy Glade. In World of Light, the Ω form is used on the same stage.

## Attributes

Rayman is a speedy, yet floaty, fairly tall-heightened middleweight character (weighing the same as Ice Climbers, Mr. Game & Watch, Lucario, Wolf, Villager, Mythra and Steve) who has a moveset of very strong and fast attacks with disjointed hitboxes, in a similar vein to Mr. Game & Watch, making him a combo-oriented character in the game. Rayman has fast air speed, excellent air acceleration, a medium size, crawling ability, and a very low crouch that allows him to evade many attacks: like Marth and Lucina's shield breaker and Simon's forward tilt, tied with Mr. Game & Watch, Kirby and Jigglypuff. Rayman also has very fast walking and running speeds tied with Mr. Game & Watch, but his only notable trait is his weight, being tied with Peach and Sora for being the thirteenth-lightest character in the game, but overall counts as a middleweight character.

Rayman is an uncommon character with a limbless trait and levitating bodyparts used for attacking opponents. Due to having a limbless trait, many of Rayman's attacks, such as his aerial attacks and smash attacks, have disjointed hitboxes, outboxing other characters who struggle to defend him: like Kirby, Jigglypuff and Ice Climbers.

Unlike most other middleweights, Rayman possesses attacks with large disjointed and long-ranged hitboxes and has numerous, powerful KO options, which is his greatest strength in his attributes. All of his smash attacks have very high power and low ending lag throughout, with each of them possessing unique attributes. Forward smash is among the strongest in the game if sweetspotted while having low endlag and excellent range, with the sweetspot being safe on shield. Up smash is also very powerful, and comes with full-body invincibility while the hitboxes are active. While it has slow startup, it has minimal endlag and is completely safe on shield. Down smash sends opponents at an awkward semi-spike angle off-stage, while its sweetspot buries opponents long enough to lead into a forward smash, even at medium percents. It also has a very large hitbox, allowing it to easily 2-frame many recoveries, and acts as an excellent punish option on rolls. Like his other smash attacks, down smash is safe on shield when spaced properly. Overall, Rayman possesses an excellent arsenal of smash attacks.

Rayman is a very unusual character with his limbs and head levitating around his body. This trait gives Rayman his staple asset: an extremely long melee range both in the ground and in the air, and a numerous amount of powerful KO options. His jab's range, for example, is arguably one of the longest in the game, even outspacing Luffy's infinite-hit finisher. He also has very fast frame data with his tilts, jab, up special, and aerials. His down aerial sends a flurry of punches to knock opponents downward, making it a very frustrating combo move for opponents to deal with, with the last hit being stronger, killing at 130% on the ground. These traits grant him a naturally strong combo game and strong spacing abilities. Due to having a limbless trait, most of his attacks have outranged and somewhat-disjointed hitboxes, in a similar vein to Mr. Game & Watch and Luffy.

Rayman has a decent grab and throw game, with a combo throw in his up throw, and back throw, and his forward and back throws are very useful for setting up edgeguards (with forward throw having slight combo potential at low percents). Up throw and down throw are strong combo starters and can follow up into neutral aerial or up aerial for KO confirms at high precents, and forward throw and especially back throw follow up into forward aerial, back aerial or down aerial. While all of his throws combo into aerials or smash attacks for KO confirms, up throw and down throw are also Rayman's strongest throws, being able to kill most characters at around 100%, and while his grab does have a long range, it is also laggy, judging by the long ending lag.

Rayman has good KO power in his smash attacks and aerials, with his aerials also fast for their decent power. Rayman also has a great neutral game, with his down special, the plum, and his side special, Vortex, a tornado projectile, being able to trap opponents in, allowing Rayman followup potential and punish with one of his smash attacks or aerials.

Rayman's edgeguarding game is among the best in the game. Due to his sheer melee range, all his aerials which can autocancel in a short hop, tilts, especially smash attacks, and even his jab combo can all be used to safely edgeguard the opponent on-stage or off-stage. His neutral air, forward air, back air, and down air are notable for having lingering hitboxes, while also being somewhat powerful. Furthermore, his neutral special and side special, though laggy, can be used to set traps or launch an aerial throw to follow up with any aerial move. Rayman's down aerial is notorious for quickly launching a flurry of punches downwards, dragging opponents down with him as well, with the last hit being a strong spike, KOing opponents relatively early. This move, when used for edgeguarding, is very difficult to punish and can be used to score early KOs.

One of his unique moves is his down special, Plum, which grants him a giant plum. The giant plum acts as both a platform and a projectile that moves when attacked a projectile and a platform, allowing Rayman to move the plum while stand on it by attacking with tilts or smash attacks. These properties make the giant plum a very useful tool in a number of situations. The plum can act as a stage control tool and an advanced combo tool. Furthermore, the plum can be an incredible recovery tool, theoretically granting a lot of vertical height if used properly. It can also simply be used for an emergency platform off-stage, which grants Rayman back his midair jump.

Outside of his smash attacks, Rayman's other moves have strong KOing potential. Forward tilt comes out quickly, has a lingering hitbox, and kills under 120% by the ledge, sending characters at a semi-spike. Down tilt lowers Mr. Game & Watch's hurtbox to match his crouch, allowing him to whiff-punish certain attacks. It also possesses high power and semi-spikes opponents off-stage, leading to edgeguards and killing outright at 100%. His new forward aerial's explosion kills opponents at 115% by the ledge, while his down aerial has been strengthened to become a viable kill-move around 130%. Similarly, his back aerial now sends at a flatter angle, and the final hit possesses enough power to KO below 100% offstage. The last hit on down aerial boasts a powerful meteor smash that can KO below 65%, and the late hit also deals good knockback that can KO near 130%, and even sooner if it connects near the top blast zone, courtesy of the move's upward launch angle. The move's low ending-lag allows as to be used as a potent edgeguarding and landing option, giving him a deadly mixup game in the air at all times. Also, Rayman's grab and throw game is also the deadliest; and he possesses one of the most outranged grabs in the game. While up throw and down throw are strong combo starters, down throw and up throw are Rayman's strongest throws, since they have strong launch-power to push opponents to the blast zone, KOing all characters at around 100% or lower precents if the opponent has extreme lightweight status.

The Plum is used as Rayman's primary defense against camping and projectiles, as it both absorbs energy-based projectiles to make to grow bigger from several attacks: such as Mega Buster, Ray of Punishment/Chroma Dust and PK Fire, and reflects physical ones: like King K. Rool's Blunderbuss, Pyra/Mythra's blades, and Peach's Turnips. This can lead to massive advantages against certain characters - Ness, Snake, Olimar, Mega Man, Pyra/Mythra, Pichu, and Pikachu have notable difficulty fighting Mr. Game & Watch as it severely limits their playstyles and movesets. The plum also has the notable ability of carrying over the charge to subsequent stocks, which can be used as a lethal finisher and even mind-games. The area in which the plum can absorb projectiles is also deceptively large, which allows Rayman to store energy into the plum merely by standing close to just the edge of any energy-based hitbox. However, the plum has the glaring weakness of being filled with extremely weak attacks; such as Fox's blaster and Ice Climbers's blizzard. This causes Rayman to fill the plum extremely quickly, rendering its defensive value useless, and forces him to either hold onto a weak use of it, or dump it without purposefully damaging the opponent in order to use it again as a defensive tool. The plum is also a potent combo-finisher with nearly instantaneous startup lag, with its fairly large, lingering hitbox coming out on just frame 2, as well as extreme knockback that can kill at single digit-percents when at maxed-out power (power is dependent on projectiles absorbed). It is also notably difficult to defend against a fully charged use of it, as the lingering hitbox can still hit spot dodges if timed even slightly off, and a powerful-enough charge can break a full shield, allowing Rayman to punish and even KO with one of his powerful smash attacks, or even punish with LockJaw or Vortex.

Rayman also has a very potent combo and aerial juggling game. Down throw combos into Vortex, LockJaw, and neutral air at low percentages. LockJaw can deal massive damage if used multiple times, allowing it to get around 30-40% off of a single edgeguard. LockJaw also hits opponents into the stream of meat through a semi-spike, and at high percents can launch opponents fast enough to miss the ledge entirely and lead to more ledge-trapping. LockJaw's speed and pattern makes it extremely difficult for certain characters to recover, such as Ganondorf or Mario. Not only does LockJaw deal massive damage, but landing the move allows Rayman to follow up with a grab, neutral aerial, forward tilt, dash attack, and even Judge. Up tilt, though having worse range, deals high damage and combos into neutral aerial and Judge at low percentages. Once Rayman has his opponents above him, he can juggle them for massive damage using his up and neutral aerials. His up air acts similar to Megaman's up air, pushing opponents upwards, albeit with much great force if sweetspotted. It has strong launch-power to push opponents vertically at the blast zone, allowing for early off-stage and air KOs, granting him his "Toot-Toot" KO confirm. All in all, Rayman's strong KO power is also paired with highly damaging combos and juggles.

Lastly, Rayman possesses a fantastic recovery option, as well as large, long-lasting and disjointed aerials that can also autocancel in a short hop. This means that he is a formidable edgeguarder and is extremely hard to gimp himself. His up special, Helicopter Hair, has frame 3 startup, invincibility in its early frames, and a strong vertical hitbox on its initial hitbox, and decent launch-power horizontally, allowing for early off-stage KOs if it hits opposite the blast zone. This makes it deadly, as it can stage spike unwary opponents while also easily gimping characters with poor recoveries, like Chrom, Pyra/Mythra and Ike. It is also an extremely useful combo breaker and one of the game's best out-of-shield options due to its fast startup and invincibility. His back aerial is a large, long-lasting disjointed multi-hit move that has high knockback at the final hit. The move's large disjoint beats out a lot of recoveries that have hitboxes, and the multi-hit nature of the move makes it hard to tech for stage-spikes and often drags opponents stuck in the move closer to the blast zone. For many characters, getting hit with back aerial is often fatal off-stage, as the move lingers long enough to shift the opponent closer to the blast zone before dealing the final knockback on the last hit. On the ledge, Vortex punishes ledge-hangers and covers getup attack and rolls (hit by the pan), forcing opponents to jump. This can easily allow Rayman to follow up with neutral aerial and force the opponent back off-stage. His forward aerial can be comboed into with Vortex and has strong KO potential on its own. His down aerial, a flurry of punches, is an extremely powerful spike at the last hit, having the great power to instantly KO opponents, and has very high KO potential at high precents if the late hit is used. It is also a powerful stage spike; compared to Fire and back aerial. Lastly, his up air has the notable quality of having no set limit on its distance, which can lead to interesting interactions when reflected by opponents, and subsequently by Mr. Game & Watch himself. All of these traits make Rayman one of the most mobile characters in the air, and even the ground. Overall, Rayman is extremely deadly off the stage and at the ledge to all characters, even those with great recoveries like Pit, Rosalina & Luma, and even himself.

All in all, Rayman is a very powerful all-rounder with unique properties to a majority of his moves, and is viewed by many to be the most potent bait and punish character in the game, and possibly the series. He possesses extremely high damage output and powerful KO options, and not having any major weaknesses at all. Overall, his strengths considerably outweigh his weaknesses, making Rayman one of the most powerful in all of *Smash*, as many players either consider him a high-tier or top-tier character, with most considering him top-tier. He is also one of the most disliked characters in competitive play, having a reputation for being one of the most frustrating characters to deal with due to his amazing out of shield options, brutal combo game, strong off-stage presence and powerful low-laggy smash attacks, which makes him very difficult to punish and allows him to deal large damage and close out stocks quickly in a short amount of time, especially with his tether grab, LockJaw, and his down air, which makes him perform a flurry of multi-punches to knock opponents downward, making it a very frustrating combo move for opponents to deal with. These traits grant him a naturally strong combo game and strong spacing abilities.

## Moveset

### Grab and throws

 Forward throw
 Back throw
 Up throw

### On-Screen Appearance

Rayman falls from high up in the air and lands on his feet and hands with his hair over his face like in *Rayman Origins*, and stands up and yells "Yeah!".

### Stun

* Rests his hands on the ground in a somewhat erratic-like manner while he slowly nods his body and head, along with swirly eyes in a dizzy-like type and a frown on his face.

### Taunts

* Standard - Rayman takes off his body and dribbles it like a basketball before putting it back on its place.
* Up - Jumps up and strikes the signatural pose based on this pose he makes in *Rayman Origins*.
* Side - Strikes his signurantal pose, makes a peace sign while smiling at the camera, and says "*Yay!*". Based on *Rayman Legends*.
* Down - Rayman blows a raspberry in a mocking fashion to perform his signature grimace from the first game of the *Rayman* franchise.

### Idle Poses

* Enters a fighting stance and swings his arms in a circular motion.
* Shrugs for a brief moment. Based on Rayman's shrugging animation from *Rayman 2: The Great Escape*.

## Victory

### Theme

A remix of the theme that plays during the Ubisoft logo in the first game of the *Rayman* franchise from 1995, it also mixes Rayman's diagloue "*YEAH!*," that is heard after he completes a level in this game. Click here to listen to the music.

### SSB4

* Rayman yells "Yeah!", does a short spin before striking a pose and smiling at the camera.
* Rayman yells "Yahoo!" as he does a short spinning uppercut like in *Rayman 2: The Great Escape*.
* A photo-board of either a warrior or a surfer falls in-front of Rayman and he puts his head in it as he smiles. A photographer then clicks his camera just when Rayman's name is announced.

### Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

* Hovers for a short time with his hair before landing on the ground with a single foot smoothly spinning on one foot, then striking the victory pose from the first game of the *Rayman* franchise when a level is cleared, saying "Yay!".
* Dribbles his torso like a basketball before procceding kick it back to its place, before jumping up and striking the pose from opening cutscene in *Rayman Origins*, saying "Yahoo!".
* Runs from the left and into the screen and jumps up and striking the pose (like his up taunt) from *Rayman Origins*, before making a peace sign with his hand and a smile on his face, saying the phrase "Yay!"

## Alternative Costumes

 Green
 Red
 Blue
 Orange
 Yellow
 Black
 Pink

## Trophies

### Rayman

*Dashing and jumping are just the start- Rayman shows off all kinds of moves as he fights to save the Glade of Dreams! And no matter how many times he falls, he'll always get back up again. What? Always? That's right! This guy's got no time to waste on game overs. It's right back to rescuing the Teensies, every time.*

* Rayman (09/1995)
* Rayman Legends (09/2013)