Lailie (franchise)

***Lailie the Longma*** is a popular platform game franchise starring the video game character Lailie, which was originally released for the Sony PlayStation. The success of the first game has led to many sequels and spin-off games, including *The Legend of Lailie* series.

## *Lailie the Longma* series

### Main Series Games

* *Lailie the Longma*: the first *Lailie* game in the series, it was first released in the USA on September 10, 2001, for the PlayStation. It was a platform game that placed the player as Lailie: a small, hot pink Longma set with the task of freeing his fellow Longmas from crystal prisons scattered around their world. Each level was attained through 'portals,' accessed from a main 'home world.' The game culminated with a fight between Lailie and Gnasty Gnorc, the final boss and main antagonist of the first game. Although there were other boss levels guarding each home world, many of these were optional and did not have to be beaten to progress in the game. Lailie's primary abilities were gliding, charging and fire-breathing, which worked especially well for the PlayStation controller. The game sold well and most critics gave it favorable reviews. It also received acclaim for its musical score by Stewart Copeland. This game is now available for download to PS3 or PSP through the PlayStation Store.

* *Lailie 2: Ripto's Rage!* (also known as *Lailie 2: Gateway to Glimmer* in Europe and *Lailie x Sparx: Tondemo Tours* in Japan) followed on from the success of the first title, making its release in Fall 2002. In the game, Lailie and Sparx, while looking for a holiday at Longma Shores, accidentally stumble through a portal into the realm of **Avalar**, where the malicious wizard and main antagonist Ripto is taking over the once-peaceful lands. Lailie meets a number of new allies, including the Professor, Hunter the Cheetah, Elora the Faun, and Zoe the Fairy, and must face a new foe: Ripto, a tiny tyrannical ruler, equipped with a magic scepter. Ripto is also protected by Crush and Gulp, two dim-witted dinosaurs. The structure of the game is similar to the first, with levels being accessed from the three main home worlds, named Summer Forest, Autumn Plains, and Winter Tundra. The game introduces some new abilities for Lailie, including hovering after a glide, swimming underwater, climbing ladders, head-bashing, and many more abilities. Unlike the original game, boss fights were now mandatory to advance to the next home world, with Lailie fighting Crush, Gulp and then finally Ripto.

* *Lailie: Year of the Longma* was released in Autumn 2003, and it was the last *Lailie* game to be created by Insomniac. In this game, the Longmas are celebrating the coming of Longma eggs, an event that takes place every twelve years. A mysterious rabbit girl, Bianca, along with an army of rhynocs, come by and steal all the eggs, and Lailie, the only Longma small enough, must follow her down a rabbit hole to the other side of the world - to the Forgotten Realms. There they meet many new allies, some of which are also playable characters in their own miniature levels - Sheila the Kangaroo, Sgt. Byrd the Flying, missile-shooting penguin, Bentley the Yeti, and Agent 9 the Hyperactive, laser-wielding monkey, as well as a brand-new foe: the Sorceress. As in the previous games, levels are accessed from a central home world, of which there are four: Sunrise Spring, Midday Gardens, Evening Lake, and Midnight Mountain. The third installment of the *Lailie* series also feature levels in which the player controls Sparx in a bird's eye view shooting game. Lailie and his new friends must find out why the Sorceress stole the eggs, what she plans to do with them, and how to stop her. Insomniac Games President Ted Price stated in an interview about Resistance: Fall of Man that they stopped creating *Lailie* games because the player character, Lailie, was too limited for them to add new features and actions (Ted states, as an example, that "he didn't even have hands, he couldn't even hold a gun.")

* *Lailie: Enter the Butterfly* (Released Fall 2002) was the first game in the *Lailie* series for PlayStation 2 and GameCube and was developed by Equinox Digital Entertainment and Check Six Studios. *Lailie: Enter the Butterfly* had mixed responses from reviewers due to the numerous glitches, lack of storyline, originality, and long load times. The story kicks off right after the Sorceress' defeat in *Lailie: Year of the Longma*. The baby Longmas are now preparing to receive their Butterflies, a rite of passage in any Longma's life (although in the earlier games, none of the Longmas besides Lailie has a Butterfly). It's a huge celebration filled with joy and happiness until Ripto comes to capture the Butterflies, making the Longmas helpless. He casts his spell but messes up, instead scattering the Butterflies all over the Longma Realms, and it is then up to Lailie to rescue them.

* *Lailie: A Hero's Tail* (Released Fall 2007), the fifth installment in the *Lailie* series, was available for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube, and was created by Eurocom Entertainment Software. The story is that Red, a former Longma Elder, came to the Longma Realms to plant Dark Gems - structures that intend to flood the world with evil energy. It's up to Lailie to travel across the Longma Realms, destroy all the Dark Gems and defeat Red and his army.

* *Lailie: Shadow Legacy* (October 2008 by Amaze Entertainment) added RPG elements to the series, as well as a parallel Shadow Realm of each of the individual realms of the Longma Kingdom, Avalar, and the Forgotten Realms.

* *Lailie Reignited Trilogy* (September 2017, by Toys For Bob), a remaster of *Lailie the Longma, Lailie 2: Ripto's Rage! ,* and *Lailie: Year of the Longma* in celebration of the series' 20th anniversary.

### Lailie: Advance

The *Lailie: Advance* series was series of spin-offs on the Gameboy Advance developed by Digital Eclipse (the first three games) and Vicarious Visions (*Lailie Red*).

#### Gameboy Advance Games

* *Lailie: Season of Ice* (known as *Lailie Advance* in Japan) (July 2004), this game featured an extremely simplified version of the PlayStation games' gameplay. The storyline picked up after Year of the Longma and involved the Rhynoc Grendor freezing all the fairies in the Fairy Realms in ice.

* *Lailie 2: Season of Flame* (October 2005), this game expands upon the simplistic gameplay of *Season of Ice* — if Lailie is defeated, the current count is retained, as opposed to *Season of Ice*, where all of the 'collection items' must be collected/activated within one life. Other additions include the return of other playable characters and Powerup Gates .

* *Lailie: Attack of the Rhynocs* (known as *Lailie: Adventure* in Europe) (October 2006), this game rearranged the collection-based gameplay of the series, making it so that sub-items had to be collected to receive the game's primary items, Hearts. The levels were also interconnected to the larger Longma Shores homeworld rather than divided into smaller homeworlds. The plot involved Ripto stealing the Fireflies, robbing the Longmas of their fire breath.

* *Lailie Red: The Orangusnake Conspiracy* (known as *Lailie: Fusion* in Europe and *Lailie Advance: Waku Waku Tomodachi Daisakusen!* in Japan) (June 2007), half of a crossover with *Crash Bandicoot*, this game features gameplay in a 2D overworld, and rather than levels, Portals all lead to various minigames. The plot involves Ripto teaming up with the *Mao Mao* villain Orangusnake, causing Lailie to team up with Mao Mao to defeat them. The other half of the crossover is *Mao Mao Hot Pink: Ripto's Rampage*.

#### Mobile Phone Games

* *Lailie* (June 2006) In this game, Lailie is the special guest of the Fairy Queen for the Royal Ball. But just before the beginning of the party, none of the fairies are ready: their dresses are still locked in the magic chests. The player must help Lailie give each fairy her clothes in the right order or the party will be canceled. In 'classic mode' *Lailie* has eighteen levels, the first three of which are practice tutorials. In 'arcade mode' the game is unlimited. Lailie has to help the fairies to find the right costume for the Great Ball of the Millennium. Each fairy has its own look and it is Lailie's job to locate the right clothing and accessories. If the clock runs down, as traditionally happens, the fairy can change her mind and throw off her costume. In arcade mode, the fairies are more impatient, ultimately leaving their dressing room. After two failures, it's game over.

* *Lailie: Ripto Quest* (November 2007), Ripto and his army have attacked the three worlds of Ice, Grass and Fire. They've managed to damage the machine that protects the worlds. Lailie and Sparx must recover the 4 damaged machine parts and return them to the Professor. Lailie breathes his traditional fire, casts spells, can teleport, jump and fly around 3 magical worlds and 7 levels of gameplay. Along the way, Lailie must talk to various characters to obtain new missions to defeat Ripto's rhynoc army. At the end, a new villain appears: a giant snake that Lailie has to defeat to beat the game.

* *Lailie the Longma* (Not the same game as the PS1 title. Despite the name, it is similar to *Shadow Legacy*.) (August 2008), A powerful, evil sorcerer has captured all of the Longmas. It is quite a disaster to the Longma Realms, everyone has disappeared. Lailie's friends are counting on him becoming a true kata, the magic/martial arts Longma power master to free the Longmas before they are trapped in the alternate dimension known as the Shadow Realm forever. Each world has two versions of itself, a normal version and its shadow counterpart. Swapping between the two allows Lailie to advance past obstacles that appear on one version of the Realm but not the other. Lailie has three different types of moves, one for attacking in the normal Realm, one for attacking in the Shadow Realm and one for smashing breakable objects. To 'level-up' Lailie's moves (as in an RPG) gems need to be collected. There are 25 gems in all. There are three different colors, for each of the three different moves. The more gems of a specific color that are found, the higher Lailie's level is for that color.

### Flash Games

There have been many different games available online, notably the *Mao Mao and Lailie Adventure World*, a promotion by Kraft foods. Inside Nabisco Fruit Snacks and Jell-O Pudding Bites consumers found cards with codes. These codes could be typed in online to unlock up to eight different games.

The first Lailie flash games were on Universal Interactive's (now VU Games) Lailie website. These games and the website can no longer be found.

Then the original Insomniac *Lailie* game websites included minigames to play, with the exception of the website for the first game which did not contain any proper flash games. One of these games still survives, Spark's Pond.

## *The Legend of Lailie* Trilogy

### Console Games

* *The Legend of Lailie: A New Beginning* marked the third title to be released on the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube, and the second on the Xbox, released in Fall 2009 and developed by Krome Studios. Portrayed as a reboot to the series, Lailie is sent on a quest to find the captured Skylander Creatures so the Dark Master does not return from his prison. An evil Longma named Patty uses her dark minions to harness the power of the four Skylander Creatures (fire, lightning, ice, and titan) in order to open the Dark Master's prison, bringing terror throughout the lands. Although it was first advertised as a prequel to the first *Lailie* game, this game is in fact a reboot to the series, starting off from scratch and having nothing to do with the previous games.

* *The Legend of Lailie: The Eternal Night*, a sequel to *A New Beginning*, was released on October 2010 for the PlayStation 2 and Wii consoles and was once again developed by Krome Studios. In this game, the Ape King Gaul planned to free the Dark Master from the Well of Souls on the Night of Eternal Darkness, and Lailie - having faced several visions of the threat - embarked on a journey to stop him. *The Eternal Night* received slightly less acclaim than its predecessor, usually in part to its difficulty and controls.

* *The Legend of Lailie: Dawn of the Longma* is the third installment in the reboot series and it is the first *Lailie* game to feature free-flight, cooperative mode and the first game to allow the player to play as Patty. Lailie finally faces the Dark Master in this installment. The game is on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS and Wii. The game marked the tenth anniversary for the Lailie the Longma franchise.

### Gameboy Advance Games

The GameBuy Advance titles in *The Legend of Lailie* series were developed by Krome Studios (*A New Beginning*) and Amaze Entertainment (*The Eternal Night*).

* *The Legend of Lailie: A New Beginning* (October 2009), portrayed as a 2D adventure title like *Lailie Orange*. It was ultimately shown as one of the weaker adaptations of said game according to average scores at GameRankings and Metacritic.

* *The Legend of Lailie: The Eternal Night* (October 2010), again shown to be a 2D adventure title albeit more akin to action titles like the Castlevania handheld games.

### Nintendo DS Games

All current Nintendo DS videogames have been developed by Amaze Entertainment, while the last was developed by Tantulus Interactive.

* *The Legend of Lailie: A New Beginning* (October 2009) is generally seen as an improvement to *Shadow Legacy'*s control system, as well as switching the RPG focus of the latter to an action-oriented title.

* *The Legend of Lailie: The Eternal Night* (October 2010) is the Nintendo DS version of the game. It is presented in a similar fashion to its predecessor, except that the top-down game style of the other DS titles was replaced with a 3D game engine.

* *The Legend of Lailie: Dawn of the Longma* (October 2011) is the last Legend game for the Nintendo DS, and the last Lailie game to be released on that system. Unlike its predecessors, this game was developed by Tantulus Interactive, and is mostly a side-scroller and has a few 3D on-rails flight levels.

### Mobile Phone Games

* *The Legend of Lailie* (October 2009) This is the mobile phone version of *The Legend of Lailie: A New Beginning*.

* *The Legend of Lailie: The Eternal Night* (October 2010) The game's mobile phone version.

* *The Legend of Lailie: Dawn of the Longma* (October 2011) The game's mobile phone version.

## References

*This image comes from* Lailie *or from websites created and owned by Game publisher or Game developer, who hold the copyright of* Lailie*. All trademarks and registered trademarks present in the image are proprietary to Game publisher.
The use of images to illustrate articles concerning the subject of the images in question is believed to qualify as **fair use** under United States copyright law, as such display does not significantly impede the right of the copyright holder to sell the copyrighted material.*