Over 60 Rayman 3 (GBA) prototypes got leaked!

[Hunchman801]

If it wasn't for the marketing, we could have got a proper handheld adaptation of Rayman 2!... No, Rayman 2 Forever doesn't count.

And maybe even proper adaptations of both Rayman 2 and Rayman 3! Had they not added all the Rayman 3 stuff, this would have been a great handheld version of the former, and because the new stuff was also of good quality, I have no doubt the same team would have been able to leverage the game's engine and build a great adaptation of Rayman 3 without all the Rayman 2 leftovers. But instead, we got a mix of both!

Still a pretty good game though, the team seems to have done a great job given the circumstances.

[Master]

68 builds, that's gonna take a whole load of combing. Talk about a New Years gift to the technical folks of the fan base xD

I've had a quick nose through the summaries of the docs and it's really fascinating just how much the Devs of R3 GBA tried to build upon the foundations of both Raymans 1 & 2, they were keen on being authentic huh. Also them using the Rayman 2 N64 music as a base for the game's music if I read that tidbit correctly.

I've been starting to see footage of the game make it's way onto the interwebs as well too, I suppose the RayWiki channel is gonna need some additions...and 68 builds to go through, best of luck if folks take that one up

[Hunchman801]

From what I understand though, it's mostly the oldest builds that have substantial differences from the one published in 2020, but it's still a lot to sift through for sure!

[CosmicStrider]

I KNEW IT! *ahem* Well, this looks like a good time to make that 100th post...

Ya know, I always wondered if Rayman 2 had an actual official sprite...And after all these years I finally got my answer! I messed around with a handful of prototypes, and it seems Rayman 2 lasted up to the focus group build. Soon as it hit E3 approvement he was gone. Shame too, I really liked his sprite. (I was fawning over it for 20 minutes. It's adorable. )

Even a decade ago when I still in high school, I was playing through Rayman "3" on my NDS. I figured the game was Rayman 2 at some point due to all the borrowed stuff (characters, the plot, etc.) that made me say "This isn't like Rayman 3 at all! Hoodlum's Revenge fits the bill better!" and the change from 2 to 3 must've been marketing related. (I kinda hate that I was right the whole time.) So we could've had all 4 of the big Rayman games on the GBA. Also...That English document up there was scathing. Sounded like a munity was brewing in the company.

(It was cool to see F-Zero and Super Mario World used as examples in the documents too. )

[metalflygon08]

Had they not added all the Rayman 3 stuff, this would have been a great handheld version of the former

Just mod the Hoodlums into Robo Pirate variants (so we get a wider variety of pirate designs) and swap out the cutscenes and we're golden!

That one bucket head boss already looks like one of the Mask Guardians.

[mikemoron]

now we got higher quality official spritework of rayman's r2 design! before this, the only official sprites of it were from rayman gbc and rayman 2 gbc. i can tell because they dont have that 3rd floppy hair thingy.

[Hunchman801]

That one bucket head boss already looks like one of the Mask Guardians.

Interestingly enough, the documents do not seem to mention Foutch, and it appears that Rocky had already replaced him at an early stage of the game's development. But maybe we'll find more by digging into the ROMs?

[metalflygon08]

In hindsight this ruin my little headcanon where the Handheld Rayman games take place in a side reality that flows into each other

Rayman 1 GBC to Rayman 2 is self-explanitory, Rayman 2 GBC to Rayman 3 GBA happens because we don't actually fight and defeat Razorbeard, just decimate his forces, which is why he's around in Rayman 3 GBA still and why he's looking for power sources, he only has a handful of troops left and they are in hiding.

[Greengoop]

1st January 2025: 509,455 Rayman 4 prototypes found!

No seriously, this is an INSANE find. How’d you do it?

[SilverLum]

Holy crap that's amazing! Nice to finally get proof that it was supposed to be R2 all along! (Even if it was glaringly obvious already, )

Here are some early cutscenes, I love how crusty these look

It's so cathartic to see R2 Rayman's design next to R3 Globox. They look more pleasing together here than in the early R3 development cutscenes

[DaveRattlehead]

They look more pleasing together here than in the early R3 development cutscenes

This is exactly what I was thinking about! I've always found a bit weird that cinematic of Rayman receiving the power of the Leptys...
In really, the Rayman from Rayman 2 was always there, looking at you in the configuration

[Steo]

That's actually kind of strange and I never paid attention to it.

[lyndo64]

This is exactly what I was thinking about! I've always found a bit weird that cinematic of Rayman receiving the power of the Leptys...
In really, the Rayman from Rayman 2 was always there, looking at you in the configuration

He's also still there on the PS2 memory card icon, which was reused from RA.

[PluMGMK]

More information on the docs courtesy of RayCarrot on Twitter:

Here are graphs I don't really know how they work or what they're for, but they sure were trying to mathematically calculate the balance of the game! And the humor. That seemed very important to them.

https://raymanpc.com/forum/storage/3254 ... c91dcf024e
https://raymanpc.com/forum/storage/3254 ... c6d7c06a96
https://raymanpc.com/forum/storage/3254 ... 1672dec919
https://raymanpc.com/forum/storage/3254 ... d47a765a95

Ah, there's "La Méthode Hascoët" again! (I can't believe that the post I linked dates from 2020 )

Now for the last post mortem, this time by Pascal Lalancette. And would you know, it's in English!

Ah yes, "English"… Some of it would have been more understandable in French!

[SilverLum]

This is exactly what I was thinking about! I've always found a bit weird that cinematic of Rayman receiving the power of the Leptys...
In really, the Rayman from Rayman 2 was always there, looking at you in the configuration

Rayman's cheek is so strangely defined in this lighting. It looks like he shoved his face full of food LOL

[Steo]

I can't help but notice how they also had to make the entire soundtrack fit into 1MB. Given we have been using wav exports for Polokurse despite the game using Famicom sound, it makes me wonder how hard it would have been trying to keep only so much data on an actual Famicom cart.

[DaveRattlehead]

He's also still there on the PS2 memory card icon, which was reused from RA.

First the Pizza Samurai Cats and now the PS2 icons... You're definitely a wayback machine dude!
I didn't know they used the same icon for Rayman Arena. Were they really that lazy? I wonder if there's any other case where it was used the same icon.
RR's icon was funnier with Rayman making goofy faces or a head tilt if you wanted to delete the data

Rayman's cheek is so strangely defined in this lighting. It looks like he shoved his face full of food LOL

His hair is also a bit strange with the Rayman 3 textures, it looks like tagliolini

I can't help but notice how they also had to make the entire soundtrack fit into 1MB. Given we have been using wav exports for Polokurse despite the game using Famicom sound, it makes me wonder how hard it would have been trying to keep only so much data on an actual Famicom cart.

In one of the documents it's mentioned that they planned to use only 15 minutes of soundtrack in the game. I guess that makes the work easier, but it must be curious to know how they did it. After reading the documents, probably dealing with the soundtrack wasn't one of their main concerns during that nightmarish development.

[Mortamon Saturn]

If it wasn't for the marketing, we could have got a proper handheld adaptation of Rayman 2!... No, Rayman 2 Forever doesn't count.

And maybe even proper adaptations of both Rayman 2 and Rayman 3! Had they not added all the Rayman 3 stuff, this would have been a great handheld version of the former, and because the new stuff was also of good quality, I have no doubt the same team would have been able to leverage the game's engine and build a great adaptation of Rayman 3 without all the Rayman 2 leftovers. But instead, we got a mix of both!

Still a pretty good game though, the team seems to have done a great job given the circumstances.

Indeed! At least it still got a sequel through the RRR GBA game, curiously enough. We could probably make more interesting discoveries regarding the R3 GBA team/engine should the other game leak as well!

I'll say it's definitely a very good game as a simple handheld adaptation and considering the circumstances behind the project... They sure did a great job with what they had!
Now... if only Rayman 2 Forever could leak too so we could finally understand just what happened.

[RayCarrot]

I've been really busy going through these prototypes the past few days. I've been posting most of my findings on Twitter and will help adding things to the wiki soon too. In the meantime I thought I'd post this which I just found. Another image of the early Ssssam design!

9_0x084315B8.png (41.82 KiB) Viewed 1200 times

Indeed! At least it still got a sequel through the RRR GBA game, curiously enough. We could probably make more interesting discoveries regarding the R3 GBA team/engine should the other game leak as well!

To clarify in case there was any confusion - RRR GBA doesn't use the same engine as R3 GBA, nor was it made by any of the same people. We also know quite a lot about the engine already It was pretty well developed and used in a lot of games!

[Mortamon Saturn]

Indeed! At least it still got a sequel through the RRR GBA game, curiously enough. We could probably make more interesting discoveries regarding the R3 GBA team/engine should the other game leak as well!

To clarify in case there was any confusion - RRR GBA doesn't use the same engine as R3 GBA, nor was it made by any of the same people. We also know quite a lot about the engine already It was pretty well developed and used in a lot of games!

Ah yes, I had forgotten they actually changed the team and engine!
Still, that could bring us a few interesting details about why they chose to make both games so alike despite a very different entry (Hoodlums' Revenge) coming in between.

Anyway great work on everything, this has been very interesting to discover it through your tweets!


I've started looking at the files myself, and I love how they "simplified" some of the R2 levels names, like "Wood Light", or The Canopy becoming "Big Tree"!
They didn't even remove the French accent on "The Precipice" despite keeping the name in English!
Le fishe au Précipice