Weird and mysterious Rayman Legends' wallpaper

[Greengoop]

Yeah, it’s official. Where it’s from, I dunno

[WPTheModder]

Yeah, it’s official. Where it’s from, I dunno

I think so too, but it actually just might be a possibility that it is fan-made somehow

[Greengoop]

The Rayman Board Game rules book uses it, so that almost guarantees it’s official

[StrangeSolo]

HOLY SHIT!
I didn't expect this thread of mine getting suddenly revived, but I genuinely appreciate that you guys were trying to look into it more once again, especially WPModder. Genuinely thank you very much!

Not even a full hour later (at the time of writing lmao), we have a new discovery.

I went back to 2016 on the wayback machine for that ultradownloads.com website and I found both wallpapers posted on it.

The author who has posted them is named vgwallpapers and when you google it, their DA pops up!

I looked at the dude's gallery and they have only 1 RL wallpaper and it's just this one:

I clicked on the post and apparently he has a broken website for wallpapers. Again. So... back to the wayback machine, I guess.

The Rayman wallpapers have not been archived. Awesome. But they have a twitter page. Let's go there.

I think I've been searching this guys page for around 10 or so minutes. No Rayman. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if some guy just took the renders from the official boxart and mashed them up into this wallpaper. I'm starting to think I may be going crazy over this.

I'm going to end it here for now

Ah, tough luck unfortunately

For smashed wallpaper, it looks pretty good, especially it has custom lighting stuff in Legends' art style, which I don't think they would put that much effort for it, so it seems to be a part of one of old official wallpapers, at least that's my theory.
And not only that, he also has custom sprite for his second hand that doesn't appear in the cover too.

Also Murfy has unique sprites for his arm, that doesn't appear in the official Legends cover, like him dragging the tongue of that guy. Same goes for the axe effect on Barbara too

Screenshot 2024-12-16 002751.png (153.8 KiB) Viewed 292 times

The Rayman Board Game rules book uses it, so that almost guarantees it’s official

That render has always been official for years and was used a lot in the past, especially by Ubisoft themselves.

[WPTheModder]

The Rayman Board Game rules book uses it, so that almost guarantees it’s official

Ohhh, interesting. I actually didn't know that.

So it IS for Legends but there's no exact pin-point of where it's from or what it's used for.

HOLY SHIT!
I didn't expect this thread of mine getting suddenly revived, but I genuinely appreciate that you guys were trying to look into it more once again, especially WPModder. Genuinely thank you very much!

Ah, tough luck unfortunately

No problem, I was just curious too.

I also apologize for my wording there but I got simply too lazy again and stopped the pursuit, "ending it here" meaning I'll probably get up and running again soon, but I think I've explored everything so far so it might not be as plentiful as before...

For smashed wallpaper, it looks pretty good, especially it has custom lighting stuff in Legends' art style, which I don't think they would put that much effort for it, so it seems to be a part of one of old official wallpapers, at least that's my theory.
And not only that, he also has custom sprite for his second hand that doesn't appear in the cover too.

Also Murfy has unique sprites for his arm, that doesn't appear in the official Legends cover, like him dragging the tongue of that guy. Same goes for the axe effect on Barbara too

This is actually very useful! Curse myself for not seeing it before

I don't actually think those Murfy sprites appear in-game, but I could be mistaken. A different version of the RL cover art has something SIMILAR but not that same thing.

My newest assumption is that this might be an unused cover art that somehow bled into the public? I have so many ideas on what this could be but a lot of them seem implausible

This is REALLY good information though

[Greengoop]

So it IS for Legends but there's no exact pin-point of where it's from or what it's used for.

Yep, I’d assume it would just be used on the Ubisoft website in the image section for legends, but got taken down since

[WPTheModder]

Yep, I’d assume it would just be used on the Ubisoft website in the image section for legends, but got taken down since

Later today I guess I'll just try to use the wayback machine to mess around with the Ubi websites and see. If only RL had a dedicated website like how RO did and so on and so forth. Probably would make my life easier LOL

[StrangeSolo]

No problem, I was just curious too.

I also apologize for my wording there but I got simply too lazy again and stopped the pursuit, "ending it here" meaning I'll probably get up and running again soon, but I think I've explored everything so far so it might not be as plentiful as before...

That's great!
And don't apologise for that, the more people on this - the more we could discover about this mystery and might help to uncover it.

This is actually very useful! Curse myself for not seeing it before

I don't actually think those Murfy sprites appear in-game, but I could be mistaken. A different version of the RL cover art has something SIMILAR but not that same thing.

My newest assumption is that this might be an unused cover art that somehow bled into the public? I have so many ideas on what this could be but a lot of them seem implausible

This is REALLY good information though

Thanks!
I still think it's mostly concept art or like unused alternative cover for Legends, since it's pretty similar to it if you compare both!

As for Murfy sprites, in these three versions (the official box art, the alternative one with globox and this) had pretty different Murfy sprites, and seems like both this art and the box art have quite detailed and unique sprite hands for them

Alternative with Globox

Official box art with Barbara

This mysterious version

I also tried to reach to Lu Yang back then, one of concept artists for Rayman Legends, who also worked on the box art, but unfortunately I didn't get their response about it, so it remains a mystery for now.

[Greengoop]

Later today I guess I'll just try to use the wayback machine to mess around with the Ubi websites and see. If only RL had a dedicated website like how RO did and so on and so forth. Probably would make my life easier LOL

This reminds me of the Bin Weevils event to advertise rayman legends

[WPTheModder]

Thanks!
I still think it's mostly concept art or like unused alternative cover for Legends, since it's pretty similar to it if you compare both!

As for Murfy sprites, in these three versions (the official box art, the alternative one with globox and this) had pretty different Murfy sprites, and seems like both this art and the box art have quite detailed and unique sprite hands for them

I also tried to reach to Lu Yang back then, one of concept artists for Rayman Legends, who also worked on the box art, but unfortunately I didn't get their response about it, so it remains a mystery for now.

I agree with the concept art/unused art statement. As I said before it might just all be a unused one that somehow bled into the public

I also actually never noticed all of the murfy stuff going on there either. A lot of new sprites and such. I now think it's almost certain this is just unused box art lol. Again, I don't think I'll find much the next time around since I believe i've exhausted every resource but I'll try and find something if I can.

[WPTheModder]

Sorry for boosting a dead topic, but look at what I found last night:

1600.jpg (30.42 KiB) Viewed 98 times

(Nintendo Power Volume 283)

I was scrolling on Mercari and saw a listing for this, and I felt like a total idiot for not finding it sooner... seems like the wallpaper is just from this magazine.

But now I have a new question. How was it ripped?!?!

[StrangeSolo]

Sorry for boosting a dead topic, but look at what I found last night:

1600.jpg
(Nintendo Power Volume 283)

I was scrolling on Mercari and saw a listing for this, and I felt like a total idiot for not finding it sooner... seems like the wallpaper is just from this magazine.

But now I have a new question. How was it ripped?!?!

Yoo, that's amazing finding!

There is sometimes stuff for those magazines also appearing for other stuff as well, like with some Origins renders for example! But I do wonder where is this artwork come from?
At least this magazine confirms that it was indeed official art!