Ubisoft's appearance for Rayman's 30th anniversary

[lyndo64]

(screenshot by RayCarrot who manages the unofficial Bluesky equivalent of the Rayman account, because I lost track of the original tweet due to its deletion)

Kinda crazy that they just straight up forgot about Rayman 2, there's only 5 mainline games, and R2 is probably the more popular between R2 and R3, this is truly a classic Rayman moment

[Hunchman801]

Ubisoft's released another interview! This one's with Benjamin Haddad, a game and level designer for Rayman 3.

Nice, I hope to see more content about the main trilogy in the future!

[DaveRattlehead]

https://raymanpc.com/forum/storage/3322 ... 5fb0da1b15
(screenshot by RayCarrot who manages the unofficial Bluesky equivalent of the Rayman account, because I lost track of the original tweet due to its deletion)

Kinda crazy that they just straight up forgot about Rayman 2, there's only 5 mainline games, and R2 is probably the more popular between R2 and R3, this is truly a classic Rayman moment

Rayman 2 was never a 3D game!!

[PluMGMK]

Presumably that idiotic text was written with the help of an LLM

[lyndo64]

Rayman 2 was never a 3D game!!

That's strange sir, I don't have recollection of that at all. There is no 'Rayman 2'

[Mortamon Saturn]

Rayman 2 was never a 3D game!!

That's strange sir, I don't have recollection of that at all. There is no 'Rayman 2'

Huh? I think you mean this!




But wait! It gets better! Here's more proof that they don't check anything regarding the series' past!
As shared by RayCarrot on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/raycarrot.bsky ... nqkj4x7c2x

Ubisoft just added Rayman 2 and Raving Rabbids to the Blacknut streaming platform after adding Origins and Legends last year.

However several screenshots are very questionable One is from Reburrowed and another from an AI-upscale mod for Rayman 2. And then some are from other games.

Because taking the RayWiki pictures for the challenges icons in the Ubisoft Connect versions of Jungle/Fiesta Run really wasn't bad enough.







(I wonder what's this "new dimension" they speak of? Couldn't be 3D, Rayman 3 did it first! )

Rayman 2 and Raving Rabbids, exactly as I remember them!
I loved the part in R2 where you competed in races against Globox, Teensies, Razorbeard and stuff, it makes me wish they made a whole game about that! And my favourite bit of RRR was when you fought Rabbids in a huge open field while riding a giant spider using the Wii Fit board to control it!

Can't wait for them to use Rayman Redemption/ReDesigner screenshots next time they do anything regarding R1!

[PluMGMK]

Aaaaaah, make it stop, make it stop!

I guess this at least gives us a preview of the level of consistency we can expect from the new project, just in case we thought they might have learned their lessons from Origins

Can't wait for them to use Rayman Redemption/ReDesigner screenshots next time they do anything regarding R1!

Well I guess the ship already sailed on that when Pix'n'Love included a screenshot of this video in L'Histoire de Rayman

[RaypersonNikol]

Ubisoft stop screwing with us challenge (IMPOSSIBLE).

[Mortamon Saturn]

Aaaaaah, make it stop, make it stop!

I guess this at least gives us a preview of the level of consistency we can expect from the new project, just in case we thought they might have learned their lessons from Origins

I'm genuinely scared to see what they're gonna do in the next games, if it ends up even more inconsistent than in the past decade...
I'm hoping it's just the marketing/CMs guys they hired who aren't well versed into the Rayman universe, because it would be very sad for the series' future if that's also the case for the devs...

Say what you will about Nintendo, but at least they make sure to honor the past of their franchises (even if they don't always necessarily understand what made the past entries great). Compare modern Rayman to Kid Icarus Uprising for example: sure, the game is night and day in terms of genre/presentation compared to the OG 2D games coming out decades after them, but the game is chock-full of tributes to the original Kid Icarus for lore/artistic decisions/gameplay/etc. as well as games relevant to its history like Metroid or Super Smash Bros. It still has the soul of what made Kid Icarus... well, Kid Icarus!
Even Zelda, with its infamous mess of a timeline, is full of homages and nearly all of the franchise's entries can work consistently together as a universe, nothing too jarring there, even with the recent BotW/TotK and EoW not really fitting anywhere but working as a sort of very distant merged timeline. (And don't you dare bring the CD-I games to my lair... "Or else you will DIE!" :derpface: )

Meanwhile in the UbiArt games, the cohesiveness immediately falls apart the moment you see the Magician as a Teensy, Betilla's redesign making precisely 0 sense compared to the original, Globox being originally red when nearly all his children are blue from his genetics, or Yellow Lums being picked as the infinite collectible instead of something like Tings/Jewels without any mention of the Heart of the World at all ; or the gameplay ditching Rayman's trademark long-range fist attacks for melee, just to name very few examples.
(Still love them, some of the best 2D platformers ever in my eyes, but man... this ain't my Ray... man. )

Well I guess the ship already sailed on that when Pix'n'Love included a screenshot of this video in L'Histoire de Rayman
https://youtu.be/ofWqSV6y0r0

0:35, and page 140 in the book indeed! Funny how their screenshot is blurrier than most other pictures! Well... congrats on being part of La Historia del Rayman!
They could have at least credited you in the Thanks section

It really makes you wonder how much stuff from the community they must have Reborrowed used throughout the years, with precisely 0 credit!

[Reese Riverson]

Rayman 2 and Raving Rabbids, exactly as I remember them!
I loved the part in R2 where you competed in races against Globox, Teensies, Razorbeard and stuff, it makes me wish they made a whole game about that! And my favourite bit of RRR was when you fought Rabbids in a huge open field while riding a giant spider using the Wii Fit board to control it!

Can't wait for them to use Rayman Redemption/ReDesigner screenshots next time they do anything regarding R1!

Maybe this is their secret way of sneaking us some special updated version with these games?

[Nancy78]

Just to sell the original games with updated versions hidden behind secret microtransactions

[PluMGMK]

Meanwhile in the UbiArt games, the cohesiveness immediately falls apart the moment you see the Magician as a Teensy

Except he was actually an impostor, but for some reason the characters only realize that when his hat falls off. Yup, I can see why that sequence was scrapped!

Globox being originally red when nearly all his children are blue from his genetics

Oh stop, you're reminding me of a conversation here a couple of years ago where someone said "that's how DNA works" and I had to explain that no, that's the exact opposite of how DNA works!

Yellow Lums being picked as the infinite collectible instead of something like Tings/Jewels without any mention of the Heart of the World at all

Again, that can be reconciled with the eyed yellow Lums in the Race mode of Rayman M, which ostensibly takes place in the same universe as Rayman 2 with its eyeless Yellow Lums

the gameplay ditching Rayman's trademark long-range fist attacks for melee, just to name very few examples.
(Still love them, some of the best 2D platformers ever in my eyes, but man... this ain't my Ray... man. )

Yep. Melee combat makes it not Rayman And the lack of plums too…

0:35, and page 140 in the book indeed! Funny how their screenshot is blurrier than most other pictures! Well... congrats on being part of La Historia del Rayman!
They could have at least credited you in the Thanks section

Oh I was glad they didn't! The screenshot makes no sense to be in there, since I hacked the game so much and put in a load of stuff that didn't even make sense!

[Mortamon Saturn]

Meanwhile in the UbiArt games, the cohesiveness immediately falls apart the moment you see the Magician as a Teensy

Except he was actually an impostor, but for some reason the characters only realize that when his hat falls off. Yup, I can see why that sequence was scrapped!

I don't know who they hired to originally write the story for that game... but whoever that kid was, Ubi should finally return it to the kindergarten where they kidnapped it.
And yet, him usurping the original Magician was so ambiguous in the game that most Rayman fans over social media still firmly believe these are the same characters... or worse, that the R1 Magician was always evil just because of the way some of his lines sounded!

Globox being originally red when nearly all his children are blue from his genetics

Oh stop, you're reminding me of a conversation here a couple of years ago where someone said "that's how DNA works" and I had to explain that no, that's the exact opposite of how DNA works!

Found it, and funny that you mention that, because it would seem that I am one of the main catalysts for what that "someone" said! Hah... Teenagers and their burgeoning understanding of biology

One month and a year prior to said conversation, in a French topic (trust me, you'd NEVER guess which one without the link! ), I already explained that genetics didn't work like Minecraft dyed sheep having babies of the same unnatural colour, as their DNA is still white/gray/brown/black...! (see penultimate paragraph in the topic link as it's quite the wall of text)
And guess what...? It was the time when I first debated Globox's colours and his babies, so we went full circle!

Yellow Lums being picked as the infinite collectible instead of something like Tings/Jewels without any mention of the Heart of the World at all

Again, that can be reconciled with the eyed yellow Lums in the Race mode of Rayman M, which ostensibly takes place in the same universe as Rayman 2 with its eyeless Yellow Lums

Huh? What's a """Rayman M"""? There was no 3D Rayman before Rayman 3!
But again, can we even claim that a humorous multiplayer spin-off like Rayman M is canon? How could we ever justify Razorbeard returning to the Glade just to challenge Rayman & co + his own minions to a bunch of family-friendly competitive races/battles after his past actions? Or Globox dealing the killing blow to his best friend after he was burned by one of the Pirates who enslaved their world, turning the hero into ashes? Or Rayman & Globox peacefully walking into the sunset on a beach along their former enslavers like a bunch of good ol' best buddies?

Not only that, but the amount of Yellow Lums we saw was vastly inferior to the literal thousands we see everywhere in the UbiArt entries, making them possibly fit into the classic 800/1,000 margin (in fact there's roughly a total of 705 from the races if I'm making no mistakes based on the wiki numbers).
We're just missing a mention of the Heart of the World's shattering, but I doubt that sort of information would have been so relevant to tell in such a spin-off which already didn't try to have any story.

Because if it counts, we could even take into account PS1 Rayman 2, which did have Lums with eyes too!... But of course, only this majestic Rayman 2 is canon and official, as confirmed by Ubisoft's trustworthy employees!

If anything, the UbiArt Lums are visually akin to the Super Yellow Lums, which are worth 5 Yellow ones... which would thus make their quantity even more insane!

the gameplay ditching Rayman's trademark long-range fist attacks for melee, just to name very few examples.

Yep. Melee combat makes it not Rayman And the lack of plums too…

It's as if Crash couldn't spin in one of his games... or like, you would need to unlock the move with a currency and then spinning would make him dizzy!... IMAGINE IF A CRASH BANDICOOT GAME WOULD DO THA-- I already joked about that, didn't I?
Even R2 Forever and Brawlhalla had plums, therefore making them objectively into 11/10 games, while UbiArt ones are clearly worth a 0!

They could have at least credited you in the Thanks section

Oh I was glad they didn't! The screenshot makes no sense to be in there, since I hacked the game so much and put in a load of stuff that didn't even make sense!

Wouldn't have been worse than making Bzzit in Rayman 1 canon based on the very official RayWiki.

[RayGamer99]

Meanwhile in the UbiArt games, the cohesiveness immediately falls apart the moment you see the Magician as a Teensy

Except he was actually an impostor, but for some reason the characters only realize that when his hat falls off. Yup, I can see why that sequence was scrapped!

I don't know who they hired to originally write the story for that game... but whoever that kid was, Ubi should finally return it to the kindergarten where they kidnapped it.

I did a bit of thinking about why the Dark Teensy disguised himself as the Magician, and this actually makes some sense to me. Back in R1, the Magician would always demand Tings from Rayman in exchange for access to bonus levels, right? So for someone who needs a lot of Lums, it’s actually kind of smart to masquerade as the Magician and convince this same hero that he just wants some more collectibles like in the past. Admittedly, none of the heroes knowing that this Teensy isn’t that same Rayperson until he took the star off his hat is kind of confusing, but at least his line of thinking made sense, even if it had a few holes.

Yellow Lums being picked as the infinite collectible instead of something like Tings/Jewels without any mention of the Heart of the World at all

At this point, I just see the UbiArt Lums as a different, more clearly sentient, and much more common type of Lum, completely separate from the 1000 Yellow Lums that make up the Heart of the World (or the Great Protoon, which I believe is the same thing). I can’t explain why they’re yellow and purple when eyeless Lums already have those colors, but that’s just the way I see things.

Even R2 Forever and Brawlhalla had plums, therefore making them objectively into 11/10 games, while UbiArt ones are clearly worth a 0!

Strangely, Origins was supposed to have plums at first, but they got scrapped for some reason. I’m not sure why, since they were a mainstay of the mainline titles up until then.

[PluMGMK]

I did a bit of thinking about why the Dark Teensy disguised himself as the Magician, and this actually makes some sense to me. Back in R1, the Magician would always demand Tings from Rayman in exchange for access to bonus levels, right? So for someone who needs a lot of Lums, it’s actually kind of smart to masquerade as the Magician and convince this same hero that he just wants some more collectibles like in the past. Admittedly, none of the heroes knowing that this Teensy isn’t that same Rayperson until he took the star off his hat is kind of confusing, but at least his line of thinking made sense, even if it had a few holes.

Yes, this makes perfect sense, apart from the hat bit like you said.

At this point, I just see the UbiArt Lums as a different, more clearly sentient, and much more common type of Lum, completely separate from the 1000 Yellow Lums that make up the Heart of the World (or the Great Protoon, which I believe is the same thing). I can’t explain why they’re yellow and purple when eyeless Lums already have those colors, but that’s just the way I see things.

Again, I agree, they're clearly not the same thing. Heck, they're not even really the same shade of yellow, but I still like to tie them into the ones in Rayman M, which I still think were not intended to be the same ones from Rayman 2 either (even if there are fewer than 1000 in total)…

Strangely, Origins was supposed to have plums at first, but they got scrapped for some reason. I’m not sure why, since they were a mainstay of the mainline titles up until then.

Yeah, I saw the videos of the prototype that had them. Maybe they were too awkward in the kind of fast-paced gameplay they ended up going for?

[RayGamer99]

Admittedly, none of the heroes knowing that this Teensy isn’t that same Rayperson until he took the star off his hat is kind of confusing

I just did a little more thinking on this point, and I believe I now understand where the surprise factor came from. Throughout the entire game's levels, the "Magician" is always talking to the heroes from inside his hat, meaning that they never see his true Teensy self until The Reveal!

Even during the score recap, where the player(s) watch him show up to collect the Lums, all the heroes are posing, dancing, and looking towards the camera (and presumably at the Photographer that didn't make it to the final game ), all of which distract them enough to not see the Dark Teensy for who he really is.

So let's lay all this out one more time: considering all of the scrapped story beats - which I personally see as canon, at least when it comes to Ales Mansay's backstory and role - the Dark Teensy hid a microphone in the Snoring Tree to start a war with the Livid Dead, which would force Rayman and his friends to travel the Glade in order to free Electoons and save the world. Knowing this, the cunning Teensy gathered some Electoons of his own and used them as incentives to make the heroes give him Lums. All the while, he hides his true self in his hat, fully averts their attention when he needs to show himself, and fools them all into thinking that he just wants more collectibles like "he" wanted Tings in Rayman 1. Through all of this trickery, he accumulates tens of thousands of Lums, enough to fuel a robotic empire and conquer the Glade, just like his idol did all those years ago.

When you take the time to think about it, Ales Mansay/the Dark Teensy really is an evil mastermind!

(Or maybe, as he himself said in a scrapped piece of dialogue, Rayman and crew really are as dumb as they look )

[Nancy78]

(Or maybe, as he himself said in a scrapped piece of dialogue, Rayman and crew really are as dumb as they look )

Honestly, this scrapped piece of dialogue can be true, considering how everyone acted in Rayman 3 But honestly this tricks younger players as well. I played Rayman Origins when I was young and I got tricked by Ales Mansay/the Dark Teensy as well. I really didn't expect him to be the main villain, let alone use all the lums Rayman and co gathered throughout all the game to do what his idol did.

Although I have to give the Dark Teensy big plus. Thanks to him idolizing Mr. Dark I got interested in Rayman 1 and it was one of the best decisions I have made as a young kid

[RayGamer99]

We've got another 30th anniversary post! This one focuses on Rayman 2 concept arts that parody real life art pieces.

There are at least a few of these that we've already documented on the RayWiki, but a lot of these seem to be new!

So now the question is, how should we go about adding the new ones to the wiki?

Edit: I just found out that we already have these documented on the wiki. My mistake!
Still, the one from the Twitter/X post is in higher quality, so I think it still might be worthwhile to add it anyway.

[RayGamer99]

Sorry to double-post, but Ubisoft put out another post with Rayman 2 concept art in tow. They claim that they're "never-before-seen," but that's definitely not true since we've seen all four of them before and have them all documented on the wiki. Looks like someone didn't do their research again

I find it funny that they feel the need to clarify that "Rayman 2: The Great Escape was DEFINITELY the first game of the franchise in 3D."

[Nancy78]

Nobody knows about it nowadays, they need to be this specific