Rayman himself

[Master]

Indeed, the Rayman-Rabbids era was coupled with the imitable and catchy Rabbids who probably outshone him as such. Much like say, the Minions from Despicable Me, they have that quirkiness mixed with zany humour that tends to resonate more. In retrospect, Rayman did have the disadvantage, he was an established character, yup, but when it came to personality traits, I think looking back, he was a tad bit generic at times.

[Earth Gwee]

Seems a bit strange to me, because Mario is as generic a video game character as they come and he's easily recognizable for the games he's in, without the accompaniment of little quirky creatures like the Rabbids or the Minions. Like others have said in the Legends thread, I think it's because Rayman was not as widely marketed for just being himself as Mario was and that's why people associate him with the Rabbids. It really comes down to marketing, and unfortunately, Rayman hasn't received as much of it as he should. If he had, I believe he'd be more recognizable for what he is rather than the Rabbids, who were marketed like hell.

[OCG]

Mario is the most recognisable video game character after Pac-Man because he saved video game industry and all gamers know him for that.
But yeah, marketing is important anf Ubisoft needs to include more commercials with Rayman in them.

[Adsolution]

I'm going to reckon that not all casual gamers know that.

[Earth Gwee]

That's something I often forget. But I think even less people, even some hardcore gamers, forget that Rayman pretty much helped Ubisoft find its footing.

[Haruka]

I'm going to reckon that not all casual gamers know that.

Unfortunately not all of them know that if it weren't for Mario and the Nintendo Entertainment System to enter in the North American market, Atari would have killed the videogame industry. Those fanboys of other game companies that unfairly bash Nintendo for this and that and that should remember this and think again before saying something without any valid argument.

And Rayman was pretty much the "messiah" of Ubisoft back in 1995. I don't think the company would be as big and worldwide recognized as nowadays.

Also, Ubisoft went gradually worse in the marketing from Rayman 3 onwards. Many people used to know a lot Rayman 1 and Rayman 2 due to the reinforcements of marketing all over the world (in Portugal for example, the marketing strategy used by ECOGAMES/ECOFILMES back in those days was to sell a Rayman 1 copy along with the PlayStation One Lite, and it did work; I did not get a PS1 but a neighbour I used to have bought one and it was packed with the game, so it was thanks to this I met the franchise in its peak of popularity). When the Rabbids arrived, the marketing was too focused in those crazy mammals rather than with Rayman himself. I think this ended up to make the series get too old/dated pretty fast and to influence negatively the development of the future titles (Just look to TV Party, some minigames are almost unplayable due to grave programming glitches; and don't even talk about the overall quality of the games from Rabbids Go Home on). Then there's the recent example with Origins and Legends: Ubisoft did almost everything to promote Rayman Origins. They succeeded and sold a good number of copies. They barely promoted Legends and they sold much less copies than what they were expecting; this pretty much concludes how marketing is important.

[Master]

Hmm, while I can't speak for the original trilogy when it comes to advertising, seeing as I was pretty young back then and my memory is thus fuzzy. Origins and Legends did have TV adverts here, though I think I only saw them once or twice, but hey, they were voiced by Brian Blessed (brilliant ham), so it has that going for it.

[Reese Riverson]

Hmm, I think I may have seen a TV ad over either Rayman Origins/Legens here too before. I hardly watch TV so I could be remembering wrong as well.

However... Rayman 3... I recall had an ad too I seen back then. This one in particular.

[OCG]

I never saw Rayman commercial on TV at all. I did see however Skylanders commercials and billboards in town

[Master]

I don't believe the advertising we had on this side of the pond resorted to the humour of the nethers, but I can't say for sure.

[Reese Riverson]

I'm not sure what made them think it was a good idea for the humor, but I guess it worked for them.

Didn't really tell much about the game itself either, from what I could tell the UK Adverts seemed to show off a bit more gameplay.

[Earth Gwee]

I don't know why they showed that ad in the states. If I'd seen the UK ads, I definitely would've been interested, or at the very least amused to the point of wanting to try it out. Not only did the UK ads show actual gameplay, they showed Rayman being himself while trying out the main mechanics of the game and in his natural setting. I just don't get this country. And I live in it.

[Reese Riverson]

Trust me, I don't get this country either, despite living in it myself.

Yeah, the ad never caught my interest either, only thing that did was the fact my brother got Rayman Arena, and I loved it. I wanted it, but the store only had Rayman 3, which was the start of me getting into Rayman.

[Earth Gwee]

I barely remember ever being aware of Rayman growing up. I know I'd seen him and heard his name here and there, but for some reason he never caught my attention until I was asked to voice Ly for a fandub of Rayman 2. I then noticed they had Rayman Origins at Game Stop and my vague memory of him came back. I was then interested in finding out more about the Rayman universe, so I watched a Let's Play of Origins, got a copy, played it, and from then I was hooked. I kinda berate myself from time to time for not being more into Rayman when I was a kid.

[Adsolution]

I barely remember ever being aware of Rayman growing up. I know I'd seen him and heard his name here and there, but for some reason he never caught my attention until I was asked to voice Ly for a fandub of Rayman 2. I then noticed they had Rayman Origins at Game Stop and my vague memory of him came back. I was then interested in finding out more about the Rayman universe, so I watched a Let's Play of Origins, got a copy, played it, and from then I was hooked. I kinda berate myself from time to time for not being more into Rayman when I was a kid.

You first found out about Rayman in that fandub, the one where I was Polokus as well? That's hilarious, you got into the series so fast.

[Earth Gwee]

I barely remember ever being aware of Rayman growing up. I know I'd seen him and heard his name here and there, but for some reason he never caught my attention until I was asked to voice Ly for a fandub of Rayman 2. I then noticed they had Rayman Origins at Game Stop and my vague memory of him came back. I was then interested in finding out more about the Rayman universe, so I watched a Let's Play of Origins, got a copy, played it, and from then I was hooked. I kinda berate myself from time to time for not being more into Rayman when I was a kid.

You first found out about Rayman in that fandub, the one where I was Polokus as well? That's hilarious, you got into the series so fast.

Well, I didn't really find out about him. I more or less rediscovered him. I do remember seeing Rayman 2 (the gibberish version) somewhere as a kid, maybe while someone was playing it, don't remember. But it was through doing the dub that I rediscovered Rayman and became fully aware of who he was as a character and the world he came from. It was definitely an awakening for me.

[Haruka]

I barely remember ever being aware of Rayman growing up. I know I'd seen him and heard his name here and there, but for some reason he never caught my attention until I was asked to voice Ly for a fandub of Rayman 2. I then noticed they had Rayman Origins at Game Stop and my vague memory of him came back. I was then interested in finding out more about the Rayman universe, so I watched a Let's Play of Origins, got a copy, played it, and from then I was hooked. I kinda berate myself from time to time for not being more into Rayman when I was a kid.

You first found out about Rayman in that fandub, the one where I was Polokus as well? That's hilarious, you got into the series so fast.

This is probably a record.

I am not a big fan of the United States advertisings for Rayman, but I personally enjoy the Nintendo ads over there.

It also remembers me how quick I got convinced over here to buy Mario Kart DS, when this commercial passed:

[OCG]

Awesome commercial. One of the rare cases where I like non Japanese one better - mainly because of funnier idea. I just wish narrator woman sounded more excited on it.

Japanese one is funny too though:

[Reese Riverson]

It also remembers me how quick I got convinced over here to buy Mario Kart DS, when this commercial passed:

Hahaha, wow, that's pretty funny.

Didn't Rayman Legends have any particular commercials? I can't really recall.

[Master]

I know he had some here, but I don't think I can share them as they weren't uploaded online, I know Haruka's got the UK RO advert though.