Rayman Pirate-Community

This topic is about some theories that I made about the Rayman Raving Rabbids/Rayman 4 prototype.

First theory : Is the RRR prototype a Party-Game or a Adventure Game ?

Everyone know that RRR was supposed to be a Adventure/platformer game, it’s true. But what if RRR was actually a Party-Game/Adventure game during the developpement before becoming a Party-Game ? Or, what if everything we saw about the prototype (Rayman fighting Rabbids, Rayman on a eagle and a spider, ect...) was just... minigames.

I know, this is strange but most of the things that we saw in the prototype actually appear in the game itself but in a more simplified way. Rayman fighting Rabbids become Bunnies Have Natural Rhythm, Rayman running in a forest become Bunnies Don’t Give Gifts, Rayman on a spider or a warthog become the racing minigames and Rayman on a eagle become Bunnies Don't Like Bats.

Why these minigames was more simplified in the final game, I don’t really know but this is definitely a proof that the prototype was more a Party-Game than a Adventure game.

First, let’s look at this french interview :

22/07/06 : Rayman 4 devrait sortir en exclusivité sur la Wii, et cette version devrait être différente des autres. Rayman devrait être un prisonnier, au début du jeu, et deviendrait populaire dans les arènes. Le grand méchant serait l'obèse Empereur des Rabbids. Il a été confirmé que malgré quelques passages de plate-forme, cela ne serait pas l'attraction principale du jeu.

This mean that the beta was supposed to have some "platform part" along with minigames.

Another proofs is that the level in the prototype trailer when Rayman fight the Rabbids look more like a "arena level" than a linear level and can easily fit as a minigames.

Also, look at these tags from the original RRR site found by Droolie the 28 June 2006 :

Droolie wrote:<meta name="keywords" content="Rayman, raving, rabbids, michel, ancel, game, style, adventure, action, platformer, design, bunnies, bunny, rabbits, globox, insane, crazy, out-of-control, mad, hysterical, PSP, GBA, Wii, Xbox 360, X360, Ps2, DS, PC, music, punk, rock, elvis, hip hop, rasta, dj, rap, latino, pop, disguise, 2006, November, shark, bat, dragon, spider, eagle, run, mini game, shirt, outfit, glasses, ubiart, carrot, weapon, lazer, free-roaming, desert, keep, dungeon, ly, move, super-move, helicopter, lum, dark lums, lums, map, level, creature, wanted, flying saucer, scooter, costume, kung fu, style, cool, fun, funniest, wackiest, wacky, races, combo, fight, ubisoft" />

We can see the tags "platformer", "adventure", "action" and "mini game" along with other tags linked to the prototype.

And finally, look at the plot of the prototype : Rayman, André and their girlfriends was captured by the Rabbids and was bringed to the colosseum. Rayman must complete minigames in order to become more popular than Jabbit and finally manage to escape with his friends.

And that’s it, look very similar to the final plot. Also, if you say "RRR DS has a similar plot, but it's a platformer.", well, look at these concept art from the prototype.



This clearly look like concept art for a Party-Game.

In conclusion : Rayman Raving Rabbids was a Adventure game before becoming a Adventure/Party Game then just a Party-Game and the prototype trailer actually show early version of minigames and not actual levels from the beta.

Second theory : The Zombies Rabbids

When RRR was revealed, the Rabbids showed in the first trailer looked very different and more sinister than the one who appear in the final version.

So everyone mistaken them as the old look of the Rabbids when actually, this is not true. This Rabbid come from a cancelled type of Rabbids called "Zombies Rabbids". Why they are called "Zombies Rabbids" you would ask me ? Well, according to the files of the game, we can find a file called "Rayman_Lapin_Zombie.wol" (translated to Rayman_Rabbid_Zombie.wol ) along with others files like "Rayman_Lapin.wol" and "Rayman_Lapin_Brutus.wol", ect... since we know that there no Zombie Rabbid costume in RRR and the Rabbids in the trailer actually look like zombies, this make sense.

Also, remember that the Bunnies Scientific Facts videos were released in May 2006 (when the game was still a Adventure game) and show the commons Rabbid, and that some prototype images also show the commons Rabbids.



In conclusion : The Rabbids showed in the first prototype trailer are from a cancelled types of Rabbids called "Zombies Rabbids" and was not the old design for the Rabbids.

Third theory : The third cancelled type of Rabbids

We know that was there suppossed to be two types of Rabbids in RRR, the commons Rabbids and the Zombies Rabbids, but what if along with these two types, there were a third one with a different design from the commons and zombies one ? Well, let’s find out.

Originally, a Rabbid called "Rabbid inspector" (I don’t know the official name) was planned to be in RRR (And probably his prototype) before being replaced by the Cowboy Rabbid.
This is what the Rabbid inspector was supposed to look like :
https://raymanpc.com/wiki/images/a/ac/R ... teur_2.jpg (the image is too big)

But before this design, the Rabbid was also planned to look like this.
https://raymanpc.com/wiki/images/6/6b/R ... teur_1.jpg (this image is also too big)

Notice that this design is very different from the others Rabbids as is possess blue fur, sharper teeth and looks smaller than the others. It’s also interesting to notice that the first design possess an textured model in RRR Activity Center.

And that’s were things become interesting, what if the first design of the Rabbid inspector (or a similar one) was also used for a cancelled type of Rabbids ?

Look at this storyboard :

Didn’t notice something’s about the design of the "Rabbid presenter" in the image ? It’s use the same design of the body of the Rabbid inspector.

Another proof is this picture from RRR 2 : If you look right at the bottom, you can see again, a Rabbid with a body similar to the Rabbid presenter and inspector one meaning that they clearly planned to be more Rabbids with this design.

In conclusion : A third type of Rabbid with sharper teeth was planned to appear in the prototype or/and the final game before being scrapped.

That’s all, I hope that you enjoyed these theories and remember, it’s a theory, a GAME THEORY !

Source :
French topic where the interview came from : https://forums.p-nintendo.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27217
Topic where the tags where found : viewtopic.php?t=1487&start=20
The topic where the Zombie Rabbid was found : viewtopic.php?t=4956&start=60

Interesting theories! It was a good read.

Good theories! I'll need to read these more thoroughly tonight but you've really put a lot of work and effort into these!

Pretty convincing. Indeed, based on what you've been saying here for the last few months I think we'd already figured these out, but it was still great to put in the effort and get all the info in one place!
Let's face it Birds, you've made me think more about the Rabbids since you started posting here than I had at all in the previous decade. I'm still trying to decide whether or not that's a good thing!

Same for me, back then I didn't even pay any attention to the Rabbids, but now I see them in a new light. What's always been true though is that I never hated them.
They were always cute to me

Wow, is very interesting and is very convincing, but there's more secrets in the dark, late or early the truth come to light

Lil_DRE wrote:Wow, is very interesting and is very convincing, but there's more secrets in the dark, late or early the truth come to light

Well, there’s a lot of prototype stuff in the final game but nobody know how to access it and how to rip it. There also temple and dungeons in the files and we still don’t know their role in the prototype. So yes, there still secrets that need to be discovered.

I look forward to seeing what else you find Birds.

Update : I added a new proof concerning the RRR tags site at the first theory + a third theory is coming soon.

Third theory : The third cancelled type of Rabbids

We know now that there suppossed to be two types of Rabbids in RRR, the commons Rabbids and the Zombies Rabbids, but what if along with these two types, there a third one with a different design from the commons and zombies one ? Well, let’s find out.

Originally, a Rabbid called "Rabbid inspector" (I don’t know the official name) was planned to be in RRR (And probably his prototype) before being replaced by the Cowboy Rabbid.
This is what the Rabbid inspector is supposed to look like :
https://raymanpc.com/wiki/images/a/ac/R ... teur_2.jpg (the image is too big)

But before this design, the Rabbid was planned to look like this.
https://raymanpc.com/wiki/images/6/6b/R ... teur_1.jpg (this image is also too big)

Notice that this design is very different from the others Rabbids as is possess blue fur, sharper teeth and looks smaller than the others. It’s also interesting to notice that the first design possess an textured model in RRR Activity Center.

And that’s were things become interesting, what if the first design of the Rabbid inspector (or a similar one) was also used for a cancelled type of Rabbids ?

Look at this storyboard :

Didn’t notice something’s about the design of the "Rabbid presenter" in the image ? It’s use the same design of the body of the Rabbid inspector.

Another proof is this picture from RRR 2 : If you look right at the bottom, you can see again, a Rabbid with a body similar to the Rabbid presenter and inspector one meaning that they clearly planned to be more Rabbids with this design.

In conclusion : A third type of Rabbid with sharper teeth was planned to appear in the prototype or/and the final game before being scrapped.

I'm not convinced about second theory. It's all based on Rabbid look, filename and keyword. There's no true evidence that this rabbid is this zombie rabbid mentioned in files.

The third theory is more a fact than theory but no one has touched this topic.

On 22 May 2006 (after E3) Ancel had an interview with ING he said:

The game is going to be completely open, so you'll be able to navigate freely and move from situation to situation with different companions, items, or dark creatures.

But Loic Gounon said on 16 October 2006:

IGN: How was the game conceived?

Loic Gounon: At first the game was conceived as a classic Rayman platformer. It started at the end of King Kong, so the end of November 2005. When we received the first dev kit of the Wii from Nintendo in February or March, we started to work around the controller and it was a bit after that, coming close to E3, that we changed the design of the game to a party game.

IGN: How far did development get with that original vision and what inspired the change to party game?

Loic Gounon: The main thing was that all of the team was really excited about playing with the Wii, having lots of ideas with the Wii. In fact, we had too many ideas so we didn't know if we'd be able to fit them all in the game, having almost fifty ideas we liked. In the end we realised it wasn't possible to fit them all into a standard platformer so we had to divide the game into subsections - that's why we decided to change the game's genre and present those ideas in separate parts like you see now. Like this you can jump from one universe to another, from one game style to another, all without having to cheat the consistency needed in a big platformer with a huge surrounding storyline.

Imo second statement is a really good explanation for the early prototype of RRR.

Until at least July there was nothing new about RRR. Then were showed first screenshots with minigames and prison cell. Nintendo magazine was playing (in vol 207 September) also RRR but with only early versions of minigames. Quoting Michel from this magazine (page 36)

So as you can see, because the Wii controller allows us to have all this gameplay, we thought it was too limiting to just create a typical platfromer

Also in September IGN was playing RRR but newer build because toilet game was changed.
So we can say that at least July was a time when RRR was changed to minigames collection.

Back to Loic Gounon words.

we started to work around the controller and it was a bit after that, coming close to E3, that we changed the design of the game to a party game.

This gives some hints, but it does not answer the question. Is this was we saw in E3 gameplay was only minigames or some minigames-open world hybrid?

Btw in the same interview from May, Ancel said about controling the Rayman from E3 preview.

IGN Wii: How are the Wii controller and nunchuck attachment being used to control Rayman?

Michel Ancel: A lot of our innovative new control features were shown in our trailer at E3. I will talk a bit about those, but we don't want to divulge too much just yet!

Ray's movements. With the nunchuck stick you can move Rayman, making him jump, roll and run.

The fighting part is very different from what you are used to. Here, the Wii controller (remote part) allows us to create deep interaction between Rayman and the player. If you give a real punch move, Rayman makes the same punch on screen, or in other words, if you make a punch from right to left, Rayman does the same move from right to left.

If you shake the controller, Rayman will do some special kung-fu style moves.

Grappling: If you make a quick move with the nunchuck, Rayman will grapple the nearest enemies and objects. You can then make them spin around Rayman and throw them (as projectiles) just by swinging the nunchuck around your head.

Dive attack (one of the super attacks): while Rayman is in the air, he can perform an earthquake ground shaking move. Just gesture both pads downward to do it. These controls are very easy to learn because both of your hands directly control Rayman's hands.

Rayman will also be able to use creatures in the game. To ride them, you have to twist the Wii main controller in order to direct the creatures in certain ways. You can imagine that it feels very natural to control an eagle in the air or a shark underwater just by moving your hands in the direction you want to go.

Last but not least, you will be able to dance with the bunnies! I will let your imagination fly on that one!

Interview
Interview
Images from July

Nve wrote:I'm not convinced about second theory. It's all based on Rabbid look, filename and keyword. There's no true evidence that this rabbid is this zombie rabbid mentioned in files.

The Rabbids seen in the prototype trailer act and look like zombies and in RRR GBA, a enemy with the same design as one of these Rabbids appear in the last world and exactly act like a zombie (but, i forget to put this evidence in the theory) so that’s probably the most logic explaination. Anyway, the only way to be sure is to make the Rabbid Zombie file work.

Nve wrote:Back to Loic Gounon words.

we started to work around the controller and it was a bit after that, coming close to E3, that we changed the design of the game to a party game.

This gives some hints, but it does not answer the question. Is this was we saw in E3 gameplay was only minigames or some minigames-open world hybrid?

As i say, the E3 gameplay show early version of minigames so yes, that’s a possibility, but, the idea of a minigames-open world hybrid is interesting since the level see in the trailer look like a gigantic arena similar to Serious Sam.

wow, the first theory aged pretty badly due to the RRR prototype leak,
but I have a theory perhaps as it is known in the RRR proto: it is an adventure game but as it is known in the RRR proto trailer there is an invasion of rabbids and you fight

against them but since there are many they capture rayman,
They put him in jail and there you have to satisfy them with those minigames that you see in the conceptual arts and then Rayman escapes from prison and there is several adventure parts that we can see in the leaked prototype;
The third theory I think is confirmed by some models that are in the files of the leaked proto.

It's amazing that Birds858 was able to predict that before the game was leaked.