Life

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Lives are power-ups found in the original Rayman game, its spin-offs, its Game Boy Color adaptation and the Game Boy Advance version of Rayman Raving Rabbids.

In Rayman and its spin-offs

A life
Look for them, they come in handy when you face the enemies that await you.
—Manual, Rayman

In the original Rayman game, lives are usually hidden in secret areas or activated when certain events occur. They look like small statues of Rayman, with a dark purple base and a number 1 written on it. It is possible to catch them by touching them or throwing Rayman's telescopic fist at them, once he has received the grappling fist ability. Lives can only be collected once per game and do not respawn. When Rayman collects a life, the player gains an additional chance to restart from the most recent checkpoint should Rayman die. Any health Rayman has lost is also restored. When Rayman loses all of his lives, the continue screen appears, giving Rayman a chance to use one of his continues to recover his lives. In most of the versions, Rayman starts with 3 lives and can receive a new one through either collecting a statue, collecting 100 Tings or winning a bonus level.

In Rayman Designer, lives, known as One-ups, function similarly to the original Rayman game. This time however, the amount of lives the player starts with in a level is determined by its difficulty setting. If it is set to easy the player starts with 1 life, if it is medium the player starts with 3 lives and if it is hard the player starts with 5. Upon losing all lives in a level, the player is sent to the map screen.

In the scrapped 2D version of Rayman 2

Lives were going to reappear in the scrapped 2D version of Rayman 2, with the same design and function as in the original Rayman.

In the Game Boy Color version of Rayman

In the Game Boy Color version of the original game, lives appear as floating, spinning versions of Rayman's torso. They serve the same function as in the original game, except any hit points that Rayman lost are not restored.

In the Game Boy Color version of Rayman Raving Rabbids

Enables you to gain an extra life.

Lives reappear in the Game Boy Advance version of Rayman Raving Rabbids, where they are silver in colour. Here they serve largely the same purpose as they did in the original game.

In Rayman Origins

In Rayman Origins, lives were intended to make a return. Instead of statues, they appeared to be plush toys of Rayman, resembling more the icon of the Wanna Kick Rayman series from Rayman 3. Lives were only seen in a beta version of the game, which also featured some other scrapped elements such as the Photographer. In the beta, Rayman could get a life just by touching special bubbles only found in secret rooms with Electoon cages. These bubbles act as roulettes, scrolling between various other items such as Blue Punches, Lums, and hearts. With good timing, the players could gather a life, which, weirdly, makes a big heart with inverted colours appear for a short period.

During final development, the lives (along with the roulette bubbles) were removed from the final version of the game. The developers decided this to get rid of the "arcade era" and provide a new and more positive gaming experience, as the player could lose as many times as necessary to gain skill without having to worry about being ejected from the game.[1] This may suggest that lives won't appear in future games of the Rayman series.

Similar items

In Rayman 2 Forever, lives are replaced with Super Red Lums, which serve the same purpose, and although they do not appear in the Game Boy Advance version of Rayman 3 either, the White Lums have a similar function.

References