Armaguiddon

Armaguiddon
Alignment	Bad
Appears in	Rayman 3
Location	Hoodlum Headquarters, The Tower of the Leptys, Special Invaders
Portrayed by	{{{portrayed by}}}
Resistance	{{{resistance}}}
Attacks	Bomb launch, plasma blast
Sex	{{{sex}}}
Species	{{{species}}}
Relatives	{{{relatives}}}

The Hoodlums loaded this next-generation combat fighter with every-thing they could think of, like triple-plum condensers, rechargeable Fulgure-27-cannons, phase gigatubes, gyro-grommets, and all sorts of stuff engineered for maximum havoc.

—Official site, Rayman 3

Hoodflyers are aircraft developed by the Hoodlums. They’re very light armored but they’re maneuverable and pack a heck of a punch. You’ll only see them in the rare instances of air-to-air combat. Pump a couple of shots from a laser cannon into them and they won’t trouble you for long.

—Official Strategy Guide, Rayman 3

Armaguiddons, also known as Apokalifters and Hoodflyers, are Hoodlum-controlled flying machines which are encountered in Rayman 3.

Description

Armaguiddons are small, levitating crafts built and piloted by the Hoodlum army. On the rear of each vehicle is a cannon capable of firing blasts of damaging green plasma in short bursts. At the front of each vehicle is a mechanism which can launch bombs; however, the momentum of a flying Armaguiddon is required to launch them by more than few feet. Both the plasma cannon and the bombs are used by Rayman and Globox during the portions where they pilot an Armaguiddon, but only the bombs are ever used by the Hoodlum pilots.

In the second-last phase of Hoodlum Headquarters, Globox is captured by a mechanical arm, which takes him into a room containing several Armaguiddons; however, when Rayman approaches the doors to this room, they spring shut, and Globox is heard screaming. Rayman went on to fight and destroy the Horrible Machine, causing the Headquarters to explode; exactly what happens to Globox is not known, but he appears to have taken control of an Armaguiddon and escaped with it.

As Rayman escapes from the exploding Hoodlum Headquarters, the blast sends him flying through the air, and he lands at the foot of the Tower of the Leptys. As he nears the upper levels of the Tower, he is taken by surprise when he encounters Globox, who is now at the helm of a flying Armaguiddon. Globox crashes the vehicle almost immediately; at this Rayman is distraught, but Globox quickly reveals that he has not been injured. Rayman climbs into the Armaguiddon with Globox, and the two characters begin to fly upwards through the tower; Globox loses his sunglasses, which have never been seen before, in the process. The vehicle is controlled directly by the player; it is completely manoeuvreable in 360 degrees, and can withstand many crashes before breaking down. As the heroes ascend, they encounter other Armaguiddons; these ones are piloted by enemy Hoodlums. For these portions, the game switches to a first-person perspective as the player takes control of Rayman, who must use the Armaguiddon's rear cannon to fend off the enemies (who only utilise the bombs launched from the front of their vehicles). The game alternates between steering the Armaguiddon and fighting off enemy Armaguiddons. Both modes of gameplay become progressively more difficult as the level proceeds – the driving portions become filled with difficult obstacles, such as gigantic rotating gears, and the shooting portions involve ever-increasing numbers of enemy Armaguiddons.

Eventually the characters reach a point where Rayman can continue by himself. Globox stays behind in the Armaguiddon after this point. At the top of the Tower, Rayman battles the increasingly powerful Reflux, who has gained the power of the Leptys by stealing the Sceptre. After the third stage of the battle, Reflux sprouts wings and flies upwards into the world of the Leptys; at this point, Globox arrives in the Armaguiddon, proclaiming his wish to find André, whom he has grown to like. The two fly upwards in pursuit of Reflux. During the fourth stage of the battle, Reflux chases the Armaguiddon in circles through the world of the Leptys, and Rayman must use its plasma cannon to shoot down the red energy balls thrown by the pursuing Reflux. Rayman must also shoot the magic barrier which Reflux has summoned to protect the Sceptre embedded in his back – this is the source of his power and his only weak point. Once the barrier is down, Rayman must shoot the Sceptre, damaging Reflux. This causes Reflux to land on the ground to recuperate, after which André (who also seems to be inside Reflux's back) uses the power of the Sceptre to spawn Black Lums, which fly out of Reflux's body and turn into Hoodmongers once they reach the ground. The heroes must use the Armaguiddon's bombs to destroy as many Hoodlums as they can, before they march back into Reflux and are absorbed by him, thus healing him. The process is repeated until Reflux is defeated.

The Armaguiddon also makes an appearance in Special Invaders, a minigame within Rayman 3. Rayman and Globox pilot the vehicle through an obstacle-filled building. Other, Hoodlum-piloted Armaguiddons race against the player, but outracing them is entirely optional; the only objective is to clear the course within a certain amount of time.

• 
  Rayman fighting the Hoodlum with an Armaguiddon.
• 
  Rayman and Globox pilot an Armaguiddon in the Special Invaders minigame.

Trivia

• The model used for Armaguiddon pilots is the same model that is used for the Hoodstormers.
• During the development of Rayman 3, the Armaguiddons were called “Taille-Facteurs” (lit. "Mailman-Slicers” in French), in reference to the TIE fighters from Star Wars.

Gallery

• 
  An early design for the Armaguiddon.