Mr Dark

Mr Dark
Alignment	Bad
Appears in	Rayman, Maths and English with Rayman, Rayman Designer, French with Rayman, Rayman (Game Boy Color), Rayman 3 (cameo), Rayman Origins (cameo), Rayman Mini
Location	Mr Dark's Dare, Arcane Forest, Mr Dark's lair, Mr Dark's lair
Portrayed by	Chris Bénard (Rayman)
Resistance	(original version) (Atari Jaguar version) (Game Boy Color version)
Attacks	Summoning Bad Rayman, reversing the player's left–right controls, forcing Rayman to run uncontrollably, stealing Rayman's telescopic fist, creating twin fireballs which must be dodged, creating and controlling pillars of flame, transforming into hybrids of the previous five bosses, summoning a rain of small fireballs, summoning large fireballs, curling into a large or small electrical ball, summoning lightning strikes
Sex	{{{sex}}}
Species	Unknown
Relatives	{{{relatives}}}

A wicked character, he wants to spread evil all around him by taking over the magical world of Rayman. If he succeeds, he will make the world a dreadful place under a reign of terror and dictatorship.

—Official site, Maths and English with Rayman

Mr Dark is Rayman's arch-nemesis, and a major character in the Rayman series. A diabolical and mysterious shape-shifting sorcerer, Mr Dark has attempted to disrupt the balance of the Glade of Dreams on several occasions, but is always thwarted by Rayman. His features are hidden beneath a shadowy cloak and hat, beneath which only his glowing yellow eyes can be seen. Mr Dark's first appearance is in the original Rayman game, where he acts as the main antagonist and final boss. He makes similar villainous appearances in Maths and English with Rayman, Rayman Designer and the Game Boy Color adaptation of Rayman. Mr Dark was originally meant to return in Rayman Origins, but he was cut from the final game and replaced with the Magician, a secret admirer of his whom he inspired to become a villain.

In the original Rayman

Mr Dark as he kidnaps Betilla the Fairy

Betilla the Fairy, captured by Mr Dark

You enter the world of desserts where Mister Dark is hidden, guarded by clowns carrying out amazing stunts... Be careful, Mister Dark is diabolical.

—Manual, Rayman

Mr Dark first appears in the intro sequence of Rayman, where the Magician introduces the game's story. The Glade of Dreams is kept in balance by a mystical orb known as the Great Protoon. One fateful day, the evil Mr Dark appears, stealing the Great Protoon and defeating Betilla the Fairy as she tries to protect it. The Electoons, small pink creatures which gravitate around the Great Protoon, are scattered across the world, and imprisoned in cages by Mr Dark's minions. Rayman sets off to free the Electoons, defeat Mr Dark and recover the Great Protoon.

For the majority of the game, Mr Dark does not appear; he simply stands on a high hilltop, observing Rayman's progress through his binoculars. When Rayman defeats Space Mama, the game's fourth major boss, Mr Dark decides to take action, and kidnaps Betilla the Fairy, who had been granting Rayman powers throughout the game. Mr Dark is next glimpsed when Rayman defeats the next boss, Mr Skops: now it appears that Mr Dark has imprisoned Betilla in a tiny glass sphere through his sorcery. Betilla is seen calling out for help, and asking Rayman to hurry. In order to access the final level, Mr Dark's Dare in the Candy Château, Rayman must smash all cages and free every Electoon in the game.

Before fighting Rayman, Mr Dark casts strange spells on him as he progresses through Candy Château. He makes his first physical in-game appearance at the beginning of the second stage, where he waits for Rayman, then casts a spell before flying away. This spell creates Bad Rayman, an evil duplicate who copies Rayman's every move and causes instant death if he touches him. In the next stage, Mr Dark casts a spell which reverses the player's left–right controls, followed by another spell which makes Rayman run uncontrollably. At the end of the level, Mr Dark magically steals Rayman's telescopic fist power, leaving him helpless and unable to punch. Following this, Rayman reaches the central chamber of Mr Dark's château. First Mr Dark taunts Rayman by dangling his telescopic fist from a rope and retracting it whenever Rayman makes a move to take it. He then tries to destroy Rayman by trapping him between two moving walls of deadly flame while throwing fire balls at him. When his situation seems desperate, a pair of Electoons rescue Rayman by giving him back his telescopic fist. The final battle then begins: Rayman must battle Mr Dark, who transforms into hybrids of the previous five bosses. These hybrids each have Mr Dark's face as their resistance icon.

The first transformation is a mixture of Mr Stone and Mr Skops. His is compoised of Mr Stone's body, feet and right hand, together with Mr Skops' head and claw. His only attack consists of hurling his claw at Rayman, which he can jump over and punch him in the face. If Rayman attempts to punch him too early, the monster will block his face with his claw. It is possible, with a certain timing and dexterity, to hit him up to three times per turn. After he has suffered eight blows to the face, the monster vanishes.

Mr Dark fighting Rayman at the end of the original Rayman game

The second transformation is a pair of identical monsters. Each one appears to be made of Bzzit's body and Space Mama's head and feet (as seen in her first appearance in Eraser Plains), along with her hands and rolling pin, which fires lasers (as seen in her second appearance in Space Mama's Crater. Their only attack is shooting lasers, which Rayman can jump over or duck under. If both of them shoot at the same height, the lasers collide each other, morph into one laser, and fall straight down towards the ground, which can be difficult for Rayman to avoid if he is ducking. When Rayman gets the chance, he can punch either one of the two. It is also possible to trick them into shooting one another. Both monsters share a single resistance bar; it is possible to defeat them both by punch only one. When they have been damaged eight times, the monsters vanish.

The third and final transformation is a mixture of Mr Sax, Space Mama, and Bzzit. He is composed of Space Mama's body, Mr Sax's feet and hands and Bzzit's head. This monster's only attack is jumping about with the use of Mr Sax's feet. At the start of this fight, Rayman is shrunk to the same size he would have been had he touched a Flying Blue Elf. As the monster tries to stomp him, Rayman must use his running ability to avoid getting squashed. Whenever the monster hits the ground, Rayman is bounced up into the air by the impact, giving him a chance punch the monster in Bzzit's face, which is his only weak spot.

Once the third transformation has suffered eight punches, he vanishes, and Rayman is returned to his normal size. It would seem that Mr Dark was defeated by the final punch to the head of the third form.

The Atari Jaguar version makes it more explicit that these hybrids are transformations of Mr Dark. In this version, the Bzzit/Space Mama hybrids are absent, so the fight consists of only two rounds: the first against the Mr Stone/Mr Skops mixture, and the second against the Bzzit/Mr Sax/Space Mama mixture. The two monsters share a single health bar with Mr Dark's face as its icon: when half of the first monster's health is depleted, he clicks his claw several times, creating a shower of sparks, then walks off the screen, visibly sweating. The final monster then appears, with half of his health already gone. (Rayman is not shrunk in this version, and does not need to be bounced into the air in order to punch his head). Once all of his health has been depleted, it looks straight at the camera, sweats, and flies straight into the air. Electoon icons fly across the screen as Rayman celebrates his victory.

In the Atari Jaguar version, Mr Dark makes one final appearance at the end of the game's credits. He flies across the screen, and the message ‘See you soon’ is displayed, hinting at Mr Dark's impending return. However, Rayman 2 and Rayman 3 make only passing references to him, and while his influence plays a significant role in Rayman Origins, he does not actually make an appearance.

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  Mr Dark's first transformation: a mixture of Mr Stone and Mr Skops
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  Mr Dark's second transformation: mixtures of Bzzit and Space Mama
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  Mr Dark's third and final transformation: a mixture of Bzzit, Mr Sax and Space Mama

In Rayman Junior

Mr Dark also appears in Maths and English with Rayman, an educational spin-off of the original Rayman game. In this game, he steals the Magic Book of Knowledge from the Magician and destroys a map to his hideout in Candy Château. He casts the same spells on Rayman as he did in the original game, but due to the game's educational nature, he doesn't fight as a boss at all. Once Rayman has solved the riddles on the parchment showing the way to his hideout and been through his spells, Mr Dark doesn't appear any more and Rayman eventually finds the Book of Knowledge.

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  Mr Dark as seen in Maths and English with Rayman
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  Artwork of Mr Dark from the French Maths and English with Rayman website

In Rayman Designer

In Rayman Designer, Mr Dark is available as an enemy event in Candy Château. There are different variants, each making him cast a different spell at Rayman. The spells last until Rayman reaches an Anti-spell amulet.

• Mr. Dark: Bad Rayman - Summons Bad Rayman.
• Mr. Dark: forced run - Forces Rayman to run.
• Mr. Dark: reversed control - Reverses the left and right controls.
• Mr. Dark: little Rayman - Shrinks Rayman.
• Mr. Dark: steals the fist - Steals Rayman's fist ability.

In the Game Boy Color version of Rayman

Mr Dark as he appears in the the Game Boy Color version of Rayman

Mr Dark holding a cage of captured Toons in the Game Boy Color version

In the Game Boy Color release of Rayman, Mr Dark has imprisoned the Toons and uses their power for himself, throwing the world into darkness and chaos. Unlike the original, he does not transform himself when he engages in a final boss battle with Rayman. In between each level he can also be seen watching Rayman through a crystal ball.

In Arcane Forest, he casts two spells on Rayman, the first one summoning Bad Rayman, and the second one reversing Rayman's controls.

The final battle starts out with Mr Dark shielding himself from Rayman's fist with three bubble-like balls. Then, he slowly rises up, and when he is off screen, he rains fire upon him from above. After ten to fifteen fire balls are dropped, he descends back down to the stage, while still having the shield around himself, and turns into a ball. While in ball form, he randomly floats around the stage trying to ram Rayman. His objective is to hit him while he is in ball form three times. But as he hits him, he gets smaller and smaller, and becomes harder to hit. After hitting him three times, a heart appears at the top of the stage so he can replenish his health. Mr Dark turns back to normal, and then he floats off screen again.

Mr Dark disintegrates when he is defeated.

Mr Dark fighting Rayman on a high peak at the end of the game

This time, Mr Dark throws ten meteors at Rayman, two at a time. Then, he does the same routine as before: he comes back down, and turns into a ball. But this time, he will stay in ball form for a shorter period than before, and if Rayman can't manage to hit him three times within the time limit, he will turn back to normal and float back up into the sky to throw meteors at him again. If Rayman does hit him three times, a heart will appear once again, and he will rise back up into the sky to unleash his final attack.

This time, he shoots sixteen bolts of lightning. They are shot at the step he was just above on the stage, and can be easily avoided by using the helicopter to hover over a lower step for a short time. After the sixteen bolts of lightning are shot, he turns back into his ball form. The time he spends in his ball form is even shorter, so Rayman must punch him three more times very quickly. Mr Dark then reverts to his normal form, burns up, turns into a strange ghostly cloud and vanishes.

Afterwards, Rayman returns to his hammock and falls asleep, but is disturbed by a menacing figure which appears to be Mr Dark. However, it turns out to be four Toons wearing Mr Dark's cloak and hat as a joke, and Rayman laughs.

In Rayman 2

Mr Dark is referred to by name in the manual for Rayman 2, where it is revealed that his defeat at the hands of Rayman is what convinced the inhabitants of the Glade of Dreams that the hero was trustworthy. However, he makes no actual appearance in the game.

Previews of the cancelled 2D version of Rayman 2 mention that the Robo-Pirate invasion took place after Mr Dark vanished from Rayman's island following the events of the first game. It is not known if Mr Dark was ever planned to return and have a relevant role in this game; other characters from the original, including Betilla the fairy, were intended to make an appearance.

In Rayman 3

A picture of Mr Dark can be seen on the floor to the left at the ending of Rayman 3's 2D Madness minigame. This represents Mr Dark's only appearance in a 3D Rayman game to date.

Mr Dark makes a subtle cameo appearance in Rayman 3. At the end of the 2D Madness minigame, a few photographs from the original game are seen briefly and between them they show almost all of the game's characters, including Mr Dark. In addition, the design of the game's titular Hoodlum enemies was conceived as a visual mixture between Mr Dark and the Hunters.

In Rayman Origins

The archenemy from Rayman 1 returns. A stupedendous super villain, it was Mr Dark who stole the Great Protoon and sent the Electoons scattering from its orbit. This series of events upset the harmonic balance of Rayman's world and a heroic fight followed.

—Official site, Rayman Origins

In a May 2011 interview with Jeux Vidéo Magazine, Gabrielle Shrager, the lead writer of Rayman Origins, stated that "We will probably see how Mr Dark became what he is". When the second trailer of Rayman Origins showed a brief glimpse of a Teensie with a top hat and a dark cloak, standing on a stone platform and surrounded by Darktoons and Psychlops, it was speculated that this was Mr Dark. Several months later, clearer artwork of the character was released on the official website, explicitly stating that the Teensie in question was indeed Mr Dark, and adding that "The archenemy from Rayman 1 returns".

However, Mr Dark was cut from the game at some point during development, and replaced with the Magician, for which the developers reused his new appearance as a Teensie, with only small modifications such as shortening his hair and removing the swirl on his nose. He nonetheless remained available as an avatar on the PlayStation Store, along with the soldier and the piranha, two other types of enemies also featured on the same section of the official website and also cut from the final game.

In the Reveal, one of the final levels of the game, the heroes discover that the Magician is the one responsible for the colossal mechanical factory of the Moody Clouds. A diagram on the wall of his office explains that he has been collecting the heroes' Lums throughout the game and using them to power his machines. In response to his cover being blown, the Magician rips the golden star off his top hat, showing more clearly his resemblance with Mr Dark. Additionally, on the walls are some posters with pictures of Mr Dark's silhouette, and one with "♥ Mister D" written on it, revealing that he is an admirer of Mr Dark.

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  Mr Dark as he was originally meant to appear in Rayman Origins. His appearance was reused for the Magician, albeit with small changes.
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  The PlayStation Store avatar of Mr Dark
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  Posters depicting Mr Dark hang on the wall of the Magician's headquarters in the Moody Clouds

Apart from the posters in the Magician's headquarters, the game's only explicit reference to Mr Dark occurs when the player unlocks the ability to play as Raymesis. If this character pulls on the Bubble Dreamer's beard, he makes fun of his ugliness and mentions that he was created by Mr Dark. It is unclear whether the Bubble Dreamer confuses Raymesis with Bad Rayman, or makes a joke about their resemblance (he looks almost identical to Rayman's evil clone created by Mr Dark in the original game), or if the two are linked in some other way.

Scrapped plot

An early version of the game's script, found within the files of the game's demo, contains unused dialogue which indicates that in this scrapped scenario, the Magician was a fan and admirer of Mr Dark, and desired to be as mysterious and evil as him; one of his lines is "I always wanted to be like Mr. Dark: mysterious, dark!...um, dark and mysterious..". The script also reveals that the Magician's real name would have been Ales Mansay, and that he became embittered and corrupted when he was bullied at magic school for his poor magical abilities. He eventually disguised himself as his hero, Mr Dark, and hid a microphone in the Snoring Tree to start a war between Rayman and the Livid Dead while he himself set to work building an army of mechas (powered by the Lums given to him by the clueless heroes) that he could use to take over the Glade of Dreams and free it from the rule of Polokus, whom he considered to be an ineffectual and useless leader, unable to protect his people from his own nightmares. It is unknown why this plot was scrapped from the final game, and all that is left of it is the posters on the walls in the Magician's headquarters, indicating that the part about him being an admirer of Mr Dark still holds true.

In Rayman Jungle Run

Although Mr Dark does not appear in Rayman Jungle Run, he is featured in an artwork included in a leaked early build of the game.

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  Mr Dark seen commanding an army of Darktoons

In Rayman Mini

I see that you're tougher than you look, let's see how I'll break you! The rule is simple, every day I'll launch several challenges for you! 3 per contract. If you fulfill those challenges I'll give you a reward. But beware, these challenges are not for the faint-hearted, the higher your awesomeness is, the harder the challenge... And the bigger the reward.

—Mr Dark, Rayman Mini

During the second update of Rayman Mini, elements discovered in its files revealed that Mr Dark would appear in its next update. Its release on January 28, 2021 (version 1.4.0) marked his return to the Rayman series after years of absence.

Mr Dark reappears with a new design, very close to the one he has in the first Rayman game. Unlike other characters from this opus reappeared in Rayman Origins, like the Magician and Betilla, Mr Dark is still limbless.

Mr Dark comes into a new game mode bearing his name. To access it, the player must first recover five skulls, obtained by defeating 5 bosses in Adventure mode. In his mode, the sorcerer offers the player various contracts, which indicate challenges to be achieved in the levels of Rayman Mini. If they are successful, the player gets various rewards. These, as well as the difficulty of the challenges, depending on the level of awesomeness.

Mr Dark exchanges a few sentences with the player when they enter his game mode and if they manage to complete all of his challenges. He speaks with a sinister whisper during dialogue, which has been reversed to sound even more mischievous. Among the reversed voice clips he pronounces are words such as chocolate and coronavirus in French.

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  Image illustrating Mr. Dark mode.
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  Mr. Dark Mode.

In Rayman in the Phantom Show

Must be nice to be Mr. Dark, going to sleep with nothing on your mind!

—The Phantom, Rayman in the Phantom Show

While Mr Dark does not appear in Rayman in the Phantom Show, the third DLC of Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, replicas of his hat and cloak can be found hanging on a wall in the Repository. He is also mentioned in Act 1 of the Phantom's song, Phantom Returns.

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  Replicas of Mr Dark's hat and cloak hanging on a wall in the Repository

Gallery

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  Mr Dark fighting off Betilla the Fairy

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  Mr Dark capturing Electoons

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  Artwork of Rayman, Electoons and Mr Dark

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  Mr Dark with his binoculars.

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Names in other languages

Language	Name
English	Mr Dark
Chinese (simplified)	大黑先生 (PC, PC manual, PC series manual) 黑暗先生 (mobile, mobile achievements)
Chinese (traditional)	黑暗巫師
Dutch	Mr. Dark
French	Mr Dark
German	Mr Dark
Hebrew	איש-החושך Ish Hahosesh
Italian	Mr. Dark
Japanese	ミスター・ダーク
Korean	미스터 다크 (PC manual) 어둠의 사나이 (mobile, mobile achievements) 어둠 사나이 (mobile)
Russian	Мистер Мрак
Spanish	Mr. Dark Mr Oscuro (PC only) Dark (Saturn manual only)