Mr Skops

Mr Skops
Mr Skops
Alignment	Bad
Appears in	Rayman
Location	The Caves of Skops
Portrayed by	{{{portrayed by}}}
Resistance
Attacks	Claw, energy balls
Sex	{{{sex}}}
Species	Scorpion
Relatives	{{{relatives}}}

Mr Skops, also known as Skops the Scorpion, is a giant, dark-pink scorpion with a single massive claw, and yellow spikes on his body. He is the fifth major boss in the original Rayman game, and is encountered only once in Mr Skops' Stalactites, the third and final level of the Caves of Skops.

Mr Skops forms part of the first transformation of Mr Dark (head and claw) fought at the end of Mr Dark's Dare in the original game.

In Rayman

First phase

In the original Rayman game, Mr Skops is first encountered in the second part of Mr Skops' Stalactites, where he is found sleeping on the other side of a fiery pit covered with spiky platforms. Angry at being woken by Rayman, he immediately attacks him.

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  Mr Skops becomes angry when he wakes up.

He attacks by throwing his claw, which Rayman must jump over as it sails towards him, and again as it returns to its owner. Mr Skops also strikes the ground with his claw, causing the spiky platforms which Rayman stands on to fall into the lava below, one by one.

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  Mr Skops preparing to fight.
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  Mr Skops thumping the ground.
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  Mr Skops hurling his claw forward.

When all the spiky platforms are gone, Rayman must grab the edge of the platform Mr Skops is standing on to avoid his attacks, and then jump back onto the platform when he thumps the ground. Mr Skops then runs away, while causing lava to rise in an attempt to kill Rayman. He also demonstrates his ability to shoot energy balls from his tail, which destroys the next set of spiky platforms Rayman must use to avoid the lava.

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  Mr Skops looking for Rayman.
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  Mr Skops raising the lava.
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  Mr Skops firing energy balls.

Once this set of spiky platforms have been destroyed, Rayman will continue to advance as Mr Skops retreats, finding an exit sign leading to the next phase of the battle.

Second phase

Rayman then has a one-on-one battle with Mr Skops, in which he must dodge his claw and punch his energy balls back at him. When he has only one health point left, he moves forward, making his last attacks much harder to dodge.

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  Mr Skops about to hurl his claw.

Once beaten, Mr Skops falls to pieces while smiling showing he is at peace once more.

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  Mr Skops touched by one of his energy balls.

The ending

Once Mr Dark has been defeated, the Great Protoon restored and Betilla rescued, the entirety of the original Rayman cast are seen to go on holiday, amongst the images of the holiday is one of Mr Skops, who seems to have lost all hostility.

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  A reformed and benevolent Mr Skops enjoys his holidays after the defeat of Mr Dark by relaxing onboard Space Mama's pirate ship.

In the early production of Rayman

An extract from an article about the cancelled SNES version of Rayman. The bottom-right screenshot shows a battle with an early version of Mr Skops.

An early version of the original Rayman game, showing Mr Skops in the Dream Forest.

At a very early point in its production, the original Rayman game was planned for release on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In 2010, the French retro-gaming magazine Pix'n Love printed an article on the history of the Rayman series, including several in-game screenshots of the scrapped Super Nintendo version. One screenshot depicts Rayman and his female companion battling a very early version of Mr Skops. This version of the character can still shoot electricity from the tip of his tail, but he looks much more like a real scorpion; he has two claws instead of one, and his carapace is a shady orange colour rather than a bright pink.

Some pieces of advertisement from the game, as well as the packaging of some versions, bear a screenshot which shows Rayman battling Mr Skops in the Dream Forest rather than in the Caves of Skops. It is not known if this screenshot was created solely for the purpose of marketing, or if this scenario actually existed in any early version of the game. Neither of the leaked Atari Jaguar prototypes contain any trace of this battle, although they differ from the final version in numerous other ways.

Other appearances

Mr Skops makes a cameo appearance in Rayman Junior, as an engraving on a wooden palisade.

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  An engraving of Mr Skops in Rayman Junior.

Gallery

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  A redesign of Mr Skops by Giacomo Boni