Rayman | |
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Developer(s) |
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Publisher(s) | Ubi Soft |
Director(s) | Agnès Haegel |
Producer(s) | Gérard Guillemot |
Designer(s) |
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Programmer(s) |
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Artist(s) |
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Composer(s) |
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Series | Rayman |
Platform(s) | |
Release | 1 September 1995
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Genre(s) | Platform |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Rayman is a 1995 platform game developed by Ubi Pictures and published by Ubi Soft for MS-DOS, Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, and PlayStation. It is the first installment in the Rayman franchise. The player controls Rayman, who must recapture Electoons and the Great Protoon from Mr. Dark. The gameplay involves rescuing Electoons and gaining new abilities throughout the game.
The game was designed by Michel Ancel and produced by Gérard Guillemot. Ancel originally created sketches of Rayman when he was learning to draw and pitched a demo for French software developer Lankhor before being hired at Ubi Soft. In later development, Ubi Soft decided to make the game a launch title for the North American and European release of the PlayStation as a way to compete with Japanese platform games.
Rayman was critically acclaimed upon release, with praise going toward its visuals and music. Some reviewers warned that the game's aesthetic belied a high difficulty level. The graphics received mixed responses from critics, who wrote that the game was showing at the Atari Jaguar's capabilities. The game has appeared in other systems, including the Game Boy Advance, DSiWare, and mobile devices. Due to its commercial success, the game spawned the Rayman franchise, with its sequel Rayman 2: The Great Escape released in 1999.
Rayman is a side-scrolling platform game omit it displays a two-dimensional graphics engine, incorporating hand-drawn animation and multi-layered worlds with enemies. [6] Omit as the titular Rayman, who his main objective was to rescue Electoons trapped in cages, with six of them hidden each of the levels. Throughout the game, Rayman gains new abilities such as the ability to fly, run and a "telescopic fist", an ability gains early in the game which allows him to punch enemies from a distance. Other abilities include a grabbing fist and the ability to hang on platforms. [7] [8] [9]
Completion of each world requires defeating a boss with special abilities at the end of the level. Defeating them allows the player to move on to the next world. [7] After rescuing all of the Electoons in the first five worlds, the player can enter Candy Chateau which the player have to attacked Mr. Dark. [10] If the player has lost five lives results in the need to load a save file or restart the game. [7] Hidden in a various levels, the player can interact with The Magician who can teleport the player into secret worlds where the player either earned Tings, a ring which the player will get a picture and an extra live. [11]
The people living in the Valley, in Rayman's world, are harmonious thanks to the Great Protoon. However, Mr. Dark steals the Great Protoon to use its power all for himself and spread havoc and chaos, and this causes all the Electoons to scatter over the world. Betilla the Fairy, a guardian of the Great Protoon, battles Mr. Dark to protect the Great Protoon and Electoons, but unfortunately fails and asks Rayman for help by assigning him the task to rescue the Electoons and defeat Mr. Dark. Betilla frequently interacts with Rayman as needed to give him additional magical powers along his journey.
After he rescues all of the Electoons, Rayman faces Mr. Dark, who attacks with various disorienting spells. Rayman arrives in a hall, where Mr. Dark traps him with walls of fire. At the last moment, Electoons retrieve Rayman's ability to punch after Mr. Dark disables it, with the latter continuing the fight by transforming himself into hybrids of the bosses previously fought by Rayman. Upon the defeat of Mr. Dark, Rayman rescues Betilla and recovers the Great Protoon, thus restoring balance to his world. Rayman then takes a vacation with friends and former enemies.
Rayman was created by French video game designer Michel Ancel, with additional contributions to the character's final design by programmer Frédéric Houde and artist Alexandra Steible. [12] Ancel had first drawn designs of Rayman in the 1980s when he was a teenager, at a time when he was learning to draw, compose music, and program in order to follow his dream of making video games. Ancel would later formally revisit his initial drawings and began to work on Rayman. During development, he created a demo of the game for French software developer Lankhor. [13]
By 1988, French video game publisher Ubi Soft, founded two years earlier by the five sons of the Guillemot family, had hired around six developers and operated from Montreuil. Ancel was one of Ubi Soft's early hires, having caught the attention of the Guillemot brothers for his animation skills. Yves Guillemot encouraged Ancel to pitch ideas for new games, which led to a meeting between Ancel, Houde, designer Serge Hascoët, and Gérard, Yves, and Michael Guillemot, after Ancel and Houde had teamed up and worked on the Rayman concept further. Hascoet recalled the pair presenting a "totally strange" design of a large trombone and the player had to imagine themself inside, and an animation system that Ancel had developed for roughly six months which he praised for its fluidity. Despite being in the research and development stage, Hascoet pushed for the game to enter formal production and Michel Guillemot agreed to take it on. After Rayman received the greenlight in 1992, Ancel said "everything changed". [14]
Michel Guillemot realised that additional staff was needed to see the game through, and organised the company accordingly. He also injected money into the project, with Ubi Soft setting aside a budget of 15 million francs. [15] Development then split into two offices, with more automated tasks done in Paris and the artistic work completed by Ancel, Houde, and their team of designers at their own facility outside Montpellier. Founded in 1994 as Ubi Pictures, the studio became Ubisoft Montpellier. [14]
Rayman's styling was inspired by Celtic, Chinese, and Russian fairy tales as well as Ancel's childhood, having spent a lot of time by rivers and chasing insects and climbing large trees. When Ancel started work on the game, he began with trees and strange creatures. [13] In the early 1990s, Ancel became interested in the computer graphic technique of ray tracing and rendering tools such as Autodesk 3ds Max. It inspired him to incorporated it into the character animations with 60Hz animation which Houde said it was very impressive at the time when other games used sprites that animate at five frames. This resulted in the designs of Rayman himself, with his name alluding to the aforementioned technique. [15] [16]
Ancel originally envisioned the game's story to involve Jimmy, a human boy who creates an imaginary online world named Hereitscool. After it becomes infected with a computer virus, Jimmy travels into the world and inhabits the body of his in-game avatar Rayman to defeat the virus. The idea was scrapped during later development. [17] Ancel defines the main idea of the game he wants to create as "a colourful platform game, breathtaking graphics, concrete animations, fantasy, humour" and great playability. During development, four people worked on each worlds, levels of the game and synchronization of Rayman's attitudes. Rayman would became the game that its designers had envisioned which they said it's a success. [18]
Ancel initially produced Rayman for the Atari ST and worked alone on every aspect of the game. [13] Following Houde's arrival on the project, Ancel noticed that public interest in the ST had started to wane and looked to the Super NES CD-ROM, a CD peripheral for the 16-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System. However, in 1993, Nintendo abandoned the project before the hardware was produced. Ancel and Houde ruled out a release for the cartridge-based SNES, doubting its ability to handle the large amount of information they wanted to incorporate into the game. The pair switched focus towards newer and more powerful consoles, leaving the SNES version of the game unfinished. [19] [20] This led to the decision to produce Rayman for the Atari Jaguar, a console that the team felt could handle the graphics they wanted. [13] In late 1994, magazine advertisements announced the game as a Jaguar exclusive title. [21] Between 1993 and 1994, Rayman originally was submitted to Apogee Software by Ancel, however the publisher was rejected. [22] During the later development, Sony had announced the PlayStation and the team decided to port the game in the system. [23]
Ubi Soft decided to also make Rayman a launch title for the North American and European release of the PlayStation. Yves Guillemot noted that the PlayStation version of Rayman is a way of "beat[ing] Japan on platforming games" by releasing it simultaneously with a new and powerful system. [13] [14] Ancel recalled the number of developers working on the game began to increase. [14] Later in development, a version for the Sega Saturn was produced. Versions for the 32X and 3DO were also announced but never released. [24] In October 2016, an early build of the prototype for Super Nintendo Entertainment System which had been considered lost was rediscovered by Ancel who he posted pictures of it on Instagram. [25] On July 2017, developer and programmer Omar Cornut released the build online with Ancel's permission. [26]
Ubi Soft published a dedicated website for Rayman, where visitors could download a playable demo of the game. The website also contained a hints page if players had difficulty completing levels. [27] The game was later ported for the Game Boy Advance as Rayman Advance, [28] Nintendo DSI, [29] and mobile devices. [30]
By the end of 1995, 400,000 copies of the game had been sold in Europe. [15] This number grew to 900,000 copies sold worldwide after two years. [31] It is also the best-selling PlayStation game of all time in the UK, beating popular titles such as Tomb Raider II and Gran Turismo . [32] According to Gamasutra , Rayman Advance's sales neared 600,000 units during the first half of the 2001–2002 fiscal year alone. [33] The game's sales reached 770,000 copies by the end of March 2002. [34]
Aggregator | Score |
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GameRankings | (GBA) 85% [35] (GBC) 79% [36] |
Metacritic | (GBA) 84/100 [37] |
Publication | Score |
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AllGame | (JAG) [38] (GBC) [39] (SAT) [40] |
Electronic Gaming Monthly | (PS) 8.625/10 [41] (JAG) 8/10 [42] |
Famitsu | (SAT) 29/40 [43] (PS) 27/40 [44] (GB) 26/40 [45] |
GameSpot | 7.4/10 [8] |
Next Generation | (PS) [46] (JAG) [47] (PC) [48] (GBA) [28] |
TouchArcade | [30] |
Sega Saturn Magazine | 78% [2] |
CD Player | 8/10 [49] |
Publication | Award |
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Electronic Gaming Monthly | Game of the Month [41] |
Rayman was critically acclaimed upon release, with reviewers praising its animation, atmosphere and soundtrack. GamePro commented that the game was a "dazzling delight" and proclaimed it to be one of the most visually appealing games of the year or any year. [50] Next Generation though noting a lack of original gameplay elements, agreed the game has separated itself from many other platform games and having the true feeling of depth and pay ability. [46] Entertainment Weekly writer Bob Strauss felt that the game may be the title that ennobles the adolescence world of video games and the like of Disney animated films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs . Also, the writer wrote that the game is a must-have for those with a fifth-generation video game console. [51] Tommy Glide of GamePro felt that while the Atari Jaguar version was inferior to the PlayStation version, they noted it as one of the best games for the system to date and remarking "Finally, a game that shows off the Jaguar's capabilities". He also mentioned that Rayman's controls are precise, with the player considering the constant jumping, ducking, and dodging. [52]
Many critics and reviewers found the gameplay difficult despite the visual presentation of an acclaimed game. Electronic Gaming Monthly assessed that the Atari Jaguar version is an outstanding platformer on its own terms but pales against the PlayStation version due to the lower audio quality and slow responsiveness of the controls. [42] Sam Hickman of Sega Saturn Magazine criticise the Sega Saturn version that if the player were watching someone playing a game they could be easily fooled into thinking this was the best game for the Sega Saturn for a while. However, it's lack interest and excitement and instead it's "irritating" and difficult. [2]
Reviewers wrote mixed reviews of the game's graphics. GameSpot writer Jeff Sengstack complained of several issues in the MS-DOS verision such as the infrequent save points, but also indicates that side-scrolling game like Donkey Kong Countru or Pitfall! , add visually-appealing colors, memorable and humorous characters and terrific music in which omit into Rayman however, criticise the fact that one had to install a "ridiculous" 50 MB of data on their drive just to see the introductory animation, with the whole installation being a "sublime" 94 MB. [8] GamePro writer Scary Larry however, called it "just what gamers are looking for on the Saturn", and compared it favorably to previous Saturn "hop-n-boppers" Bug! and Astal . They noted that while the graphics and music sometimes seem kiddie-oriented, the challenge is oriented to veteran gamers. They also highly praised the lush visuals and made particular note of the Saturn version's between-level effects. [53] Next Generation praised the graphics, solid game speed even on low-end PCs, "multitude of challenges", and charming player character, and said the game made a good change of pace from other PC releases. [48] Next Generation found the Atari Jaguar version impeccable, venturing "its vast color palette, detailed sound effects, and overall payability, there is nothing about Rayman for the Jaguar that falls below the mark of excellent". [47]
Rayman Advance received mixed reviews. Next Generation state that "the familiar-yet-solid gameplay remains the same, with Rayman running, jumping, climbing, and punching his way through level after level of lush, colorful environments ranging from a jungle and a moonscape to a musically-themed wonderland. The sound and controls are solid, and the game's peculiar personality remains intact." [28] Eurogamer writer Martin Taylor wrote that Rayman Advance shamelessly takes the weakness decision of the designers simply ports the original game. However, he praised the fact that the visual is impressive and probably one of the maybe most visually appealing for the Game Boy Advance available at the time. [54]
The commercial success of Rayman later influenced a franchise which spawn its sequels including Rayman 2: The Great Escape (1999), and the Raving Rabbids franchise. Ubisoft would used some of the game's elements for Rayman Origins . [13] On 29 October 2018, Sony revealed that the game would be one of twenty games on the PlayStation Classic, which was released on 3 December 2018. [55]
Rayman also influenced a fan remake under the title Rayman Redemption by Finnish game developer Ryemanni, which said game features new worlds, levels, and minigames compared to the original. [56] It was hosted in Game Jolt in which Ryenmanni's previous project The Spooky Raymansion, is being hosted. [57] Beginning production three years before its release for the Rayman series' 25th anniversary, the game was made as "a reimagination of the original Rayman from 1995". [58] The game received praise from reviewers, with PC Gamer and Kotaku praising that the game have an option for casual and masocore players, and considering it a fortune for players traumatized by the original game's high difficultly. Kotaku also praised how Ryemanni decided not to just recreate the original game, but also add new additions to it as well. [57] [56] [59]
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