And loving every bit of it~
But before Rayman returned to his former glory in this all new mdern 2D hand drawn/animated sidescrolling platformer, the poor lil' guy was getting forgotten thanks to all those Ravin' Rabbids party games...
And the actual reason why Rayman reverted back to his roots to get back a bit of his former groove was mostly because how far had the apple fallen from the tree.
Now, everybody knows the first Rayman: Raving Rabbids game to be minigame collection for the Wii (and other systems since then), but originally it wasn't always gonna be this way.
The game actually started out as the real Rayman 4.
Right after Rayman 3, the production was launched at Ubisoft Montpellier.
According to Michel Ancel, Rayman's creator, the foes would have been this time around these weird stupid rabbits that had been planning their revenge on Rayman & co since the first game, hence the revisiting areas from the past games as pictured around here.
The Rabbids would have been these antagonists who had planned an invasion since the first game ("decades before").
But then Nintendo started to show great interest in this project.
Ancel sketched out a quick concept for Nintendo's upcoming Wii, then titled "Revolution". One thing after the other, the experimenting went along, gameplay styles changed and every aspect of platforming was removed and replaced with minigames...
The final product ended up pretty far from its original design, but most was kept around and lived through the Gameboy Advance Raving Rabbids.
As you can see from all these concepts around, the game would have been a big mix of original new settings, moody atmosphere like Rayman 2 and 3's, and old levels reimagined from the 1st game.
The story would have seen Rayman facing off against The Emperor Rabbid. a brand new enemy who had kidnapped Rayman's girlfriend:
And there's a baby Globox above as well! (from Rayman 2!)
According to Michel Ancel, "Rayman will have to save the world, his girlfriend and the girlfriend of his old enemy and his old enemy too!"
Here's more on the game:
“It’s a real pleasure for me to be back working on an all-new Rayman,” said Michel Ancel. “After wrapping up my last game, the team here in Montpellier sat down to talk about having some fun with Rayman and his universe. We are running into a bit of a problem, though, because our game has been invaded by thousands of raving mad and vicious bunnies, who have apparently been preparing this assault since the very first Rayman game. We are now sending an SOS to all motivated gamers to help us get rid of them as fast as possible!” Here are a list of features you'll find in the new game!
- Combat the Ultra-Crazed Evil Rabbits – Take control of Rayman and his knack for attack to help save his world from the raving rabbids. They are mischievous, insane and completely out of control. There are several types of rabbids each with its own mischievous characteristics.
- Master and Ride Creatures – Tame and control various creatures such as sharks, eagles, rhinos, spiders and angelfish. Rayman can master each animal’s unique capabilities to help in his battle against the devious rabbits.
- Dress to Impress – Customize and disguise Rayman. Go punk, pop, rock or hip hop to infiltrate the bunnies and foil their devious plans.
- Explore the Colorful Fantastic World of Rayman – Explore amazing free-roaming environments and beautiful epic landscapes that mix real and fantastical styles to create a visually stunning experience.
The Rabbids design was more sinister-looking.
All different in shapes and sizes. Furrier. Bigger. Meaner.
Rayman would have gotten power-suits à la Mario instead of the power upgrades he gains in all the other games usually.
Anyways, it looked good on the concept.
Here's a trailer released by Ubi around an E3:
The game would have been released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, PS2 and PSP probably.
Anyways, in the meantime we'll still have the fantastic gorgeous Rayman Origins! :/
Though with Rayman back at the front scene, Ancel said he still planned on releasing another 3D Rayman platformer.
Last December he even went as far as confirming he would like to use this scrapped Rayman 4 as basis for the new game. Though I wonder how much will be kept, since Ubisoft is currently trying to keep the Rayman and Rabbids franchise apart for the foreseeable future.
And would that make now this scrapped game Rayman 5, will it be released some other day?
