In 1995, the gaming world was ripe with mascot characters of all sorts, but one peculiar hero stood out from the pack: Rayman. Floating around, without any limbs connecting his extremities, this oddball burst onto the scene with his first big title, leading to one of the weirdest legacies in all of video games. We don’t see many mainline entries in the franchise nowadays, but with over 40 different games in total, it’s safe to say Rayman has been prolific if nothing else. Between the excruciatingly obnoxious Rabbids and some of the most fine-tuned platforming games this side of Super Mario Bros, it’s hard to believe that it all spawned from one absurdly difficult PlayStation platformer.
A Hero Without Arms (or Legs)
The character of Rayman was whipped up by video game designer and animator Michel Ansel, who would later spearhead the creation of the infamous Rabbids, while also creating highly cinematic games like Beyond Good & Evil and the 2005 adaptation of Peter Jackson’s King Kong. Though he originally thought up the character in his teen years, Rayman came to fruition after he got a job at Ubisoft in the late 1980s. After pitching the game to Ubisoft’s higher-ups, he and his small team were granted full creative control, and after a few years of development, Ansel’s fun teenage idea had transformed into a full-on adventure.
Rayman hit store shelves on September 7, 1995, with versions available for the PlayStation, Atari Jaguar, MS-DOS, and Sega Saturn. The game sees our eponymous hero living in a lush and picturesque fantasy world, held in balance by the magical Great Protoon. Of course, when the villainous Mr. Dark steals the Great Protoon, throwing the world into disarray, it’s up to Rayman to save the day. This leads him on a trek across six worlds of particularly perilous platforming goodness, learning new powers, defeating enemies, and waiting for a chance to give Mr. Dark a piece of his mind.
A Deceptively Tough First Outing
If there’s one thing that Rayman is remembered for, it’s the immensely impressive visual design and the generally upbeat vibes that the game evokes. Bouncing up and down, Rayman is a goofy character, but he inhabits a stylized world that’s befitting his quirky nature. Starting off in the Dream Forest, you’re immediately struck by the vibrant colors and extremely hefty amount of animation, with many elements of the foreground flourishing with motion. The music is equally fun, with wild instrumentation, driving tempo, and even some exciting musical duels.
On the gameplay side, Rayman’s lack of limbs makes for most of the unique mechanics, as he can throw his hands at distant enemies, effortlessly clamber up ledges, swing from objects in the environment, and generally bound around in multiple directions with flair. The level design reflects this as well, with an emphasis on exploration as you locate Electoon cages, collect important power-ups, and discover secret bonus stages. That said, underneath its bubbly exterior, there’s an extremely difficult game waiting to be revealed. Though the initial Dream Forest world is relatively easy, there’s a brutally tough difficulty spike as you enter the second world, Band Land. Timed platforms, massive enemies, countless environmental obstacles, and plenty more headaches await. This stays true until the very last world, which is unlocked by finding all of the Electoon cages in the game, meaning you have to backtrack and scour through almost every stage before your shot at the final boss.
Despite the unexpectedly high difficulty, Rayman still raked in a boatload of cash for Ubisoft, with over 4 million units sold in its lifetime. It beat out other timeless PS1 classics like Crash Team Racing, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and even Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage. Of course, a sequel was in order, and that would come in the form of Rayman 2: The Great Escape in 1999, though the series made the jump to 3D and offered a completely different style of gameplay. The mainline Rayman franchise wouldn’t return to 2D platforming until Rayman Origins in 2011, which refined the platforming mechanics for modern tastes. In this way, the original Rayman is a black sheep even within its own franchise. Still, it marked the beginning of a one-of-a-kind franchise that still gets loads of praise, even if the games are few and far between. According to Ubisoft, a new mainline Rayman game might be just around the corner, but for now, we’ll enjoy bashing our heads against the PS1 original in all of its colorful glory.
