The Rise & Fall of Rayman | Ubisoft's Limbless Wonder Deserves Better

it's a brand new year everybody i know i'm a little bit late to getting my first upload of 2022 underway but thank you so much for being patient with me got a lot of cool video projects underway some of it is going to be a bit different uh so yeah thank you for being patient i i really appreciate it as you can tell we're going to be pulling some franchises out of the graveyard this year and it should be a fun time all around but you know what else is kind of fun learning how to cook and you can do that with today's sponsor hellofresh new year same old me love these guys look at this this is your kitchen this is your kitchen with hellofresh wow listen all right food can be delicious and that is never truer than when you look at how to make said food yourself and hello fresh is the perfect way to get that done get the annoying meal planning time out of the way go and pick a few tasty looking meals from the hellofresh website and then you just wait for a box of goodies to come to your 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setting up some resolutions that inevitably fail but this year maybe do things a bit differently and have some more control of your food choices with hellofresh and also compete with me for who has the biggest recipe card collection i want to meet somebody with more because that would be really cool honestly as always thank you so much to hellofresh for sponsoring today's video and if you want to get up to 16 free meals plus three free gifts because of course you do go to hellofresh.com and use the code antute16 at checkout alright time for video games now [Music] the gaming world is no stranger to platformer mascots that faded away into obscurity only for emulation and crusty videos like this one to be the things that are keeping those memories alive sometimes revivals do take place and when they do and when they're done really well it is super cool dude nothing like giving second chances you know so yeah why does rayman get so much disrespect ubisoft buddy pal friend what what are you doing i won't even begin to go through all of the ridiculous things this company has done over the years this is not the place for that it's just baffled me for the longest time that ubisoft one of the biggest video game publishers out there just never really figured out how to best capitalize on one of their earliest mascots in a meaningful way outside of like i don't know popping up in brawlhalla the cool becoming a trophy and smash wii u for some reason never figured that one out or more obviously sacrificing him to our rabid overlords yeah yeah good it is about time this franchise had some respect put back on its name ubisoft can go around and continue to pretend like this franchise one of their earliest star players doesn't exist as we get our millionth just dance game but today i'm going to try to change that narrative i have been a fan of this dude ever since the beginning and while it's very easy to see his name trend on twitter whenever a new game doesn't get announced happens far too often i'm not a fan of that i thought it would be fun to take a look back and see how we got to where we are today rayman's really good ubisoft please start caring about him i'm calling this the rise and fall of rain man but realistically this is more so about multiple rises and falls because the company never really knew what to do with them he's a poor abused boy first things first it's important to understand that this franchise is sort of split into two different camps we got the main series with the original trilogy and the ubi art engine duology all stemming from the creative mind of one michelle ansel aka the creative director behind peter jackson's king kong the official game of the movie that's real that's a real thing and then the rest of the series where ubisoft consistently thought yeah you know why not let's take the rayman one engine and make an educational game out of it let's make rayman golf for old java based mobile phones you know rayman's favorite sport i guess let's make a game boy advance version of rayman 3 that plays like rayman 1 uses the plot and level tropes from rayman 2 and overall has like next to nothing to do with the actual rayman 3 and then package it with winnie the pooh's rumbly tumbly adventure ah dude there's there's a rayman cartoon like what following the success of rayman 2 there was an attempt to take the character and make an animated series out of him there's really not much to it basically rayman is a circus performer on the run with his weird and incredibly disturbing looking friends i still have nightmares about lacmac to this day and shenanigans ensue while being chased by the law that's it also the guy who runs the circus is named after a pasta i am the great rigatoni oh no it's the evil fettuccine alfredo none of this like absolutely none of this is being pulled from any of the video game lore that pasta guy not in the games he's just here this entire cartoon is just random for the sake of being random rayman is voiced by billy west of all people my uh friend here i can fix your car oh i got your car it's just fry from futurama with a boston accent i hate it i've only ever gotten to see four episodes of this show because well only four actually got released this was supposed to be a full 26 episode deal but it was cancelled before episode 5 was completed didn't stop them from giving this uncompleted cartoon a retail release at the time do you see what i mean about this franchise being weird i mean ultimately it should really surprise nobody that ubisoft isn't really the best at decision making but it's still just so confusing whenever the time came for rayman to go on a brand new adventure he knocked it out of the park every single time it's probably easy as an outsider to see a platformer trilogy with one side scroller and two 3d ones and think oh yeah you know just like gexx but i can assure you rayman is way better than gex maybe if you want platformers that feature playable characters that feel really satisfying to control stories filled with an incredibly diverse set of charming side characters in these large dreamy landscapes that occasionally dive deeper into nightmares more than anything typically accompanied by magical soundtracks this is the series for you the original rayman has definitely aged pretty poorly with less than ideal difficulty spikes but to be fair listen to the company jingle [Music] that's good and then you beat a level and raymond goes yeah [Applause] [Music] that's amazing now rayman 2 with the great escape in particular this is one of the best 3d platformers of all time some of the most richly detailed worlds this genre has to offer super fluid controls for any of the mechanics the game throws at you a really good amount of alice in wonderland like surrealism sprinkled here and there and you get mountable rockets with legs that sound like horses right on man giddy up not to mention the green cartridge too man who oh that's nice to think that freaking tonic trouble was basically the prototype for this game as well you want to talk about a massive jump in quality man well whoo boy there is certainly reason why we'll never see ed again i can tell you that much who even cares about him probably the first time you've heard of tonic trouble before i did a video on it years ago doesn't even matter not a good game the story is also about slavery which is absolutely bonkers admiral razorbeard is going on a tirade enslaving all the inhabitants and the yellow alums in the land and there's this one scene where you see razorbeard eat one of the lums and you watch the 1000 yellow lum count dropped to 9.99 that is crazy that scarred me when i was a kid and then they made razor beard a circus employee in the cartoon why is this company like this but even then man the weirdness continues rayman 2 released primarily on 4 different consoles nintendo 64 playstation 1 dreamcast and playstation 2. and each of these versions are different the 64 and dreamcast versions are largely similar outside of obvious graphical differences but the dreamcast version features a different isle of doors level select screen as well as featuring some exclusive minigames as a result the dreamcast version ends up being the superior of all of them and then we have the ps1 version oh man this one not only looks worse but also has heavily truncated level designs and 200 less yellow lums not really sure why this version exists except for probably contractual obligations but not the best way to play this game although deep within this version as an unlockable is a playable prototype of rayman 2. that's really cool this was initially when it was going to be a more proper sequel to the first game there's not much to this bit honestly but there are a couple of new gimmicks that weren't in the original game and that's pretty cool the fact that this is here at all and only in this version makes the ps1 rayman 2 infinitely more interesting while the ps2 version which released later revolution ooh fancy name features updated graphics as well as a brand new free roaming hub world completely replacing the isle of doors that we got before and both the ps1 and two versions have voice acting which the n64 and dreamcast lack but they both have totally different voice casts i feel weak and my powers have disappeared i feel weak and my powers have disappeared it's so weird man the n64 version was ported to the ds the dreamcast version was ported to the 3ds and neither of which have screenshots on the back of the boxes that represent how crusty the games actually look got a fantastic game out of this one but man ubisoft what what was all that rayman 1 the original had slightly similar shenanigans with the playstation jaguar saturn and pc versions but honestly nowadays i would say you don't even need to bother rayman redemption it's right there alright so check this out rayman redemption is a fan made remake of that original adventure but way better dude you got better movement options with all of your abilities unlocked right from the get-go modified level designs on top of a brand new world platopia including a level based off of rayman brain games which is absolutely hilarious and a ton of quality of life improvements like an unlockable arrow to point you towards collectibles something the original game desperately needed considering you needed all of those collectibles just to get to the final boss something that redemption also thankfully changed now the collectibles are satisfying for completion's sake and that is way better it's not every day a fan creation is good enough to completely dethrone the title it's paying homage to but this absolutely does that you know that one metroid fan game am2r a fan game that's so good it's usually in the conversation for some of the best games in the franchise well rayman redemption does the same thing but for that franchise and that's really cool yeah then when it comes to rayman 3 hoodlum havoc that one thankfully only has one major release with an hd re-release later on nothing else weird there aside from the winnie the pooh combo pack i brought up earlier oh man what was that about i don't understand and then there's the fact that they tried to market this game in magazines by implying rayman is really well endowed oh my god and then there's a commercial where he like pees his name in the snow man i can't i can't imagine why this game didn't sell better this one sort of follows the great escape in terms of aesthetics but the creepiness level has been dramatically reduced instead what we have is a plot about globox eating an evil lum known as a hoodlum genius name by the way and you go on a quest to get it out of his system and along the way you bring him to doctors who play air guitar on him i while the game is definitely still fun to play you know the platforming is solid the combat's really engaging it's all about the point combo system this time around every new room brings in a brand new encounter that kind of acts like a mini puzzle you could just go on in fists a blazing and then knock everything out as you see fit but sometimes you may want to take a minute to step back and gauge your surroundings to best optimize your score you do get graded with stars at the end of every segment but i don't really understand how that point system works out i feel like sometimes i do everything and then i get like two stars i don't really get it but it's still fun you also get a whole new slew of battle fatigue abilities to change up your moveset from a grappling hook to tornado punches there's a whole lot of them and they're always a really nice change of pace when you get them overall rayman 3 bit bits it's fine i appreciate them doing something different rather than attempting to simply one-up the great escape that probably wasn't going to happen anyway but it still lacks a lot of the polish the previous games handled so well rayman's creator michelle ansel didn't really have anything to do with this one and it really shows and after that original trilogy that was it for a while well kinda as much as i want to say that was kind of it and then we just waited a few years for origins that didn't necessarily happen ubisoft had no issue dragging his name through the mud as much as they possibly could through the very annoying and loud rabid filled mud the one big spin-off through all of this was rayman arena a sort of multiplayer minigame collection that is actually pretty fun it's really nonsensical in the grand scheme of things considering you're doing things like races against some of the most threatening enemies from rayman 2 that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense and there's not much of a story to tie things together but gameplay wise it ain't bad the different console releases also offer pretty different experiences it's bizarre like rayman arena showed up on ps1 as rayman rush where it's more or less the same idea except it's just racing portions and it puts this weird ugly abomination on the cover art don't like that thing one bit also the game is called rayman m in europe like all right sure consistency be damned but even when arena jumped from one console to another there was like a different menu system and whatnot it's so it's so weird i'm numb at this point rayman brain games is a much funnier time though they really took rayman 1 one of the hardest 2d platformers of all time and figured you know what that engine it would be great to teach children how to pronounce words like death oh man this company i actually already went into more detail about this game with everybody's favorite rayman cosplayer nitro red a few years ago so be sure to check that out as well as the video on his channel where we talk about rain man arena do that after you're done with this one you'll probably enjoy it i would assume so and also throughout all of this rayman actually had a pretty fulfilling life in the game boy family too rayman 1 2 on the game boy color you know what they're not they're not bad nobody played them but they're okay they're based on the backbones of their console counterparts with clear references in terms of the level theming and the collectibles and while they're really nothing mind-blowing in the grand scheme of 2d platformers exclusive to the game boy color of which is a very very minuscule list these are these are fine i already mentioned rayman 3 gba before this weird ugly abomination that just so desperately wants to be rayman 1 and also rayman 2 but not rain man 3 and when it comes to the game itself man it's not it's not very good level design wise it's just all over the place there was not really a whole lot of consistency with this one mechanically it plays fine but when the level designs are not there to compensate you don't have a good adventure on your hands interestingly enough though there is actually a proper sequel to three on the game boy advance called hoodlums revenge this goes for an isometric view instead of a side one basically the same thing spyro and banjo also did on the console and like rayman 1-2 on the game boy color this one ain't that bad either it's very forgettable but it exists i understand that when it comes to this piece of hardware it's really difficult to get a 3d platformer to work as intended but man i really can't get behind this camera angle i tried for all of those games banjo was the only one to really get it right in my opinion this plays very similar to the spyro games and i didn't like those either but i mean i guess it works it may not just be for me nah it just doesn't work i'm gonna say that instead it certainly has a lot more in line with the console rainman 3 than the handheld rainman 3. so why'd you guys name rayman 3 rayman 3 when this is more rayman 3 than the other rayman 3. you see how complicated you made this ubisoft but realistically the most interesting part about rayman 3 on the gba was it was used as the base for the gba version of rayman raving rabbids okay so yes around this time in rayman's life is when the character was being used as a literal doormat for the oncoming rabid pandemic if you're a fan of those minigame collections more power to you we did years later at least get a couple of good rabbids games out of this weird monstrosity with rabbids go home and mario plus rabbids but man i i just can't get over the fact that raymond was simply thrown in here for name recognition while simultaneously having his name ruined in the process some of you may recall the cancelled early version of rayman 4 where we were gonna have a proper platformer with the rabbids as enemies and it sounded so much cooler well here you go i guess the console version may have been totally switched around to a minigame collection but here on the gba that premise is still here i mean don't misunderstand me this is still not a good game but it's interesting that this exists the core vision of what rayman raving rabbids was going to be some of that could be found here probably not as intended to be as broken of a mess as what we actually got but the story is interesting at least in that cancelled trailer there are these moments where raymond will have different costumes on and that part is in this version and all they do is lock really basic abilities behind them and you have to toggle to the one transformation every single time and the abilities don't make sense because yeah of course the chewed gum spitting ability that you have to spit into the tree that are hollowed out so you can make them bouncy oh only the punk version of rayman could do that you know that's the main staple of the punk lifestyle right this even carries over to the ds version of rayman raving rabbids as well same story men that cancelled premise of the evil rabbids and your raymond in a platformer this game does it too except now it's a 2d platformer built off of the rayman 2 engine what is happening it plays exactly like rayman 2 even restricted to two dimensions it's still pretty fun because rayman was fun to control in that original game there are some annoying touchscreen minigames shoehorned in here because i mean it's the rabbids of course we do but the core game i will be damned is actually solid and if i want to call any of these rayman games a hidden gem it's actually this one the same costume mechanic is here as well and same thing abilities are locked behind them and i have no idea why but they are utilized a lot better than in the gba version so as as crazy as it is to see grandma rayman who's the only one that could summon boulders yeah i'll take i'll take it i guess it's better than literally nothing my grandma's better than yours i don't make the rules but the real reason you play rayman raving rabbids on the ds okay so you may remember that in the console game there was this rhythm game section where the songs were rabid covers of real music and it was kinda cute for the time well if you were wondering if that was replicated in the ds version uh you see the rabbids weren't all bad e3 2010 the same time nintendo had that really crazy conference where they brought a bunch of franchises back like kirby and donkey kong and goldeneye well hey ubisoft managed to pull off one of the greatest reveals they've ever done that same week rayman is back baby we may have killed him by a bunch of rabbids you know sorry about that but hey we're rebooting this beloved franchise we're giving it this amazing art style with our fancy new ubi art engine and we're bringing back the head honcho mr ancel rayman origins oh my god this game is so good origins goes back to rayman 1 in terms of the general aesthetics and modernizes the gameplay to a beautiful degree this is one of the most free-flowing 2d platformers ever made i don't know if there's a platformer out there with more fluid play control than this one you can essentially just run the entire time and the level design is so immaculately perfected it is more fun to keep a run and learn how to time your jumps and die while doing so so you can really memorize what you're running through than it is to take a moment and assess your surroundings this ain't the time to be standing around you got places to go and seductive fairies to save hell yeah dude love it now granted there may be a bit of a bias here this donkey kong country returns and kirby's epic yarn all released basically back to back and all of these games are fantastic so i was in platformer heaven at the time but even still origins is top tier just not the 3ds version i mean jesus it's like you're watching a 1080p youtube video in 240p i'm gonna vomit play it on literally anything else the vita is a fantastic platform for this game the 3ds version oh my god this is gross and the sequel legends is no slouch either the most obvious difference is while origins went for a more flat color style with its art direction legends goes for a smoother more painted approach both look fantastic i do kind of prefer origins but to say either of these games look bad would be a really dumb thing to say aside from that though in essence it is kind of just more of the same with more fleshed out levels as well as this brand new mechanic where murphy will come in to assist you on your travels oh man okay so see this this is where things get weird again so initially legends was going to be a wii u exclusive and murphy would be playable with the gamepad's touchscreen while the other real-life players or if playing solo a computer will run through or i should say walk through the level that you're helping clear out when ubisoft delayed the game to work on porting it to other consoles because nintendo fans during the wii u era didn't deserve nice things they had to of course change how this entire mechanic worked the wii u version still works as intended but now in the other versions murphy just automatically moves to where he's needed and you press a button to take advantage of his abilities that's it and then you go about your day as a result many do say the wii u version is the superior of them all but i don't know i'll be honest i don't agree i was never one to enjoy platformers with co-op so the fact the wii u version takes control away from the player as a core mechanic for most of the levels yeah i don't like that this is where the newest version on the switch the definitive version shines in my opinion this one maintains the button-based murphy controls while also including the murphy's touch set of levels in the main menu where you get to use the touchscreen to control murphy as ubisoft god intended it even features new kung foot tournament features whoa dude let's go i guess any minor nitpicks aside both rayman origins and legends are amazing platformers and modernized this character and his world perfectly when it comes to modern 2d platformers quite frankly you can't really get that much better than these i mean tropical freeze exists but you get what i'm saying legends even includes a huge chunk of levels from origins though i do think origins is still the stronger game in general i don't know in my opinion something about legends coming off as a simple level pack with this sort of painting structure for the main menu it always kind of rubbed me the wrong way origins came off as a more proper adventure and i think the game is a little bit better as a result but i'm really nitpicking here man that that doesn't really matter legends also has these music rhythm-based pseudo-auto-runner levels which are really cool but once though origins had a similar concept with these treasure chasing segments and those are really fun but man maybe it's just me here when you make a level strictly tied to the beat of the music it's not too hard to figure out and then you lose replay value as a result the chasing segments were a lot cooler because you could always mess up at any given moment man where will the nitpicking end but whatever at the end of the day this is really just a spark of debate in the comments it doesn't matter both games are amazing and with their successes surely the future of this franchise is very bright and our heroes are gonna ride off really well into the sunset no in the year 2022 the gap in time between rayman legends original release and today is greater than that of rayman 3's original release and rayman origins this is what payne feels like oh but they've certainly been trying all right rayman does still have technically a prominent position but on mobile devices to be fair considering a huge level of enjoyment from origins and legends comes from its sort of speed run auto run styled nature creating these single button mobile games that are genuine auto runners it actually makes all the sense in the world it's like one of the smartest things ubisoft's ever done rayman jungle run and rayman fiesta run are fantastic games doesn't matter that they're on mobile they're actually really fun as for the sequels rayman adventures and rayman mini it's just why is mobile the primary home for rayman now raymond adventures is like a weird part two to fiesta run it looks very much the same has a lot of the same ideas and mechanics but rayman mini this one is actually really really new it released in 2019 exclusive to the apple arcade service and it's a proper sequel to the franchise we have levels based around you being tiny this is not something these games have done before and this is so cool why are you guys not doing anything on console this is what i meant about raymond having multiple rises and falls man twice now raymond was put in the limelight and made out to be a big deal and we got fantastic platformers out of it and then before you know it ubisoft pulls the rug from under his feet and the fans are left clueless by all accounts rayman has always technically been here he never really went away but has he really been here though the original rayman the fan remake redemption the great escape hoodlum havoc origins and legends you would be hard pressed to find platformers with as consistent of a high quality and fantastic style as these but i feel like all of the effort put into those main games is almost pointless in the grand scheme of things if the people responsible for the franchise consistently do things that people never ask for why is rayman golf a thing but considering beyond good and evil 2's insane development cycle that game will probably never release and the fact that just dance kept releasing on the wii after dropping the wii u and also simultaneously released on the switch i have learned to not question ubisoft anymore this is a weird company that is holding this franchise hostage as a company ubisoft clearly has a lot of issues and need to resolve i am not going to pretend as if rayman's negligence is the biggest thing they have to deal with but that being said being a fan of this franchise i still can't help but be pretty annoyed i know i like tried to do the same thing for ape escape a while ago and we all saw how that went maybe raymond will have a slightly different future it shouldn't be too difficult you know just do a full-on remake of rayman 2. uh you you bring back the the rayman taking a piss ad campaign and we're golden you get it it's a it's a pee joke [Music]

Channel: AntDude

Views: 972,019

Keywords: AntDude, Rayman, Rayman 2 The Great Escape, Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Rayman Origins, Rayman Legends, Rayman series, Rayman retrospective, Rayman review, Rayman redemption, new rayman game, best rayman game, worst rayman game, Rayman video games, Rayman video game series, Where is Rayman

Id: eVYmQqaa7dQ

Length: 29min 21sec (1761 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 26 2022