091retrostationQRayman’s enemies can turn into friends. QThere’s a joke in here about Mr Sax’s thrusting. QIt’s fair to say not every enemy design aged well.H
i folks! You wanna know
what’s going on? Let
me tell you the story
of Rayman!“ Name a
more iconic intro. Go on,
we’ll wait. A jump’n’run
created by Ubisoft as
an answer to a certain moustached
plumber, Rayman is literally a child’s
drawing come to life. This childhood
fantasy evolved into a brand, due to
its distinctive humour and look.
The story goes that Ubisoft took
an interest in Rayman thanks to him
being particularly well animated – and
that interest was substantial, seeing
as Ubisoft founded an entire studio,
Ubisoft Montpellier in France, to focus
on the game. The animation and overall
cartoonish charm became the staple of
a whole Rayman franchise, which has
since produced great games such as
Rayman Legends, but it’s important to
remember that back in 1995 you could
confidently say there was nothing out
there like it.
Among all gaming genres,
platformers in particular have always
pushed the envelope. On the kind of
enemies you could encounter, new,
fun ways you could get around, and
especially on visuals, Rayman just ran
with the most outlandish designs. You
fight giant maracas and saxophoneswith scowling eyes in Band Land.
There’s a bright green alien running a
snack bar and an island entirely made
out of pencils and rubbers. Everything
has googly eyes. It’s exactly the kind
of thing a child would come up with,
cheerfully liberated of all constraints.
This approach is especially valuable
with 25 years of hindsight – these
days Triple-A publishers, Ubisoft
among them, have started playing it
increasingly safe for the sake of the
mythical target audience.NOT CHILD’S PLAY
Looking at it, you might assume that
Rayman is primarily aimed at children,
but the rock-hard difficulty casts doubt
on that particular theory. Rayman is
difficult, but it’s in that particular way
many platformers were notable for in
the ’90s. To beat the game, you have
to memorise its patterns down to a
T. Even then it only takes a missed
hitbox or an ill-timed jump to savagely
set you back. Fiends don’t just existas obstacles to get around, but look
and behave like actual enemies with an
intent to hurt, cartoon villains that snap
and shoot at you frequently. Rayman
likes to gleefully bully its title character,
which makes overcoming its many
hurdles all the sweeter. It’s a mean
game in a cute package.SIDESCROLLER SUPREME
Even beyond the great animations
and the purely visual aspects of level
design, Rayman is very well produced.
It has excellent sound effects for each
jump and incoming projectile, and the
soundtrack beautifully showcases a
range of genres. It’s not all just left-to-
right side-scrolling either – the vertical
level with a rising flood became so
iconic later games in the series reused
the concept. Rayman tried to make
you use the pattern recognition that
leads to success against its bosses in
navigating its levels, too, often asking
you to take wild leaps of faith in order
to find a platform or to even cause
one to appear out of nowhere. This
experimentation with platforms is likely
due to the game’s other systems being
pretty simple. Rayman is one of few
jump’n’run protagonists of the era
who has the ability to outright hit his
foes – together with his telescopic
arm this a neat way to solve some
environmental puzzles.
Essentially however, Rayman isn’t
one for genre-breaking experiments.
It’s familiar, the spirited and cheeky
alternative to the first earnest, and in
some ways slightly dry, games of its ilk.
But like all the best games, it never took
itself too seriously.Every month we celebrate the most important,
innovative, or just plain great games from
PlayStation’s past. This month, swing your
telescopic fist and get your hair propeller ready
to save some caged Electoons
The hills have eyes
Rayman
CLASSIC GAMEIT ONLY TAKES A
MISSED HITBOX OR AN
ILL-TIMED JUMP TO
SET YOU BACK.
091retrostationQRayman’s enemies can turn into friends. QThere’s a joke in here about Mr Sax’s thrusting. QIt’s fair to say not every enemy design aged well.H
i folks! You wanna know
what’s going on? Let
me tell you the story
of Rayman!“ Name a
more iconic intro. Go on,
we’ll wait. A jump’n’run
created by Ubisoft as
an answer to a certain moustached
plumber, Rayman is literally a child’s
drawing come to life. This childhood
fantasy evolved into a brand, due to
its distinctive humour and look.
The story goes that Ubisoft took
an interest in Rayman thanks to him
being particularly well animated – and
that interest was substantial, seeing
as Ubisoft founded an entire studio,
Ubisoft Montpellier in France, to focus
on the game. The animation and overall
cartoonish charm became the staple of
a whole Rayman franchise, which has
since produced great games such as
Rayman Legends, but it’s important to
remember that back in 1995 you could
confidently say there was nothing out
there like it.
Among all gaming genres,
platformers in particular have always
pushed the envelope. On the kind of
enemies you could encounter, new,
fun ways you could get around, and
especially on visuals, Rayman just ran
with the most outlandish designs. You
fight giant maracas and saxophoneswith scowling eyes in Band Land.
There’s a bright green alien running a
snack bar and an island entirely made
out of pencils and rubbers. Everything
has googly eyes. It’s exactly the kind
of thing a child would come up with,
cheerfully liberated of all constraints.
This approach is especially valuable
with 25 years of hindsight – these
days Triple-A publishers, Ubisoft
among them, have started playing it
increasingly safe for the sake of the
mythical target audience.NOT CHILD’S PLAY
Looking at it, you might assume that
Rayman is primarily aimed at children,
but the rock-hard difficulty casts doubt
on that particular theory. Rayman is
difficult, but it’s in that particular way
many platformers were notable for in
the ’90s. To beat the game, you have
to memorise its patterns down to a
T. Even then it only takes a missed
hitbox or an ill-timed jump to savagely
setyouback.Fiendsdon’tjustexistas obstacles to get around, but look
and behave like actual enemies with an
intent to hurt, cartoon villains that snap
and shoot at you frequently. Rayman
likes to gleefully bully its title character,
which makes overcoming its many
hurdles all the sweeter. It’s a mean
game in a cute package.SIDESCROLLER SUPREME
Even beyond the great animations
and the purely visual aspects of level
design, Rayman is very well produced.
It has excellent sound effects for each
jump and incoming projectile, and the
soundtrack beautifully showcases a
range of genres. It’s not all just left-to-
right side-scrolling either – the vertical
level with a rising flood became so
iconic later games in the series reused
the concept. Rayman tried to make
you use the pattern recognition that
leads to success against its bosses in
navigating its levels, too, often asking
you to take wild leaps of faith in order
to find a platform or to even cause
one to appear out of nowhere. This
experimentation with platforms is likely
due to the game’s other systems being
pretty simple. Rayman is one of few
jump’n’run protagonists of the era
who has the ability to outright hit his
foes – together with his telescopic
arm this a neat way to solve some
environmental puzzles.
Essentially however, Rayman isn’t
one for genre-breaking experiments.
It’s familiar, the spirited and cheeky
alternative to the first earnest, and in
some ways slightly dry, games of its ilk.
But like all the best games, it never took
itself too seriously.Every month we celebrate the most important,
innovative, or just plain great games from
PlayStation’s past. This month, swing your
telescopic fist and get your hair propeller ready
to save some caged Electoons
The hills have eyes
Rayman
CLASSIC GAMEIT ONLY TAKES A
MISSED HITBOX OR AN
ILL-TIMED JUMP TO
SET YOU BACK.