A while ago I talked about some of the early Rayman mobile games, based mostly on Rayman 1. So now let’s cover the later ones. But first, a word on ports.
According to the excellent resource the Rayman Fanpage, there were a fair number of ports to Palm/Pocket PC systems. The original game was ported as Rayman Ultimate, with a shrunken screen similar to the GBA port. The GBC Rayman 1 game also was ported, but with a larger screen in some cases, and even monochrome versions. Information is still a little scarce but it would have been interesting to play that GBC port!
Mobile phones also apparently got a port of the GBC game with a much wider screen, according to information on this page from the same site. It’s also a good page for screenshots and information of the other games I’m talking about today. Finally, Rayman 2 was available on iOS (that’s how I originally played it… first Rayman game I completed too) but it seems to be have been taken down. Now on to the unique games. I found the best versions for download here; you’ll need a java phone emulator like MicroEmulator to run them, and possibly a configurable controller for convenience.
Rayman 3 (mobile)
Being based heavily on Rayman 3 GBA, this game does nothing new. It’s got basic graphics and simplistic level designs; not to say that they’re bad. There’s 9 levels including the extra one you get for collecting all Lums and cages, but only 2 environments: forest and fire cave. The controls are pretty weird, but I guess make sense for the platform. There’s 3 separate jump buttons: straight up and both diagonals; you have air control, so it’s just for convenience on unresponsive phone keypads. Honestly it’s not very interesting but if like me you see it as a source of new 2D Rayman levels, it’s passable.
Rayman Raving Rabbids (mobile)
Adding to the 3 existing unique game experiences with this name, RRR for mobile presents something different. On first glance you would say “Sonic clone”: Rayman runs fast, rolls into a ball, goes through loops. It’s odd that Gameloft would choose that fast-paced gameplay style for a Rayman game, especially on phones, but it’s actually pretty forgiving: plenty of health, automatic bouncing sections, and deaths and even game overs will replace you at frequent checkpoints inside levels. But playing further presents new gameplay: one almost QTE-like segment, a Rayman 1-style Breakout game, Yoshi’s Island-style rotating platforms, Battletoads-style snake platforms, ricocheting plunger-gun shots, even weirdly blowing up a Rabbid and using him as a balloon. In only 7 levels there’s plenty of variety with a jungle, desert, and mechanised Rabbid lair full of fun platforming and combat. Yes, it’s a 2D Rayman game with kung-fu combos! The sprites are super cute, there’s unique enemies not in the other Rabbids games, and despite having similarly awkward controls to R3 mobile it’s easy and enjoyable. Highly recommended!
While I was looking up these games, I checked out Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party. It’s not part of my series playthrough as I officially stopped after the first Rabbids game, but it exists and it’s a reasonable attempt at a one-button minigame collection. Rayman shows up in an antagonistic role, since it’s from the Rabbids’ perspective, and there’s plenty of references to other Ubisoft franchises. It’s just odd that they skipped RRR2.
That will do for now: I was going to include Rayman Kart too but that game is pretty substantial, so I’ll save it for its own post. It’s really something!
Rounding out the Raving Rabbids games proper that I’m covering in this playthrough, it’s the DS version. Despite having the same cover art and name, the three versions (Wii/PC/XB360, GBA, DS) are very distinct. In this case, it’s a combination of traditional 2.5D platformer and touch-controlled autorunner, with some minigames thrown in. It’s based more closely on the console version as it exists than the GBA one, which worked out some of the project’s concepts.
I’d explain that partly by it coming a few months after the initial Wii/GBA release. The later development time also seems to inform the plot, as the opening cutscene mentions the Rabbids invading Earth, which seems to be borrowed from the in-development-at-the-time Raving Rabbids 2. In-game evidence, however, suggests that it’s the same setting in the Glade of Dreams as the first game.
Costumes return; four this time, with new elemental affinities. They’re activated by corresponding pads, and the cues in the level leave no confusion about which is required. It’s simple but works for blocking off areas or what have you. The gating is important because each level has 2 or 3 different paths you can take by replaying it, which require jumping around between the level menu hubs when new abilities are unlocked.
So each level has 3 phases: the first is in 2D platforming style with 3D models on an occasionally rotating plane. Finishing this phase takes you to a minigame, either converted from a corresponding one in the Wii game or made new for the touch screen. After this is an autorunning part, seen in the screenshot where costume powers are freely available and you have to use the touch screen and power-switching to remove obstacles. It’s reminiscent of the Murfy-only parts of Rayman Legends. Later in the game you get a flying machine thing which works like the autorunning bits but with shooting and a grappling plunger gun.
An interesting thing about this game is its look and feel; it’s seemingly built with the same engine and some assets from the DS port of Rayman 2. It’s got the same font and sound effects, and some carryover mechanics and animations (including an overly sensitive ledge grab). It’s cool that they repurposed it for a 2D game, but one that feels so very different to the actual 2D Rayman games. On the other hand, music is taken from the console Rabbids game, heavily featuring the dance tracks (yes, especially Girls Just Wanna Have Fun), and loading screens show what looks like Rabbid concept art.
The level designs are quite simple, with nothing too challenging. Enemies are Rabbids with different weapons such as plunger guns or vehicles, the elephant demon guys (seen in the screenshot) from the graveyard parts of the console game, and various other creatures, some unique to this game (including a flying robot fish boss). You deal with them with a basic short-range punch attack, or a longer-range and more powerful attack that throws a Yellow Lum, looking like the attack from R2. Yes, in this game Yellow Lums are not special or finite but common ammunition. They can also be cashed in for health at certain spots so it’s not a bad idea, but the game throws them at you so often that after a few capacity upgrades I constantly used them and never ran out, so it’s not too balanced. Enemies drop stars that fill an experience meter, which on level up will increase your max health. Again interesting idea but it tops out well before the game’s end, and it would have been nice to do something else with that other than health upgrades.
So the DS game is an interesting little concoction; take a brace of Rabbids, a dash of Rayman 2, and mix in a whole lot of odd new gameplay ideas that don’t always work super well in practice. It goes to show that overall the first Rabbids instalment had some unique things to offer for the series as a result of being a combination of Rayman stuff with the emerging Rabbids phenomenon with their associated, shall we say, “voice”. It’s not the most fun or polished game, but I appreciated it as “Rayman done differently”.
Until now I haven’t really dealt with reconciling the three original Rabbids games to each other and the greater Rayman universe. But now that they’re done let’s have a quick crack. It doesn’t help that they each feel so different, but here’s how I see the plot. The Wii version doesn’t have much of a resolution but the final shooter segment does show Rayman plundering their base, followed by his escape. Of the important named Rabbids, Pink is destroyed but Serguei unharmed. The GBA version must be after this, as this time when Rayman is captured they’re not so lenient and confiscate his hands. Since the Glade has now had time to react to the surprise invasion, Ly and Murfy have shown up to help. The game ends with Rayman defeating a prominent Rabbid contraption, which is sometimes referred to as their mothership. This must be when they decide to leave the Glade and set their sights on easier targets, namely Earth, which carries into future Rabbids games. The DS game possibly represents Rayman trying to abort their invasion of Earth before they’ve left. He defeats Seguei at the end (named as Rabble Droid in the game), tying up the loose end of the power structure established in the console game. This vacuum is filled in later games, though, apparently, and his efforts aren’t enough to prevent the invasion of Earth. Oh well, at least they’re not bothering the Glade anymore. That’s my summary, and it’s possibly more thought than the developers put into maintaining a consistent narrative! Nah, just kidding, they’re alright.
So that’s the main releases of the Raving Rabbids era covered. But there’s a few little things to go, not least of which are the next few mobile titles. Keep track of the Rayman posts I’ve made here.
It’s hard not to get wistful about what Raving Rabbids could have been—a full-blown adventure with silly but sinister bunnies invading Rayman’s peaceful world—but even with the waggle-tastic party game that it became, you can see glimpses of that concept coming through.
That’s not to write off the party game that it became. Like any minigame collection there are some duds, but a lot of them are enjoyable and use the Wii remote in interesting ways (albeit ways we’ve now seen many times and have become bored with). It is important to remember that this was a Wii launch title, and a spinoff like this is fair enough. The later games are less interesting though as the Rabbid concept evolves (or devolves) into its own “forced wackiness” thing as it loses its connection to Rayman.
So the idea is that Rayman gets captured (along with some baby Globoxes with a strange new appearance) and forced by the Rabbids to compete in a series of trials for their amusement. As he wins more events, he is awarded plungers which he eventually uses to escape his prison cell. Meanwhile, the Rabbids gain more and more respect for him, although that doesn’t really amount to anything. The periodic light gun shooter-style segments were my favourite part; they are the bits that primarily show Rayman’s rescue of the Globoxes although that too is undermined in the ending; still, the final challenge as you shoot your plunger gun while roaming through the menacing and mysterious Rabbid base is atmospheric and climactic. There’s just still a disconnect between the framing device and these sections that reveals the true nature of the game as a fun tech demo party game… thing.
As I said you expect some dud minigames, and some that even block your progress, but the story mode has the concession that only three out of every four games must be passed. There’s always one dancing game in a set, with covers of songs in various genres with Rabbid-style vocals including, infamously, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. I found these easy; generally, the precision games were the difficult ones for me although momentary motion control failures could also be troublesome for the action-based ones.
I think the highlight was some of the visual design, seeing how the concepts of the Rabbid characters like Serguei and Pink, robotic bunny mechs, and different locations had come through from the concepts to the finished product. The locations range from Wild West deserts, junkyards, to more abstract settings like inside a Rabbid’s brain, to Rayman 2-style beaches and graveyards (these were particularly atmospheric). There’s other creatures involved too like sheep, pigs, and cows with odd proportions, rideable giant bats and warthogs, and these elephant demon things that are seen in the graveyard. Rayman’s costumes seem an important part of the Rabbids thing; in this game they’re purely cosmetic but you can mix and match bits of them… seeing Rayman in pants though is just weird.
Some of the minigames feel like a chore, but some are quite fun. It’s not a real Rayman game to be sure, but it’s set in his world and you can see through the waggling and silliness to the idea that the Rabbids would have been important to Rayman’s story; that aspect is still there at least in this instalment. And I embrace them as part of his history, but I’m also glad he was able to continue having platforming adventures without them.
The Rabbids are resented among some Rayman fans. For a while they “took over” the series with overly juvenile humour, minigame collections rather than platformers, and a shifting focus away from Rayman, his friends, and his world (after the first one, I think they’re mostly set on Earth, and Rayman himself disappears after the third). For the purposes of my series playthrough, I’m covering the first instalment only, as I think it’s still in the Glade of Dreams and its handheld iterations are platformers.
And if you’ve been following the series, there’s no way you’d want to miss this. The minigame focus of the first main Rabbids game was the result of a drastic change in design partway through development. This small GBA game is the successor not only of the original Rabbids platform adventure, but combines that with concepts from an unrelated cancelled prototype for “Rayman 4”. Not only is RRR GBA the closest thing to a “proper” Rayman 4, it honours the whole series.
Firstly, it follows closely on the heels of Rayman 3 GBA. A similar art style and feel, borrowed sprites and gameplay, even the Mode 7 3D racing levels (although on the whole it’s a bit less polished those bits are at least done better here, I feel). Rayman also starts with most of the abilities he gained over that game, which are supplemented by costumes, albeit more like personas than the implementation in Rayman 3 proper. Again we have undefined creatures in cages, yellow Lums (along with red, blue, and green), and even Ly and Murfy along to help (Globox and R3-type Teensies have cameo appearances). Certain sound effects and jingles are (like both previous GBA games) carried over directly all the way from Rayman 2. Finally, thanks to the Rayman 4 concept, the environments are either new to the series or updates to Rayman 1 worlds, complete with classic and classic-feeling enemies. So we’ve come full circle.
All this together made it feel nostalgic as I played. It plays well too, with secrets tucked away but not too hidden, and strategic combat. Levels are broken up occasionally with a shooting gallery minigame (hosted by a Rabbid with a Magician hat!!), or a timed speedrun-type level. Boss fights are varied in goal, but between the cool first boss (a large Antitoon replica) and the last, a giant robotic Rabbid, you fight the same buff Rabbid multiple times, which is a bit lame. The costumes are generally underused and a bit awkward to switch to, but not an inherently bad idea.
Now it must be said: the game is very short. For me, it was over in an afternoon. As I’ve said before, it doesn’t automatically lose points for that, but I do wish there were just a few more levels, or something to do in the village hub between worlds. It’s obvious after reading about the origins of the project that this represents a fundamentally cut-down version of the Raving Rabbids/Rayman 4 vision. But, it is the only version we have of it and for that I cherish it.
It’s interesting how you can draw a line through Rayman 1 to Rayman 3 GBA to Rayman Raving Rabbids GBA, and get in a fairly consistent tone a 2D platformer experience of the whole pre-Origins series: 1, 2, a bit of 3, and what 4 could have been. The other thing I noticed was the concepts that would work their way into the revitalised Rayman series: the Organic Cave is similar to the parts inside the giant dragon in Origins and Fiesta Run, and the Rabbids’ Lair world looks so much like Legends’ castle archetype. Cool stuff! Although it’s short this comes highly recommended, if only for the concepts, the synthesis of series elements, having a real platforming adventure against menacing Rabbids. Don’t overlook it!
Newly added to my video game manual/instruction book online folder: Rayman Raving Rabbids for DS. Find it here, and check out some other manuals I’ve scanned here.
