The Original Rayman Has Returned — In A Big Way

Due to various leaks, it hasn’t been much of a secret that Ubisoft was working on a super deluxe reissue of the original Rayman in honor of its 30th birthday. But now was the time they revealed it…and it’s way more than just a reissue.

Michel Ancel’s creation, a limbless flying man flying in a fairyland of sharp objects, made its debut on the Jaguar before finding a bigger audience as a launch title for the original Playstation. The game also appeared on MS-DOS computers, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, and all these versions are available in the reissue. That might sound like redundant overkill but there were a lot of differences between versions. Let me say from personal experience the GBC version is the one you can skip. The music’s awful and the screen dimensions mean you can barely see in front of you. I got it for my birthday and traded it to the used game store within a week. Ubi did somehow pull off full-motion video in the intro though; fire it up once just to gawk at that.

And are there ever bonus features. Digital Eclipse, the guys who have made full interactive museums out of Atari games and other elements of video game history, put their skills to use to create the ultimate Rayman depository of knowledge. You get interviews with the creators, behind the scenes sketches, and even the Super NES prototype of the game, unreleased to the public until now. Plus three level packs that have never been seen since their debuts on MS-DOS in the late 90s, adding up to 120 bonus levels!

Rayman is still a hard game, but modern amenities like “save anywhere” and “rewind” are included. If you need more than that, accessibility options include invincibility and infinite lives toggles; however achievements will be shut off if you cheat that much.

What they’re calling Rayman: 30th Anniversary Edition will be released today for Playstation 5, Nintendo Switch, XBox Series X|S and PC. A physical version is on the way that will ship this June.