rayman

September 18, 2020

Oh No! Michel Ancel Is Departing The Game Business

Peter Paltridge Beyond Good And Evil 2, michel ancel, rayman, ubisoft, video games 0

If you don’t know the name of Michel Ancel, you’re probably familiar with his most famous creation, a thing with floating limbs and a big nose named Rayman. He’s regarded as the French Miyamoto, and….now he’s not making games anymore. Ancel announced his retirement on his Instagram page at 7:07 in the morning (later in France). “After more than 30 years, I’ve decided to stop working on video games and fully focus on my second passion: Wild Life! My new project takes place in the real world and consists in a wild life open sanctuary dedicated to education, nature lovers and … wild animals.” We know nothing of a new Rayman, but Ancel has two announced games still yet to be released, and both have been in in development for years: Wild Sheep Studios’ Wild and Ubisoft’s Beyond Good & Evil 2. He spoke of those in his next sentence: “Many of you might want to know what will happen to Wild and BGE2. No worries, since many months now

July 3, 2017

SNES Rayman Prototype Released To The Public

Peter Paltridge michel ancel, nintendo playstation, rayman, snes, ubisoft, video games 0

Last October we reported that a prototype for Rayman on the SNES existed. The proto was from the very earliest days of development when Michel Ancel’s original platformer was intended to debut on the SNES-CD. This obviously didn’t happen, and the game would ultimately come out on the Playstation and Saturn instead. Now game archivist Omar Cornut has dumped the SNES Rayman ROM and placed it on the Internet for free download. He was asked by Kotaku how he got it. “There’s not a lot to it really, I borrowed the cartridge from Michel Ancel who kindly let me look at it and dump it.” Cornut was given permission from Ancel to release the prototype ROM publicly, so it’s all legal. Unfortunately the ROM is so early that there isn’t much you can do with it. It’s just Rayman in an empty environment. He can jump around and leap across platforms, but there are no enemies. “That prototype it is a very early build,” says Cornut. “So the stuff like

January 13, 2017

Rayman and Steep Set for Nintendo Switch

Jeffrey Harris jeffrey harris, nintendo switch, rayman, theparanoidgamer.com, ubisoft, xbox 360, xbox360 0

Ubisoft officially announced this week several new games that are in the works for Nintendo’s new console, the Nintendo Switch. These include Steep, Just Dance 2017 and Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition. All three games will be part of Nintendo Switch’s new lineup. Speaking on the announcement, Ubisoft managing director Xavier Poix stated: “Ubisoft will initially be bringing Just Dance 2017, Rayman Legends Definitive Edition and Steep to the Nintendo Switch. We’re proud to be working closely with Nintendo on this new console, making sure players can enjoy great games on a device that shares the same philosophy these games: great accessibility and the ability to bring people together. These three games are just the beginning. We will share more about other exciting projects for the Nintendo Switch at a later date.” Rayman Legends Definitive Edition is described as the “ultimate version” of the hit Rayman Legends game, created by Michel Ancel. The new version for the Switch includes all of the game’s traditional features, along with some new surprises. This will

October 28, 2016

Rayman Was Originally Meant For The SNES

Peter Paltridge consoles, michel ancel, Nintendo, prototype, Prototypes, rayman, ubisoft, video games, Videos 0

The original Rayman was one of the most solid platformers of the 90’s and put designer Michel Ancel on the video game map. The game would make its debut on Jaguar and later appear on Playstation and Saturn (Playstation was where everyone discovered it, natch). But it was originally intended for the Super NES — and the reason it didn’t come out was because the SNES CD add-on didn’t happen. According to Ancel, he created the first Rayman level on SNES hardware back in 1991, but as his team was planning out the game, he realized it was simply too big to fit on what a cartridge could hold at the time. Other console makers were adapting the compact disc to run games, and Nintendo was looking into it as well, so he pushed Ubisoft to let him develop Rayman as their first SNES-CD title. Of course, you know what happened to the SNES-CD. Once it was no longer an option, Ancel oddly looked to the Jaguar (maybe it hadn’t

August 8, 2015

Super Mario Maker Level Designed By Michel Ancel

Peter Paltridge mario, michel ancel, nintendo, Nintendo, rayman, super mario maker, ubisoft, Wii U 0

Michel Ancel, creator of Rayman and Jade, and France’s greatest known game designer, has created a level in Super Mario Maker. Nintendo France filmed Ancel as he designed his own level and also interviewed him on how he approaches level design. The video is entirely in French with no translations or subtitles, but it’s not difficult to figure out what is being said thanks to the visual graphics being used. Ancel’s favorite Mario game is apparently Super Mario Land for Game Boy. Some fans fluent in French have been able to discern some of the bullet points Ancel discusses in the middle of the video. He speaks of the principles of good level design; that a well-constructed level should have a natural flow, and there should be a clear understanding of the objective or goal and how to get there. Toward the end Ancel is asked what surprised him about Super Mario Maker; he replied that he was able to mix some things he didn’t think would go together to

September 4, 2013

Rayman Legends is getting patched on the Vita to include missing levels

Diego Codina diego codina, playstation vita, ps vita, rayman, rayman legends, theparanoidgamer.com, ubisoft, VITA, xbox360 0

Rayman Legends, the latest in Ubisoft’s 2D revitalization of the long running platformer series, released yesterday across all platforms (including the PS Vita). However, Vita players soon noticed that their version was missing something substantial: 28 entire levels. Ubisoft confirmed today that the missing content will in fact becoming to the Vita by way of a free patch. “Due to a longer development time than expected, we couldn’t initially include the Invasion Mode–essentially, a second take on existing Rayman Legends maps–in the Vita version of the game,” says communications manager Gary Steinman. “However, we can confirm that the Invasion Mode will be added via a free patch, at a later date.” Rayman Legends is currently available for the PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and Playstation Vita both in North America and Europe. The game is currently set for a September 13th release in the UK.

April 27, 2012

First Wii U Footage: Rayman Legends Trailer Leaked

rayman, rayman legends, taylor parolini, theparanoidgamer.com, Wii U, xbox360 5

Making the rounds on internet message boards is a leaked video for Rayman Legends. What makes this trailer so special aside from the obviously gorgeous game on display, is that it’s our first real look at the Wii U in action. We also get to see a new feature in what appears to be a scanning system not entirely unlike that of Skylanders. It all looks fantastic if you ask me. httpv://youtu.be/JNzNuzRuZL8