The Rayman franchise has been quiet for a while. It was late 2013 when Ubisoft released Rayman Legends as the fifth mainline Rayman title, and ever since then, there's been nothing but re-releases and mobile spin-offs. If not for Rayman Legends being such a fantastic game and coming to every console, people might not even be aware of this classic mascot platformer series. Among many spin-offs, the other main Rayman games are made up of the 2D original, the highly acclaimed 3D sequel Rayman 2: The Great Escape, its follow-up Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, and then a jump from 2003 to 2011 for another 2D platformer titled Rayman Origins on the UbiArt Framework engine.
That conspicuous release gap was caused by the Rayman series getting absorbed into the Raving Rabbids games. Infamously, the game intended to be Rayman 4 was repurposed into a Wii minigame collection called Rayman Raving Rabbids in 2006. Thus began the Rabbids franchise, which is still hounding desperate Rayman fans to this day. Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope will finally throw the community a bone via Rayman DLC, but a true Rayman 4 is nowhere in sight. At least, not until December 24, when Rayman fans experienced what can only be called a holiday miracle.
What Was In The Rayman 4 Leaks
Twitter user @RibShark suddenly alerted the Rayman community to a massive Rayman 4 leak early on December 24, 2022. Exactly where this leak is located was left to viewers to find, and the original source of the leak remains anonymous. Still, copious amounts of evidence were quickly posted to prove both the veracity and severity of this Rayman 4 leak. Rather than anything easy to fabricate like old marketing materials or design documents, this leak consisted of Rayman 4's source code and editor, as well as many of its assets. Video game source code is almost never publicly available, so getting it from an unreleased game is an almost unprecedented occurrence.
The following reports, screenshots, and even videos from fans whipped the community into a frenzy. Of particular interest were the various test environments, which contained tons of disparate features and assets that would have gone into the game. Various mounts were found for the limbless hero Rayman, including the giant spider he was seen riding in an old promotional image, and some sort of giant centipede that could crawl on walls. Among other mounts like a hippogriff and a triceratops was a vehicle styled after the Rabbids, who were also present. Several Rabbid body types have been found so far, and several costumes are present including a punk rock costume seen in an old screenshot and the nude Rayman skin that was officially introduced in Rayman Legends.
Not only were there visual elements like silent cutscenes and a model for Rayman's planned girlfriend, but the gameplay was extracted too. Segments where Rayman was playable allowed users to try out his various skills, some of which had, again, been advertised before Raving Rabbids came out. In a test level that saw Rayman entering a giant Rabbid ship to destroy it from within, players could float on air vents and pull levers by grabbing them and moving away. Some combat was also present, including cinematic combo finishers and laser guns for the player to steal. Rayman's health was represented by a number that appeared above his head, and his ground pound would also deplete a mana total. All of a sudden, much of what has been made for the official Rayman 4 is now available online, and there's no telling what could happen next.
The Strange Development History of Rayman 4
Gawking at a surge of news on the scale of the mid-COVID Nintendo leaks is to be expected, but it gets better with context. The Rayman series had been going strong up until Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc was released by publisher and developer Ubisoft in 2003. By the end of its North American launch month, Rayman 3 had sold over one million copies. With good reviews and sales, what happened to Rayman next was baffling. Rayman Raving Rabbids was announced in April 2006, initially being pitched as the latest Rayman platformer, and then released in November 2006 as a barebones minigame collection. Fans were flabbergasted, but the truth behind the changes lay behind the scenes.
Unbeknownst to most, there have actually been two canceled Rayman 4 projects by two separate developers. The first was by Phoenix Studio, a now-defunct developer best known for its work on Winnie the Pooh's Rumbly Tumbly Adventure. It would have had the honor of being the first non-Ubisoft studio to make a mainline Rayman game, but after an unknown amount of pre-production, development ceased after four months. This prototype actually has lots of leaked art and renders of its own, and some of its ideas were mixed into the Game Boy Advance Rayman Raving Rabbids title. At any rate, Rayman returned to Ubisoft Montpellier, once again under his original creator Michel Ancel.
Rayman 4 was the working title for the game that became Rayman Raving Rabbids. Almost everything found in the recent leak corresponds to something in this title's candid marketing materials and teaser trailer, meaning the Phoenix Studio build is not involved. Supposedly, the earliest planning for Ubisoft Montpellier's Rayman 4 began in 2005, during the development of Peter Jackson's King Kong video game. Most of the ensuing development was spent coming up with lots of different gameplay ideas.
Then, the development focus abruptly switched from PlayStation 2 to Wii when dev kits became available, prompting Ancel to leave the project. This rushed change to hit the Wii's November 2006 launch and lack of a coherent vision sealed Rayman 4's fate. With the few minigames seen in early marketing brought to the forefront, the game now known as Rayman Raving Rabbids finally took shape.
It remains to be seen if the proposed costume-relevant dance moves to control enemies are in the leaked Rayman 4 code, but everything else, including long-distance grabbing and monster riding, seems intact. This leak offers a surprisingly in-depth look at a game fans never got, but still desired over the frequent Rabbids releases that followed. With these tools, the community could follow the Duke Nukem Forever 2001 fandom by completing the project themselves. Whatever happens, this leak and the upcoming Mario + Rabbids DLC have given Rayman the most attention he's had in years, and a little hope can't be bad for the limbless hero.
Rayman 4 has been canceled.