Shield (Rayman 2)

Lore & Background

Rayman M was originally separated into two projects: Rayman Tribe and Rayman Shooting Fish, which would turn into the game's modes. It was announced in April 2001 for the PlayStation 2. Ubi Soft launched an official website for the game, containing a description of the game's characters, modes, and environments, along with galleries of screenshots from each version. Danny Ruiz, the band manager of Ubi Soft, said that the game '[promised] to provide gamers a new multiplayer experience while maintaining the production value associated with the Rayman franchise.' In 2002, the game's producer Sylvain Constantin said that he wanted to do something serious after the game's development, which Constantin was asked to lead the driving team and come up with a new idea because he was a driving game enthusiast.

Reader's Guide

Rayman M contains two modes: racing and battle. Both incorporate platform elements from Rayman 2: The Great Escape. In racing mode, there are two playstyles (five playstyles in the PC and PlayStation 2 versions only): 'Obstacle Racing' and time attack. In 'Obstacle Racing', the player races a computer player (or other players in multiplayer mode) for three laps while avoiding twelve different obstacles in each level; players can fire Ice balls (PS2 version only) or grab items (GameCube and Xbox versions only) to hinder opponents.

In time attack, one player must reach a lap as possible to eliminate others if those players don't make it to that same lap on time; once all behind are eliminated, the player in the lead wins. The PC and PS2 versions contain training, 'Lums', and 'Popolopoï' modes, all single-player only. Battle mode features three playstyles: 'Lum Spring/Freeze Fight', 'Lum Fight/Total Fight', and 'Capture the Fly' (PC and PS2 versions only). Players can jump, glide, strafe, fire, and flip.

There are twenty-four levels (with several unlockable bonus levels called 'Exhibition' mode) in each mode and nine playable characters, including Rayman, Globox, Henchman 800, Razorbeard, Teensies, Tily, Dark Globox (unlockable in the GameCube and Xbox versions only), Henchman 1000, and Razorbeard Wife.