Rayman M is a
Spin-Off of the
Rayman series geared towards multiplayer, featuring characters from
Rayman 2: The Great Escape along with a few new characters in racing and battle segments. The US version is known as
Rayman Arena. There is also a pared-down version for the PS1 called
Rayman Rush.
Tropes included:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Dark Sewer and Pipe Maze both take place in huge sewer-like areas.
- Adaptation Distillation: The GameCube and Xbox versions did a great deal of overhauling the game, but a few things were dropped in the process:
- Popolopoi and Lums mode on racing were dropped. The alternate mode in single player is now Time Attack, previously referred to as "Kill Time" and only available in multiplayer on other versions, in which you have to get a certain time ahead of your opponent rather than finishing 3 laps before them. The loss of Lums mode also means On and On is no longer present either.
- Capture the Fly is not around for the battle mode anymore. Lum Fight is still around, but in single player mode not all weapons will be available for a given stage, possibly to ease the player in and give a sense of progression.
- Adapted Out: The Teensies are completely absent from Rayman Rush, being replaced by Globette.
- Advancing Wall of Doom: The final race of the game, Speed Stress, has an advancing wall as your main opponent. If it touches you, you lose the race.
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: On and On is a very appropriate name for the second-to-last level. What is it, you ask? You do a single lap of every single non-bonus race course through the entire game. And it's a Timed Mission as well... and the time you get is equal to the amount of lums you grabbed in Lums mode, at one second per lum. Good luck if you hadn't realized you were actually going to need the extra lums.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: You can unlock various alternate colours for Globox, The Teensies, and both Henchmen on the PS2 and PC versions, and them plus everyone else on the GameCube and Xbox versions.
- The Artifact: Despite the title change for the American release, the introduction in the PC and PS2 releases still retain the "Multiplayer" footnote during segues in the intro to denote what the "M" stood for. All instances of the game's name were properly changed to "Arena", so the "Multiplayer" seems a bit out of place as a result.
- Artificial Stupidity: The AI in this game is...not exactly very well-refined. One point of notice, however, is that in Treasure Ship, there's a point where you have to hit a switch to lower a platform, and then a switch just past that raises it. For some reason, when the AI is off-screen, they completely forget how to use the switches. This will often end up with them getting stuck there until you meet up with them again, at which point you've gotten so far ahead of them that it's now a Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Ascended Extra: The Popolopoi butterflies were little more than background decorations in Rayman 2, but in this game, they're the center focus of the Popolopoi game mode as targets the player must shoot to get more time.
- Balance Buff:
- A few of the weapons on the American PS2 version were given an ammo buff over the original European release. For example, you now get 15 rubber bullets instead of 5, 10 fireworks instead of 3, and 12 rapid bullets instead of 9. Ice bullets were also added into the race mode. These buffs were not carried over to the American PC release.
- The fake generator item got a pretty major buff in the GameCube and Xbox versions; rather than exploding on a delay after someone runs through it, it explodes on contact. This changes the dynamic quite significantly, as it goes from being almost a Joke Item to an actual threat.
- Balloon Belly: Globox inflates briefly for his regular "punch" attack. He also does this as his method for gliding. Hilariously, he even "pops" and flies around like a balloon for his death animation.
- Bowdlerization: For some reason, the flametongue bullet in Lum Fight was removed in all American versions of the game, even the PC version which had minimal changes compared to M. The most likely cause for this could have been ESRB issues, as the flametongue bullet may have pushed the rating up a notch.
- Brutal Bonus Level: Spooky Towers is the final battle arena of the game and only accessible through the Bonus League. It puts you against a single opponent on the Ultra-Hard difficulty, who can fire off shots with pinpoint precision and runs faster than the player can.
- Butt-Monkey: Rayman himself suffers a lot of abuse during the cup videos in Arena: he gets frozen, slammed through a brick wall, has a target of himself shot, and has his head hung on a door. In the M intro, he also gets blasted to ash by Henchman 800 and has his shoes stolen by Globox, leaving him standing in comedic yellow and purple-spotted socks during his profile shot.
- Canon Foreigner: Tily, Razorwife, Dark Globox and Henchman 1000 have yet to appear in the series proper.
- The Cameo: Ly from Rayman 2 has a battle arena named after her with a statue of her likeness, but she is otherwise not featured in the game.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: On Ultra-Hard difficulty in battle mode, the CPU opponents actually run faster than the player can.
- Cosmetically Different Sides: Every character plays exactly the same.
- Covers Always Lie: The European PS2 version features Ly on the back of the cover, implying she's a playable character. In-game, she is completely absent aside from a statue of her appearing in Ly's Palace.
- Deflector Shield: The Ultimate Barrier protects the user by surrounding them with a spherical barrier for a limited amount of time, and deals Collision Damage to other players.
- Distaff Counterpart: Razorwife and Globette for Razorbeard and Globox, respectively.
- Down the Drain: Dark Sewer and Pipe Maze both take place in what appear to be large sewer-based areas.
- Easter Egg: There's a secret area in Thousand Waterfalls where you can find a sunbathing Globox on a beach. It's hidden to the left of the first set of rotating lasers.
- Emergency Weapon: In the GameCube/Xbox versions, the rubber bullets were reworked into such for the Lum Fight mode. Each player has an infinite supply, but they can only be used if the player isn't holding any other weapons and the fire rate is nerfed.
- Epic Fail: During Battle levels, it is possible to hit and even kill yourself with your own projectiles. The latter causes your score to go down, meaning that it's entirely possible to go below zero and have a negative score.
- Eternal Engine: Pipe Maze, Lava Factory, Electric Final.
- Evil Counterpart: Dark Rayman and Dark Globox, who only appear in the GameCube and Xbox versions.
- Fatal Fireworks: Firework Bullets launches green lobbed shots that detonates on impact, dealing one damage per hit.
- Freeze Ray: In all versions, you get freeze bullets in Lum Spring to stop your opponents in their tracks. In all the American PS2 version, you also can do this in the races as well.
- Gangplank Galleon: Forest Jump, Zenith Harbour, Treasure Ship.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Or footracing with Razorbeard, as the case may be.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: Lums mode in races and Lum Spring in battles count as this.
- In Lums mode, you have to try and get a specified amount of lums while still winning against your opponent, though there are five more lums than required... unless you know that it will come in handy when you reach On and On to have as many as possible.
- Lum Spring has randomly spawning orbs that you must reach before your opponents can.
- Gotta Kill 'Em All: Popolopoi mode in races and Lum Fight in battles count as this. Well, the former more loosely — it's similar to a Time Attack mode, except there are butterflies (or Popolopoi as the game calls them) scattered throughout the track that give you more time for each one you shoot, and the goal is to give yourself enough time to finish three laps. Lum Fight is pretty much a straight up battle mode, where you need to use item pickups to fight off your opponents.
- Grenade Hot Potato: Glue Bombs in Lum Fight act as this, which count down ten seconds and will inflict three hit points' worth of damage unless you pass it to another player.
- Guide Dang It!: Dawn Sand has a completely hidden passage that's near impossible to even know of unless you use a guide. There's a switch hidden on a flower that looks exactly like every other flower on the course, which opens up a passage that takes you through some speed boosts and back up onto a regular area of the map...and you actually phase through the ground when you do so, which means there's not even a way to backtrack and discover it that way! Especially nice, considering they hide two lums in there in Lums Mode.
- Harmless Electrocution: The lasers and electric fences in races do nothing more than slow down players that touch them.
- Harmless Freezing: Getting hit with a Freeze Bullet does little more than trap your character in place for a second. Unlike the other battle items, it doesn't deal damage and is only available in the Lum Spring mode.
- Harder Than Hard: The Ultra-Hard difficulty in the battle modes allows the CPU opponents to hit you with pinpoint precision and run faster than the player can. Spooky Towers in the Bonus League puts you against a single opponent on this difficulty, and it's easily the hardest of the battle arenas.
- Hell Is That Noise: The Buzz Rocket — which instantly kills whoever it hits — makes a loud buzzing noise to warn other players of its presence.
- Homing Projectile: Hound Bullets will chase after the nearest opponent the user targets, inflicting one hit point upon impact.
- Human Ladder: Two Teensies form one as to be the same height as the other characters.
- Interface Screw: Speed Stress has you run through the same basic route three times while facing the camera. Each time you get through the route, the camera zooms in more, making it harder to see obstacles.
- Keep Away: Capture the Fly has the players trying to hold onto a fly for as long as possible; the first player who shoots the holder successfully gets it themselves.
- Kill It with Fire: Flametongue Bullets are trails of fire that lingers for a few seconds and will inflict one hit point damage on anyone that comes in contact with it.
- Leitmotif: Each character has their own theme.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: In the GameCube/Xbox versions, losing a race results in your character's victory theme playing, only to slow down and taper off.
- The Many Deaths of You: Every character has their own creative death animation:
- Rayman doubles over and falls backward, hovering just off the ground on his back.
- Globox cartoonishly deflates like a balloon.
- Henchman 800 and 1000's parts retract into their torsos.
- Razorbeard's pants inflate before exploding.
- Razorwife slowly disintegrates.
- The higher one of the two Teensies vanish, causing their crown to drop down onto and flatten the other one.
- Tily disappears in a flash of light, turning into a butterfly before flying off.
- Dark Globox gets sucked up by his own tornado.
- Market-Based Title: The US version is known as Rayman Arena and the PlayStation version as Rayman Rush.
- Mercy Invincibility: Lum Fight and Capture the Fly give you a brief period of invincibility every time you respawn or when you successfully get a hold of the fly, respectively.
- Oh, Crap!: If a character gets hit with a Glue Bomb, they will react in terror. If the countdown gets to 3, they will become even more terrified and gain a sudden speed boost to tag someone else with it.
- One-Hit Kill: Buzz Rockets in Lum Fight are the only items that kill you in one hit.
- Palette Swap: Globox, The Teensies and both Henchmen have several alternate colours to chose from, though they have to be unlocked. In the GameCube/Xbox releases, every character now has three or four skins to unlock, except for Rayman, who only has one.
- Palmtree Panic: Dawn Sand, Water Canyon, 1000 Waterfalls, Palm Beach, Coconut Island.
- Pinball Projectile: Rubber bullets in Lum Fight and Capture the Fly.
- Promoted to Playable: Globox, Razorbeard, the Teensies and Henchman 800 from Rayman 2: The Great Escape are playable for the first time, preceding Globox and the Teensies' appearance in Rayman Origins.
- Reformulated Game: The game would get ported to the PS1 under the title of Rayman Rush. This version, in addition to the expected graphical downgrade, cuts out the battle mode altogether to focus on the racing gameplay.
- Regenerating Health: Completely absent on most versions, but the GameCube and Xbox versions allow you to regain a health point for every kill you make in Lum Fight.
- Regional Bonus: Quite a few:
- The American PC version got a LAN mode that was absent in the European version. This also allowed for up to four players, as local multiplayer is limited to only two otherwise on this version.
- The American PS2 version both adds and removes certain content:
- They gave the aforementioned weapon buffs, plus the ability to freeze opponents on the race mode.
- For some reason, the American PS2 version removed several shortcuts and secret areas the other versions had, such as the sunbathing Globox in Thousand Waterfalls and the secret routes in Dawn Sand and Zenith Harbour.
- And of course, the GameCube and Xbox versions, which gave the game a fairly notable makeover and added a lot of new features. One could even consider them completely different games to some degree.
- Roaring Rapids: A major part of the races, especially the second world where all the races are water-themed.
- Scare Chord: This occurs if you run out of time in Popolopoi mode, and it varies between levels.
- Ship Level: Treasure Ship.
- Shout-Out: There's a racing level called Forest Jump. Also, Pac-Arena in the GameCube and Xbox versions is an obvious homage to Pac-Man.
- Timed Mission:
- The Popolopoi mode has the player complete three laps around a track without running out of time. To get more time, they have to shoot the Popolopoi butterflies scattered around the course.
- On and On has you racing to complete one lap around every track in the game, with the lums collected in Lums mode providing additional time.
- Tree Top Town: Forest Jump, Zenith Harbor, Spellbound Forest, and Ghastly Trees.
- Variable Mix:
- In the race modes, the music playing changes depending on who is in the lead. It is generally in your interests to stay in first as long as possible,
since the songs get continually better as they go on. - Additionally, in Popolopoi, the music gradually gets more frantic the closer the timer reaches zero. Happens in Speed Stress as well as the wall gets closer to you.
- Video Game Stealing: Item Leech steals a weapon from an opponent and gives it to the user. If all players on the field have no available weapon on hand, it will grab any weapon pickups scattered across the arena.
- A Winner Is You: The ending cinematic isn't really anything all that special, it's just a short and trippy-looking cinematic of random characters from the game. It's not even present in the American PS2 version either, for whatever reason.
