Rayman M, known in North America as Rayman Arena, is a party video game developed and published by Ubi Soft. A spin-off of the Rayman series, it features two modes in which players control one of the nine characters.
Rayman M was released in Europe for the PlayStation 2 and Windows and in North America for the GameCube and Xbox. A remake known as Rayman Rush was released for the PlayStation in 2002. Rayman M received mixed reviews from critics, commenting on the game's lack of originality, with Nintendo World Report stating that some have labeled it as a Mario Party-style game. Its remake was criticised for not meeting the original game's quality.
Gameplay
left|thumb|221x221px|Globox and [[Rayman (character)|Rayman in racing mode]]
Rayman M contains two modes: racing and battle. Both incorporate platform elements from Rayman 2: The Great Escape.
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. In the battle mode, players focused on using items to fire shots at opponents to reduce their heart points, (players will start off with normal shots with unlimited ammo in the GameCube and Xbox versions only) and use shields to protect themselves from other players in "Lum Fight/Total Fight" and in "Lum Spring/Freeze Combat", players focused on firing ice shots to freeze their opponents, while they collect the lums before they do, however once they are out of ice, players will have to wait several seconds for their ice ball meter to refill back up (depending on how many of the ice they shot) before shooting again, while in the GameCube and Xbox versions, they will have an unlimited number of ice balls to shoot, which would also lock-on to opponents whenever they are strafing. Players will also have a radar placed on their screens to help them find the lums. Rayman M 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 of the game's 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.
Rayman Rush
Rayman Rush is a racing game developed by Ubi Soft Shanghai and published by Ubi Soft. It is a demake of Rayman M for the PlayStation that only features the racing mode. The game had three modes: training mode, where the player can race through levels without opponents or objectives; championship mode, where they race against an opponent; and time attack mode, where they have to finish a level within a set amount of time.