At long last, we have a date for when Rayman will join Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. This will end years of the iconic platforming protag sitting out on the sidelines, returning to the Rabbids series that his games initially popularised.
Rayman in the Phantom Show will launch on August 30, and is the third DLC for Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. While we didn't see much of the gameplay, it definitely looks like Rayman is a central character in the DLC. Judging from the footage we did get, he's also leading the Rabbids, not acting as a sidekick. He even appears to get some platforming segments of his own, just like the good 'ol days.
Check out the reveal trailer below, expanding upon the teaser we got earlier in the summer. Here, we actually get to see Rayman in action as he works alongside the Rabbids. Clearly, no hard feelings after they pushed him out of his own franchise, hey? (I'm only a little bitter).
Needless to say, Rayman enthusiasts are ecstatic. Everyone seems very pleased with the way he looks and jumps around, making it a fitting return for a character that was once a gaming icon in his own right. However, since we're only seeing Rabbids in the trailers, fans hope that Rayman gets to have a crossover with Mario himself. Something we would have died for as kids in the 2000s.
Who knows? Now that Ubisoft has an up-to-date character model for Rayman - and a bunch of fans hyped to see him return - maybe he'll finally get another instalment in his own series The last console game in the series was Rayman Legends, which launched all the way back in 2013. This makes Rayman's Sparks of Hope debut his first console appearance in ten years, so the fans have been remarkably patient.
That doesn't mean the series has been dead in this time, far from it. Mobile releases have kept Rayman going, but it's the Rabbid spinoffs that have stolen the show completely in the past decade. Now, Ubisoft seems to realise that the two can coexist. After all, the Rabbids debuted in 2006's Rayman Raving Rabbids, so you can definitely get away with shoving them all in a game together. Still, it would be neat to see Rayman in a solo game, so we'll have to wait and see if there are any further plans for the character.