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Direct connection was what I always felt toward Rayman, in ways that Mario and Sonic never evoked. Sonic struck me as the kind of kid at school who'd de-pants you in the hallway, while Mario was Mario: ubiquitous, everywhere, boring.Without Ancel, it was a tough few years for Rayman fans. The games started churning out mediocrity in weird, self-parodying ways. It felt as if the designers didn't know who Rayman was for. Was Rayman for children? Francophiles? Was it for people who like good games or utter shit? Without the steering hand of Ancel, Ubisoft came very close to throwing Rayman out on a Sonic-like meander towards irrelevance, shuffled from development team to development team (passing through studios in China, Italy, Morocco, Bulgaria, and Romania), and hitting all the genres that franchises call upon on their journey to death: party games, kart games, fighting games, remakes, remakes of remakes, remakes of remakes of remakes.'Rayman Raving Rabbids,' trailerThe moment when I thought it was all over—when I imagined Ubisoft had given up and taken Rayman out back and injected him with something "to help him sleep"– was 2006's Rayman Raving Rabbids, which is, for my money, the most miserable spin-off ever conceived. Rayman went, practically overnight, from being a traditional platformer into a party game aimed at a fan base that did not exist. Let me stress this: By 2005 most of Rayman's fans were either in their 20s or had simply moved on to other things. Rabbids was a sad and clear attempt to infantilize the franchise, to turn its focus toward younger kids, and it made me throw up a tiny bit in my mouth.Over on Motherboard: Did you know they're remaking 'Turok' in HD? Well, they are.
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